On Fri, 2007-06-22 at 03:23 +1200, Russell McMahon wrote:
> > ... and maybe fortnight is not that
> > frequent in formal (business) language?
> 
> We have almost no formal distinctions between formal and informal 
> language. There is some distinction between polite and familiar forms 
> of address but these tend to be informal ;-).
> 
> Mother / mum. mummy, ma
> Father / Dad, daddy
> Hello, Good morning / Hi.
> 
> 
> While there are indeed "colloquialisms" and contractions which you 
> would not use in polite or business settings, almost any word which is 
> acceptable English is 'good to go' in almost any context. 

Which is one of the few "good" things about the english language IMHO.

> So 
> 'fortnight' could be used without raising an eyebrow in any context at 
> all.

Interesting thing is here in English Canada if you said fortnight I'd
say a substantial percentage of the population would have no clue what
the heck you were saying... :)

TTYL

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