Pedants United

[Paul Habershon]

I asked for a refund from WH Smith's for selling news papers without supplements. No chess, suduko, and other weekend pleasures.
Shafted for 7 Susie Dent.

Perhaps it was The Times. Extinction Rebellion protesters blockaded some of the paper's production sites last night. My copy arrived late at the newsagent but it was complete.

[MJMcCready]

The bottom line is, to borrow one from David Crystal, 'language does not belong to anyone, it isn't owned'. Standardization has been in play for centuries but all that does is streamline the increase in vocabulary and alterations in grammar and syntax. American and British English are more different from each other than you might think, but who is to say we are more correct than the Americans?

Standard American and British English are 'correct' in their own way. Most of us have probably seen simple comparative vocabulary lists - sidewalk/pavement, trunk/boot etc. - and the spelling differences - center/centre, labor/labour.

Personal preference prevails when it comes to certain expressions. 'Hospitalised' was frowned upon at one time here as an American import, but I rather liked its conciseness in place of 'was admitted to hospital'. Conversely I thought 'burglarised' was inferior to our 'burgled'.

I spent two terms at an American school in what would now be called my gap year. In English class the word 'fecund' came up and the teacher asked us its meaning. 'Fertile, sir,' say I. Blank look from teacher. 'Fertile, sir!' Penny drops. 'Ah, you mean FURTLE! We suffer from the lack of a common language.'

By the way, don't ask an American to knock you up in the morning. It suggests a rather intimate encounter.

It goes deeper. They stick to the past simple and use time markers. They don't use what are known as the present perfect tense and past perfect tense as we do. If you ask one 'Have you been to Canada?' They won't say yes I have been there. They will say yes I went there once.

[MJMcCready]

Regarding the past perfect, it does show there is a relationship between subject and object, which the Americans m

'He had finished his work before he went home.' This suggests there is a connection there. The Americans would say 'He finished his work. After that he went home.' That doesn't show they are connected.

[Nick Grey]

Yes. One of them. 'Shoot to Kill Extinction Rebellion protesters. Or Hang 'm High.
sorry that is incendiary for 10 Susie. 10,000 each breach.

[MJMcCready]

The sad story we got that place up and running then went and made a complete mess of it. It's all our fault.

[John Moore]

Yes. One of them. 'Shoot to Kill Extinction Rebellion protesters. Or Hang 'm High.
sorry that is incendiary for 10 Susie. 10,000 each breach.

What on earth is all this about. I have read the previous posts and I still have no idea.

[NickFaulks]

What on earth is all this about. I have read the previous posts and I still have no idea.

Anyone who can do the Times crossword should be able to work it out.

[Nick Grey]

I have NO Times crossword Today.

[Paul Habershon]

Yes. One of them. 'Shoot to Kill Extinction Rebellion protesters. Or Hang 'm High.
sorry that is incendiary for 10 Susie. 10,000 each breach.

What on earth is all this about. I have read the previous posts and I still have no idea.

I think it's a Grey area. More Countdown than Times crossword.

[Kevin Thurlow]

"In English class the word 'fecund' came up and the teacher asked us its meaning."

How did he pronounce "fecund"?

I was interested to hear an American say the chemical element "roentgenium" as "Rent-genn-ium", instead of the correct "Rerrnt-genn-ium". Then I used Google to find a Mr Roentgen delivering a talk and calling himself "Rent-genn". It's unusual to find people unable to pronounce their own names. Americans seem to think whenever they see "oe", that it is the Greek diphthong, so they omit the "o", whereas with Roentgen (etc), it is a standard way of writing the German "o-umlaut". Americans tend to pronounce Oedipus "eddipuss", and oestrogen "ess-trogen", whereas we would normally use a long "e".

(Note- the scientific spelling of oestrogen is now "estrogen". The one which really gets people is "sulfur", which has been the official scientific spelling since 1979. Oxford Dictionary were asked what they thought and they said it was ok, as there was no etymological reason to prefer "ph" to "f".)

I think we can live with "labor", "color" etc. In fact the scientific instrument "colorimeter" is standard in English and US English.

Back to jargon, I hope that we all prefer to "meet" someone, rather than to "meet with" them, or worse yet, "meet up with" them. And using "touch base" as a synonym for any of those should be a criminal offence.

[John Moore]

Yes. One of them. 'Shoot to Kill Extinction Rebellion protesters. Or Hang 'm High.
sorry that is incendiary for 10 Susie. 10,000 each breach.

What on earth is all this about. I have read the previous posts and I still have no idea.

I think it's a Grey area. More Countdown than Times crossword.

OK, I still don't get it. Can someone please explain just so as I can say oh, I see.

[Nick Ivell]

It's interesting how the stress on a word changes. Does anyone now, apart from the Prime Minister, pronounce 'lamentable' with the stress on the first syllable?

[Nick Grey]

John. Extinction Rebellion have annoyed me today as my papers were one third of the normal size.

I feel Shafted - scores 7 on Countdown.

Perhaps the criminals can be shipped to the ice north of Iceland to provide food for the animals or "sleep with the fishes".

[IM Jack Rudd]

It's interesting how the stress on a word changes. Does anyone now, apart from the Prime Minister, pronounce 'lamentable' with the stress on the first syllable?

I do.

On the subject of stress patterns, my mum pronounces "Caribbean" with the stress on the second syllable when using it as a noun, and the third syllable when using it as an adjective.

[Nick Ivell]

Anyone going for 'despicable' with stress on the first syllable?