Miss-spelling?

[sky]

I smiled when I saw the word nationalize / nationalise - the presentation sort of covers it .

I have to agree that English is very ambiguous as Sicofonte mentioned above. Oh and yes that word 'helper' is darn annoying!

[sem]

On the -ise/-ize debate I believe the rule used to be that it was -ise if the word came from a Latin root, and -ize if it came from a Greek one. People got fed up trying to remember whether a word was based on Greek or Latin, so they tended to standardise on one or the other. The Americans went for -ize, and the British went for -ise.

(By the way before aluminium was aluminum it was alumium, so by deadboy's logic both current spellings are wrong)

[deadboy]

On the -ise/-ize debate I believe the rule used to be that it was -ise if the word came from a Latin root, and -ize if it came from a Greek one. People got fed up trying to remember whether a word was based on Greek or Latin, so they tended to standardise on one or the other. The Americans went for -ize, and the British went for -ise.

(By the way before aluminium was aluminum it was alumium, so by deadboy's logic both current spellings are wrong)

This is true, but this was quickly fully discarded because it was tricky to say . This was by the discoverer so it was a legitimate change, whereas Aluminum to Aluminium was not and therefore not officially credible

[psymann]

I also have a problem with that arrogant paperclip in Word.

After trying irritatingly to correct my grammar in ways that don't work, it gives the options of:
"Accept my suggested change"
"Ignore your error"
Never the option of
"Tell me I'm wrong"


And then, on the middle of page 17 of a management report, I start the sentence: "To show the method we used..."

To which the insane paperclip pops up with:

"It looks like you're writing a letter."

No, I'm not writing a bleeding letter. How many addresses do you know that are 17 pages long and have tables, images and equations in them, you dumb twisted lump of metal?!

And - worst of all for the arrogant little thing that likes to correct my grammar all the time - it should be "as if": "It looks as if you're writing a letter". Using 'like' is wrong... ooh, that thing annoys me...!

psymann

[15454]

Do you notice when there is a go away button for paper clip *Rarely* He accually doesnt go away and freezes up your word document?

[psymann]

He doesn't go away if you repeatedly swear and curse at him either, I discovered on many occasions when using communal computers that haven't already neutralised him

How long till this set of posts gets deleted for being massively off-topic [sorry mods!]

psymann

[Oasis]

Excuse me, but why does everyone seem to forget Canadian English? We're a people too!!!!

Psyman, you have me so totally confused now. I thought us Canadians still used British spelling, in potatoe and tomatoe, but you say Brits don't use that. Did they ever?

Are we just using long obsolete, historical spellings here? Or is it just me???

[sky]

Oxford online dictionary

Tomato
• noun (pl. tomatoes) a glossy red or yellow edible fruit, eaten as a vegetable or in salads.

potato

• noun a starchy plant tuber which is cooked and eaten as a vegetable.

— ORIGIN Spanish patata ‘sweet potato’, from Taino (an extinct Caribbean language).

----- to get more confusing ........

http://www.spellingbeeofcanada.ca/pages ... dawide.php
c) When a noun ends in O, the plural in most cases is formed by adding S to the singular: piano, pianos; ratio, ratios. Sometimes the plural is formed by adding ES to the singular: potato, potatoes; veto, vetoes.

I swore I was told by teachers that tomatoe/tomato and potatoe/potato were interchangeable. Maybe this has changed since I was in elementary school ? I recall the song : I say potatoe and you say potato (just different spellings) *shrugs*

[Frits]

Thanks for clearing that up!
I got English in school, only later i realized i had learned the English used in the UK and there is a lot more to it!
If you order potat in Holland you get french fries. What other words for french fries are common?

Buffaloes? I could have sworn the plural is buffalo. *was thinking i had better shut up* but sky reminds me of the oxford dictionary, alright that's safe i won't be sorry, it says:
buf•falo /bfl; NAmE lo/ noun (pl. buf•falo or buf•faloes)
1 a large animal of the cow family. There are two types of buffalo, the African and the Asian, which has wide, curved horns.—see also water buffalo
2 = bison
I give in!
Oh it's a bison, i knew you all know how to speak dutch

[Frits]

What do you know, spinage is not listed!

[Chris Johnson]

My copy of the OED does mention spinage as an obsolete variant in the Spinach entry - (from the old french espinage or espinache)

[sky]

look what comes up here though

http://www.websters-online-dictionary.o ... on/potatoe

http://www.websters-online-dictionary.o ... ion/potato

oh and spinage / spinach also appears....

[Phalynx]

Frits
French Fries in the UK are 'chips', although gradually the globalising effect of MacDonalds means that more and more places use 'Fries'. However if you asked for fries at my local chippy/kebab house they would chuck you out.

[SekoETC]

OMG psyman, any chance you could stop making me laugh in class? I think that guy over the other side of the room is looking at me a bit funny.

[Elros]

Oxford online dictionary

Tomato
• noun (pl. tomatoes) a glossy red or yellow edible fruit, eaten as a vegetable or in salads.

potato

• noun a starchy plant tuber which is cooked and eaten as a vegetable.

— ORIGIN Spanish patata ‘sweet potato’, from Taino (an extinct Caribbean language).

----- to get more confusing ........

http://www.spellingbeeofcanada.ca/pages ... dawide.php
c) When a noun ends in O, the plural in most cases is formed by adding S to the singular: piano, pianos; ratio, ratios. Sometimes the plural is formed by adding ES to the singular: potato, potatoes; veto, vetoes.

I swore I was told by teachers that tomatoe/tomato and potatoe/potato were interchangeable. Maybe this has changed since I was in elementary school ? I recall the song : I say potatoe and you say potato (just different spellings) *shrugs*

Yes!!!! I was right for once.