What are your pet peeves re English usage?

@Quincy,

What things tire you is a matter of indifference to me. If you don't want people to slag you for your spelling, don't sneer at others for theirs.

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@Setanta,

Setanta wrote:

If you don't want people to slag you for your spelling, don't sneer at others for theirs.

If I have spelt something incorrectly I would like someone to correct me.

Americans can keep their odd spellings, it doesn't bother me.

1 Reply

@Setanta,

Setanta wrote:

Tell me something, oh fount of orthographic wisdom. You spell the common noun center as centre, no?

When you put a weight on a fishing line to draw the bait down into the water, do you call that a sinkre?

If you use a machine to thresh your grain, do you call that a threshre?

The English ought never to crow about the excellence of their spelling.

I like your reasoning, nice job; fun job.

David

1 Reply

@OmSigDAVID,

You know, the English often complain about spellings in the American language which derive from Mr. Webster's reforms--such as center rather than centre, honor rather than honour. But they ignore those "Websterian" reforms which they have adopted, such as magic rather than magick, tragic rather than tragick.

I don't have a problem with people whose orthography differs from my own--and i usually only comment to joke around. However, it's a bit thick to have a Saxon tell me the Americans misspell words.

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@Quincy,

Quincy wrote:

Which reminds, one of the most irritating of American pronunciations is "a-LOO-mnm" for aluminium. Gaah it gets on my nerves!

No; u r mischaracterizing our practices and then denouncing the distorted form.

U left out a vowel in your alleged quotation.
It shoud have been "a-LOO-minum".

David

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@Setanta,

Is Quincy a Saxon?

Good lord! I had him down as a Mercian, but then again, now I've seen his handsome fizzog and that inquisitive gaze, he could even be an Angle for all I know!

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@Old Goat,

I thought all of youse guys was angular . . . ain't that why it's called Angle-land?

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@Quincy,

Quincy wrote:

If I have spelt something incorrectly I would like someone to correct me.

Americans can keep their odd spellings, it doesn't bother me.

How do u feel about run-on sentences ?

David

1 Reply

@Setanta,

Setanta wrote:

You know, the English often complain about spellings in the American language which derive from Mr. Webster's reforms--such as center rather than centre, honor rather than honour. But they ignore those "Websterian" reforms which they have adopted, such as magic rather than magick, tragic rather than tragick.

I don't have a problem with people whose orthography differs from my own--and i usually only comment to joke around. However, it's a bit thick to have a Saxon tell me the Americans misspell words.

And you can with certainty put those changes down to that great American oracle Webster, and with certainty deny they are natural growths of English spelling with no reference to what the Americans do? English spelling has, long before American English, been changing on its own.

OmSigDAVID wrote:

[No; u r mischaracterizing our practices and then denouncing the distorted form.

U left out a vowel in your alleged quotation.
It shoud have been "a-LOO-minum".

You do not. Americans do not put in a short 'i' there. Perhaps an 'ә', but not a short 'i'.

1 Reply

@Setanta,

"I thought all of youse guys was angular"

"**Splutter*!*!!

I'll have you know that I am Catuvelauni through and through.....well, apart from the fact that I burn easily in the sun, so there must be a bit of the old Silures in the family somewhere along the line. The cad probably had a bicycle.

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I don't think Quincy is actually British--i just assumed Saxon because of the arrogance.

That name, though . . . does that mean that he is quince-like?

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At least you're not Iceni or Trinovantes . . .

Of course, you could be Brigantes, you old robber, you . . .

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@Setanta,

"does that mean that he is quince-like?"

No, but I would opt for him being quite Lemon-like.

Would the mods allow him to change to Lemony?

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@Quincy,

OmSigDAVID wrote:

[No; u r mischaracterizing our practices and then denouncing the distorted form.

U left out a vowel in your alleged quotation.
It shoud have been "a-LOO-minum".

Quincy wrote:

You do not. Americans do not put in a short 'i' there. Perhaps an 'ә', but not a short 'i'.

BULLONEY!!! I know what I have been doing for years n decades.

I have never 1ce been guilty
of what u allege, nor have I heard any of my countrymen do so.

It IS and it has always been perfectly clear: a-LOO-MINum,
with a short i for " . . . MIN. . ." every single time, without fail !

David

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@OmSigDAVID,

You say tomato
And I say tomato

See, I seem to have breached the divide, as they both look just the same!

Ah, the power of the internet.

1 Reply

@OmSigDAVID,

Although David is correct about the American pronunciation of aluminum, he has misspelled baloney . . .

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@Old Goat,

Old Goat wrote:

You say tomato
And I say tomato

See, I seem to have breached the divide, as they both look just the same!

Ah, the power of the internet.

SO STIPULATED!

David

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@Setanta,

Quincy's from South Africa, if I remember. (I think there is a short I spoken when american's say aluminum, at least by many of us.)

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@Setanta,

Setanta wrote:

Although David is correct about the American pronunciation of aluminum, he has misspelled baloney . . .

I was going for an implied play on words, related to our bovine friends.
I was in hope that woud be discerned.

David

1 Reply

@OmSigDAVID,

"related to our bovine friends."

And there was me, thinking that all the cowboys were in the US of A.

1 Reply

What are your pet peeves re English usage?

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