English Language Examples of Use and Origins

[dsr-burnley]

On 02/03/2025 at 11:58, davieG said:

A better image

 

It would be even better if they hadn't got the colon and semi-colon the wrong way round.

[davieG]

[davieG]

[Trav Le Bleu]

10 hours ago, davieG said:

Practice and practise 

[Parafox]

On 11/03/2025 at 08:39, davieG said:

 

Breaks v brakes. 

 

Hopefully those that post on FT will read that and stop saying things like "put the breaks on", " I had to break " etc.

[FoxesDeb]

On 11/03/2025 at 09:39, davieG said:

Boarder and border

 

And not even spelled similarly, but of and have. 

 

Why oh why do people still type 'had of' and 'could of' when they mean have? Drives me insane. 

[Parafox]

23 hours ago, FoxesDeb said:

Boarder and border

 

And not even spelled similarly, but of and have. 

 

Why oh why do people still type 'had of' and 'could of' when they mean have? Drives me insane. 

 

Me too. And I'm not even a member of the grammar police... yet

[HighPeakFox]

I always get practice / practise wrong, or forget the rule. 

[bovril]

1 hour ago, HighPeakFox said:

I always get practice / practise wrong, or forget the rule. 

I remember it using advice / advise, which is easier to remember because of the difference in pron. 

[davieG]

[davieG]

It's only called an acronym when you pronounce the
abbreviation as a real word (ex. NASA).
Otherwise it is known as an initialism (ex. FBI).

[davieG]

[FOXYTALK]

12 hours ago, davieG said:

Boris Johnson's dictionary 

[The Fox Covert]

On 05/05/2025 at 21:45, davieG said:

I had a maths teacher at school who said 'Piffle' every lesson. Decades later I have never once heard anyone else use that word. He had even written one of the maths textbooks we used, which were not permanently issued to us but given out at the beginning of the lesson where we would be using them. I opened mine at the given page and there was a fossilised cheese sandwich between the pages, which had been there so long the book had reformed around it so there was absolutely no clue about the unpleasant contents when it was handed to me!

[davieG]

10 minutes ago, The Fox Covert said:

I had a maths teacher at school who said 'Piffle' every lesson. Decades later I have never once heard anyone else use that word. He had even written one of the maths textbooks we used, which were not permanently issued to us but given out at the beginning of the lesson where we would be using them. I opened mine at the given page and there was a fossilised cheese sandwich between the pages, which had been there so long the book had reformed around it so there was absolutely no clue about the unpleasant contents when it was handed to me!

Wackadoodle

[davieG]

[Trav Le Bleu]

Unfortunately, respair isn't likely to be gaining much common usage. I've heard of overmorrow though.

 

It does annoy me when people brabble though. That certainly is a useful word!

[davieG]

[davieG]

 

Who knew there was such a thing as an Oronyms?

[davieG]

[davieG]

[davieG]

[Trav Le Bleu]

Who knew Yoda used anadiplosis? Normally his grammar is awful.

[dsr-burnley]

Flanders and Swann knew about zeugma.

 

"She lowered her standards by raising her glass, her courage, her eyes, and his hopes".

 

 

[davieG]