Grammar Police Gazette

[red750]

[Jerry_Atrick]

Didn't know the steaks if playing hangman were so high

[Old Koreelah]

[facthunter]

I recall the Pre marital Hetero-sexual Interdigitation  concerns at Teachers College when I was there.  Nev

[red750]

[old man emu]

Red posted this in the Funnies, but I reckon its place is here.

[red750]

[old man emu]

As they say out on teh Yorkshire moors, "Prince William is t'heir t'Throne."

[Old Koreelah]

[willedoo]

I've often wondered about the use of 'a' as opposed to 'an' in a sentence, as you sometimes hear usage of 'an' by the media in ways that sound not right.  I had a look online and found a few different explanations. This cut and paste is one of them:

 

A and an are two different forms of the same word: the indefinite article a that is used before noun phrases. Use a when the noun or adjective that comes next begins with a consonant sound. Use an when the noun or adjective that comes next begins with a vowel sound. Remember that what matters is the pronunciation, not the spelling.

Here are some examples of the article a followed by words that begin with consonant sounds. In two cases the word after a starts with vowel letter, but the pronunciation still begins with a consonant sound.

    a football
    a driver’s license
    a European country (European begins with the vowel letter e, but the sound y.)
    a menu
    a university president (University begins with the vowel letter u, but the sound y.)

Here are some examples of the article an followed by words that begin with vowel sounds. Notice that in two cases, the word after an starts with a consonant letter, but the pronunciation still begins with a vowel sound.

    an apple
    an irritated driver
    an hour (Hour begins with the consonant letter h, but the h is silent.)
    an accurate weather report
    an MBA degree (MBA begins with the consonant letter M, but the M is pronounced with its letter name, "em.")

 

Going by that, we would say 'a herb' and Americans would say 'an herb' because they pronounce it as 'erb'.

 

[facthunter]

If it's an entity Like CASA or BHP it should be THE . Nev

[Bruce Tuncks]

The CASA uses a definite article nev. A casa would refer to another country's casa lot, but it would be incorrect . It would be more correct to say "aviation regulator" or something like that.

Willedoo had it right I reckon. Not that I don't think we would be far better off without any CASA.

If we had access to our own money, those of us who want to fly safely could do so easier.

[facthunter]

I didn't particularly want  to discuss the CASA's function, but if you have to PAY  you should have a Say.  Nev

[willedoo]

My guess is the use of 'the' before an acronym would depend how specific it was and the context. Nev would be right with 'the (Civil Aviation Safety Authority) as the acronym represents a specific entity in our case. If you were generally speaking of civil aviation safety authorities, you'd probably use the full term and not the acronym.

[facthunter]

There's an Aviation Firm in Spain named CASA and  an organisation in Victoria that investigates sexual assault (or such) None of these have any connection's with THE CASA we know so well. You can have  THE time of your life at A time you choose if you have the money.  Nev

[red750]

While CASA and BHP are acronyms, they substitute as names, and probably don't require either "a" or "an". We don't say a Robert, or  an Robert.

[old man emu]

It's humorous to say "gaze - bo", but is it "per-gola" or "perg-ola"?

[onetrack]

Perg-olas are those pergolas built so badly, that it's deemed they should be sent to purgatory.

[Bruce Tuncks]

My vote is for "per-gola. "

[Bruce Tuncks]

Since when did democracy matter tho?

[spacesailor]

PERGO la

Spanish !.

Esperanto !.

spacesailor

[old man emu]

"Pergola": latticework structure for climbing plants, 1670s, from Italian pergola

 

And when in Rome ....

 

[onetrack]

And to speak properly in Italian, you need to have both hands free, to wave about.

[Jerry_Atrick]

5 hours ago, Bruce Tuncks said:

My vote is for "per-gola. "

pronounced - "per galah"

[old man emu]

38 minutes ago, Jerry_Atrick said:

pronounced - "per galah"

After I finished Uni, I went back to live with my parents who had moved to the country, near where I live now. One of the most common birds around the place was the pink and grey galah. You'd see heaps of them sitting on the power lines and in the trees and during harvest you couldn't help hitting them with the car because they were so full of wheat they couldn't get off the ground.

 

A couple of months later we went back down to Sydney for a wedding. While there we were at a shopping centre and passed a pet shop which had a pin and grey galah in a cage for sale at about $15 (it was in the early 70s).  I said to my Dad that when we got back home we ought to catch a few and bring them down to Sydney and make a fortune.