Heartland

EvilBastard wrote:...or the place we had brunch today that was offering a "Prefix" menu. Grrrrrrrrrrr...

LMAO!

Ahhhh...ignorance, arrogance, and mediocrity.

SINsister wrote:...ignorance, arrogance, and mediocrity.

... that would be the Hillbillies in Horrorfordshire Sinnie! - Kill 'em ALL!

Erm...sorry, but killing's just not my style. I prefer to ignore idiots.

SINsister wrote:Erm...sorry, but killing's just not my style. I prefer to ignore idiots.

Absolutely Sinnie!

“Silence is the most perfect expression of scorn.�, George Bernard Shaw, Back to Methuselah (1921) pt. 5

Obviousman wrote: Dutch Beats English by about 10,000 headwords (171k vs 186k or so) and is vastly more pointless in its irregularity if I may say so

See this is why the Z-man can't be beat. That's what I call a factoid!
I love it when you go talking all language-geeky you know

reactiv8 wrote:“Silence is the most perfect expression of scorn.�, George Bernard Shaw, Back to Methuselah (1921) pt. 5

What a great quote

emilystrange wrote:aaagahhhh. schools DO try! i've been teaching 'their' and 'there' to my 6 year olds...
DON'T blame it on us. we have near breakdowns as it is!

And my Year Three's have suddenly started with a rash of apostrophes. Every word that ends in an 's' gets the apostrophe treatment. I think the only way to learn 'em is to rabbit punch them for each one they insert unnecessarily..........

Obviousman wrote: In Dutch we've got the extra disadvantage of spelling changing every other year, so I really doubt whether there are many good spellers left. The common changes made me give up with being really anal on spelling and shifted my focus to other irritating mistakes

Yeah tell me about it! It's so stupid too that the spelling changes every other year, the whole educational system should be adjusting to that change but do they? We can now blame our political system where education is concerned. In this country there are so many advantages to wanting to live here but it drives me crazy when these important matters have not being maintained for many years it seems.
As for the English language, most definately an international language, it is also a marvellous language when once knowing expression is absolutely delicious.

I'm also of opion that the problem does not lie within the teachers of today and the younger we teach them the proper way of writing English the better. The abbreviated way of writing these days, through things like mobile telephones and quick chat programs (programmes USA) such as MSN etc. are the bad doers. The youth are out there and quick any language has taken them by storm....oh wait, BoF's mum too...hmmm...maybe seeping through all ages then. So we can blame the internet or communications too!

Why on earth do they change how you spell your words?

I refuse to accept that a sentence may not be started with "And".
That aside, I'm still considered a grammar nazi at school. Both in English and German, I do my utmost, to the point of using grammar which some people take a moment or so to take in. Examples would be "From whom did you hear that?" in casual conversation, and conjugating "lesen" into "läse" in an essay (a native speaker who was marking it said that it was perfectly good and every German would understand it, though in practice, it was never really used).

Debaser wrote:And my Year Three's have suddenly started with a rash of apostrophes. Every word that ends in an 's' gets the apostrophe treatment. I think the only way to learn 'em is to rabbit punch them for each one they insert unnecessarily..........

That reminds of something else - some people use question marks when not asking a question. It's like a method of writing in an Australian accent!

Brideoffrankenstein wrote:Why on earth do they change how you spell your words?

Now my dear, that is indeed a mystery! These Dutchies are a weird bunch I tell you!

Almiche V wrote:

Debaser wrote:And my Year Three's have suddenly started with a rash of apostrophes. Every word that ends in an 's' gets the apostrophe treatment. I think the only way to learn 'em is to rabbit punch them for each one they insert unnecessarily..........

That reminds of something else - some people use question marks when not asking a question. It's like a method of writing in an Australian accent!

I remember Stephen Fry going on Room 101? And he wanted to put the Australian accent in? He couldn't understand why everything they say sounds like a question?

Brideoffrankenstein wrote:I remember Stephen Fry going on Room 101? And he wanted to put the Australian accent in? He couldn't understand why everything they say sounds like a question?

That's the one. Everyone should listen to him.

Dark wrote:I refuse to accept that a sentence may not be started with "And".

Ditto. If it's good enough for William Blake, it's good enough for me.

Debaser wrote:

Dark wrote:I refuse to accept that a sentence may not be started with "And".

Ditto. If it's good enough for William Blake, it's good enough for me.

William Blake...............does he play for an English team?

MadameButterfly wrote:

Brideoffrankenstein wrote:Why on earth do they change how you spell your words?

Now my dear, that is indeed a mystery! These Dutchies are a weird bunch I tell you!

Well, I suppose it's got to do with updating. Allegedly they want to simplify it as well, but oddly everything's getting more complex this way. On top of that it even influences how we speak, e.g. if you stick two words together and the first one ends in an e, they thought it'd be nice to give all/most of those an n in between. Result being people starting to pronounce the n, whereas they made it clear from the first moment you shouldn't do that

Changing spelling is quite irritating either way, makes reading books of over about 30 years old real hard, which is quite a shame...

Latest piece of linguistic idiocy - just received an offer in the post from Omaha Steaks inviting me to "Save 30% on filet mignons".

EvilBastard wrote: "Save 30% on filet mignons"

EvilBastard wrote:Latest piece of linguistic idiocy - just received an offer in the post from Omaha Steaks inviting me to "Save 30% on filet mignons".

*Cackling*

OMG - if that's not bad enough, my favorite great-auntie (RIP) used to pronounce it "FILLah-MINyon"!

*Rolls on floor, clutching her sides*

Guess whose parents say "Maynge-towt" for "mange tout"?

Awwwww!

Well, education begins at home, innit, dear Korin? Repeat the phrase correctly, over and over, and they're sure to "get it" eventually!

Here's a new pleasure that's sweeping over:

'despatch' instead of 'dispatch'

This is basic stuff we're talking about.

Dark wrote:Guess whose parents say "Maynge-towt" for "mange tout"?

Keep hearing/reading:

"The exact same thing happened....."

Look, it's either the same thing or it's not the same thing.

Just passing.