READERS’ WORDS

RE: Last week’s Pedant Class, in a network there are two components: a server and one or more clients. You would normally be the client in the context of the internet. A client downloads from the server and uploads to it. Think of the server as being the master and the client the slave. The master is above the servant in the hierarchy, hence the up/down convention. — Fyko I find many people don’t understand the expression “a sight for sore eyes”. They use it to refer to something ugly, when it actually means the object is good to look at. What they mean when talking about something ugly is “an eyesore”. Even my primary-school teacher (30 years ago) used it incorrectly but I was too afraid to challenge him on that! — Haseena Paruk At school we were taught never to end a sentence with a preposition. My English teacher once set us a problem, which went like this. A man had his eyes operated on, and covered in bandages. His wife, visiting, asked him if there was anything he wanted. He said he would like her to bring a book and he would ask one of the nurses to read it to him. The following day she nearly forgot the book but grabbed the first one to hand and duly gave it to him. The next day, she was greeted by her husband, who said: “What did you bring me that book to be read to out of for?” How do you say this without a preposition at the end? — Neil Gibb • E-mail words in need of protection to lifestyle@sundaytimes.co.za