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  #46  
Old August 30th 17, 01:11 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10,alt.usage.english,alt.windows7.general
Cheryl[_2_]
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Posts: 12
Default Speak a ommon spelling error list (hints on demand)

On 2017-08-30 9:39 AM, Mayayana wrote:
"NY" wrote

| (**) In case anyone doesn't know, "fanny" refers to the female genitals in
| British English and the buttocks in American English.

And in these times the same is true of ass and
bum, at least among Brits that I know. I haven't
heard "fanny" in the US since childhood. If I had
to guess I'd say it's popular usage was probably
pre-WW2.

Another one to remember when visiting the
US is not to say, "Here, pussy, pussy, pussy."
(See ass and fanny.)



If you're addressing a cat, it's OK to say "Here, pussy"

--
Cheryl
Ads
  #47  
Old August 30th 17, 01:17 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10,alt.usage.english,alt.windows7.general
Athel Cornish-Bowden
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Posts: 8
Default Speak a ommon spelling error list (hints on demand)

On 2017-08-30 13:41:22 +0200, Cheryl said:

On 2017-08-30 9:39 AM, Mayayana wrote:
"NY" wrote

| (**) In case anyone doesn't know, "fanny" refers to the female genitals in
| British English and the buttocks in American English.

And in these times the same is true of ass and
bum, at least among Brits that I know. I haven't
heard "fanny" in the US since childhood. If I had
to guess I'd say it's popular usage was probably
pre-WW2.

Another one to remember when visiting the
US is not to say, "Here, pussy, pussy, pussy."
(See ass and fanny.)



If you're addressing a cat, it's OK to say "Here, pussy"


Agreed. No problem at all if you're addressing a cat.


--
athel

  #48  
Old August 30th 17, 01:28 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10,alt.usage.english,alt.windows7.general
Mayayana
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Posts: 6,438
Default Speak a ommon spelling error list (hints on demand)

"Peter Moylan" wrote

| In many cases what has happened is that the pronunciation of a word has
| changed over time, but we've kept the spelling that was logical for the
| old pronunciation.
|
I wonder if there's really any general rule that applies.
One example is US vs Brit versions of foreign words. In the
US, garage is gar-AHZE. In Britain it's GAR-age. That kind
of difference is common and reflects our different approaches
to the language. In Britain, English is their heritage. In
the US it's merely the language we speak. Thus, we
respect the foreign pronunciation of foreign words (in
this case French) while Brits try to fully anglicize foreign
words.
A highly educated British friend once invited me
to go see the play "Don Joo-en". Don Joo-en? She meant
Don Juan, but had phonetically anglicized the name! I
wasn't interested in the play, but was tempted to go
just so that I could see who said the name which way,
and whether there might be class distinctions in how
it was pronounced.

Another case is "wear and tear". I once waited a long
time for a train to Norridge when I was in Britain, before
finally realizing that the trains to Norwich listed on the
schedule board might possibly be what I wanted.
I was familiar with the name. I've been to Norwich U in
NH and the town of Norwich, VT. But I'd never heard the
British pronunciation. We say NO(R)-witch.


  #49  
Old August 30th 17, 01:34 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10,alt.usage.english,alt.windows7.general
NY
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Posts: 586
Default Speak a common spelling error list (hints on demand)

"Wolf K" wrote in message
...
It was spelt thus, actually, into the early 1900s, especially by New
England writers. Its disappearance in current US spelling reminds me of
the disappearance of "practise", a devil of a word, since it was
supposedly a different word than "practice", and one was supposed to know
when to use which spelling. In speech of course there's no difference at
all, which shews you how silly it is to insist on some spelling
variations.


In British English, the different spellings of licence/license and
practice/practise are used to distinguish between the noun and the verb
(hence "driving licence" but "this taxi is licensed to carry 4 passengers").
"Practice/practise" is a really thorny one because it's another of those
words like cleave which has two almost opposite senses - either to keep
repeating something until you've perfected it ("practice makes perfect"), or
else to carry out duties proficiently (especially in connection to doctors -
"a doctor's practice"). It would be better if the different spellings in
that case distinguished between those two meanings, rather than
distinguishing between noun and verb. Better still, of course, to use two
completely different words :-)

They are really class-markers; most rules of "correct English"
are about class, not grammar.


I think you have hit the nail on the head the some rules are made as
deliberate pitfalls to trip up the unwary, thereby establishing a sort of
moral superiority.

This is typified by all those rules about not ending a sentence/clause with
a preposition ("this is the sort of behaviour that I will not put up with"),
and only using "-er" and "-est" with adjectives and not adverbs ("he was the
quickest runner" but not "he ran quicker than she did", which should be "he
ran more quickly than she did").

One of those class/regional distinctions is the use of the word "dinner". In
upper/middle class usage, especially in the south of England, it refers to
the evening meal. But in working class, northern usage it often refers to
the mid-day meal, with the evening meal being referred to as "tea". However
even in the south, the mid-day meal in a school is always referred to as
"dinner", as in "school dinners", "dinner money" (the money you take to
school each week and give to the teacher to pay for that week's meals) and
"dinner ladies" (the women, often parents of children at the school, who
supervise the meals, making sure that everyone queues up and files into the
dining room in an orderly fashion).

Ah, I've just thought of another regional difference in meaning. The dreaded
"Yorkshire while". "While" usually means "during" or "at the same time as",
as in "don't talk while you're eating your dinner". But for some reason in
the industrial part of west Yorkshire, around Leeds, Bradford, Wakefield
where I grew up, it is also/instead used to mean "until" - as in "no, you
can't have a biscuit - wait while tea-time". I can remember this was the
standard incantation from my friend's mum when we got in from school, ready
for something to eat. It is often said that the wording on the signs at
level crossings, where cars must wait for trains to pass, was changed from
"do not cross while red lights flash" to guard against the Yorkshire
meaning, though this may well be an urban myth that has been repeated so
many times that "it must be true".

And another one, used further north in the rural Yorkshire Dales -
"moderate". Normally tends to imply medium, average, neither too little nor
too much. But in Dales-speak, when referring to someone's health, it takes
on a different meaning. If you ask after someone's health and they say "I
had to have the doctor out - I've been right moderate", it means "I've been
very ill and not far from death's door" (with a certain amount of
over-dramatisation).


Regional accents still carry a little bit of stigma in some situations,
though much less than used to be the case when if you didn't speak "the
Queen's English" you had to lose your regional accent and acquire the
so-called "received pronunciation". This was especially the case in
broadcasting, and was probably something that Reith instilled into everyone
in the early days of wireless when the BBC was founded. Somewhere we have a
"transcription disc" - a recording on a shellac-on-aluminium 78 rpm record,
as used by broadcasters before they used magnetic tape - of a
question-and-answer programme that my grandpa broadcast, probably in the
1940s or 50s, about his pet subject, steam railways. He was a headmaster of
a junior school near Dewsbury, just south of Leeds, and so he had a sort of
cultured northern accent: perfectly understandable to anyone, though with a
hint of short northern vowels. And like most people, after a few drinks or
when he was carried away telling a story, his accent became stronger than
when he was putting on his stern "headmaster's voice". But this evidently
wasn't good enough for the BBC on their radio programme. He had been told
that he needed to speak in a "proper" BBC accent. He tried. He tried so hard
that it is painful to listen to. He uses an accent that it is so exaggerated
that it has me in fits of laughter whenever I listen to it. He tries so hard
to avoid bluff northern vowels that he overdoes it - knowing him, this was
almost certainly deliberate and a reaction to being told that his accent
wasn't good enough for them. And so at one point he refers to "smoke coming
from the chimney like a bullet from a gun", except that in an attempt to
avoid the short "u" sound being lengthened to "oo", he makes it into a very
open "a" - "smoke is caming fram the chimney like a ballett fram a gan".
No-one talks like that, except old BBC announcers, and you could tell that
grandpa was paying lip service to it, whilst inwardly taking the ****. In
the family, after that, whenever we talked about anything happening quickly,
it was always "like a ballett fram a gan".

  #50  
Old August 30th 17, 03:00 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10,alt.usage.english,alt.windows7.general
Mayayana
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Posts: 6,438
Default Speak a ommon spelling error list (hints on demand)

"Athel Cornish-Bowden" wrote

| If you're addressing a cat, it's OK to say "Here, pussy"
|
| Agreed. No problem at all if you're addressing a cat.
|

I'm familiar with that, of course, but my point is
that calling a cat pussy has pretty much gone out of
usage in the US. When I heard someone say it in
England I understood. But I was also taken aback. If
you come to the US and say "Here pussy" there may
be people around you trying to hide chuckles.

Interestingly, the British woman I heard referring
to her pussy [cat] was a very snobbish and proper
type, yet she went by the name Cherry. So Cherry
was talking about her pussy.... you can't make this
stuff up.

That's another thing one doesn't generally see
in the US: Social class being indicated by the
silliness of one's nickname.


  #51  
Old August 30th 17, 03:08 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10,alt.usage.english,alt.windows7.general
Cheryl[_2_]
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Posts: 12
Default Speak a ommon spelling error list (hints on demand)

On 2017-08-30 11:30 AM, Mayayana wrote:
"Athel Cornish-Bowden" wrote

| If you're addressing a cat, it's OK to say "Here, pussy"
|
| Agreed. No problem at all if you're addressing a cat.
|

I'm familiar with that, of course, but my point is
that calling a cat pussy has pretty much gone out of
usage in the US. When I heard someone say it in
England I understood. But I was also taken aback. If
you come to the US and say "Here pussy" there may
be people around you trying to hide chuckles.

Interestingly, the British woman I heard referring
to her pussy [cat] was a very snobbish and proper
type, yet she went by the name Cherry. So Cherry
was talking about her pussy.... you can't make this
stuff up.

That's another thing one doesn't generally see
in the US: Social class being indicated by the
silliness of one's nickname.



Cherry Ames was a character in US books, although admittedly not recent
ones. "Cherry" is a very unusual name in North America, but not un-heard of.

While I am not an American, I think I've heard comments leading me to
believe that nicknames like "Billy Bob" indicate a certain social status
down there. And I think there are certain nicknames that are associated
with other classes - like "Trey" for John Richard Bigshot III.

--
Cheryl
  #52  
Old August 30th 17, 03:58 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10,alt.usage.english,alt.windows7.general
Ken Blake[_5_]
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Posts: 2,221
Default Speak a ommon spelling error list (hints on demand)

On Wed, 30 Aug 2017 11:59:52 +0100, "NY" wrote:

"Robert Bannister" wrote in message
...
Sadly, it seems that in this country at least, "waistcoat" has been
replaced by "vest". It helps that we never called an undershirt a vest as
they do in England.


Exactly. When I went out to Boston to see my sister and her family who were
living there for a few years because he husband had been seconded to
Gillette's head office, I took the time to build up a list of the most
obvious British/American differences (eg tap/faucet, flat/apartment,
waistcoat/vest, vest/undershirt etc). And the different meanings of
"momentarily" (*). And I knew not to look too horrified when an American
referred to a woman's fanny (**) :-)

The one word I missed from my "be careful how you use this word to avoid
confusion" list was "fortnight". Someone asked me how long I was staying in
Boston and I said "about a fortnight" which was met with blank
incomprehension because I gather that this word (which refers to a period of
fourteen days ie two weeks) is not used in the US as commonly.



I'm familiar with the word "fortnight," but it's almost never used in
the US.


I'm always scrupulous about always quoting dates with the month as a word.
1/2/17 can be interpreted as 1st of February or January 2nd depending on
whether you apply British or American convention,



Yes.


but "1st of February" is
unambiguous,



Yes.


even if an American might have said it "February 2nd".



Not me. I'd say "February first." g

But a lot of Americans would say "Febuary first."




Likewise for times in Germany: I'm wise to the fact that Germans use "half
[an hour] *to* three"



My German is extremely rusty and wasn't great to begin with (I studied
it in college many years ago), but as I remember, it's not "half to
three" but just "half three" (halb drei). It's strange to an English
speaker, but it makes a lot of sense.

where we would say "half *past* two". The problem
comes when a German doesn't know that you've adjusted: I once had an amusing
conversation with a German when I arranged to meet him at "halb drei" [half
three] meaning half past two,



Yes, as I said above


and he didn't realise that I was aware of the
different convention and thought I'd blindly translated "half" and "three",
and so mentally adjusted this to what he would think of as "half [to] four".
After that I said "half nach [past] drei", even though this isn't
idiomatically correct, to avoid any misunderstanding.


(*) In Britain, it means "*for* a moment" (ie transiently, briefly) rather
than "*in* a moment" (ie soon),



Thanks very much. I didn't know that.


hence the hoary old joke about the American
pilot who announced to his planeload of British passengers that they would
be landing momentarily, to which the Brits thought "I hope he stays on the
ground long enough for us to get off". Rather than use the word "wrongly"
(by my standards) I tend to avoid it and rephrase it if I'm talking to
Americans.

(**) In case anyone doesn't know, "fanny" refers to the female genitals in
British English and the buttocks in American English. Important that
Americans coming to Britain don't use the wrong word :-)



I didn't know that either.
  #53  
Old August 30th 17, 03:58 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10,alt.usage.english,alt.windows7.general
Peter Duncanson [BrE]
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Posts: 42
Default Speak a ommon spelling error list (hints on demand)

On Wed, 30 Aug 2017 08:28:19 -0400, "Mayayana"
wrote:

"Peter Moylan" wrote

| In many cases what has happened is that the pronunciation of a word has
| changed over time, but we've kept the spelling that was logical for the
| old pronunciation.
|
I wonder if there's really any general rule that applies.
One example is US vs Brit versions of foreign words. In the
US, garage is gar-AHZE. In Britain it's GAR-age.


It is also "garridge" in BrE.

That kind
of difference is common and reflects our different approaches
to the language. In Britain, English is their heritage. In
the US it's merely the language we speak.


For some people in the US, English is their heritage. The language was
taken to North America by English-speaking settlers.

It also works the other way round. There are many people in Britain for
whom English is not their heritage. There are people who came or whose
ancestors came from outside Britain, and there are people whose native
and ancestral language is not English but Welsh.

And of course if we go far enough back, the languages/dialects from
which English developed were imported to Britain by Anglo-Saxon
settlers.

Thus, we
respect the foreign pronunciation of foreign words (in
this case French) while Brits try to fully anglicize foreign
words.
A highly educated British friend once invited me
to go see the play "Don Joo-en". Don Joo-en? She meant
Don Juan, but had phonetically anglicized the name! I
wasn't interested in the play, but was tempted to go
just so that I could see who said the name which way,
and whether there might be class distinctions in how
it was pronounced.

Another case is "wear and tear". I once waited a long
time for a train to Norridge when I was in Britain, before
finally realizing that the trains to Norwich listed on the
schedule board might possibly be what I wanted.
I was familiar with the name. I've been to Norwich U in
NH and the town of Norwich, VT. But I'd never heard the
British pronunciation. We say NO(R)-witch.


--
Peter Duncanson, UK
(in alt.usage.english)
  #54  
Old August 30th 17, 04:00 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10,alt.usage.english,alt.windows7.general
Ken Blake[_5_]
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Posts: 2,221
Default Speak a ommon spelling error list (hints on demand)

On Wed, 30 Aug 2017 09:41:22 -0230, Cheryl
wrote:

On 2017-08-30 9:39 AM, Mayayana wrote:
"NY" wrote

| (**) In case anyone doesn't know, "fanny" refers to the female genitals in
| British English and the buttocks in American English.

And in these times the same is true of ass and
bum, at least among Brits that I know. I haven't
heard "fanny" in the US since childhood. If I had
to guess I'd say it's popular usage was probably
pre-WW2.

Another one to remember when visiting the
US is not to say, "Here, pussy, pussy, pussy."
(See ass and fanny.)



If you're addressing a cat, it's OK to say "Here, pussy"




I'm going back a lot of years, but I remember when my dog went over to
a strange woman to smell her. She said "He's smelling my pussy."
  #55  
Old August 30th 17, 04:03 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10,alt.usage.english,alt.windows7.general
Rene Lamontagne
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Posts: 2,549
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On 8/30/2017 9:58 AM, Ken Blake wrote:
On Wed, 30 Aug 2017 11:59:52 +0100, "NY" wrote:

"Robert Bannister" wrote in message
...
Sadly, it seems that in this country at least, "waistcoat" has been
replaced by "vest". It helps that we never called an undershirt a vest as
they do in England.


Exactly. When I went out to Boston to see my sister and her family who were
living there for a few years because he husband had been seconded to
Gillette's head office, I took the time to build up a list of the most
obvious British/American differences (eg tap/faucet, flat/apartment,
waistcoat/vest, vest/undershirt etc). And the different meanings of
"momentarily" (*). And I knew not to look too horrified when an American
referred to a woman's fanny (**) :-)

The one word I missed from my "be careful how you use this word to avoid
confusion" list was "fortnight". Someone asked me how long I was staying in
Boston and I said "about a fortnight" which was met with blank
incomprehension because I gather that this word (which refers to a period of
fourteen days ie two weeks) is not used in the US as commonly.



I'm familiar with the word "fortnight," but it's almost never used in
the US.


I'm always scrupulous about always quoting dates with the month as a word.
1/2/17 can be interpreted as 1st of February or January 2nd depending on
whether you apply British or American convention,



Yes.


but "1st of February" is
unambiguous,



Yes.


even if an American might have said it "February 2nd".



Not me. I'd say "February first." g

But a lot of Americans would say "Febuary first."




Likewise for times in Germany: I'm wise to the fact that Germans use "half
[an hour] *to* three"



My German is extremely rusty and wasn't great to begin with (I studied
it in college many years ago), but as I remember, it's not "half to
three" but just "half three" (halb drei). It's strange to an English
speaker, but it makes a lot of sense.

where we would say "half *past* two". The problem
comes when a German doesn't know that you've adjusted: I once had an amusing
conversation with a German when I arranged to meet him at "halb drei" [half
three] meaning half past two,



Yes, as I said above


and he didn't realise that I was aware of the
different convention and thought I'd blindly translated "half" and "three",
and so mentally adjusted this to what he would think of as "half [to] four".
After that I said "half nach [past] drei", even though this isn't
idiomatically correct, to avoid any misunderstanding.


(*) In Britain, it means "*for* a moment" (ie transiently, briefly) rather
than "*in* a moment" (ie soon),



Thanks very much. I didn't know that.


hence the hoary old joke about the American
pilot who announced to his planeload of British passengers that they would
be landing momentarily, to which the Brits thought "I hope he stays on the
ground long enough for us to get off". Rather than use the word "wrongly"
(by my standards) I tend to avoid it and rephrase it if I'm talking to
Americans.

(**) In case anyone doesn't know, "fanny" refers to the female genitals in
British English and the buttocks in American English. Important that
Americans coming to Britain don't use the wrong word :-)



I didn't know that either.



Anyone here have trouble spelling I or A ? :-))

Rene

  #56  
Old August 30th 17, 04:10 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10,alt.usage.english,alt.windows7.general
Ken Blake[_5_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,221
Default Speak a common spelling error list (hints on demand)

On Wed, 30 Aug 2017 13:34:43 +0100, "NY" wrote:


One of those class/regional distinctions is the use of the word "dinner". In
upper/middle class usage, especially in the south of England, it refers to
the evening meal. But in working class, northern usage it often refers to
the mid-day meal, with the evening meal being referred to as "tea". However
even in the south, the mid-day meal in a school is always referred to as
"dinner", as in "school dinners", "dinner money" (the money you take to
school each week and give to the teacher to pay for that week's meals) and
"dinner ladies" (the women, often parents of children at the school, who
supervise the meals, making sure that everyone queues up and files into the
dining room in an orderly fashion).



The same in the US. The word "dinner" is used differently in different
parts of the US. To me, dinner is the evening meal; to some others
it's what I call "lunch" (or better, "luncheon," but that word is
fading fast), and the evening meal is called "supper."

It's somewhat similar in Italian with the usage of "cenare" and
"pranzare."
  #57  
Old August 30th 17, 04:13 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10,alt.usage.english,alt.windows7.general
Tony Cooper[_2_]
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Posts: 56
Default Speak a ommon spelling error list (hints on demand)

On Wed, 30 Aug 2017 08:00:41 -0700, Ken Blake
wrote:

On Wed, 30 Aug 2017 09:41:22 -0230, Cheryl
wrote:

On 2017-08-30 9:39 AM, Mayayana wrote:
"NY" wrote

| (**) In case anyone doesn't know, "fanny" refers to the female genitals in
| British English and the buttocks in American English.

And in these times the same is true of ass and
bum, at least among Brits that I know. I haven't
heard "fanny" in the US since childhood. If I had
to guess I'd say it's popular usage was probably
pre-WW2.

Another one to remember when visiting the
US is not to say, "Here, pussy, pussy, pussy."
(See ass and fanny.)



If you're addressing a cat, it's OK to say "Here, pussy"




I'm going back a lot of years, but I remember when my dog went over to
a strange woman to smell her. She said "He's smelling my pussy."


It became a standing joke on the old British sitcom "Are You Being
Served?". Mrs Slocombe wrung that one dry.
--
Tony Cooper - Orlando, Florida
  #58  
Old August 30th 17, 04:16 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10,alt.usage.english,alt.windows7.general
Athel Cornish-Bowden
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Posts: 8
Default Speak a ommon spelling error list (hints on demand)

On 2017-08-30 16:58:38 +0200, "Peter Duncanson [BrE]"
said:

[ ... ]


It also works the other way round. There are many people in Britain for
whom English is not their heritage. There are people who came or whose
ancestors came from outside Britain, and there are people whose native
and ancestral language is not English but Welsh.


I suspect that a lot of people both in and out of the UK don't realize

1. that Welsh is completely different from English -- far more than
French or German are;

2. that Welsh is a living language, spoken daily in their homes by many
people. I won't say it's thriving and in no danger of going extinct,
but it thrives a lot more than Irish or Scottish Gaelic, or, its
relative Breton in France.


--
athel

  #59  
Old August 30th 17, 04:45 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10,alt.usage.english,alt.windows7.general
Ken Blake[_5_]
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Posts: 2,221
Default Speak a ommon spelling error list (hints on demand)

On Wed, 30 Aug 2017 11:13:39 -0400, Tony Cooper
wrote:

On Wed, 30 Aug 2017 08:00:41 -0700, Ken Blake
wrote:

On Wed, 30 Aug 2017 09:41:22 -0230, Cheryl
wrote:

On 2017-08-30 9:39 AM, Mayayana wrote:
"NY" wrote

| (**) In case anyone doesn't know, "fanny" refers to the female genitals in
| British English and the buttocks in American English.

And in these times the same is true of ass and
bum, at least among Brits that I know. I haven't
heard "fanny" in the US since childhood. If I had
to guess I'd say it's popular usage was probably
pre-WW2.

Another one to remember when visiting the
US is not to say, "Here, pussy, pussy, pussy."
(See ass and fanny.)



If you're addressing a cat, it's OK to say "Here, pussy"




I'm going back a lot of years, but I remember when my dog went over to
a strange woman to smell her. She said "He's smelling my pussy."


It became a standing joke on the old British sitcom "Are You Being
Served?". Mrs Slocombe wrung that one dry.



OK. I know nothing about sitcoms, neither British nor American.
  #60  
Old August 30th 17, 04:47 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10,alt.usage.english,alt.windows7.general
Ken Blake[_5_]
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Posts: 2,221
Default Speak a ommon spelling error list (hints on demand)

On Wed, 30 Aug 2017 10:03:29 -0500, Rene Lamontagne
wrote:

On 8/30/2017 9:58 AM, Ken Blake wrote:
On Wed, 30 Aug 2017 11:59:52 +0100, "NY" wrote:

"Robert Bannister" wrote in message
...
Sadly, it seems that in this country at least, "waistcoat" has been
replaced by "vest". It helps that we never called an undershirt a vest as
they do in England.

Exactly. When I went out to Boston to see my sister and her family who were
living there for a few years because he husband had been seconded to
Gillette's head office, I took the time to build up a list of the most
obvious British/American differences (eg tap/faucet, flat/apartment,
waistcoat/vest, vest/undershirt etc). And the different meanings of
"momentarily" (*). And I knew not to look too horrified when an American
referred to a woman's fanny (**) :-)

The one word I missed from my "be careful how you use this word to avoid
confusion" list was "fortnight". Someone asked me how long I was staying in
Boston and I said "about a fortnight" which was met with blank
incomprehension because I gather that this word (which refers to a period of
fourteen days ie two weeks) is not used in the US as commonly.



I'm familiar with the word "fortnight," but it's almost never used in
the US.


I'm always scrupulous about always quoting dates with the month as a word.
1/2/17 can be interpreted as 1st of February or January 2nd depending on
whether you apply British or American convention,



Yes.


but "1st of February" is
unambiguous,



Yes.


even if an American might have said it "February 2nd".



Not me. I'd say "February first." g

But a lot of Americans would say "Febuary first."




Likewise for times in Germany: I'm wise to the fact that Germans use "half
[an hour] *to* three"



My German is extremely rusty and wasn't great to begin with (I studied
it in college many years ago), but as I remember, it's not "half to
three" but just "half three" (halb drei). It's strange to an English
speaker, but it makes a lot of sense.

where we would say "half *past* two". The problem
comes when a German doesn't know that you've adjusted: I once had an amusing
conversation with a German when I arranged to meet him at "halb drei" [half
three] meaning half past two,



Yes, as I said above


and he didn't realise that I was aware of the
different convention and thought I'd blindly translated "half" and "three",
and so mentally adjusted this to what he would think of as "half [to] four".
After that I said "half nach [past] drei", even though this isn't
idiomatically correct, to avoid any misunderstanding.


(*) In Britain, it means "*for* a moment" (ie transiently, briefly) rather
than "*in* a moment" (ie soon),



Thanks very much. I didn't know that.


hence the hoary old joke about the American
pilot who announced to his planeload of British passengers that they would
be landing momentarily, to which the Brits thought "I hope he stays on the
ground long enough for us to get off". Rather than use the word "wrongly"
(by my standards) I tend to avoid it and rephrase it if I'm talking to
Americans.

(**) In case anyone doesn't know, "fanny" refers to the female genitals in
British English and the buttocks in American English. Important that
Americans coming to Britain don't use the wrong word :-)



I didn't know that either.



Anyone here have trouble spelling I or A ? :-))



I'm very good at spelling. Eye and eh. g
 




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