If you use the search terms “an ex” and “an ex” to investigate the question of whether extemporals are understood as feminine or neuter, you will not come to a reasonable conclusion because the search engines will give you combinations such as “a jury of experts” or “an ex “-Guerrilla” If you resort to the research tool “felt”, the result is that “an ex” is the predominant form. Reader Sch. I would rather see the neutral version “the ex”, which would not only be the only correct version, but would also be immune to allusions to “the ex-wife, playmate, etc.” In Rhineland-Palatinate, the extemporal is supposedly called homework checking (HÜ). The research into whether it is called “a HÜ” or “an HÜ” ends up in terms like “a Hue network” or “a Hue-and-hott policy”, where you at least learn that Hue is a “smart” is a lighting system from Philips.
THE ETERNAL CONFUSION of taste and feed! It was reported from the Tollwood Festival that bacon, spinach and cheese dumplings could be tasted there for the first time. Reader W. then wonders who ate these three types of dumplings. And above all: with what.
THROUGH THE HEADLINE “The fear of falling” our reader Dr. M. remembers her school days, when she was taught not to put a comma before “pure infinitives”. Did the spelling reform undermine that? It doesn't: The comma can be omitted before a mere infinitive, unless this would lead to a misunderstanding. It is permissible to enhance this boring message with a passage from a somewhat older grammar. It says: “In contrast to the pure infinitive, the simple infinitive with to can be removed from the sound arc of a sentence when other members join it,” i.e. when “He resolved to go” to “He resolved to to go home immediately” is expanded. With our heading we can forget about the sound arc. Here the infinitive is to be understood as an attribute to the noun: “to fall” communicates what kind of fear it is.
