Although not as complex, french is similar, due to the small size of the language - I understand it is one of the languages with the fewest words in the world.
Spelling and pronunciation of "habanero"
- Thread starter Avon Barksdale
- Start date
I'm definitely an above average speller (which isn't saying much), but certain words I can't ever seem to spell correctly no matter many times I write them. Fortunately, 99% of my writing is on the computer and I have spell checker.
Our phonetic system is a absurd, if you can even really say we actually have one...I've heard that Mandarin is fairly easy to speak, they have no verb tenses at all from what I've read, although I can't imagine ever learning how to write a language based on symbols with no alphabet.
Is "spelt" actually used in Canada? It's considered archaic in the US, not sure about the rest of the English speaking world. A lot of words are different among Canada/US/Australia/Britain. Shined/shone, dived/dove, got/gotten, etc.
I think English has the largest vocabulary of any language, it seems that aside from the most common words, we seem to have a West Germanic and Latin derived synonym for practically every word. E.g. late (West Germanic) and tardy (from Latin). English seems to have more synonyms than probably any language in the world.
With the majority of Spanish words I can think of a word with the same or related meaning in English, even if the word isn't commonly used. IIRC correctly English vocabulary is approximately 40% from West Germanic languages and 60% from French (and most of that coming from Latin). I've noticed that Spanish has far less synonyms than English because we have tons of words from both sources while theirs come almost entirely from Latin with most exceptions being Arabic, or more recently English.
MmMM sounds like something I want to order from Starbucks...
I understand the native Aleutian language has something like 32 different words for english's sole "snow"..... that is ONE way in which english isn't so bad.
One of the stranger groups of terms in the English language concerns the naming of groups of animals.
Sure, we're all familiar with hearing of a pack of wolves, a herd of bison or a colony of ants.
But some groupings of certain animals are downright unique to say the least: a herd of wrens, a flock of lice, a wisdom of wombats, a leap of leopards, a lounge of lizards, a bloat of hippopotamuses, a tower of giraffes, a kine of cows, a wake of vultures, a scurry of squirrels and a murder of crows.
http://www.thealmightyguru.com/Pointless/AnimalGroups.html
dvg
Sure, we're all familiar with hearing of a pack of wolves, a herd of bison or a colony of ants.
But some groupings of certain animals are downright unique to say the least: a herd of wrens, a flock of lice, a wisdom of wombats, a leap of leopards, a lounge of lizards, a bloat of hippopotamuses, a tower of giraffes, a kine of cows, a wake of vultures, a scurry of squirrels and a murder of crows.
http://www.thealmightyguru.com/Pointless/AnimalGroups.html
dvg
lol - we are able to communicate, that's for sure, but we don't always do so effectively!
Mandarin has verbs like most other languages, perhaps the African "click" language doesn't. xiang = would like, jiao = to be called and the dreaded shi = is(and for the record shi is pronounced shur). But, like you mentioned, chinese and french do follow a similar form, noun/verb/adjective/adverb. I had neighbours from mainland china and even attempting to interact in their language caused them pain, they weren't forgiving at all, mainly because of the tones, if you didn't hit a tone just right they pretended they couldn't understand. I had some chinese customers that were very forgiving and said they could understand me - he attributed it to the same as if a chinese person used the letter "L" and we english decided to pretend we couldn't understand them, example lemon = remon.
I was taught the present/future/past in school and for spell it was spell, spell, spelt(like feel, feel, felt) but i witness some today using spelled, perhaps dvg can weigh in, i was raised in central canada and perhaps he was raised in the west with a different curiculum. For years, i had a spelling teacher, separate class just for spelling everyday, my instructor was a small, petite man with exact pronunciation, with a large moustache and toupee, he was quite.... a gay fellow, now here is where i will leave things to your imagination, am i using gay in the present form or in archaic form(ie. watch an old movie, possibly an old Mickey Rooney). Got a love it.
back in the '80's, I use to be one of them.....get it......lounge lizard, one of the first PC games leisure suit larry in the land of the lounge lizards, okay i should try to stick to more modern jokes but i am having a good memory day, had to get up early and put the garbage out(garbage day) and then....yep....had to do it.....apply for a job. Motorola Canada ask me to submit a resume for a position they think they have now finally found the money for.....God that was painful!
as long as we stick to peppers we are okay but occassionaly to dip our toes into unknown waters and it turns out good, then again, we had to pull the politics option because that's where many fell apart.
Mark, both 'spelled' or 'spelt' are acceptable words for the past tense of spell.
'Spelled' is more commonly used in American English, whilst 'spelt' is more often seen in British spelling.
I was born and raised in Alberta, and we were later taught to either choose between using British spelling (colour, labour, whilst) or American spelling (color, labor, while), but not to mix the two.
But when I was in grade school, we were taught the British system.
Nowadays, I just like to have fun with the language.
And I do remember Leisure Suit Larry and the term lounge lizards.
dvg
'Spelled' is more commonly used in American English, whilst 'spelt' is more often seen in British spelling.
I was born and raised in Alberta, and we were later taught to either choose between using British spelling (colour, labour, whilst) or American spelling (color, labor, while), but not to mix the two.
But when I was in grade school, we were taught the British system.
Nowadays, I just like to have fun with the language.
And I do remember Leisure Suit Larry and the term lounge lizards.
dvg
Yeah I know they have verbs, but no verb tenses. E.g. The verbs don't change form for past, present, future, etc.
While and whilst aren't different spellings though, they're two different words that are synonyms (except that whilst never functions as a noun like while does). It's true that whilst is considered a little archaic in American English though.
I use whilst all the time, my past post will show that, I also distingush between who and whom but i had that drilled into me from an early age....Mr. Gray.... or should i say Mr. Gay.... well that's what we called him! Wonder if he is still alive or some bug got him.
you have me on that one sweetie, and i don't feel like doing a google thing.
thanks for weighing in doug, differences in canadian literature, hmmm, my kids are taught color, labor and their teachers have no idea about whilst, which is kind of a shame as that is what separated canada from US culture(not that it is a bad thing, just, for so long canadian culture has gone out of its way to associate itself with colonial english and the mixture of french). When I volunteer at the school to do reading, its funny to watch the younger teachers stop and watch, reading a story as it was meant to be read, it doesn't take a genious, but I guess if they were never taught how to read with expression and pause.... i'll leave that one alone. i will go on a stretch here and also note whiskey(american) versus whisky(canadian), for the record I like them both, very much so.
Hmmm, maybe succumbed to the misguided use of some Teacher's Aides?
Wry Whiskey, Rye Whisky, I'll drink to that...
...apologies to Corb Lund fans out there.
dvg
Well, I won't leave that one alone. I am always astounded at the number of people I run into who say they don't like to read. Don't like to read?!?! Other than where learning disabilities exist, all I can figure is that they were never read to the way stories are meant to be read out loud - then they likely repeat the monotone inside their own heads when they read - who would enjoy that? Oy - we need more real storytellers in our schools! Maybe even require parents to take a storytelling class..... Thank you for volunteering that way!
at the last chile fest where i was selling hot sauce
i had a women come up to me and say OH YOUR SAUCE HAS "BUT JALOOKA" in it, well i was not trying to be mean but i tried to help her with her pronunciation,well she would have none of it!! she insisted she was saying it correctly, she further went on to show more stupidity by say "oh my boyfriend grows[the "BEE JALOOKA" and its hotter than the "BUT JALOOKA" so i know im saying it right because that,s the way he says it
at this my good friend had enough of this crap,he says to her well even if it is hotter 1 million shu is 1 million shu and a few hundred over your probably not going to notice the difference anyway, he redirected the conversation on her because he saw i was getting nowhere with the pronunciation issue, she finally just shut up ,i never did understand what point she was trying to make,she didnt buy anything and then just walked away like nothing ever happened??
i try very hard not to be critical and it pisses me of when others do it to me over stuff that just doesn't mean anything, but some people are either hard-headed and/or lazy and as a result wont accept "friendly" correction and that's sad
WHEN YOU STOP LEARNING YOU STOP GROWING
i never wanna stop doing either
thanks your friend Joe
i had a women come up to me and say OH YOUR SAUCE HAS "BUT JALOOKA" in it, well i was not trying to be mean but i tried to help her with her pronunciation,well she would have none of it!! she insisted she was saying it correctly, she further went on to show more stupidity by say "oh my boyfriend grows[the "BEE JALOOKA" and its hotter than the "BUT JALOOKA" so i know im saying it right because that,s the way he says it
at this my good friend had enough of this crap,he says to her well even if it is hotter 1 million shu is 1 million shu and a few hundred over your probably not going to notice the difference anyway, he redirected the conversation on her because he saw i was getting nowhere with the pronunciation issue, she finally just shut up ,i never did understand what point she was trying to make,she didnt buy anything and then just walked away like nothing ever happened??
i try very hard not to be critical and it pisses me of when others do it to me over stuff that just doesn't mean anything, but some people are either hard-headed and/or lazy and as a result wont accept "friendly" correction and that's sad
WHEN YOU STOP LEARNING YOU STOP GROWING
i never wanna stop doing either
thanks your friend Joe
