What are your pet peeves re English usage?

Thanks, Walter, for the complement.

Had Surcouf had one of this ships he would have had even more success. Laughing

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Francis wrote:

Piff - You have been told automatic translators dont work!

Surcouf - French corsair, privateer.

I know,k but I'm so lame... I need a little hint, Francis... Very Happy

First the rain and then the tears and then the "wire."

Sur = south, right? Did you see there is a surcouf.com website? It's all about finding sunken treasures.

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Francis wrote:

Had Surcouf had one of this ships he would have had even more success.

The forth Surcouf wasn't only one which I visited (= bad omen = no success :wink: ), but had a collison with a Soviet tanker (9 deaths, if I remember correctly), was later used as a target ship and finally sunk in 1972 (?), hit by an Exocet missile.

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Piff - The "wire" here is a bad translation for "fil".

Set translated : thread = fil, like "le fil de la conversation" as I can not find a good translation for thread.

Sur = south, in Spanish. In French it's sud.

Everyone who has a computer, in Paris, knows the Surcouf site and his computer megastore.

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There must a French word for thread though... sewing thread?

I saw the computer website... I meant surcouf.net -- the explorations group.

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One of my biggest peeves in English is French . . . ya know?

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Piffka wrote:

There must a French word for thread though... sewing thread?

Thread = Fil de discussion dans les newsgroups.

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Thanks, Walter. What a mouthful!!!

What is the French word for sewing thread?

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The ruination of the word "gay".

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Piffka wrote:

Thanks, Walter. What a mouthful!!!

What is the French word for sewing thread?

Well, we would describe it in German in the same way :wink:

Sewing thread would be (fil) retors. (And in German [Näh-] Zwirn.]

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Ahhhh, "Schluß mit Nadel und Zwirn, Handarbeit und teuren Nähmaschinen!" Zwirn!

We Americans just like to use one word where six might do. Wink

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Piffka wrote:

Thanks, Walter. What a mouthful!!!

What is the French word for sewing thread?

Sewing thread is "fil de couture" or "fil à coudre".

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Francis wrote:

]Sewing thread is "fil de couture" or "fil à coudre".

That's the result of being to lazy to look it up in a 'proper' dictionary Embarrassed

Thanks for correcting, Francis!

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Piffka wrote:

Ahhhh, "Schluß mit Nadel und Zwirn, Handarbeit und teuren Nähmaschinen!"

Is that a motto for a nudist camp?

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Good guess!

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You are all very naughty polyglots, and should be kept after school to clean the erasers.

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This has got much too agreeable. An American would probably say "gotten", but I'm not sure if he (!) or she or they) would write it. One get-out is to use "become":
This has become just a bit too cosy. Let's see now...

One thing I've noticed recently is the willingness of writers to run sentences together, separated only by a comma, have you noticed that?

I don't like it. In fact there's not much I do like.

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McTag wrote:

This has got much too agreeable. An American would probably say "gotten", but I'm not sure if he (!) or she or they) would write it. One get-out is to use "become":
This has become just a bit too cosy. Let's see now...

One thing I've noticed recently is the willingness of writers to run sentences together, separated only by a comma, have you noticed that?

I don't like it. In fact there's not much I do like.

That's the ole curmudgeon that I've GOTTEN real fond of. Where'd those other Brits get to, McTag? Surely there's more to them than just a Galloway thread.

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They lurk, and they lurk, and when you least expect it, they strike.

(Waiting for Set's joke on British labour relations)

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lurking

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What are your pet peeves re English usage?

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