Aquatic mammals, breaking for spears?

Got something to say, but it's not classic related? Here's the place to discuss. Also includes the once ever-so-popular word association thread... (although we've had to start from scratch with it - sorry!)
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arceye
Posts: 1904
Joined: Tue Mar 08, 2011 1:56 pm
Location: Cleveleys, Lancashire

Re: Aquatic mammals, breaking for spears?

#11 Post by arceye » Tue Nov 24, 2015 9:26 pm

That is the English language for you Rich, fourty is an easy one to get wrong. I mean, where is the sense in having four, fourteen and then bloody forty, then we have fourth as well so forty really is the odd one out. Confusing things further is Forth, as in go forth and multiply.

Do the French have such a convoluted language mate, I wouldn't know because I never got past the introductory bit to it in High School, which made things rather interesting in a trip round a big cave somewhere in the south of France when a young lady who spoke French and Spanish but not English was giving the wife and I a guided tour. Especially the bit where she was trying to explain about the prehistoric phallus that was sat there, and some of the cave drawings. :D

tractorman
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Location: Wigton, Cumbria

Re: Aquatic mammals, breaking for spears?

#12 Post by tractorman » Tue Nov 24, 2015 11:47 pm

While I agree that poor spelling (or incorrect words) are annoying, it is easy to forget that there are some people who have dyslexia, use auto-correct or trust spell-checkers just a little too much.

On the other forum I used to frequent, one lad got flamed for his poor grammar. I was moderator at the time, so tried to cool things, but the lad was most upset: he was dyslexic and we never heard from him again. I'm glad to say that the person that flamed the lad was reprimanded by the committee (about the only time he has been!!). There were still lots of people who couldn't spell though "Hydraulics" was misspelt almost as often as it was spelt correctly! Some had no chance when it came to describing the manufacturer's brand name for the hydraulic system - even though it was there in front of them (on several of the site's pages).

When I was training the unemployed in IT, we had one bloke was terrible at spelling and accepted every suggestion Word provided for his spelling mistakes. It was most difficult to make out what he was trying to type (if he could spell, the reports etc would have been quite good!). I eventually suggested that he got a dictionary and was a bit surprised when he did - without taking offence! The reports were much better after that!

I'm sure I mentioned the lad who did badly in a mock GCSE - the teacher couldn't even give him a mark for spelling his name correctly: he'd written "Brain"!

Didn't John mean braking four spears?

My problem is bad typing...

rich.
Posts: 6804
Joined: Wed Jan 05, 2011 9:18 pm

Re: Aquatic mammals, breaking for spears?

#13 Post by rich. » Wed Nov 25, 2015 6:58 am

arceye wrote:That is the English language for you Rich, fourty is an easy one to get wrong. I mean, where is the sense in having four, fourteen and then bloody forty, then we have fourth as well so forty really is the odd one out. Confusing things further is Forth, as in go forth and multiply.

Do the French have such a convoluted language mate, I wouldn't know because I never got past the introductory bit to it in High School, which made things rather interesting in a trip round a big cave somewhere in the south of France when a young lady who spoke French and Spanish but not English was giving the wife and I a guided tour. Especially the bit where she was trying to explain about the prehistoric phallus that was sat there, and some of the cave drawings. :D
:lol:
if the french can complicate anything for no good reason, they will....

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Luxobarge
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Location: Horne, Surreyshire

Re: Aquatic mammals, breaking for spears?

#14 Post by Luxobarge » Wed Nov 25, 2015 9:17 am

tractorman wrote:..... there are some people who use auto-correct or trust spell-checkers just a little too much.
Couldn't agree more - they might help now and again but they are no match for simply knowing how to spell. See below one of my favourite poems - every word of this passes spell-checkers with no errors or suggestions:-

Ode to a Spell Checker

I have a spelling chequer
I disk covered four my PC.
It plane lee marks four my revue
Miss steaks aye can knot see.

Eye ran this poem threw it.
Your sure real glad two no.
Its very polished in its weigh,
My checker tolled me sew.

A checker is a blessing.
It freeze yew lodes of thyme.
It helps me right awl stiles two reed,
And aides me when aye rime.

Each frays comes posed up on my screen
Eye trussed too bee a joule.
The checker pours o'er every word
To cheque sum spelling rule.

Bee fore wee rote with checkers
Hour spelling was inn deck line,
Butt now when wee dew have a laps,
Wee are not maid too wine.

And now bee cause my spelling
Is checked with such grate flare,
There are know faults in awl this peace,
Of nun eye am a wear.

To rite with care is quite a feet
Of witch won should be proud,
And wee mussed dew the best wee can,
Sew flaws are knot aloud.

That's why eye brake in two averse
Caws Eye dew want too please.
Sow glad eye yam that aye did bye
This soft wear four pea seas.


Unfortunately they walk among us those who wouldn't see much wrong with that........ :roll:
Some people are like Slinkies - they serve no useful purpose, but they still bring a smile to your face when you push them downstairs.

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JPB
Posts: 10319
Joined: Fri Jan 07, 2011 3:24 pm

Re: Aquatic mammals, breaking for spears?

#15 Post by JPB » Wed Nov 25, 2015 9:56 am

This verse:
To rite with care is quite a feet
Of witch won should be proud,
And wee mussed dew the best wee can,
Sew flaws are knot aloud.
Isn't enormously different at first glance from Chaucer's famously agricultural written English :lol: which reminds me that language is an evolving thing, otherwise we'd all still be writing and speaking in the same way folk did hundreds of years ago.
Thinking of Chaucer; his "Troilus and Criseyde", itself plagiarised from Boccaccio's work, became "Troilus and Cressida" by the time some bearded geezer from the Midlands got his hands on the idea ;) . Was this perhaps one of the first examples of the written work being modified to suit the sponsor's brand? Did that Shakespare drive one of these:
Image
:shock:

Would that car even have existed, had the bard not changed the poor girl's name? I can't see Toyota Criseyde having the same showroom appeal somehow.
Hang on though, did I just confess that I'm resistant to change, a Luddite perhaps, but without the urges to damage machinery? :oops:
eBay wins; "spears" it is. :x
J
"Home is where you park it", so the saying goes. That may yet come true.. :oops:


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