Help please from the Grammar Nazis

[o]

Dec 22, 2010 9:38:12 GMT revisedartlily said:

Don't you think that the word SHOES should be pronounced SHOWS? Like SLOES?

and choose and loose should rhyme. (many think they do!)

artistlily is only asking for consistency:

sloes
goes
throes
woes
roes
joes
hoes
toes

shoes?

perhaps we should change the spelling? then we'd get:

'she shoos the puppy away from her new shoos'.

[revisedartlily]

Hahaha, thanks for the Nit Alert, I have always wanted one ever since I heard Laura Solon on her brilliant cd "Talking and not talking" do the " Git alert" thing.

Yes, I know how it actually DOES sound, I ain't that dumb ;D but I mean LOOKING at the word, it should sound like 'sloes' because that is the way it is spelt. Like 'goes'.

Also, why do people say "Now then". Whatever can it mean? Or "There there". The latter is a platitude to express sympathy, but why should it and how can it? ;D

[revisedartlily]

Brilliantly put, fluffy!!

[Weyland]

Dec 22, 2010 20:55:11 GMT revisedartlily said:

Also, why do people say "Now then". Whatever can it mean? Or "There there". The latter is a platitude to express sympathy, but why should it and how can it? ;D

That's a BIG subject, Lily. Start a new thread This one's for mocking Riot.

Run along, now. ;D

[riotgrrl]

Dec 22, 2010 20:55:11 GMT revisedartlily said:

Also, why do people say "Now then". Whatever can it mean? Or "There there". The latter is a platitude to express sympathy, but why should it and how can it? ;D

I was thinking about this last night.

For a while I thought that 'oh dear' was a similarly weird expression, but, on further thought, it's probably a shortening of an older expression such as 'oh dear lord help me' or something and, like 'bloody' has its roots in religious language.

Now then. Makes no sense. I agree.

There there. Makes no sense. I agree.

But it's a good question and I'm still mulling it over.

You could learn to speak, read and write English perfectly and you still wouldn't know what those phrases intimated unless you saw them used in context. Very weird.

[Weyland]

Dec 23, 2010 10:56:31 GMT @riotgrrl said:

You could learn to speak, read and write English perfectly and you still wouldn't know what those phrases intimated unless you saw them used in context. Very weird.

As I said, it's a BIG subject, is idiom, and all the other stuff that makes English such a wonderful thing. And other languages, of course, but English is the one we all know.

Word of Mouth, on R4, is an interesting programme. Ask Jean. (The current presenter is admittedly a bit of a plonker, but he does his best.)

[jean]

Dec 23, 2010 11:29:50 GMT Weyland said:

(The current presenter is admittedly a bit of a plonker, but he does his best.)

Are you sure you meant that ? Michael Rosen's back, you know!

[Weyland]

Dec 23, 2010 12:04:43 GMT jean said:

Dec 23, 2010 11:29:50 GMT Weyland said:

(The current presenter is admittedly a bit of a plonker, but he does his best.)

Are you sure you meant that ? Michael Rosen's back, you know!

I can't remember the name of the bloke I don't like, and I haven't listened lately on account of whoever he is, but I'll listen at the next opportunity and report back.

(Long, long ago I had an OU tutor -- Brian Rosen -- who became Curator of Corals at the Natural History Museum in London. He really inspired me to ignore boundaries and seek knowledge. Great bloke. A brother, perhaps? Though it is a common enough surname.)

[jean]

Harold Rosen is Michael's father - I don't know about siblings.

[Patrick]

Dec 23, 2010 10:56:31 GMT @riotgrrl said:

I was thinking about this last night.

For a while I thought that 'oh dear' was a similarly weird expression, but, on further thought, it's probably a shortening of an older expression such as 'oh dear lord help me' or something and, like 'bloody' has its roots in religious language.

Now then. Makes no sense. I agree.

There there. Makes no sense. I agree.

But it's a good question and I'm still mulling it over.

You could learn to speak, read and write English perfectly and you still wouldn't know what those phrases intimated unless you saw them used in context. Very weird.

"Now then" Should be "Nah then" really. Surely it's pure North Country? My Mum's got the book on Sayings and Expression - Oxford Dictionary of. I'll ask her sometime.

Talking of words derived out of religion - "Gawd Blimey" is a good one - Which originated from "God - Blind Me!"

[revisedartlily]

"That's a BIG subject, Lily. Start a new thread This one's for mocking Riot.

Run along, now."

Oops, sorry .... but now everyone has answered, shall I keep going or move it??? ( All of a tizzy now).


Anyway, what I wanted to say was, I got the better of my oh last night. Rare when it comes to brainal matters.
He said "oftener" wasn't a word.
I said it was.
I played him the audio book I have of Katherine Whitehorn reading her autobiog. where SHE uses the word. Told him all about her and her lofty academic status. ( Please don't tell me she's dead. I don't want to know).
He conceded. YAY!

[Weyland]

Dec 23, 2010 23:49:37 GMT revisedartlily said:

Oops, sorry .... but now everyone has answered, shall I keep going or move it??? ( All of a tizzy now).

Just do whatever you fancy doing, Lil. I was only kidding anyway.

[everso]

I love finding out how phrases that we use today originally began. As Riot has mentioned, "Bloody" has it roots in religion. I think it was "Blood of our Lady?"

Actually, thinking about it, the word "Bleeding" as in "bleedin' 'ell" must be derived from bloody. You don't often hear people saying "bleedin' 'ell" nowadays, more's the pity. I often used to say "Bleedin' kids" when my two were young (not in their earshot I might add - I'm not that common).

[o]

I hear "stating the bleeding obvious" quite a bit.

Perhaps it's something I'm saying?

[o]

when washing I use softener oftener than you'd think.

[jean]

Dec 24, 2010 17:24:45 GMT everso said:

"Bloody" has it roots in religion. I think it was "Blood of our Lady?"

That may well be a bit of folk etymology. Here's Michael Quinion, who's very good at that sort of thing:

It’s hard to explain why the word had such shock value, though it is likely that people mistakenly believed it derived from old oaths like Christ’s blood, by God’s blood, or by our lady, in reference to the Virgin Mary. The real origin, still in doubt, may be traceable back to the aristocratic rowdies, the bloods, of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

[everso]

Hmmm, interesting.

[aubrey]

K Whitehorn is still alive, Lily.

[Deleted]

Dec 17, 2010 11:05:59 GMT @riotgrrl said:

(Plus they started two world wars.)

The Swedes started two World Wars ? ....... The bastards !!!

.....and managed to divert blame onto the innocent Germans .

I always thought the Swedes were too good to be true !

[revisedartlily]

Oh thank you Aubrey! I am so glad. Now all I have to do is arrange to meet her...