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Fri 27 Jan, 2006 11:47 am
I have for many years followed a literary quirk that i picked up from an old friend. When writing a letter further to a telephone conversation i always write " further to our conversation at the telephone ...". I have always assumed this to be correct as having a conversation "on" the telephone would be uncomfortable and impractical!
Am i just following a grammatical error, or this a long forgotten correct use of language?
Has anyone else come across this?
I've never heard the phrase "at the telephone." Could you say "our phone conversation" and skip it altogether?
Where's the fun?
Yes i could Mac11, but what would be the fun in that? If we worked around all of the strange nuances in the English language, surely we would just grunt at one another? Lol.
Thanks for the lightning response though!
I talk on the phone, or sometimes I hear things over the phone ... If I just talked "at" it you wouldn't be able to hear me.
If we think of a different technology, TV shows aren't "on" TV, they're "in" it!
I try to speak into the telephone, because people have trouble enough understanding me without creating more problems for them . . .
Not only have I not seen "at" used as you mention, I have not seen "further" used as you use it. I would write "with reference to our telephone conversation---" or if the follow-up letter was mentioned in the phone conversation "pursuant to our phone conversation."
Pursuant to, with reference to and further to your post:
Thanks flyboy, i hadn't really given great consideration to the rest of my content, but perhaps the following would be true: Pursuant to implies a continuance of the topic/ content of the telcon. Reference to implies a comment on the content of the telcon, and further to implies additional information relevant to the original content of the telcon.
What's on the tv tonight?
Thanks wy.
What's on the tv tonight dear?
The usual; a picture of your mother and the goldfish bowl. lol.
"On" not "at" the telephone is correct.
Quote: "When writing a letter further to a telephone conversation i always write " further to our conversation at the telephone ...". I have always assumed this to be correct as having a conversation "on" the telephone would be uncomfortable and impractical! "
The best way to express it is"as per our telecom"
Need some theory.
I'm interested to hear how you arrive at your final, definitive conclusion.
If i'm going to change my habit i need the positive proof.
In the instance of "telecom", this would surely be an abbreviation to be avoided if at all possible. If it were necessary to abbreviate, then perhaps "telecon" would work a little better as it was in fact a telephone conversation rather than a more general telecommunication. This would probably be further shortened to telcon.
Main Entry: tel·e·com
Pronunciation: 'tel-i-"käm
Function: noun
1 : TELECOMMUNICATION
2 : the telecommunications industry
Main Entry: tele·com·mu·ni·ca·tion
Pronunciation: "te-li-k&-"myü-n&-'kA-sh&n
Function: noun
Etymology: International Scientific Vocabulary
1 : communication at a distance (as by telephone)
Hi Bob.
Nice research.
But imagine the conversation: " Hi Bob, i just had a telecommunicaton with Jane from PR." BOB: "You did? Was it an email, a fax, a text, a video conference or just a plain old telephone conversation?"
"Uurm a telcon" lol.
coming to canada almost 50 years ago i found my highschool english didn't help me much when someone told me to "get him on the blower !". hbg
Don wrote
"
Quote: further to our conversation at the telephone
No research needed. I have used it time and time again on business letters to document a conversation.
You question was couched as follows "further to our conversation at the telephone "
Rather than that the more appropriate statement IMO would be "Regarding our telecom of______. followed by the subject at hand.
per our conversation on the telephone today we agreed that....................
I try and make the guy on the other end do all the accountability stuff.
As does Au, I always use "telecon" in business letters but never in personal ones. I don't know why but "telecon" has never caught on in personal interchange. It is surprising to me since abbreviated speach is usually first used in informal interchange.
It's because the word "call" is shorter than "telecon" or "telecom" as in
"You said in your call this morning that you would be interested in a Whole Life Policy."
Joe(I've never seen the word telecom used to mean conversation)Nation
If you called somebody on the telephone, and as a result of the conversation, needed to write a letter to that person, you might very well write, "further to our telephone conversation of Thursday January 26", as a first line of your letter.
On, not at the telephone.
A "telcon" is an abbreviation for a telephone conversation, a "telecom" is an abbreviation for a telecommunications provider such as British telecom or France Télécom.
Off topic, this post reminds me of a decision I made some while back.
I, and most people always say "I've caught a cold".
I realised one day that, in fact, we should say "a cold has caught me".
I wasn't chasing a cold, but the cold viruses were seeking a victim!
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