Ehma, roads...

“We are sending you an announcement from our street where the road is being “WIDENED”. But there is no such word in the Russian language” (residents of the North-Western Administrative District of Moscow)

In novels, songs and poems, the clumsy word “WIDENING”, of course, does not exist, and in the speech of ordinary people this word is also absent, but “WIDENING” is present in building regulations: “Recommendations for WIDENING road bridges”, this term is in several encyclopedias (architectural, metallurgical, etc.). The word “WIDENING” is also present in the statements for payment for, so to speak, “widening” work... And what is written down with an bureaucratic pen cannot be corrected either with an ax or a road roller .

We've reached the point!

“Are the abbreviations “million-billion-thousand” dotted or not, I got confused in these technical subtleties of the Russian language...”
(Irina, Kharkov)

If there are no vowels, there is no dot (million-kg-km); in the abbreviation thousand, a dot is needed.

Don't gather for more than two?

“A MONOLOGUE is when ONE person speaks, DIALOGUE is when TWO people communicate. Why do the press often write: they took part in the dialogue... - and then there’s a long list, almost Pyatnitsky’s choir!”
(Sergey, Minsk)

Any number of interlocutors can participate in the dialogue. It is a mistaken opinion that the term “dialogue” implies only two participants (the Greek “DIA” is translated not as “two”, but as “THROUGH”, that is, “dialogue” is communication through the word), but for some reason the word “POLYlogue” (a conversation of many participants) has not caught on.

In a huge forehead - a huge thought

“Seven spans in the forehead is how many centimeters?”
(Galina, Yaroslavl)

From a boring anatomical point of view, seven spans is a forehead measuring almost one and a half meters (one span is equal to 17.78 cm), but from the point of view of the Russian language, the number seven is the highest praise for the mind.