The Grammar & Spelling Thread

[Danze1984]

One thing I've always wondered is; why in English we have the same word for two meanings, both pronounced differently. For instance Live, wind, tire, lead.

As for the An union. I assume with the U, if you pronounce it as a phonic, udder, umbrella, ultrasonic, umbilical you use an. With others such as Ulysses, union, urinal, it's like it's being pronounced with a Y, so takes it's a consonant form of using A.

-An ultrasonic scan
-A Ulysses butterfly

 

[Liquid]

One thing I've always wondered is; why in English we have the same word for two meanings, both pronounced differently. For instance Live, wind, tire, lead.

As for the An union. I assume with the U, if you pronounce it as a phonic, udder, umbrella, ultrasonic, umbilical you use an. With others such as Ulysses, union, urinal, it's like it's being pronounced with a Y, so takes it's a consonant form of using A.

-An ultrasonic scan
-A Ulysses butterfly

These are called homographs. You'd have to research the etymologies of the words to find out why though.

 

[Beeblebrox237]

Is realise an acceptable spelling (in the US)? I think it is, I just want to check. I'm currently engaged in a very silent, passive aggressive argument with my English teacher, where I write my papers using British English and spellings and he takes off points. Trololololol....

Edit: This was my 2112th post! [/rushfan]

 

[W3H5]

There should be no reason for you to be docked points for using English how it is meant to be spelt.

If I marked a student's work and it had realized instead of realised I would not even think to bring it up. They can spell the word. That's the main thing. I don't care if it's from one continents vocabulary or anther.

If, on the other hand, I was in my native England, and received a piece of work with the u dropped like in colour/ color or neighbour/ neighbor, or aluminium was spelt aluminum I would have to mark it as incorrectly spelt.

 

[Keef]

Is realise an acceptable spelling (in the US)? I think it is, I just want to check. I'm currently engaged in a very silent, passive aggressive argument with my English teacher, where I write my papers using British English and spellings and he takes off points. Trololololol....

I think that's a bit rough. As far as I'm concerned, an American who is aware of British grammar (even thought it's wrong) is better off than an American who doesn't know his own grammar. You're already two steps ahead of everybody else.

spelt

 

[Beeblebrox237]

There should be no reason for you to be docked points for using English how it is meant to be spelt.

If, on the other hand, I was in my native England, and received a piece of work with the u dropped like in colour/ color or neighbour/ neighbor, or aluminium was spelt aluminum I would have to mark it as incorrectly spelt.

I'm glad you agree with me. Also, I consider aluminium to be the far more acceptable spelling anywhere. It's far more logical.

 

[Submerged]

Spelt isn't actually a replacement word for "spelled".

 

[Liquid]

I think that's a bit rough. As far as I'm concerned, an American who is aware of British grammar (even thought it's wrong) is better off than an American who doesn't know his own grammar. You're already two steps ahead of everybody else.

The grammar isn't incorrect, but I grant you that the spellings are either archaic or illogical.

I could care less - This I find grammatically unsatisfactory, unless it's being used sarcastically. Which it often isn't.

 

[W3H5]

Spelt isn't actually a replacement word for "spelled".

Don't worry, I'm not an English teacher or anything.​

 

[gjeff12]

If I remember correctly, with US English, the punctuation is inside the quotations (."), while in British English, the punctuation is outside of the quotations (".).

Crap, Canadian english is a combination of the two.

 

[gjeff12]

We use:
realize US
colour UK
Aluminum US
neighbour UK

We use all sorts of words and spellings, even some French ones.

 

[rohinghai]

We use:
realize US
colour UK
Aluminum US
neighbour UK

We use all sorts of words and spellings, even some French ones.

Some more words are:
Cheque
Favourite/favour
Fibre
Flavour
Fuelling
Grey
Kilometre
Labour
Pyjamas

We generally use "re" rather the "er"

 

[Joel]

It gets weird with hockey. Tomas Plekanec is a center for the Canadiens who play at the Bell Centre in Montreal.

 

[PureAwesomeness]

It gets weird with hockey. Tomas Plekanec is a center for the Canadiens who play at the Bell Centre in Montreal.

Surely that's because they also speak French in Montreal.

 

[Techy]

A quick question: When you mark possessive specificity on a subject but contains an "s" at the end, do you do so with an apostrophe only or form another "s" after the apostrophe?

Example -

Chris' birdhouse was scorched in flames after yesterday's horrific thunderstorm.

Chris's birdhouse was scorched in flames after yesterday's horrific thunderstorm.

 

[Ross]

It is only an s. I know this because my name is Ross and many people get it wrong when writing my name down

 

[Liquid]

A quick question: When you mark possessive specificity on a subject but contains an "s" at the end, do you do so with an apostrophe only or form another "s" after the apostrophe?

Example -

Chris' birdhouse was scorched in flames after yesterday's horrific thunderstorm.

Chris's birdhouse was scorched in flames after yesterday's horrific thunderstorm.

Bolded is correct.

Additional info.

---

The Jones' car is a BMW 535. (Possessive)

The Joneses live on Pinewood Avenue. (Plural)

There's no such thing as Jones's or Jones'es.

---

Jesus' Disciples. Matthew's Gospels. (Possessive)

There are many Jesuses in South America. There are many Matthews in the United Kingdom. (Plural)

 

[Techy]

Ah, thanks fellows

 

[Keef]

Don't worry, I'm not an English teacher or anything.​

You're a British teacher of English and that's why you don't realize that "spelt" is not an acceptable substitute for "spelled". Even our hillbillies get that one right.

As for where the period goes in quotes, I'm torn. If you're quoting a sentence then I feel like the period should end the sentence inside the quote. But if that is also the end of your sentence, then there should also be a period outside the quote to show that you quoted a sentence and then ended your own sentence. If it's not the end of your sentence then there should only be a period inside the sentence.

As for commas, apparently it's proper to break up a quote by "putting a comma inside the quote," he said, "and then continuing on.". But I think that's dumb because the original sentence you're quoting doesn't have a comma, and therefore there should be no extraneous punctuation inside the quote because then it's not a quote anymore. The comma should go "outside the quote", I said, "because there was no comma in the original quote.".

Or maybe I just made that up on the fly, I don't know. I'd have to see what I do when I write about something other than grammar and punctuation. I just don't like this whole thing about using punctuation in this situation but not in this situation. The whole sometimes this or sometimes that thing drives me crazy - there should be clearly defined rules that are consistent every single time.

 

[Liquid]

The whole sometimes this or sometimes that thing drives me crazy - there should be clearly defined rules that are consistent every single time.

Esperanto is your buddy then. Pretty much all non-auxiliary languages have excepetions and irregularities. The four languages I know/am learning, (English, German, Welsh and Dutch) all have their exceptions and irregularities and I'm fairly certain most of the other PIE languages are the same.

It's usually the overlapping influences that create the irregularities. Like, Modern English was influenced by German, but German was influenced by Old/Middle English, which was influenced by even older German and several of the Nordic languages. Not forgetting French. And Spanish. And Latin. And Arabic loanwords.

 

[Schwartz]

The word "whilst." I see it all over the forums (mostly posted by British members) but I've never heard it or seen it outside of GTPlanet. Is it used in conversation or just in text?

 

[Azuremen]

Whilst is used in conversation, though I rarely hear it on this side of the pond.

 

[Liquid]

It's basically a synonym for while, when used as a conjunction. Similar to as.

While we waited, we played I spy - Correct
Whilst we waited, we played I spy - Correct But seldom heard outside of the United Kingdom

However, whilst is never used as a noun.

We waited a while - Correct
We waited a whilst - Wrong

 

[AOS-]

Shouldn't it be "We waited for a while"?

 

[Liquid]

Stricly, yes but sometimes omitting prepositions happens in colloquial language.

 

[Schwartz]

I thought this was interesting. Thought I should share it with you guys. There are some seriously odd words here.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_words_in_English_without_A,_E,_I,_O_or_U

 

[Jacob]

I've been wondering about this thing for quite a while now. Do you say for example "BMWs" or do you say "BMW's"? Ferraris or Ferrari's? Boeings or Boeing's?

Or does it vary?

 

[Liquid]

I've been wondering about this thing for quite a while now. Do you say for example "BMWs" or do you say "BMW's"? Ferraris or Ferrari's? Boeings or Boeing's?

Or does it vary?

With apostrophe is possesive, without apostrophe is plural.

Bolded is correct.

Additional info.

---

The Jones' car is a BMW 535. (Possessive)

The Joneses live on Pinewood Avenue. (Plural)

There's no such thing as Jones's or Jones'es.

---

Jesus' Disciples. Matthew's Gospels. (Possessive)

There are many Jesuses in South America. There are many Matthews in the United Kingdom. (Plural)

Although you will sometimes see people write Boeing's as a plural, it's wrong.

CDs. DVDs. BMWs. All plural.

 

[Jacob]

Yep, that's pretty much what I've been thinking all along. Thanks for the quick reply.

 

[Prince.M5]

So for all these while I've always made a mistake it seems. Always like this:

''Lotus protest on Mercedes's rear wing.''

So the correct one would be:

''Lotus protest on Mercedes' rear wing.''

Is it?