3377 replies to this topic

[miffy]

saying garrige instead of garage.

Isn't this just the British rather than American pronunciation?

Possibly, but I hear it in England with an English accent all the time.
How about Marlybone instead of Marylebone? Is this mis-pronounced or a local colloquialism?

By the way, what's a grocer's apostrophe?

[Czerny]

saying garrige instead of garage.

Isn't this just the British rather than American pronunciation?

Possibly, but I hear it in England with an English accent all the time.

How about Marlybone instead of Marylebone? Is this mis-pronounced or a local colloquialism?

By the way, what's a grocer's apostrophe?

I think you'll find that England is in Britain!

I think Marlybone is the local pronunciation.

A greengrocer's apostrophe is something like "banana's", i.e. an unnecessarily apostrophied (is that a word??) plural.

[muffinmonster]

Incidentally (sp?) they are considering changing the spelling of definite to definate, as it is spelt wrong on such an enormous scale they say it may warrant changing!

'They'? Who are 'They'?

[Maizie]

That one was a Bushism, wasn't it?

Nope. He used that pronunciation and brought it to a wider audience, but it has been around a lot longer than that. I had an audio book in the mid-1990s which through referred to the "Teller Noo-cue-lar Research Facility"...

[Arundodonuts]

That one was a Bushism, wasn't it?

Nope. He used that pronunciation and brought it to a wider audience, but it has been around a lot longer than that. I had an audio book in the mid-1990s which through referred to the "Teller Noo-cue-lar Research Facility"...

Yeah it goes way back to the era (pronounced "air-a") of aluminum and labrortory.

[miffy]

I think you'll find that England is in Britain!

Sorry, read your original answer the wrong way round

[Czerny]

That one was a Bushism, wasn't it?

Nope. He used that pronunciation and brought it to a wider audience, but it has been around a lot longer than that. I had an audio book in the mid-1990s which through referred to the "Teller Noo-cue-lar Research Facility"...

Well who'd have thought...

[Pianotastic]

I hate it when nouns are converted into verbs. This often happens in corporate jargon. The worst example I have come across is "end-of-lifed". eg. "That version of software has been end-of-lifed".

NNNGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH

I actually love that. It's one of my favourite things to do with language. I'll be aware of it in future.

'I'll facebook you' gets used rather a lot up here, and that's probably the same thing!

[Cyrilla]

I hate it when nouns are converted into verbs. This often happens in corporate jargon. The worst example I have come across is "end-of-lifed". eg. "That version of software has been end-of-lifed".

NNNGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH

I actually love that. It's one of my favourite things to do with language. I'll be aware of it in future.

'I'll facebook you' gets used rather a lot up here, and that's probably the same thing!

Ah, yes, I'm always seeing 'inbox me' on facebook...

Ewwww.

[corenfa]

I hate it when nouns are converted into verbs. This often happens in corporate jargon. The worst example I have come across is "end-of-lifed". eg. "That version of software has been end-of-lifed".

NNNGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH

I actually love that. It's one of my favourite things to do with language. I'll be aware of it in future.

'I'll facebook you' gets used rather a lot up here, and that's probably the same thing!

That's a bit different, I think, because Facebook hasn't been around for that long. Likewise "to google" or "to skype" or "to SMS".

Oh well maybe I am just an old stick-in-the-mud who would rather nothing ever changed

[saxophile]

'I'll facebook you' gets used rather a lot up here, and that's probably the same thing!

Ah, yes, I'm always seeing 'inbox me' on facebook...

Ewwww.

That's my instinctive response to the whole concept of facebook, let alone the idea of using it as a verb.

[Czerny]

Two more to add:

Confusion between "lose" (verb) and "loose" (adjective);

Confusion between "who's" (contraction of "who is") and "whose" (possessive - equivalent to "its").

[Robodoc]

Firstly:

I hate it when nouns are converted into verbs.

There's no such thing as a noun that can't be verbed or a verb that can't be nouned!

Second:

"I say to you"..
"At the end of the day"...
"Step up to the plate"...

In context any of these are OK, it's just that they are used out of context and ad nauseam to become cliches. The "step up to the plate" is an American idiom derived from baseball, where the next hitter to come between the pitcher and the backstop steps up to the plate to hit.

Third:

'Driveway' instead of 'drive' and 'park up' instead of 'park', and all the other similar horrible American elongated words.

You have to remember that for quite a long time now American and English have been different languages, albeit only slightly. Both are living languages and drift all the time. I don't see this as a problem.


Finally, my own contribution to the debate: Summary/Summery. I sometimes work in a place where there are summaries of notes. Someone who works there continually writes the word "Summery" on notes which still need summarising. I have pointed out that this means that they are sunny, warm, and only applicable between June and August, as opposed to "Summary" which in this case means that they need a summary, but it falls on deaf (ignorant and extremely irritating) ears.

[corenfa]

Firstly:

I hate it when nouns are converted into verbs.

There's no such thing as a noun that can't be verbed or a verb that can't be nouned!