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National Grammar Day
- Thread starter Braeden P
- Start date
- Joined
- May 27, 2016
- Messages
- 3,469
So who thinks "nuclear" is pronounced "noo-keew-ler"?
Who gets up to "soddering"? In this case, I think the change became accepted in common usage in the USA - but apparently not everywhere. To folk from UK the verb comes across as almost rude!
Al Haig was known for constructing his own words, often by use of "ize" or "ization" suffix to denote a process, where "process" was anything he wanted to refer to. During the Falklands war, at a diplomatic meeting pause for some lunch, Margaret Thatcher raised a little levity in an otherwise difficult time by inviting him and others to move to another room and "de-hungerize".
"Utilize" does not get modified from "utility" well. "Utilization" gets really ugly. There has never been a time I saw this where it could not be simply replaced by "use", or "use of". It lives off the same logic that gives us "modernize", but that one fares rather better.
Do not feel too badly about the vagaries of English. Other languages have it worse! Dutch-Flemish Afrikaans cannot have a word for "tubeless tire" without making it a full description. "Binnelosebuiteband" is literally "without insides outside rubber band".
There is a place near CapeTown called "Mutual", so named because of the Mutual Life Assurance Society. The sign on the building contains the word "lewensversekeringsgenootskap".
In learning French, there are innocent words that suddenly become very rude indeed depending on context, or very slight alterations in pronounciation emphasis, and grammar gets very difficult if you don't know the gender of a noun. There is no logic in it, you just have to learn them by heart.
Who gets up to "soddering"? In this case, I think the change became accepted in common usage in the USA - but apparently not everywhere. To folk from UK the verb comes across as almost rude!
Al Haig was known for constructing his own words, often by use of "ize" or "ization" suffix to denote a process, where "process" was anything he wanted to refer to. During the Falklands war, at a diplomatic meeting pause for some lunch, Margaret Thatcher raised a little levity in an otherwise difficult time by inviting him and others to move to another room and "de-hungerize".
"Utilize" does not get modified from "utility" well. "Utilization" gets really ugly. There has never been a time I saw this where it could not be simply replaced by "use", or "use of". It lives off the same logic that gives us "modernize", but that one fares rather better.
Do not feel too badly about the vagaries of English. Other languages have it worse! Dutch-Flemish Afrikaans cannot have a word for "tubeless tire" without making it a full description. "Binnelosebuiteband" is literally "without insides outside rubber band".
There is a place near CapeTown called "Mutual", so named because of the Mutual Life Assurance Society. The sign on the building contains the word "lewensversekeringsgenootskap".
In learning French, there are innocent words that suddenly become very rude indeed depending on context, or very slight alterations in pronounciation emphasis, and grammar gets very difficult if you don't know the gender of a noun. There is no logic in it, you just have to learn them by heart.
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- Joined
- Aug 15, 2013
- Messages
- 2,114
You guys oughta know that my evil twin is gonna make a list of your pet peeves for future posts. Forewarned is four armed.
Tom
- Joined
- Jun 29, 2014
- Messages
- 4,060
Can't wait to see how you spin all of this into a yarn!You guys oughta know that my evil twin is gonna make a list of your pet peeves for future posts. Forewarned is four armed.
Tom
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2018
- Messages
- 1,597
My mother was an English teacher, so I would butcher the language just to get a response out of her!
