Using English on TBBS

[ShamelessMcBundy]

"You call that a knife? THIS is a knife!" "That's a spoon." "I see you played 'Knifey-spoony' before."

 

[captcalhoun]

i hate being called 'mister F', it makes me look for my father!

our old manager (who was 22) kept calling customers 'buddy' and me 'dude'. apparently it ticked off one customer, who threatened to punch Old Manager.

i told him to quit calling me 'dude', it's 2011, not 1991!!

 

[Deckerd]

Where is this the case?

Generally in front of 'bastard'.

B*st*rd" can be a term of endearment here, esp with "old" in front of it . Besides, it's not the pronoun that's the "rude word" in that phrase

Whoosh.

 

[Trilliam]

But when B*stard is a term of endearment, it can't be the rude word, is what I'm saying.

 

[Deckerd]

And what I said was a

joke, n.
Pronunciation: /dʒəʊk/
1. Something said or done to excite laughter or amusement; a witticism, a jest; jesting, raillery; also, something that causes amusement, a ridiculous circumstance.

 

[Trilliam]

The joke doesn't work when neither word is "rude" :P

 

[Deckerd]

The whoosh was for a reason and that reason still stands.

Our discussion is over.

 

[Goliath]

As to why I think educated Southerners still [say "Y'all"]--that is the least cumbersome construction in the English language to convey a concept that is absolutely elementary in most other world languages.

Not necessarily. The Irish, Northern Irish, Scots, and certain English dialects use words like yiz, yous, and ye to convey the same concept.

Interestingly, that's why it's "Ye gods!" Because the gods are plural.

 

[Gul Re'jal]

Not necessarily. The Irish, Northern Irish, Scots, and certain English dialects use words like yiz, yous, and ye to convey the same concept.

But when you learn English at school, those things are not taught (try to write them on a test...ouch!). And believe me, for someone for whom different words for singular and plural "you" are elementary--lack of such distinction causes a lot of misunderstandings. Some of them can be avoided thanks to a deeper knowledge of English, but even a fluent non-native speaker can have problems (I do--I'm fluent but still my English isn't that good).

 

[Deckerd]

Deleted for not reading properly Gul R, silly me.

 

[Trilliam]

yiz[/i], yous, and ye to convey the same concept.

But when you learn English at school, those things are not taught (try to write them on a test...ouch!). And believe me, for someone for whom different words for singular and plural "you" are elementary--lack of such distinction causes a lot of misunderstandings. Some of them can be avoided thanks to a deeper knowledge of English, but even a fluent non-native speaker can have problems (I do--I'm fluent but still my English isn't that good).

Your English looks pretty good to me. Far better than my German ever did.

 

[Gul Re'jal]

^ Thanks. I know that there still is a lot to improve--my grammar can really suck sometimes--but I keep working on that

Deleted for not reading properly Gul R, silly me.

Whatever you had there, I didn't see v.1 of your reply

 

[Goliath]

Not necessarily. The Irish, Northern Irish, Scots, and certain English dialects use words like yiz, yous, and ye to convey the same concept.

But when you learn English at school, those things are not taught (try to write them on a test...ouch!). And believe me, for someone for whom different words for singular and plural "you" are elementary--lack of such distinction causes a lot of misunderstandings. Some of them can be avoided thanks to a deeper knowledge of English, but even a fluent non-native speaker can have problems (I do--I'm fluent but still my English isn't that good).

Oh, I agree. English needs a word like this. But given the number of regional and dialectical variations that have developed to fill this gap I doubt that any single standard word will ever be adopted.

And every language has its peculiarities. Am I correct in guessing that you are a German speaker? And if so--wouldn't 'they' agree?

 

[Gul Re'jal]

I know German enough to understand your joke Natively, I'm a Polish speaker.

Regional variations are ok, if one lives in that region. But if someone uses English once in a while, in an international company (often among other non-English natives), regional solutions and variations are not a solution. I live in Hong Kong and mingle with people from around the world who natively speak dozens of languages. Hmm...maybe we should invent our own regional plural "you" Derived from Cantonese plural pronouns... How does "you-dei" sound?

Not that it's a huge problem or anything. But sometimes it causes misunderstandings that require additional clarification. "No, not you personally, I meant your whole family," or something like that.

 

[Goliath]

Hmm...maybe we should invent our own regional plural "you" Derived from Cantonese plural pronouns... How does "you-dei" sound?

I could live with that. It would make the Browncoats happy, at least.

 

[sojourner]

As a speaker of english as my native tongue, I have gotten used to a lot of idosyncracies, but one that still bugs me is why does "paradigm" get pronounced as "paradyne" or "paradime"? Not to mention words like "colonel", "kernel"?

 

[Jim Gamma]

As a speaker of english as my native tongue, I have gotten used to a lot of idosyncracies, but one that still bugs me is why does "paradigm" get pronounced as "paradyne" or "paradime"? Not to mention words like "colonel", "kernel"?

Well, Colonel comes originally from the Italian Colonello (sp?) which entered French as both "coronel" and "colonel". English picked up the "coronel" pronunciation, but the "colonel" spelling.

Paradigm has probably come from a Latin-inspired spelling, as in the 18th century when spelling was standardised, those responsible used a LOT of Latin-inspired spelling even for words that didn't come from Latin.

(I've just been reading a book on this... )

 

[Deckerd]

You need to think this through with a lot of thorough thought before falling into a slough of despond.

 

[Aurian]

I live in Sweden, so english is by far not my native language.
We take english classes in school here, but that was a long time ago.
When I started posting here 10 years ago, it was very difficult and "exotic" for me to write in english. But it has become habit now, and I use english every day.

 

[Myasishchev]

As a speaker of english as my native tongue, I have gotten used to a lot of idosyncracies, but one that still bugs me is why does "paradigm" get pronounced as "paradyne" or "paradime"? Not to mention words like "colonel", "kernel"?

And WTF is a "leftenant"? That's UK English, maybe even archaic, but it's bothersome.