different ways to spell words in english

Sector11 · 2015-05-31 16:26:12

^

g33zr · 2015-06-01 12:42:14

When I lived in Germany, I taught English for a while at a couple of private langauge schools. My students were often perplexed by the differences in pronouncing words like through, tough, rough, bough, bow, or words that were pronounced alike but had different meanings like seen, scene, seed, cede, be, bee, etc.

Sector11 · 2015-06-01 15:20:43

And then there some dandies... like present.

The present is a good time to present the present.

Use to have a whole list of those ...

g33zr · 2015-06-01 19:22:31

^ Great one...but I can't remember if I used it...maybe? probably?

Last edited by g33zr (2015-06-01 19:22:52)

Sector11 · 2015-06-01 19:53:42

It drove some people here crazy!

Did you know there is a sentence that you can say in English starting with "How many ..." and the answer is 3 but if you write it the answer is 1?

pvsage · 2015-06-01 20:43:53

http://digitalcommons.butler.edu/cgi/vi … t=wordways
"Rose worked for years to develop the most beautiful flower in the deepest shade of pink. And finally at the flower show when her name was announced for the most rose rose, Rose rose to accept the award."

damo · 2015-06-01 20:58:31

pvsage wrote:

http://digitalcommons.butler.edu/cgi/vi … t=wordways
"Rose worked for years to develop the most beautiful flower in the deepest shade of pink. And finally at the flower show when her name was announced for the most rose rose, Rose rose to accept the award."

Or even

In the competition for the most rose rose, Rose's rose rose rose to the top of the list

userx-bw · 2015-06-02 16:43:22

in Britain - getting pissed is getting drunk
In America - getting pissed is getting upset , angry

Anaconda · 2015-06-02 20:58:32

userx-bw wrote:

in Britain - getting pissed is getting drunk
In America - getting pissed is getting upset , angry

In Canada we use both of those quite freely. Context is everything.

Head_on_a_Stick · 2015-06-02 21:10:55

Anaconda wrote:

In Canada we use both of those quite freely. Context is everything.

In England, we do too.

The only difference is that we use "p****ed off" to mean angry.

pvsage · 2015-06-02 21:33:40

^ "P*** off" (or, more vulgarly, "b*gg*r off") also means "go away" (at least that's my understanding from Buffy the Vampire Slayer).

Head_on_a_Stick · 2015-06-02 21:37:58

pvsage wrote:

^ "P*** off" (or, more vulgarly, "b*gg*r off") also means "go away"

Yes, but I am p***ed off by the car drivers in London

damo · 2015-06-02 21:42:25

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

pvsage wrote:
^ "P*** off" (or, more vulgarly, "b*gg*r off") also means "go away"
Yes, but I am p***ed off by the car drivers in London

And you can get p***ed up at a party aka "p*** up"

pvsage · 2015-06-02 22:20:57

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

pvsage wrote:
^ "P*** off" (or, more vulgarly, "b*gg*r off") also means "go away"
Yes, but I am p***ed off by the car drivers in London

...thus, you tell them to p*** off!

intoCB · 2015-06-03 09:27:56

Strange as it may sound, bugger off is probably less offensive than p*** off in the UK. But then this may differ from family to family. Some people consider "crap" to be vulgar, whereas other people consider it to be quite harmless.

Head_on_a_Stick · 2015-06-03 16:25:05

^ Now you're just taking the p**s...
8o

Sector11 · 2015-06-03 17:10:29

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crap wrote:

Crap is a slang term for feces, and used as a colloquialism to describe something substandard.

So would crap crap be a substandard .. well you know ....

Then there's:

Andreas Crap, guitarist and co-founder of the German Industrial metal band OOMPH!
Thomas Crapper (1836–1910), London plumber who invented the ballcock, but strangely enough did not invent the toilet.

Toilet aka: a lavatory, a bog (UK), a pot (US), the loo, the heads (naval), a dunny (AU/NZ), a john, {Except in my friend John's house where it's "The Fred!", no not johnraff, although he might have a Fred too} a water closet (abbreviated "W.C."), a comfort room (abbreviated "C.R.") or simply "toilet". And as my old man liked to call it: The Library! I'm sure he was reading War and Peace at times....

I've never considered crap a bad word, but I can understand where others might.

MartinRF · 2015-06-03 19:04:11

You forgot "restroom" which in my traveling experience is the most common denomination in the US.

A long time ago someone told me that a very polite way in the UK of asking for the the loo is to say "Could you, please, show me the geography of the house?" I have never tested it so I don't know f it is true.

How many other languages have dictionaries for euphemisms?

/Martin

Head_on_a_Stick · 2015-06-03 19:10:22

MartinRF wrote:

"Could you, please, show me the geography of the house?"

I've never heard of that but I am working class...

Sounds like something posh people would say.

g33zr · 2015-06-04 00:57:43

In the U.S., a toilet is also called "the can" and "the head," the latter common military jargon. 8)

Wrobat · 2015-06-04 01:03:57

Does anyone know why or how American English and British English got to be so different? Canada and Australia don't seen to be as different from British English.

damo · 2015-06-04 01:18:03

Wrobat wrote:

Does anyone know why or how American English and British English got to be so different? Canada and Australia don't seen to be as different from British English.

America's "English" roots are 16th century, and the accent is thought to have much in common with Elizabethan pronunciation. Australia and Canada are both Commonwealth countries, with closer ties to the UK, and Australia was relatively recently settled from Britain (the accent has a strong Cockney twang BTW).

And anyway the US insists on doing things differently from everyone else. (Ironically they fought free of an Imperial power, but still use ancient Imperial measurements, when the rest of us have moved on ]:D )

intoCB · 2015-06-04 06:29:29

Australia and Canada's separation from the mother country is a lot more recent than the Thirteen Colonies'. Both still have the Queen as Head of State and (I believe) her image on their coins. Canada had a flag containing the Union Flag until the 1950s (I think) and Australia still does (as does Hawaii..., even though it was never British). Separation was non-violent in both cases, meaning less ill feeling and less of a need to express their non-Britishness post-independence.

Some of the US's differences are deliberate. For example, non-British sounding place names often have no other reason in their naming than to have sounded non-British.

Having said that, there is wide support in Australia for changing the flag and becoming a republic but the status quo (Commonwealth/Queen/current flag) currently enjoys wider support. Not sure about Canada.

Also, the fixing of the English language in England itself dates only from the time of Samuel Johnson. His dictionary was published in 1755, a mere twenty years before the U.S. Declaration of Independence (1776). Perhaps his dictionary was the cause and the tea and taxes thing was just a pretext.

The choice between -ise and -ize endings was decided by different opinions on their roots (-ise is from the French version of the ending, since many of the words were loaned via French; -ize represents the ultimately Greek origins of most of these words). One is not more historically English than the other.

Head_on_a_Stick · 2015-06-04 06:35:07

intoCB wrote:

-ise is from the French version of the ending

I'm switching to -ize from now on...
]:D

intoCB · 2015-06-04 06:56:51

^I despize you

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#51 2015-05-31 16:26:12

Re: different ways to spell words in english

#52 2015-06-01 12:42:14

Re: different ways to spell words in english

#53 2015-06-01 15:20:43

Re: different ways to spell words in english

#54 2015-06-01 19:22:31

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#55 2015-06-01 19:53:42

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#56 2015-06-01 20:43:53

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#57 2015-06-01 20:58:31

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#58 2015-06-02 16:43:22

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#59 2015-06-02 20:58:32

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#60 2015-06-02 21:10:55

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#61 2015-06-02 21:33:40

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#62 2015-06-02 21:37:58

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#63 2015-06-02 21:42:25

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#64 2015-06-02 22:20:57

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#65 2015-06-03 09:27:56

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#66 2015-06-03 16:25:05

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#67 2015-06-03 17:10:29

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#68 2015-06-03 19:04:11

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#69 2015-06-03 19:10:22

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#70 2015-06-04 00:57:43

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#71 2015-06-04 01:03:57

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#72 2015-06-04 01:18:03

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#73 2015-06-04 06:29:29

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#74 2015-06-04 06:35:07

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#75 2015-06-04 06:56:51

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