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Commonly misused phrases
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DanielLB
Immortal


May 26 2012, 2:04pm

Post #151 of 187 (4385 views)
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I like your optimism ;-) / [In reply to] Can't Post

 

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Magpie
Immortal


May 26 2012, 2:16pm

Post #152 of 187 (4346 views)
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Everything I know about the Yorkshire dialect I learned from "Ilkley Moor Baht 'At" [In reply to] Can't Post

although we don't sing any more that the line that makes up the title in the dialect.

We put a few spins on it that surprised the Cornish dance troop that was visiting the Twin Cities.

One is to shout, after the line --- "Then us'll go an` eyt up t'ducks" --- "UP THE DUCKS".

And the other is to add a line a line just before each chorus (at the end of the repeated lines).

Wheear 'ast tha bin sin' ah saw thee, ah saw thee?
On Ilkla Mooar baht 'at
Wheear 'ast tha bin sin' ah saw thee,
(Wheear 'ast that bin sin' ah saw thee?)
Wheear 'ast tha bin sin' ah saw thee?

WITHOUT THY TROUSERS ON

On Ilkla Mooar baht 'at
On Ilkla Mooar baht 'at
On Ilkla Mooar baht 'at


I also had to get used to the dialect as written when I read The Secret Garden which is one of my favorite novels of all time.


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Annael
Immortal


May 26 2012, 2:38pm

Post #153 of 187 (4346 views)
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:) [In reply to] Can't Post


Quote
no more than Americans call each other 'pardner'.


I spent a month in England once and I can't count how many times someone tried out their John Wayne accent on me to prove they could talk like an American.

You got me to thinking about what people around here call each other instead. "Buddy" and "pal" have disappeared into the past. "Dude" belongs to the under-30s. People do say "guys" as a plural attention-getting noun, as in "hey guys, we gotta get going or we'll miss the ferry," but they don't use it in the singular. I can't think of a word we use instead of the other person's name, in fact. Unless we're yelling at another driver, in which case there are several, but if you watch American movies you know those.

The way we imagine our lives is the way we are going to go on living our lives.

- James Hillman, Healing Fiction

* * * * * * * * * *

NARF and member of Deplorable Cultus since 1967


sherlock
Gondor


May 26 2012, 2:43pm

Post #154 of 187 (5255 views)
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Yeah, [In reply to] Can't Post

could of & would of do get on my nerves.


sherlock
Gondor


May 26 2012, 2:55pm

Post #155 of 187 (4289 views)
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I am [In reply to] Can't Post

very bad with hyphenation. I am an avid reader but a bad speller. I talk well but writing has always been a struggle. I really envy people who can write well. I'm also not great with pronunciation because often it 's a word I've only read & not bothered to look up how to pronounce it. And I sometimes get the meaning of words slightly skewed because I've read and incorrectly guessed it's meaning from the context. Does that even make sense?Tongue


DanielLB
Immortal


May 26 2012, 2:59pm

Post #156 of 187 (4487 views)
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Benefit of this thread [In reply to] Can't Post

Maybe Ataahua made this thread deliberately - if it was supposed to have this motivation or not, but it has made be check my spelling and grammar even more before I post now Wink

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JWPlatt
Grey Havens


May 26 2012, 3:27pm

Post #157 of 187 (4430 views)
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Irony [In reply to] Can't Post

Well, then what a shame about that "be" in your post.

LOL


dernwyn
Forum Admin / Moderator


May 26 2012, 8:08pm

Post #158 of 187 (4313 views)
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Here's the "official" [In reply to] Can't Post

pronunciation, it's the fifth word down the list: http://www.forvo.com/...etically/F/page-102/

This is a great site, if you've ever seen a word and wondered "how in the world is that pronounced?".


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I desired dragons with a profound desire"

"It struck me last night that you might write a fearfully good romantic drama, with as much of the 'supernatural' as you cared to introduce. Have you ever thought of it?"
-Geoffrey B. Smith, letter to JRR Tolkien, 1915




kiwifan
Rohan

May 26 2012, 8:14pm

Post #159 of 187 (4393 views)
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Thank you so much, Ataahua, for this article! [In reply to] Can't Post

And I enjoyed the explanations, especially the tuna bit.

I'm definitely a word-lover (and probably qualify as a member of the word-police), and I'm so glad you included the unspeakable 'could care less' which must be an American idiosyncrasy because I keep reading it in American novels, and not only in those of less than stellar quality, and have also come across it in posts on TORn, time and time again. People simply will not think about the meaning of sayings that some idiot started to distort out of sheer ignorance or laziness into phrases that simply don't make sense, and then the great majority follow said idiot's example, and eventually these abominations become common usage, and whenever the word-police protest, they are roundly snubbed for not being up to date, linguistically speaking (as happened to me in a TORn thread last summer).

Actually, I feel quite puffed up in my own esteem since I know all the expressions in your list and use them correctly, and I'm not even a native speaker of English. Or perhaps that is the reason why! No, seriously, I've always loved the language, never really had to study much to learn it (unlike Spanish and French, which were actually work because of all the grammar, and I don't feel comfortable using those languages now as I'm totally out of practice); I lived for several years in different English-speaking societies (England, Canada, the U.S.), and as a translator, I'm required to be very careful with words. So it's an occupational hazard, combined with a passion for English, that makes me so allergic to violations of it. That doesn't mean my own posts are always error-free, alas, but at least I do try!

'Goodness gracious, you really are a messie!' 'Oh no, I'm not, these are all just mathoms...'


Ataahua
Forum Admin / Moderator


May 26 2012, 8:25pm

Post #160 of 187 (4358 views)
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A great malaprop on this very site* [In reply to] Can't Post

was when a board member described a discussion as 'inciteful'. Given that there was some heat in the discussion I thought the description was pretty bang-on! :D

*On Old Torn, many years ago.

Celebrimbor: "Pretty rings..."
Dwarves: "Pretty rings..."
Men: "Pretty rings..."
Sauron: "Mine's better."

"Ah, how ironic, the addictive qualities of Sauron’s master weapon led to its own destruction. Which just goes to show, kids - if you want two small and noble souls to succeed on a mission of dire importance... send an evil-minded b*****d with them too." - Gandalf's Diaries, final par, by Ufthak.


Ataahua's stories


Ataahua
Forum Admin / Moderator


May 26 2012, 8:33pm

Post #161 of 187 (4340 views)
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More habit, I would think. [In reply to] Can't Post


In Reply To
People simply will not think about the meaning of sayings that some idiot started to distort out of sheer ignorance or laziness into phrases that simply don't make sense, and then the great majority follow said idiot's example,


If you hear a phrase rather than see it written down, it's easy to mis-hear what the phrase is. However I've seen 'change of tact' a lot in articles written by journalists, and I wonder how a professional couldn't look at that twice and realise there isn't an internal logic to it.


In Reply To
I lived for several years in different English-speaking societies (England, Canada, the U.S.), and as a translator, I'm required to be very careful with words.


I can see how that learned behaviour of exact language would make it very frustrating to be around people who are less exacting about the words they use! However some misuse can be hilarious - especially if it's unintentional. Evil

Celebrimbor: "Pretty rings..."
Dwarves: "Pretty rings..."
Men: "Pretty rings..."
Sauron: "Mine's better."

"Ah, how ironic, the addictive qualities of Sauron’s master weapon led to its own destruction. Which just goes to show, kids - if you want two small and noble souls to succeed on a mission of dire importance... send an evil-minded b*****d with them too." - Gandalf's Diaries, final par, by Ufthak.


Ataahua's stories


kiwifan
Rohan

May 26 2012, 8:47pm

Post #162 of 187 (4398 views)
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Followed your link but I can't hear anything, duh... [In reply to] Can't Post

Am I doing something wrong or does one need an account there?

'Goodness gracious, you really are a messie!' 'Oh no, I'm not, these are all just mathoms...'


kiwifan
Rohan

May 26 2012, 9:06pm

Post #163 of 187 (5513 views)
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So, thanks to Ataahua, you've added a nugget to your treasury of knowledge [In reply to] Can't Post

gained some valuable insight (but never mind, sheep are cute Wink),

and are a year older today Smile (I just checked out your profile as I hadn't met you before on these boards), so:

have a very happy birthday, and may you never become too old to learn something new, tire of the company gathered in the world of TORn, and always enjoy coming here!

'Goodness gracious, you really are a messie!' 'Oh no, I'm not, these are all just mathoms...'


kiwifan
Rohan

May 26 2012, 9:54pm

Post #164 of 187 (5371 views)
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I quite agree with you [In reply to] Can't Post

and perhaps one root of this evil lies in the fact that people read much less (and I mean proper books, not internet blogs and such) than, say, fifty years ago. I don't think any language can actually be taught to the extent that every pupil is truly proficient in it --- and certainly not with multiple choice tests rather than tests where a properly written answer is required. Like you said, people hear words and phrases but don't understand their meaning and therefore can't apply them correctly.

The same thing is happening here in Germany (don't know about the German-speaking part of Switzerland, or Austria). My sister-in-law, 42 years old, a teacher of German and French, last summer asked me to come visit them and babysit the kids for three days. I agreed to do this, and she said 'you'll be doing me a real disservice' which really nonplussed me for a second or two. Speaking in German, the word she used was 'Bärendienst', and I assume she concluded from the fact that bears are large that 'Bärendienst' meant a really big favour or good turn --- instead it means the exact opposite! (Wikipedia says it might be derived from a fable by Jean de Lafontaine, L'ours et l'amateur des jardins, where a bear wants to do his friend, an old man, a service by getting a fly off his sleeping friend's face. Unfortunately, he endeavours to do so by hurling a rock at the fly. Neither the fly nor the old man survive). I told her so and she was really surprised. And she's a teacher! My nieces must think me a right pain in the neck because I'm forever correcting them, but strangely enough they still like having me around (in small doses, twice a year Wink)

'Goodness gracious, you really are a messie!' 'Oh no, I'm not, these are all just mathoms...'


Magpie
Immortal


May 26 2012, 10:00pm

Post #165 of 187 (4283 views)
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did you end up at this page? [In reply to] Can't Post

http://www.forvo.com/word/f%C3%B6hn/

If you did and you clicked the blue triangle (to play on the page) and that didn't work, try right clicking on the links for mp3, save the clip to your harddrive, and then play it from your harddrive.


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DanielLB
Immortal


May 26 2012, 10:01pm

Post #166 of 187 (4589 views)
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You had to point that out didn't you! / [In reply to] Can't Post

 

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kiwifan
Rohan

May 26 2012, 10:26pm

Post #167 of 187 (4304 views)
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LOL, that is funny! [In reply to] Can't Post

But imagine this person writing 'inciteful' in an essay or in an exam? Or, heaven forbid, in a newspaper?


kiwifan
Rohan

May 26 2012, 11:33pm

Post #168 of 187 (4438 views)
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Thanks for the advice but it still isn't working. [In reply to] Can't Post

My browser doesn't seem to have the right specifications for listening directly to the pronunciations online, and after I downloaded the clip and it referred me back to the page online, it seems that I have to be a member in order to be able to listen to the downloaded file or clip or whatever that is, and I'm not sure I can be bothered to go through registration and passwords and all that hassle --- at least not tonight (it's 1.30 a.m. here). Being German, I do know how Föhn is pronounced but I was curious as there were two alternatives given, an East German man and an Austrian woman, and they might sound rather different.

For the time being, I'll sign off and go to bed! Nighty night, everyone! Smile


Magpie
Immortal


May 27 2012, 12:06am

Post #169 of 187 (4378 views)
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I was able to play it without doing anything other than clicking the triangle [In reply to] Can't Post

but when I tried the 'download' just now, they did want me to register. I didn't try download before suggesting it. I should have.

I suspect your browser is giving you problems with playing the audio file online. You could try a different browser. That sometimes works for me.


LOTR soundtrack website
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Starling
Half-elven


May 27 2012, 9:20am

Post #170 of 187 (4301 views)
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Did somebody say *fern*? [In reply to] Can't Post

Right on cue, we had one today. 22 degrees and a warm Nor' Wester, and it's almost officially winter, so that is a very warm temperature. Unusually, the weather reporter I saw on TV tonight referred to it as the fohn wind - she must have been reading this thread! Wink


DanielLB
Immortal


May 27 2012, 10:28am

Post #171 of 187 (4384 views)
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Thanks dernwyn! [In reply to] Can't Post

Yes, my pronunciation is a bit off but not by much Cool

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DanielLB
Immortal


May 27 2012, 10:28am

Post #172 of 187 (4412 views)
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What a coincidence!! [In reply to] Can't Post

How long did it last for? Laugh

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kiwifan
Rohan

May 27 2012, 4:11pm

Post #173 of 187 (4278 views)
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Turns out it was the Flash Player not being up to date [In reply to] Can't Post

I just installed the newest version of the Adobe Flash Player, and now I can listen to the pronunciations without any problems. Fascinating! I ended up bookmarking the website Smile but for listening to last night's downloaded word 'föhn' I'd still have to register and so on. I don't think I'll need that; being able to listen to the pronunciation of any given word online will suffice, at least for the time being.


Magpie
Immortal


May 27 2012, 4:27pm

Post #174 of 187 (4379 views)
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another site I like [In reply to] Can't Post

for lots of reasons is onelook.com

One searches for a word and the site produces a quick definition and links to multiple sites that define the word. One can jump around from site to site - as some are better or more complete than others. And it will break definitions down into categories like Art or Music or Science so one can focus on those if one is looking for a particular definition.

Many of these sites also have audio pronunciations and if I want to hear a word, I just keep clicking till I find one.

I like the wide assortment of definitions but the url is easy to remember so if I'm working with someone else and we want to look up a word, it's easy to direct them to the site.

That site and thesaurus.com are ones I visit a lot.


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Morthoron
Gondor


May 28 2012, 12:50am

Post #175 of 187 (4325 views)
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If you were referring to me... [In reply to] Can't Post


In Reply To
was when a board member described a discussion as 'inciteful'. Given that there was some heat in the discussion I thought the description was pretty bang-on! :D

*On Old Torn, many years ago.


That was intentional. I've used that wordplay on here previously. Angelic

Please visit my blog...The Dark Elf File...a slighty skewed journal of music and literary comment, fan-fiction and interminable essays.


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