----------phrases about 'hand'--------- A patient came to a medical examination without booking. For that exam, he had to fast after midnight the previous day. He said that there was a time, 10 am, next to the bar code. No one knew who had put the time there. The patient was grumpy and inpatient after fasting for several hours. We could have slipped him into the schedule and saved the day. However, the technician had her own principles. One of those was that if a patient wasn’t in the* schedule, then he had to be last. Hearing this, the patient flipped out and left after shouting to several personnel. Two weeks later, while we thought we had washed our hands** of this event, several official documents came from different supervising organizations, requiring an overhaul of the booking procedure. A misunderstanding just got out of hand.*** *Do I need ‘the’ here? **, ***Are these two phrases appropriate here? Thank you and good afternoon. :)

.........................Does the movie speak English?............ Paw Patrol is a well-known animated TV series in Taiwan. If I'm right, it is created in Canada. There is a movie released recently based on that story. It's titled PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie. My sons went to see that movie last weekend (I didn't go with them). When they came home, I asked them, 'Does the movie speak English or Mandarin?' As most children's movies are dubbed into Mandarin, I wanted to know if they had watched an English or Mandarin version. This sentence struck me as odd. After all, movies can't really talk. 1. Does the movie speak English or Mandarin? How would you ask this question? Thank you and good morning. :)

..............the four of hearts.................. In a card game, we were allowed to freely swap our cards with the other players. I wanted to have the four of hearts, so I asked, ‘Do you have heart four?’ This struck me as strange. Would you say the following? 1. Do you have heart four? 2. Do you have hearts four? 3. Do you have the heart four? 4. Do you have the hearts four? 5. Do you have four hearts? 6. Do you have four heart? 7. Do you have the four hearts? 8. Do you have the four heart? Is there any shorter way of saying ‘the four of hearts’? Thank you and good morning. :)

............per year/per one more year.......... 1. A one-year subscription package for my smartphone network is $400 per year. 1. A two-year subscription package for my smartphone network is $300 per year. 1. A three-year subscription package for my smartphone network is $250 per year. 2. The package is cheaper on a per year basis. 3. The package is cheaper per one more year of subscription. 4. The packages are cheaper per one more year of subscription. I just made up the rate for my network expense. I tried to talk about this. How do #2/#3/#4 sound? Do they sound natural? How would you express that? Thank you and good morning. :)

....credit you with his improvement in English......... My son's teacher said my son's English improved a lot over the last few months, and he started to enjoy it. I wrote back, 'True! I credit you with his improvement. Thank you!!' One day later, I thought of what I wrote and looked it up. It seems 'credit someone with something' is rarely used, right? How do you think of my reply? What would you say to express the same meaning? Thank you and good morning. :)

..........degree of relationship............. @ This question occurred to me and I'm wondering if it sounds natural. What is the degree of relationship between my wife and my brother? 1. It’s second. 2. It’s the second. 3. It's the second degree. 4. They are related in the second degree. 5. They are second degree relatives. @@ I think #4 and #5 are fine. What do you think about #1 to #3? Thank you

........fly off the shelves/sell like hotcakes........ I just learned these two phrases and it just occurred to me if it sounds natural to put them together like this: 1. Their new product flies off the shelves like hotcakes. Does the sentence above sound natural?? Thank you and good morning. :)

.....The meeting is still going on/is still ongoing/ is still running... The other day, I had a meeting in the evening and it lasted more than two hours, longer than usual. My wife called me and asked me when I would come home. I hung up the call and texted, 'The meeting is still running.' 1. The meeting is still going on. 2. The meeting is still ongoing. 3. The meeting is still running. What is the difference between these sentences? Which sounds more natural? What would you say in this situation? Thank you. :)

.....two-year-ago self......... You are in third grade now. If you could go back in time to the day when you first went to primary school, what would you say to your two-year-ago self? 1. two-year-ago self 2. two years ago self 3. two-year-younger self 4. two years younger self When I asked my son this question, I stammered at the 'two-year-ago' part. How do you think about the four options above? Thank you very much. :)