It isn’t the end of the world, in fact English isn’t my first language so I shouldn’t be so aggravated by it but by golly that is such galling mishandling of language.

Also, astrology is stupid.

With that out of the way back to worrying about worrying things.

I like you. I have no idea what you’re on about but I like you.

Have you thought about getting 2 pairs of size 6 rollerskates?

TSY go on – why 2 pairs of size 6 (specifically) roller skates?

Well, two pairs of size 6 would make one pair of size 12, as any fule kno.

Ah, the roller skate decoy manouvre.

I find the purchase of a disappointment magnet usually addresses these issues. Fill it with Qink for extra effect.

in fact English isn’t my first language

And it isn’t my first language either. In fact, it isn’t even my second language but my third.

Maybe that explains why I don’t know what you’re on about ?

……although I doubt it.

Drugs are bad, mmmkay?

TSY i’ll take them, 2 pairs of size six is better than no pair. Also I was talking about the tautological expression ‘the reason why’

I’m glad you cleared that up, we’d have been confused if you hadn’t explained it.

Ah, wait, no, I get you, though I had to turn my brain off and back on again.

The phrase “the reason why” annoys you because it’s a tautology, right?

(“forward planning” is the one that irritates me. As opposed to the other kind of planning?)

Ahhh

Kunstler – who is that and can you tell me the reason why she’s making that expression? x.

Personally I think you’re over exaggerating this issue.

I’m not just going to start handing out free gifts to explain the reason why.

I sometimes say “the reason when” and “the reason which” and “the reason how”, so I say the “the reason why” to distinguish it from other possibilities.

McHamish you win a prize.

(“forward planning” is the one that irritates me. As opposed to the other kind of planning?)

The retrospective planning that my boss uses: “You should have expected that unexpected change and planned for it” 🙂

Also, in speech, it differentiates from “the letter Y”

Awshum

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAFKCY-TcvE[/video]

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynlW5_rnRVE[/video]

I’m confused. Can someone post a short summary of what’s going on here?

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9BFMqt76ak[/video]

Seems like it would be reasonable to say “the reason why blabla etc” because the why is part of the blabla clause. I dunno what the grammatical term is, not preposition but something else. Just saying ‘the reason why’ on its own is tautological for sure.

The reason for some event
The reason behind some decision
The reason why something happened.

You’d ask why something happened, so the answer would be ‘the reason why it happened..’

You could always rearrange the sentence to do away with it though.

Plus, as I’ve demonstrated, just because a language is someone’s first language doesn’t mean they understand its grammar any better than someone who had to learn it. When you are 2 years old you learn language purely by imitating what you hear. When you are 20 and studying it from a book you learn the rules.

I have banana.

Can someone explain why it is a tautology?

(Let’s just pretend you start your response with “The reason why it is …” and get on with the explanation)

“reason” is already by definition a description of why something happens.

How should I rephrase ‘the reason why my car is misting up is blocked battery tray drain holes’?

The reason for my car misting up…?
The reason my car was misting up…?