Grammar, Punctuation, Spelling, etc.

[Grey_Wolf]

Here is a link for more words in Swedish that means diferent things.

http://www.linema.com/homo.html

Homo is the prefix that in this regard it means a group of similar sounding and spelled words.

[Jonathan]

Originally Posted by Nurvingiel

But Jonathan, you do pronounce the "d" in "admiral".

*consults Webster's dictionary*

Holy crap, you do! What the heck? Why did my English teacher tell me otherwise?

In any case, the 'd' in admiral only exists because of an English spelling reform.

[Rev. Justin Timberlake]

LOL @ amiral.

[Nurvingiel]

My roommate and I were talking about mistakes made in English by people who speak something else as a first language, and what that says about English.

For example, my Finnish friend pronounced "syrup" with the "y" like "eye". This says that there are hardly any rules as to how to pronounce the letter "y". I mean, in Swedish it's always this hard to make "eww" sound. (I can't type it phonetically.)

In English, the only rule I could think of is that when "y" ends a word it's always pronounced "ee".

[Butterbeer]

why????



best, BB

[Nurvingiel]

Okay, the only rule is if the word ends in a "y" and is an adjective, then it's pronounced "ee".

[Butterbeer]

that's two only one rule(s)

i take it you are not including medieval or Chaucerean English in this most singular of rules prey?

[Rían]

Originally Posted by Grey_Wolf

It just means a person is overly zealous in the pointing out of specific spelling errors.

But the Grammar Nazis here refrain from pointing out errors the vast majority of the time.

IMO, they are people who are VISUALLY hypersensitive to grammatical/spelling errors, esp. with apostrophes. Like a musician is sensitive to out-of-tune notes in ways that other people aren't, the Grammar Nazis are VISUALLY hypersensitive to grammatical/spelling errors. The rude ones constantly point out the errors. The nicer ones refrain from doing so the vast majority of the time.

[littleadanel]

Wow. I think then it makes me a Nice Grammar Nazi.

(In my language, that is. For example, we have two ways of writing the y-consonant, and it's worse than the apostrophes in English, because there are no rules for when to use one and when the other... but I just twinge when I see something written with the wrong one.)

[Grey_Wolf]

Originally Posted by RÃ*an

But the Grammar Nazis here refrain from pointing out errors the vast majority of the time.

IMO, they are people who are VISUALLY hypersensitive to grammatical/spelling errors, esp. with apostrophes. Like a musician is sensitive to out-of-tune notes in ways that other people aren't, the Grammar Nazis are VISUALLY hypersensitive to grammatical/spelling errors. The rude ones constantly point out the errors. The nicer ones refrain from doing so the vast majority of the time.

Indeed. the GN'z are fairly cordial.

[sun-star]

Great to see this thread bumped

RE: syrup

The letters i and y were interchangeable in English spelling for many years, especially but not exclusively in French loan words. The reason some of those words are now spelt with i and some with y is often completely random. Compare 'syrup' and 'stirrup' for an example. Even -ly adverbs were sometimes spelt with the ending -li in the Middle Ages, while many adjectives which now end in -y were once spelt -e. That's why there are no pronunciation rules for y

RE: admiral

Admiral is a great example of why English spelling is... complicated, to say the least. In the language it came from originally (Arabic) it was spelt and pronounced without the d. But when it came into English, it got confused with similar words of Latin etymology (e.g. admire) and someone decided the 'correct' way of spelling it was with a 'd'. Once this became the standard spelling, it began to be pronounced. This is true of lots of words, mostly not because of systematic spelling reform, but because Latin or Greek etymologies made words look more distinguished in the 16th/17th century, when many modern spellings were fixed.

[Rían]

Originally Posted by Nurvingiel

The problem is, the first sentence doesn't say who the other dog owner is (besides myself), and the second one implies there are two dogs.

That's why the first sentence was chickening out!

But I think the second implies that there's only one dog. If there were two, I think it would be "My brother's and my DOGS needed to be spayed." Another way would be, "My brother's and my dogs, THEY needed to be spayed" - see, it needs the THEY, not an IT, so it needs to be DOGS, don't you think?

ps - that "Ladie's Championship" is hilarious! It makes me think of someone saying "laddie" in a Scots accent ... I think it would be possessive, though - it's the champion OF the ladies. If you write it that way, there is no possessive apostrophe. If, however, you switch it around to Ladies' Champion, then you would need the possessive apostrophe. That's what's always been helpful to me - if I can switch it around to where an "of" is required, then it needs a possessive apostrophe when written the other way.

[Jonathan]

Originally Posted by Nurvingiel

Okay, the only rule is if the word ends in a "y" and is an adjective, then it's pronounced "ee".

dry is an adjective.

[Grey_Wolf]

I have a couple of sentences in Swedish that's pretty funny which i perhaps have posted before:

1. Brunhårig flickan satt vid en bardisk intill en sjukgymnast.

(A brownhaired girl sat a barcounter and at her side sat a physiopherapist)

2. En brun hårig flicka satt vid en bar disk intill en sjuk gymnast

(A brown hairy girl sat a bare counter and at her side sat a sick athlete)

But I think they are funny enough to repost

[Rían]

Originally Posted by Jonathan

dry is an adjective.

*watches the rule go down in smoke*

[hectorberlioz]

How about this Spelling Reform I've been hearing about? Some people want to change spelling to be written as heard...I think a lot of us are already familiar with it, since the internet is where you'll encounter most...

BTW, does anybody else besides me hate the phrase "And then some."?

[Nerdanel]

it depends, but i seldom use capital letters when i'm chatting or on the internet in general.. i'm not sure why, i just started it at one point, and now i can't stop. sometimes i do as you should, though, something that depends on the person i'm talking to.

i also tend to make some spelling and grammar mistakes, due to english being my thrid language.. i've tried to tell people that they're very welcome to correct me, since i want to learn from my mistakes, but few people do that. i guess some think it's impolite, or maybe they're just being lazy. one thing i got pointed out for me, though, is that i often write 'aswell' instead of 'as well', something i never noticed. but now i know.
i also tend to avoid using e.g. lol, imo, btw..

i'm not annoyed with minor spelling errors, but when people try to talk to me in numbers mixed with letters, i just can't take it. this is especially the case if it's a person i don't know, because it gives a bad first impression. otherwise i try to judge people as little as possible, because i find it a very useless trait.

so please tell me about my errors in this post.

[Butterbeer]

er? Capital I to begin with ...

(well ya did ask!)

best, BB x

...waits nervously to find what out kind of person i am!

[Nerdanel]

Originally Posted by Butterbeer

er? Capital I to begin with ...

(well ya did ask!)

best, BB x

...waits nervously to find what out kind of person i am!

i don't think i'm important enough for that..

[Butterbeer]

*Tickles Hanny* .... course ya are!

... mind, i have NO idea if i want a capital 'I' or not ...

BB x