Curmudgeon's Corner: "alternate pages"

[Hedley Finger]

I would like to congratulate the correspondents recently discussing 
page numbering on "alternate pages" for getting it right.

"Alternate" means "by turns", or "alternating between one item and 
another item", and so on.

So many people seem to think it is a synonym of "alternative".  Not 
so: you can only have two "alternates" but two or more "alternatives".

Keep up the good work, defenders of English.   8^)

Regards,
Hedley


--
Hedley Stewart Finger
28 Regent Street   Camberwell VIC 3124   Australia
Tel. +61 3 9809 1229   Mobile +61 412 461 558,
E-mail <mailto:hfinger at handholding.com.au>