On 4/19/2012 10:59 PM, Mike Tomlinson wrote:
En el m, Frank
escribió:

...and "orient" rather than "orientate".

Not so sure about that one.

"When he emerged from the train station, it took him a moment to orient
himself."

"When he emerged from the train station, it took him a moment to
orientate himself."

The first sounds better to me.

When I was in school, I was taught that "orient" was correct, and that
"orientate" was a back-formation from "orientation". Rather like a
comment I saw recently on a food-related group, talking about
"fermentating" something - a back-formation from "fermentation".