Usage of marvelous and great

[Molly]

If a native-speaker had the choice between saying "It was a great party" and "It was a marvelous party" in answer to the question "How was the party?", which would he/she use when and where?

[Alan]

Hi,

To me both adjectives 'great' and 'marvellous' in the sense you have quoted, suggest the idea of being very enjoyable. I don't see the point you are making.

Alan
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[Molly]

On another forum, but on this site, a native-speaker suggested that any native-speaker would know where and when to use "marvelous party" over "great party", and vice versa. I was trying to find out just how one would decide which to use when and where.

The native-speaker in question has not revealed the "answer".

Similarly I'd ask when one feels one should use the word forums over the word fora, and vice versa. If native-speakers here are in the know about such "choices", will they please stand up?

[Nessie]

Oh, you mean there's some native member on English-test.net who knows that but not willing to share their idea? How disappointing....
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[Molly]

Seems most native-speakers don't know the answer. Jamie to the rescue?

[Alan]

Hi Molly,

I can only repeat I don't really understand the point you are repeatedly making. Isn't it obvious that the native speaker of a language will know instinctively which word to use in a particular situation/context? The purpose of this forum and others is to explain words, expressions, grammar constructions and so on but the idea that each and every word in dozens of permutations can be undertaken in any forum is really asking too much. Take another troublesome pair: 'horrible' and 'nasty' - both mean 'unpleasant'. You would say nasty smell, horrible smell, nasty person, horrible person, horrible tragedy but not really nasty tragedy and so on and so on. The point again is that the native speaker would know the right word for the right situation and all we can hope to do on the forum is point in the right direction.

On the matter of what the plural of 'forum' should be, I could say something general about how English deals with words ending in 'um'. Words that have been absorbed into everyday language tend to take 's' and I would have thought 'forum' was such an example along with words like 'podium', 'emporium' and 'gymnasium'. Certain what you might call academic words take the Latin plural as: 'colloquia', 'curricula' and 'memoranda'. And of course there are the awkward devils that vary in meaning when they go Latin or English. The prime example of this is 'medium'. 'Mediums' are methods through which things are done or people who act as go-betweens as in communicating with the dead. 'Media' on the other hand refers to mass communication methods as with radio,TV and newspapers.

Alan
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