Pedantic question about standardisation

lxdude · Aug 27, 2012

Steve Smith said:
One more before I go to bed (it's dark here).

The phrase I could care less makes no sense. It's couldn't care less!

Ok, two. The most mis-used words on the internet are loose being used in place of lose and alot or allot in place of a lot.

Steve.

I absolutely disagree. The second one is it's for its.

Sirius Glass · Aug 27, 2012

Steve Smith said:
Why do Americans refer to 1/4 as a fourth but refer to a 25 cent coin as a quarter? And whilst I'm thinking about coinage, why do you use the English penny to describe a one cent coin?

25 cents is a quarter of a dollar. The legal term for a 1 cent coin is a "cent" and not a "penny".

Vaughn · Aug 27, 2012

A double negative is a positive.

But a double positive is not a negative.

Yeah, right...

Sirius Glass · Aug 27, 2012

E. von Hoegh said:
In the US, (and the rest of the world) each town set it's clocks according to the true local time, usually ascertained by the suns' zenith.

Actually NOT! Towns set their time by the time zone they are in.

Sirius Glass · Aug 27, 2012

Steve Smith said:
One more before I go to bed (it's dark here).

The phrase I could care less makes no sense. It's couldn't care less!

Ok, two. The most mis-used words on the internet are loose being used in place of lose and alot or allot in place of a lot.

Steve.

Frankly I say that "I cannot even pretend to careless."

wiltw · Aug 27, 2012

Steve Smith said:
The most mis-used words on the internet are loose being used in place of lose and alot or allot in place of a lot.

I hate the "I am reticent to...(action)" in the context of "I am reluctant to...(action)"

'reticent' means to be 'disposed to be silent' and not 'disposed to not take action'

Roger Cole · Aug 27, 2012

From BBC America:

10 Things Brits Say…and What Americans Think We Mean

and

10 Things Americans Say… and What They Really Mean

10 Things Americans Do That Drive Brits Nuts

I have to say I totally agree with our British friends about turkey. Or at least, I used to agree since I haven't eaten meat aside from fish since 2005. But I think I know what happened with that one. The wild turkeys of North America, the one Benjamin Franklin wanted as our national bird and which I have also eaten (my brother in law and nephew hunt them) IS tasty, far better and juicier than the tamed cardboard. The tame turkeys have been bread for large breasts to the point the poor things can hardly waddle, much less fly as the wild ones can, and most of the taste has gone along with the darker muscle fiber. Somehow, Americans intent on getting more breast meat (er, "white meat" on this side of the Atlantic) never noticed they lost the taste along the way.

Dali · Aug 27, 2012

Roger Cole said:
From BBC America:

Somehow, Americans intent on getting more breast meat (er, "white meat" on this side of the Atlantic) never noticed they lost the taste along the way.

If it were only with the turkey...

Roger Cole · Aug 27, 2012

Dali said:
If it were only with the turkey...

zsas · Aug 27, 2012

OK Roger, did you happen to find any "articles" of Americans complaining about Brits use of words? I bet they are less common because we just don't care how others spell color, organization, etc.....

Our collective diversity is our greatest strength! Words from the different regions, states, countries can become mainstreamed and I am proud! Why do I sometimes get the feeling that others are defensive on how things evolved?

Roger Cole · Aug 27, 2012

Now, just the what each says and what they really mean to clarify for the other. You're right, for the most part we don't care. We don't care not only when we shouldn't, as in when it's a different local use, nor when we probably should, like the outright abuse of the common apostrophe, the new spelling of "thru" and other such abominations. Well, I guess I'm not quite as unbothered as some some about such things after all.

zsas · Aug 27, 2012

Haaaa "thru". Guilty of that but as one who does computer programming, I probably have a inherent respect for jargon because we sometimes are limited by character length. I use "thru" all the time when programming, and wouldn't bat an eye using it as a value in a programming sequence (eg thru_dt). My team would never judge, as semantics just slow us down when the meaning is clear...

Back to the OP Clive, I love when you start up a thread that gets us all going! Nothing better than Blanksy showing up too!

Roger Cole · Aug 27, 2012

I'm a network engineer and I offend defend the use of acronyms, because without them my field would be absolutely unwieldy. I might use "thru" as a variable if I were a programmer, but I wouldn't write it in an email. Just me I suppose.

Photo Engineer · Aug 27, 2012

Roger, did you know that the famous classic "Shuffle off to Buffalo" had to be modified for the UK audience?

scanties = panties

OTOH, I brought up Inspector Lewis earlier. The language on that show would be censored if it were not shown on PBS.

PE

Thomas Bertilsson · Aug 27, 2012

Your outta you're mind.

Steve Smith said:
One more before I go to bed (it's dark here).

The phrase I could care less makes no sense. It's couldn't care less!

Ok, two. The most mis-used words on the internet are loose being used in place of lose and alot or allot in place of a lot.

Steve.

Thomas Bertilsson · Aug 27, 2012

blansky said:
Aluminum or alUMINium.??

Latin says: aluminium

Which is where it's derived from. Us Americans are lazy.

Thomas Bertilsson · Aug 27, 2012

zsas said:
I bet they are less common because we just don't care how others spell color, organization, etc.....

Right, we could care less... What?!

Gerald C Koch · Aug 27, 2012

Steve Smith said:
(English capitalised as it should be),

I try to capitalize the first word of each sentence for clarity. Whether other words get capitalized or not depends on how well my right arm is doing at the time. You wouldn't know this but I broke my arm badly some months ago and I have good days and bad days. I may be reduced to writing like e e cummings or Don Marquis's archy.

lxdude · Aug 27, 2012

Gerald C Koch said:
I may be reduced to writing like e e cummings or Don Marquis's archy.

You're going to jump headfirst onto each key?

Gerald C Koch · Aug 27, 2012

Thomas Bertilsson said:
Latin says: aluminium

Which is where it's derived from. Us Americans are lazy.

The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry IUPAC accepts either spelling. The American Chemical Society ACS prefers aluminum. Some scientists argue that being a metal the name should end in -ium. However, does this make helium a metal? What about tungsten (wolfram)? The French call nitrogen azote while in German it is stickstoff. As an old friend and fellow chamist was fond of saying, "If I cared any less I wouldn't care at all."

Gerald C Koch · Aug 27, 2012

lxdude said:
You're going to jump headfirst onto each key?

I wondered who would get the archy reference. Love the stories.

Steve Smith · Aug 28, 2012

Thomas Bertilsson said:
Your outta you're mind.

I hear that a lot (not alot or allot).

Roger Cole said:
I haven't eaten meat aside from fish since 2005

Same here for the last twenty years.

What was the question again?... Oh yes... 5x4, 5x7 and 10x8. I know that 5x7 makes no sense in the context of the other two.

Steve.

Vaughn · Aug 28, 2012

Roger Cole said:
...the new spelling of "thru" and other such abominations. Well, I guess I'm not quite as unbothered as some some about such things after all.

I find myself using 'thru' most of the time instead of 'through'...and even 'tho' instead of 'though'.

And how about the use of single or double inverted commas? Roger used doubles, usually associated with quotes, and I used single inverted commas to mark off the word under discussion.

lxdude · Aug 28, 2012

Vaughn said:
I find myself using 'thru' most of the time instead of 'through'...and even 'tho' instead of 'though'.

And how about the use of single or double inverted commas? Roger used doubles, usually associated with quotes, and I used single inverted commas to mark off the word under discussion.

Uh, 'Vaughan', those aren't "commas". Really, truly, absolutely, without a doubt, conclusively, they're not.

Roger Cole · Aug 28, 2012

I learned that you enclose a word in quotes to, among other reasons, show that you meant to spell it in a non-standard way. Shrug. I grew up with typewriters.

Pedantic question about standardisation

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