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wot? no upper case... and other annoyances


Pete 75C

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[Pedant mode = ON]

I can tell that you made it up, because unless it was an AMEND there is no way a TAF for the given period would be issued as late as 2252 for the period backdated to midnight. Also if the validity time is 0600 the following day, the last few groups are superfluous. Sorry, but almost 40 years in the business and even retirement can't make it stop. If you change the period to 1300/1318 or 1300/1324 it makes sense.

[Pedant mode = OFF]

Curious. I was of course only using it as an example but I think there WAS an anomaly in the TAF I based my fictional one on.  To avoid going completely OT I'll PM you.

Edited by Pacific231G
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Chris,

 

Having just googled said word, there are apparently 3 forms.

Thank you -  A verb

Thankyou - A Noun

Thankyou - An Adjective

 

Pete

Being married to a teacher of English, I will let her pass judgement on these - I only teach computing, so unless it consists of 1 and/or 0, I am in no position to comment...

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A word often misused on here is "brought" instead of "bought".

I don't think it is a misspelling, the users actually think "brought" is the correct word for having purchased something.

Agree.

 

I bought a model and brought it home.

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Chris,

 

Having just googled said word, there are apparently 3 forms.

Thank you -  A verb

Thankyou - A Noun

Thankyou - An Adjective

 

Pete

The Oxford English Dictionary suggests only "thank you" and "thank-you".

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Affect and effect.

 

For some reason muddling these two words appears to be particularly prevalent in engineering and amongst the more technical IT staff.  I wonder if that is an example of people seeing something so many times, they start to adopt the incorrect word?

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Having just googled said word, there are apparently 3 forms.

Thank you -  A verb

Thankyou - A Noun

Thankyou - An Adjective

And the imperative form of the verb:

 

"Good morning!" he said at last. "We don't want any adventures here, thank you!"

 

Of course that reference is more apt for the number of uses of "Good morning!", specifically,

 

"What a lot of things you do use Good morning for!" said Gandalf. "Now you mean that you want to get rid of me, and that it won't be good till I move off.”

Edited by Ozexpatriate
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The Oxford English Dictionary suggests only "thank you" and "thank-you".

Rob,

 

Don't shoot the messenger.

 

The following was taken from

futureperfect.png
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info@future-perfect.co.uk · 0845 838 5432

 

you will see how two-part verbs change to serve as nouns also, often going through the etymological change over several years.

progression word form example Step 1 They are verbs I thank you Step 2 They become hyphenated compound nouns A thank-you Step 3 They become closed nouns A thankyou

So, some dictionaries are still using the ‘thank-you’ form, while others show the more inevitable ‘thankyou’ form for the noun.

 

Personally my pet hate is using the word center instead of centre.

 

I always preferred Maths to English.

 

Pete

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Rob,

 

Don't shoot the messenger.

 

The following was taken from

futureperfect.png
  • facebook.png
  • googleplus.png
  • linkedin.png
  • pinterest.png
  • twitter.png
info@future-perfect.co.uk · 0845 838 5432

 

you will see how two-part verbs change to serve as nouns also, often going through the etymological change over several years.

progression word form example Step 1 They are verbs I thank you Step 2 They become hyphenated compound nouns A thank-you Step 3 They become closed nouns A thankyou

So, some dictionaries are still using the ‘thank-you’ form, while others show the more inevitable ‘thankyou’ form for the noun.

 

Personally my pet hate is using the word center instead of centre.

 

I always preferred Maths to English.

 

Pete

Messenger shooting - Sorry Pete.  Didn't mean to.

 

Evolution - That makes sense.  I can't help but think though that the time of a physical thankyou (e.g. a card or letter) has now passed and the idea that an email or message can do the job doesn't seem right.

 

Centre - I agree.  I have never had a problem accepting and using new words, but "incorrectly" spelt versions of existing words or longwinded substitutions for perfectly good words are irritating.

Edited by teaky
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May I complain about the death of adverbs again?

 

I was on the road this week and a radio station I regularly tune into (I don't stream with my mobile) was covering an ice hockey game (rather than the content I had tuned in to hear). The commentator said "the goal-tender played tremendous". The assassination of the -ly suffix is becoming ubiquitous in American English. It is very common in sportscasting and advertising.

 

This monstrosity: "ride flexible"; should surely be "ride flexibly". I see this stuff in advertising all the time where the advertisers seem to feel that it makes their copy more snappy by deleting the adverbial "ly" form leaving us with an adjective to modify the verb. Similarly we have the "Live Fearless" campaign by health insurance provider Blue Cross. How exactly is this tag line superior to "Live Fearlessly"?  "Eat healthy" instead of "eat healthily" is another common example.

 

It's something people thought important to teach youngsters 'back in the day', yes, even in American English. Tom Lehrer wrote the following for The Electric Company in, I believe, the 1970s. I give you "LY":

Edited by Ozexpatriate
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Centre - I agree.  I have never had a problem accepting and using new words, but "incorrectly" spelt versions of existing words or longwinded substitutions for perfectly good words are irritating.

"Centre" never made onto Noah Websters' ark. "Center" did in it's place. Most of the "ou"s drowned too in the anti-British sentiments of the Federal period and were replaced with color, neighbor, labor, etc.

 

"Center" is quite correct as an American English spelling, though not of course in British English spelling.

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"Centre" never made onto Noah Websters' ark. "Center" did in it's place. Most of the "ou"s drowned too in the anti-British sentiments of the Federal period and were replaced with color, neighbor, labor, etc.

 

"Center" is quite correct as an American English spelling, though not of course in British English spelling.

I've seen it spelt center in London and it was "correctly" spelt.

 

"Gotten"

 

Stewart

What's wrong with "gotten"? It's a past participle of "get" with a slightly different meaning from "got" and used to be in everyday use in Britain. Though it has largely died out here, it still appears in phrases such as "ill gotten gains".  In American English it seems to have been seen as rather rustic but that may have just been snobbery and it is still a living word. I don't see anything wrong with a word we've lost returning. I also don't know whether gotten remained in other English dialects such as Australia or New Zealand but it wouldn't surprise me.

Edited by Pacific231G
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Being married to a teacher of English, I will let her pass judgement on these - I only teach computing, so unless it consists of 1 and/or 0, I am in no position to comment...

 

I note you are married to a teacher of English, rather than to an English teacher, which latter description would have been ambiguous!

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May I complain about the death of adverbs again?

 

I was on the road this week and a radio station I regularly tune into (I don't stream with my mobile) was covering an ice hockey game (rather than the content I had tuned in to hear). The commentator said "the goal-tender played tremendous". The assassination of the -ly suffix is becoming ubiquitous in American English. It is very common in sportscasting and advertising.

 

This monstrosity: "ride flexible"; should surely be "ride flexibly". I see this stuff in advertising all the time where the advertisers seem to feel that it makes their copy more snappy by deleting the adverbial "ly" form leaving us with an adjective to modify the verb. Similarly we have the "Live Fearless" campaign by health insurance provider Blue Cross. How exactly is this tag line superior to "Live Fearlessly"?  "Eat healthy" instead of "eat healthily" is another common example.

 

It's something people thought important to teach youngsters 'back in the day', yes, even in American English. Tom Lehrer wrote the following for The Electric Company in, I believe, the 1970s. I give you "LY":

 

Good point and excellent link (I have been a fan of Mr Lehrer since my undergraduate days).

 

Once upon a time I worked for the world's largest law firm in its London HQ.  Partners there liked to waste their money on various Emperor's New Clothes initiatives. One was a gentleman - American as it happens, though I believe nothing turns on that - who tried to convince a room full of English lawyers of the need to 'dumb down' their letters so that their unsophisticated investment banker/hedge fund manager/Fortune 500 CEO recipients would be able to understand them.  One of his strictures was that we should avoid adverbs, as, apparently, our clients could not cope with them.  Needless to say he was completely ignored.

 

Given this type of nonsense, it is little wonder that 'ly' has been hunted almost to distinction. 

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Affect and effect.

 

For some reason muddling these two words appears to be particularly prevalent in engineering and amongst the more technical IT staff.  I wonder if that is an example of people seeing something so many times, they start to adopt the incorrect word?

 

Indeed.  Only this week I had to edit a post because, on re-reading, I found I had typed "effected" when I had meant "affected".  I was mortified!

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