MSGID: 2:5023/24.4222 68906432   
   PID: InterSquish 2.0.5.25Free   
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   REPLY:  2ced0f92   
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   Hi Mortar,   
      
   28.07.2025 18:26:10, Mortar M. wrote:   
      
    AK>> But before they sat down to table, the doctor said in a voice of   
    MM> 1)  You don't start a sentence with words like "but" and "and".   
      
   But why shouldn't I? And could it be you made up this "rule" yourself   
   just now? :-)   
      
    MM> 2)  It would be more appropriate to say, "But before they sat down    
    MM> to eat," or     just, "But before they sat down,", implying that    
    MM> they were sitting down to dinner.   
      
   I can see an excuse to say "to sit down to table", the same way you   
   would say "I'm back in town" or "He's back from school". Although some   
   weird cases of not putting an article where it apparently should be do   
   happen, like in the following sentence (it's from a police report):   
      
       "...Robert Nastek was heading north on Olney Laytonsville    
        Road when he saw Kevin Costlow beating on the hood of car    
        occupied by Asian females".   
      
   Shouldn't it be "beating on the hood of -a- car"?   
      
      
   --    
   "I'll be more enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the   
    box when there's evidence of any thinking going on inside it."   
    -- Terry Pratchett   
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