General Chat

HuiaAllYear, Hi, that phrase about reading books is quite famous and if my ancient memory serves me correctly, has been previously debated on this site.

I think it has something to do with constructing a sentence ending with the most number of prepositions.

If I were to write that sentence I would probably phrase it:

Why did you chose that book to be read to you?

For what reason did you chose that book?

Both mean exactly the same as the original sentence but are not worded so clumsily.

You may of course put in one comma and take a breath before the word for. It almost sounds correct.

What did you choose that book to be read to from, for?

Ha, little finger left hand. The finger most likely to cause me to miss a capitalization or a letter when typing. And yes I touch type. Which reminds me....... I live like I type, fast with lots of mistakes!!!

I was taught forty and ninety. Also I, as in me, a capitol I

Aunty, how would you rearrange the following sentence: What did you choose that book to be read to from for?

That is one my oldest sister told me about when I was much younger and I have puzzled over it ever since.

I agree with the dyslexic fingers. I am a touch typist and I think one of my hands must type faster than the other as I often have to go back to correct words that have had a couple of letters transposed. Like: adn and fro.

Huia who frequently has to 'bite her tongue' when reading threads.

And the one which says, "never end a sentence with a preposition". I only discovered the other day that modern language conventions allow a preposition to the end of a sentence.

The children liked the playground they were going to.

The children liked the playground to which they were going.

When I think of the number of times I have retyped a sentence so it did not end with one of those little words.

I believe you can spell words ending "es" as "ez" if you add a "d" eg - "organized".
I still use "similar to" and "different from" although it does not seem to matter these days.
Liz

I had the same experience as Karen, but with my French vocab tests. Each week I went to ballroom dancing the evening before the test. Never bothered to even look at the words. Managed five or six out of twenty if I was lucky.

Became tired of others thinking I was a sandwich short of a cut lunch. Took my vocab book to dancing and in between dances learned the words. Of course the other kids thought I was potty. The teacher nearly fell off her chair when she asked how many I had correct one morning. I was able to yell out 18 out of twenty.

Funny what things stick in your mind from so many years ago!!

My sister (5 years younger than I am) was taught to read using the Initial Teaching Alphabet system when she first went to school, then they had to learn the "proper" way, and I feel that this caused more problems in having to learn one system and then another.

Anyone else taught using ita?

I was in my 30's when I did my GCSE, I am 100% certain that as a child that when we were taught to spell words by sounding them and thats what I went through life doing just that :) 9 times out of 10 I get the right letters and sounds mostly in the wrong order. I used to bring home my spelling book as 35 yr old covering the words up learning them used to keep my children highly amused. Another trait is leaving words out of written sentences and speaking in my local dialect. :-D ooooooooo and I hate text speak

Bob, you should be able to ser your spell check to UK English.

My problem is the fingers one and not touch typing, plus brain going faster than fingers. And on here I don't get spell check. Does anyone? I am on Firefox.

I was most impressed at the weekend when my 9 year old grandaughter said she was good in English at doing 'dropped clauses'' (I think it is what I knew as subordinate clauses). And I thought they didn't teach grammar any more. (i.e. The boy, who had ginger hair, was very friendly to her. 'who had ginger hair' dropped clause)

Yes, I was taught forty and ninety, can't remember seeing them any other way (I was at school mid1960's-mid1970's)

On my first day at senior school each pupil was presented with a Bible and a dictionary, both of which we were expected to keep, to use and to take with us to the appropriate lessons.
My English teacher was a stickler for spelling (and punctuation). She took us for English Language and Literature for 3 years. First, I remember she taught us how to use a dictionary, and then, every Monday she would give us 10 words to learn (spelling and meaning) and every Friday we would be tested on them.
And in her words, which I can still hear ringing in my ears.... "Woe betide anyone who doesn't know them".
I was lazy one week and didn't learn them properly, for which I was rewarded with an hour's detention!! This meant I not only missed the school bus and had to catch the regular bus home, but as I lived 9 miles away it took an age to get home. I didn't do it again, but I think it was my pride which hurt the most! :-0

K

The muddled text. Do you know the trick to it. Providing the first and last letters of the word are correct, and you are familiar with that word you should be able to read the paragraph.


That is how the paragraph is written, if I recollect correctly.

You see I did not even read the paragraph apart from the first line. The paragraph contains an explanation of how it works, just as I have explained.

It might depend on what school you went to McB. If you went to a church school, the teachers were often nuns, brothers, etc. FIRST - then shown how to be teachers - where now the teachers must be qualified to Education Dept. standards.

I went to school in the thirties/forties (note spelling) - and all of my teachers were properly qualified. I have only ever known the spelling to be:

forty......ninety......taught

Taught - past tense of teach
thought - past tense of think

p.s. your last post - SUM??? It should be SOME.
You'd better quit before you trip again!

Yes Patricia, I could read it easily.

Great mind, no
just love words

Forty and ninety

if yuo can raed tihs, you hvae a sgtrane mnid, too.
Can you raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can.

i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

A S, quite a lot of the problem is the windows spell check thing. it dont like proper Anglo-English...only the Americanised version!! :-D

Example - organize - organise?

There are of course Americanisms creeping into our language, courtesy of the media.

Color instead of colour, and many other "our" words with the "u" missing.

The letter "z" is no longer used as it was previously. I am certain I spelled many words with a "z" where an "s" is now used. My senior's brain will not co-operate with an example.

The following info is for the people who are able to spell.


It is not a spelling problem it is a keyboarding problem. I know how to spell but I am certain my keyboard suffers from dyslexia.

It is not that your brain does not know which letters belong where, it is that your fingers absolutely cannot hit the correct keys in the correct sequence.


And for the last two generations, give or take a year or two, who were taught to spell phonetically or in text speak, sorry folks there is only one cure.........

A page of the dictionary every night. A dictionary? Well, that's a book with all the words in it. You can read it page by page or you can sort the words into different groups and make phrases, sentences and paragraphs. Then, if you are really diligent and practise (is it c or s for that one) you might one day be able to write a story.

wish i was 27 again, i'm double that & then sum, lol