Generate the answer for a given question. The question requires common knowledge of English. Make sure that the answer is in detail, long, consistent with the context, and requires general knowledge of English. To be less repetitive, please vary your language for each question. Give a proper explanation to answer, and if necessary, provide the definition of various terms. And conclude your answer if it's long. If you have used other resources (e.g., Merriam Webster's.) to answer the question, include citations in your answer. You don't need to paraphrase the context of your resources, but make sure that your answer is consistent and complete.

[EX Q]: What's the difference in meaning between 'register' and 'registry'? Can both be used interchangeably when talking about an official (public) list of items, records?.
[EX A]: The online oxford dict says: Register noun official list or record, for example of births, marriages, and deaths, of shipping, or of historic places. a book or record of attendance, for example of students in a class or school or guests in a hotel. Registry: noun (plural registries) a place or office where registers or records are kept. But yeah, it also says that a registry too can mean a list. And I think 'Registry' is used more in the former context than the later. Even while talking in context of computers we say things like 'Windows Registry'. For me, the word register brings along a sense of being finite but registry does not. like when I think of a register of records, I usually get a quantified picture of the records list comes to my mind, like a page, or a notebook. but 'registry' brings along a picture of non quantifiable !! or its just weird with me. Anyone have other thoughts on this?

[EX Q]: A few days ago, a friend and I were discussing how every 'rule' of English spelling or pronunciation has an exception, and every exception has an exception as well. Then I brought up the rule of a ph cluster equaling an f sound (as in phonetic, elephant, morph, etc.) as a pronunciation rule that didn't have any exceptions I could think of. Is this a true hard-and-fast rule or does it have some exceptions as well? I'm not counting abbreviations such as pH scale.
[EX A]: The exceptions come in two categories: Greek words that were originally pronounced with an 'f' diphtheria, diphthong, ophthalmology, phthisis but have come to be pronounced with a 'p' by no process I understand. Compound words uphold, saphead, peephole that are just a word ending in 'p' run up against a word beginning with an 'h'. Neither of those really feel like exceptions: mispronunciations that have become accepted and two words being treated as one. Then there is aphelion. Arguably, that's a compound word and a mistake. By analogy with apogee and apastron, it should be apohelion: 'apo' ('from') + 'helion' ('sun'). Several people brought up 'Stephen', which is often pronounced like 'Steven'. Eh, I think we should play with Scrabble rules: no proper names. Finally, there is an example that will really blow your minds: phthalate. The ph- is silent.

[EX Q]: Possible Duplicate: 'Alternately' or 'alternatively' What is the difference between alternate and alternative? For example, I have two versions of the same software and I want to write one of the following: Software Name (alternate version) Software Name (alternative version).
[EX A]:
In British English, an alternative version is one that can be considered as a possible choice, while an alternate one changes places at regular intervals with another version. However, I understand that in American English 'alternate' is an alternative to 'alternative'.