General Chat

Hi, Bringing back memories from school days,,,,a reading test at aged of about 10,,,,,,,,,,,,,all was fine till I got to=========Picturesque,,,,,,,,say what you see...............Picture--SQUE,,,,,,,,,,!!! where did the ESK go,???suffice to say one word I never forgot to spell,,,,,,,,,)))

Len , you spell just like my son :-)

My car's antique The gaskets lique And since last wique The bearings sqique. But even though The oil don't flough T'will be a blough To let it gough. len

the letters 'ou' have a lot of different ways of being pronounced. McLoughlan (sounds like 'loch') through, (to) trough, (off) thorough, (but) ought, (caught) enough (cuff) though (woe) plough (wow) scour, (rhymes with bower to some) hiccough ('hiccup') Why is the American pronunciation for the word 'herb' like the French, 'erb?

Thanks OC - it is a lovely language isn't it :o) How do other's pronounce 'detritis'. I know how I was told to pronounce it, but heard it pronounced another way on Radio 4 last week - it took me a few minutes before I realised what word they were using!!! maggie

Maggie Again it is the difference in the origin of the words... Dive - is an old English word. Dived or dove, is equally correct. English people tend to use the word 'dived' as 'dove' sounds slightly clumsy, and we like to indicate the past tense by adding -ed. Driver is a french word, and the past tense is therefore drove. OC

Ann, how right you are about Americanisms. We say he dived into the water, Americans say he dove, which what we used to say and is the more logical. You drive your car and you drove it yesterday, therefore, logically, You dive into the water and you dove in yesterday. maggie

Thanks Ails......seems easy when you think about it...

Did you get any flours today Ann? Who scent them two ewe? Who was the won? Hope it didn't brake the bank! You never no they might come in pears!

Why not say - I sent you a text yesterday - that way you avoid the making a mistake!! Ails x

Texted is the normal one in use, but I use text instead, I find it easier, although perhaps wrong....

In answer to your other question Ann Even though the word census is of Latin origin, and in ancient times the plural would probably have been censi, in common usage today the plural is censuses.

texted - passed/past tense !!

Sow eye will look on another sight two sea what else eye can put in my draught letter too the teacher :-)

'Buy' is from an old Norse word, 'bogjan' 'Catch' is from a French word. As the two words would have been used by different sections of the community, they would have been pronounced in the old ways and different rules of grammar used for the past tenses. Here in Cornwall, the local dialect for 'bought' is 'boughten', e.g. 'Did you make this cake yourself? No, its a boughten one' They also say 'I catched a cold' rather than 'I caught a cold'. Spelling and grammar werent formalised in this country until the 1870 Education Act and people just used whatever words and grammar came naturally. What a minefield! OC

What about weather, whether and wether? Jay

French - Poisson - fish Poison - poison

Ach.....I know exactly.....schiessen and scheissen......to shoot at a goal.....and if you did the other one, you would be in real trouble....

That was a good reverse psychological ploy there Ann ...the sort you see with game show hosts......they may know tiddly-squat about the subject, but they give the answer as though they knew it themselves all along......

LOL Ann! There's one in Spanish like that. One means a drinking straw, the other is something you wouldn't say in polite company! LOL