Modern Vespa

I have worked with people from many english speaking countries and haven't a clue at times as to what they are saying si wouldn't know if it's spelled right Slang and many other things come in to play. I don't think we always know where some one is from unless they tell us and certainly if i stumble onto this forum and can read English, threads like these would intimidate me. People have too much time on their hands. If you as an individual are that anal about spelling,grammar etc the web will drive you crazy, spell check or no spell check.

I thought it went EATS, ROOTS, TOOTS, SHOOTS and LEAVES and that is what Aussies and Koala bears do much to the displeasures of their missus who like company and a smoke afterwards.

its funny cause it's true

Where is Black Lake?

I thought I was familiar with Sydney.

I still have my Edward Hopper 'Night Hawks' print btw

A copy of the real one not the one with Marilyn, Elvis etc.

I'm probably guilty of most of that but I'm an uneducated oik so I can get away with it.

Love me

Bill X

your right it's not in Australia. put my location with my user name and old avatar. Old Gregg lives at the bottom of the black lake - season 2 of the mighty boosh.

I hear that they have released U.S specific DVD's on the 21st of July.

One thing that bothers me is "off of". I'd call it a tautology, if it were a noun and not a preposition. I don't think I've seen non-Americans use it.

When I was learning English, misspellings would often throw me off of the rails. Now that I'm advanced, I can tell the bad spellers from the facetious. Something like "I could care less" is clearly rhetoric, while "your" instead of "you're" is a mistake that can happen.

What really bothers me is when people don't capitalize in the beginning of a sentence or never use paragraphs. That's not a mistake, that's lazyness and it really, really makes it hard to read.

Anyway, if German spelling rules applied, you were all sad clowns. Don't you know that a noun should never be spread across several words and that it always must be capitalized? Well I'm off polishing my Stainlessteeloilfilterwrench.

OMG dude, it's you're not your!!!!

eeeaww eeeawww - Grammar Poleeases!

I don't know about you but I seem to get completely illegible emails every day of the week. I can sometimes receive an email from a customer and I am convinced that a small child has sent it.

For example (this is a real email received this week)

does it come in any other colors? and much is Tax ? can you send me a full price for it. and well you be open on Monday i arrive at 9:30

That was the whole email. I replied with a very polite version of WTF? And he telephoned. He was a grown man from within the U.K. (so no language barriers) I despair at times.

So the grammar on here is reasonable by comparison.

"Usualy" Jim?

My pet peeve has to be the unwarranted apostrophe. Unfortunately for me, in the Dutch language (used where I live in Belgium), it's actually correct to put an apostrophe before the "s" when making a plural from a noun ending in a vowel, so I find myself double-taking billboards on a regular basis.

Oh no, Marc, no! Not from you!

Terry-Pratchett-quote:
"There's a knocking without!"
"Without what?"
"Without the door, idiot!"
"A knocking without a door?"

Pardon the correction ...
Don't pull "Too" hard

Excellent example ... however, ambiguity is introduced when one incorrectly uses a word that sounds the same but spelled differently; examples through-out this thread include your/you're, there/their/they're, to/too/two, break/brake, and so on ... those words are easy to read, not misspelled, and may cause a message to take on an entirely different meaning.

Funny example though! I was able to read the message quite easily.

I help out on a database forum and quite often we have students asking us to do their projects for them. Must admit we'd all been having a little bit of fun with this particular kid as he seemed to expect us to do everything for him and knew just the wrong way to ask for this help. This was one of his final posts. He wasn't pleased.

Jeez, all the nerds have escaped the asylum!












How about the Americanised spelling of color.........arrrggghhh it's colour ffs!

2 little whos... (60)
by EE Cummings

2 little whos
(he and she)
under are this
wonderful tree

smiling stand
(all realms of where
and when beyond)
now and here

(far from a grown
-up i&you-
ful world of known)
who and who

(2 little ams
and over them this
aflame with dreams
incredible is)

Yeah - we got one running the country!

GReat thread Jim - have to introduce you to my Old Man - he is such a freak with grammar and spelling - He was my proof reader when I was editing a magazine !

Cannot criticise the Yanks too much - 'Strine is a severely mongrelised version of English

True, but how often does the spelling, punctuation, or usage error REALLY cause a misunderstanding? As this entire thread indicates, in virtually every instance, the reader immediately comprehends what the writer meant to say and simply notes the error. As the exercise posted above indicates, the human mind has a tremendous capacity to find the intended meaning in a group of letters.

Brendan

[/quote]

Koala bears [/quote]

Hi there,

I've learned English at school, so I'm not a native English speaker. Some misspellings are frustrating, but then again I've learned the language mainly by studying written texts, not hearing as you guys in UK/US/AUS.

What I do know is that koala is not a a bear! Koala is a marsupial. Common error. Just call it koala and forget about the bear. Maybe you could have a beer instead?

There is another part of our common language that is totally bereft of me.

It is the total waste of phrases that are never spoken or heard.

such as

1.. Please pass the piano.

2.. Please kick me.

3.. Saw off my leg.

I am sure there are many others

you have read the right books.

Tourists love them though - don't know why - they are permanently pissed, piss all over the place and have claws that can inflict nasty wounds.

About the only native animal that is not edible too - if it wasn't for the tourist sympathy vote and the HUGE numbers of Yen they earn, they'd probably have been shot to extinction years ago.

I don't feel it causes a misunderstanding. It simply interferes with the smooth reading of the message. I know it may seem harsh, but sometimes a poorly constructed sentence/paragraph/message can have the effect of reducing the credibility of the writer.

Correct grammar was taught at a 4th grade level. Yet, today, some young men and women can graduate high school and not be able to construct a sentence or correctly spell many words. How they were able to slip through the cracks always boggles my mind.

My mother used to say, "It is your native language. There is no excuse for not using it correctly." I couldn't argue with that.

I can tolerate a typo, but a don't know/don't care is hard to accept.

If you can't spell it, you can't sell it.

I have fourteen witness statements here, written by people who needed to pay much more attention at school. The fact they didn't indicates why I'm looking at these statements now.

I am tempted write on the top of the front page "not defending you until you can formulate and write a clear sentence" and send the statements back in the post.

If I can't work out what these idiots mean, then a judge won't be sympathetic or take the time to pull apart the paper cat sick that they've sent as an explanation.

"What are you in for?"

"Poor grammar and expression."

So what did kill her?

Just asking; it seemed important.

Wonder Every single time I read a post of yours I can't help but smile.



The title of this thread makes me think of a line we use here at work when things go wrong.

Your Cock Up!!
My Arse!



Apologies for the foul language.

"Brought" instead of "Bought" makes my eyeballs burst with rage. And anything written in the Comic Sans font drives me almost homicidal...I know that wasn't the question

Comic Sans drives me crazy. It seems local authourities in the U.K. only communicate in comic sans. I actually received a letter about swine flu and it was in Comic Sans. I can only imagine Comic Sans is a light hearted font which smoothes over the harsh reality of life.

Twin01:
Tourists (=myself included) love koalas because they look so cute! I know Aussies do not exactly find the species adorable - but some of your fellow citizens love our squirrels. "Just a brown rat with a furry tail" (Carrie Bradshaw)

I found out that my son, who is entering 1st grade this year, will likely not be learning cursive writing. The plan is to drop cursive and replace it with computer skills.

California Education System is quickly becoming an oxymoron.

Sometimes "Progressive" is a step backwards.

My mate had a rent contract sent to him once and it was all written in Comic Sans...he sent it back with a note; "I am not signing this, please send me a serious contract."

There are shit loads of spell check programmes that you can download.
Several toolbars as well that have spell checks.

They will do all the work for you.

<language> One usage that infuriates me is the general substitution of "pleaded" for "pled", e.g. "So-and-so pleaded guilty to such-and-such today" in news reports. Even NPR, that bastion of well-formed American English, has succumbed to lesser standards in this instance.

Just like to bleed becomes bled, the past tense of to plead is pled. One easy simple syllable - but no, folks must add more sounds and say it like putting folds in clothing. *fumes comically* </language>

Julia Child lived into her nineties advocating the addition of butter
(or cream, if you had to limit your butter for dietary reasons)
to improve the taste of vegetables

She was a bit of a hero to me for that...
Especially since a lot of people seem to limit their fat intake by NOT eating vegetables,
which is bad, (really, really bad!) from a nutritional standpoint

According to the NY Times,
she died due to the complications of kidney failure
two days before her 92nd birthday

May have missed it in an earlier post but...
where and wear

Spill Czechs kin bee jest a bout worth less fur fine ding spilling miss steaks!

The sentence above is utterly misspelled. It passes a "spell check" program just fine. So much for the value of spell-check programs. Technology is no substitute for learning.

Here and something stylish.

Touché.

Your example was very extreme, even with 'Mercanisms and Eubonics, a spell check will usually pull the mistakes.

You are right, nothing beats an education.

+1
i'd love to know.