ye, yer, yers
Since ye is you’s plural, are yer, ye’re and yers respectively your, you’re and yours pluralized, and/or do they have other plural counterparts?
25 comments • Posted in Misc
Pronunciation of “Nova Scotia”
I recently saw the trailer of “Anne of Green Gables”, and the Marilla character can clearly be heard saying that she is expecting an orphan boy from “Nova Scotia”, but she pronounces that “ti” inn a very strange way. It sounded like “Scothia” or “Scozia”, I couldn’t tell. Is this an alternative pronunciation for the usual “SCO-SHA”?
2 comments • Posted in Misc
The opposite of “awaken”?
Is there an English word that means ‘to fall asleep’? Since there’s a word, ‘awaken’, that denotes ‘to wake up’, I’m wondering if ‘awaken’’s antonym exists.
30 comments • Posted in Misc
Can every letter be used as a silent letter?
Can every letter in the English language be used in a silent way? Like the b in numb? But at least one example for all 26 letters. Kind of a nerdy question but has anyone succeeded? I have tried and failed... Don’t ask why!
67 comments • Posted in Misc
Canadian pronunciation of “out and about”
Americans typically make fun of Canadians, claiming that “out and about” is pronounced as “oot and aboot” (personally I can’t hear it). So if that is the case, what do Americans hear when Canadians actually say “oot and aboot”? What does Canadian “boot” sound like to an American?
29 comments • Posted in Misc
Word in question: Conversate
Is conversate a word? Many people use it and some people claim it’s not a word but I found it on online dictionaries.
46 comments • Posted in Misc
a long sentence with the verb “demand”
I want to write as follows, but it is confusing.:
This modern society, which is increasingly being globalized and opening to the world, demands the attitude of understanding different countries and respecting different culture on the basis of broad knowledge of various places of the world of students of this era.
The above ‘s structure is as follows:
The modern society demands something of somebody.
Here, something is [the attitude of understanding different countries and respecting different culture on the basis of broad knowledge of various places of the world], and somebody is [students of this era]
The setence structure can be simplified as follows:
This modern society, which is increasingly being globalized and opening to the world, demands [the attitude of understanding different countries and respecting different culture on the basis of broad knowledge of various places of the world] of [students of this era].
I am not sure in such a case, how I should write it. One solutin may be this?
This modern society, which is increasingly being globalized and opening to the world, demands, of [students of this era], [the attitude of understanding different countries and respecting different culture on the basis of broad knowledge of various places of the world].
Please help me, thank you very much.
3 comments • Posted in Misc
“It is one of his girlfriends.”
Heard this in park: Whose car is it? It is one of his girlfriends.
If it were just: It is one of his girlfriend’s, or: It is one of his girlfriends’, it might be easier to interpret this sentence.
As it was said, there are several degrees of uncertainty involved. Can you guess how many?
10 comments • Posted in Misc
Defining a proper noun
I’m trying to apply a consistent style to a teacher training website and am battling the Capital Letter Police on a few issues.
I’ve culled capital letters for nouns such as “teacher” and “headteacher” unless we refer it as part of a job title.
Now I am left with names of meetings and forms that have traditionally been capitalised, but I’m not sure they need to be. Should such things be capitalised if they are being discussed generally? Eg:
“You should undertake three observed teaching sessions each year and keep a record of the feedback received on a teaching feedback form.”
or
“You should undertake three Observed Teaching Sessions each year and keep a record of the feedback received on a Teaching Feedback Form.”
And: “Download a teaching feedback form (link to PDF).” or “Download a Teaching Feedback Form (link to PDF).”
Any advice?
9 comments • Posted in Misc
Texted
How is the past tense of text PRONOUNCED? “Texted” It is said as “text-ed” in a bank’s TV commercial and sounds so inappropriate to me. Why wouldn’t it be pronounced “texted”? Does anyone know the rule on this one? Why would one say “they just text-ed me back...” sounds like ill use of the verb to me!
67 comments • Posted in Misc
Announcement
One of our regular contributors, porsche, informed me that submitting a comment redirects you to Microsoft’s website. Sorry about that. I keep track of the IP addresses of Spammers, and I send all the spammers to Microsoft’s website. I recently moved the site to a different server, and the new server was returning the same IP address for everyone, and I ended up listing that IP address as a Spammer’s. And, so the site considered everyone who commented as a Spammer. That’s what happened.
But that’s a long, boring, technical story, and what matters is that it’s working fine now.
Thank you, porsche, for informing me of this problem. If anyone ever experience any problems like this on this site, please let me know.
5 comments • Posted in Misc
Inch vs. Inches
I’m editing a technical manual. The engineers I’m working with have regularly typed amounts which are under one as “.05 inches” or “.67 inches.”
I’ve been of the opinion that this is to be typed “.05 inch” and “.67 inch,” as the amounts are less than one, but I can’t find anything to support either opinion.
Please advise.
16 comments • Posted in Misc
Orally Aural. Oh Really?
I suppose these questions are frequently preceded by an argument between one regarded as a pedant and another who is one secretly. I’m the pedant. Are these words pronounced so similarly as to be only identifiable by their context? For instance ‘a dentist works orally’ or ‘I am to give an oral presentation.’ This can lead to ambiguity (if they are pronounced the same): ‘I can only learn a language aurally/orally.’
16 comments • Posted in Misc
I seek a word that means “more than daily.”
The closest word I can think of is “semi-daily,” but that is too specific. I’d prefer to describe, using a single word, the frequency of a particular event that happens more than once per day, although the number times is not significant and is not always the same.
If this is a rare opportunity for someone to make up a word, I welcome a suitable word from someone who is more qualified than I to create such a word.
Any ideas?
44 comments • Posted in Misc
What is the term used...
... to describe a phrase where all words begin with the same letter?
Sally sells seashells at the sea shore..
6 comments • Posted in Misc
injecting swear words
Does anybody know if there’s a term for inserting a word in to another word, particularly swear words? For example: Fam-damn-ily, or Ri-goddamn-diculous?
My roommate and I have scoured all of our grammar books and literary dictionaries, but to no avail. Any thoughts?
19 comments • Posted in Misc
Word for a word with no rhyme?
There are many words in the English language which allegedly have no rhyme. I was wondering if there is a term to denote rhyme-less words (i.e. orange, silver...)?
38 comments • Posted in Misc
Word for unconscious vital process?
Is there a word or phrase that describes a vital process that is necessary to maintain a system or operation but is seldom thought about or considered.
For instance, the heart pumps blood but a healthy person doesn’t necessarily think about it as he/she goes about doing things.
9 comments • Posted in Misc
Interpreting “beyond that already extended”
I have run into a slight dispute at work regarding the following statement and the context is travel insurance.
“The company will not reimburse for any additional cover beyond that already extended”
There then follows a short list of 3 or 4 items such as health insurance, life cover, baggage.
1. I interpreted the statement as follows: The company would not reimburse for cover that was additional in the specific categories already noted. For example increasing the amount of life cover would be such a case where no reimbursement would be paid. However I interpreted the statement as meaning that if the requested reimbursement was for insurance that was not in one of these noted areas i.e. had not already been ‘extended’ then a claim would be valid. In hindsight I feel that I have used the ability to possibly twist the interpretation into a situation where a modest claim for personal liability insurance cover of £70 (which was not a listed item) will be rejected.
2. 2 colleagues thought that the meaning was simple - no reimbursement for ANY additional cover. I can see this point but if that was what was intended why did the statement not just read ‘ The company will not reimburse any additional cover’?
Any ideas or somewhere where I can gather some opinions? BTW I am more interested in the principal and ensuring the correct wording for others in future than the actual claim.
2 comments • Posted in Misc
Persian/Farsi
Responding to an old post (see below) I was under the impression that there were several kinds of Persian: Farsi, Dari, etc. If we use the word Persian, how does someone know to which one we are referrring? I have seen it written as Persian (Farsi) to make that clear. Is there a cultural reason why Persian is preferable?
Khodadad Rezakhani Mar-19-03 3:28AM Something I want to ask you to bring into attention. English has its own names for other languages: Eliniki is called Greek, Deutsch is German, and so on. About the name of the language of Iran: the English name is Persian, a correct name based on the rules of English. However, there has been a wide use of the word Farsi in main stream media (and even the computer world). Farsi is the local name for the language, and as we don’t say “I speak Espanol” when conversing in English, we shan’t say Farsi either. Please point out this matter in your weblog.
11 comments • Posted in Misc
