Grammar Police Gazette

[Bruce Tuncks]

Thanks guys....  I never knew how hard it was to learn english.

 

[nomadpete]

2 hours ago, Bruce Tuncks said:

Thanks guys....  I never knew how hard it was to learn english.

 

Agreed.

Enough of this.

It isn't a 'Spelling Police' thread, ya  know!

[Bruce Tuncks]

That post about read and red reminds me of spelling reform1. There was a model plane magazine here in Aust where the editor unilaterally enacted sr1 which was to replace all the ea spelling with the hard "e" sound, so you would write that you red that book.

Personally, I didn't like it even though I saw the logic. Anyway, the next editor gave up on the idea too.

Esperanto was a better idea but it didn't take off , not that I would have helped much.

[facthunter]

I think it's a pity it didn't get more  traction. A lot of FACTS are LOST in translation.   Nev

[spacesailor]

Esperanto did take off! .

And is flourishing.  The reason for not hearing about it ,

is simply " you cannot be payed to teach it " .

Which rules out the the formal ' education ' system. 

Almost every country has an " Esperanto club " ! ,That will help tutor or be a ' local ' guide .

spacesailor

[facthunter]

It would have to qualify as a language Other than English surely. LOTE.   Nev

[facthunter]

The UN have not recognised it.  Nev

[pmccarthy]

What would you expect from a deep lead mine? Lead was pronounced leed and it was a gold mine

[onetrack]

But many a deep lead led investors astray, as the gold turned out to be just painted lead. 

[old man emu]

The group of letters L,E,A & D produce two homonyms - "el" , followed by the short "e" and ending in "d", giving "led", or the short "e" is replaced by the long "e", giving "leed".

 

The most commonly appearing group is "lead", which can be either a verb, a noun, or an adjective. "led" has a much simpler life as it is only used as the past (preterite) tense of the verb, unless you are using the past continuous tense, "was leading".

 

So the four-letter group used as a verb means "to guide," from Old English lædan.

 

Used as a noun it has a number of meanings - the metal; the place in front of something going forward; a device to enable something to be guided, and as we have seen, a term to describe a vein of mineral in surrounding rock.

 

It's adjectival form is used as a descriptor for things containing the metal, or as a descriptor based on the "to guide" meaning (lead singer).

 

I hope my effort to lead you to an understanding of these homonyms, I haven't led you down the garden path on leaden feet.

[nomadpete]

Oops!

Sorry but I think I dozed off during the  lesson.

 

Thanks anyway OME

[old man emu]

9 minutes ago, nomadpete said:

Oops!

Sorry but I think I dozed off during the  lesson.

Don't worry, OK was taking notes. You can copy from his.

[facthunter]

You will sit the exam tomorrow. Nev

[facthunter]

At the same time as the free beer.  Nev

[red750]

You can drink a drink, but you can't food a food.

[old man emu]

You can beat an egg, but you can't beat a root.

[nomadpete]

2 hours ago, old man emu said:

You can beat an egg, but you can't beat a root.

Showin  ya  age there OME.

 

Or is this an ACAT memory assessment  question - at least 65 years since I heard that one.

[Marty_d]

Like that old saying "Put an egg in your shoe and beat it!"

Every time I hear that in an old movie I can't get past the mental image of how slimy and disgusting it'd feel, not to mention cleaning it out afterwards...

[Bruce Tuncks]

You are supposed to hold a bit of beetroot on your fork when you ask the table" you can beat an egg but what can't you beat?"

Lotsa people have never heard this before, or they pretend they never heard it.

And, marty, I never heard the one about the egg in your shoe either.  Maybe I had a protected childhood, old movie-wise anyway.

[facthunter]

Being pure in heart and innocent as the driven snow It should be OK if you put the question at the stage of Serving chicken IF "any one wanted  stuffing" ?   Nev

[nomadpete]

Nev the Xmas Turkey didn't complain but hopefully your family won't be clamouring for a good stuffing.

[onetrack]

Never heard of the saying, "put an egg in your shoe and beat it", either. But I didn't have a totally sheltered childhood, so it must be a good old Tassie saying.

 

When we annoyed someone, we got, "make like the birds, and flock off!"

 

 

Edited November 6, 2023 by onetrack

[nomadpete]

Let's make like the flidgeons and get the flock outta here!

[old man emu]

Or,

Make like the Good Shepherd, and get the flock out of here.

[nomadpete]

45 minutes ago, old man emu said:

Or,

Make like the Good Shepherd, and get the flock out of here.

That would have been far too eloquent for me. I wish I'd thought of it when I was in high school.