|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
|
OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
how the handbasket do you remember the correct spelling for words such as presence, absence, essence? (as opposed to incense and license (or licence)) where's the sense in this?
-joe (yes, I often look them up) friday
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 155
member
|
member
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 155 |
I don't know how the pavement that is done. I guess it may be a matter of remembering riffs, which English is full of.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Apr 2007
Posts: 120
member
|
member
Joined: Apr 2007
Posts: 120 |
I wish I could help, but to me, they just look wrong if spelled with an s instead of the c. Ditto that for the contrary. I learned most of my vocabulary from books though, so saw them before I heard them spoken aloud. This resulted in good spelling skills at the cost of correct pronunciation.
Last edited by Maven; 05/23/08 04:57 PM.
tempus edax rerum
|
|
|
|
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 876
old hand
|
old hand
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 876 |
where's the sense in this? Um, at the end? How so very droll.... ;0)
|
|
|
|
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 1,067
old hand
|
old hand
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 1,067 |
I seem to remember at some time in the dim dark past being taught that verbs had 's' and nouns 'c', so that licen se means to give someone a licen ce, for example. But like everything else in English it appears far from consistent. You can't get incensed about incence for example, but only about incense. Sense? In English? ROFL.
Last edited by The Pook; 05/23/08 11:55 PM.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295 |
Insense
In*sense"\, v. t. [Pref. in- in + sense.] To make to understand; to instruct. [Prov. Eng.] --Halliwell. Webster Revised 1996 , 1998
I'm sort of relieved that not only non natives have to deal with these arbitrary things.
So, you can get insensed about incense?
Last edited by BranShea; 05/25/08 09:01 AM.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
Ha! for years i never made a decision. I opted, i made a choice, i elected, i went for, i defaulted to, i stuck with, or i changed my mind.
I love spell check, it has slowly trained me, with a squigglely red line, and more understanding and Um, (another word, that mean quiet understanding, endurance, gentle fortitude (or if spelled wrong, a person seeing a doctor!)
trouble with that second word, it you can get it right (ie spell check doesn't point out a wrong combination of letters) and it can still be wrong.
Stationary or stationery? (finally stand has an A and write has an E... (and the first word with an A (ary) is standing still not moving, the second with an E (ery) is paper for writing on..
INSANE! I also hate silent letters! english words are packed full of them (and being told as a child to "sound them out" was a sort of cruel and unusually punishment, and being asked to spell them, torture.
but i'll be gneiss a and end my rant!
|
|
|
|
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439 |
If nobody knows how to spell it; does it make any difference?
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
wun uv thu gratest riters ov tha inglish langwidge, Wilyum Shaksper, cudn't spel hiz oan naym dhe saim twys in uh roh.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
Ah, that i were as gifted as he! then my odd spelling would be feature, not a flaw!
|
|
|
|
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 1,067
old hand
|
old hand
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 1,067 |
Not to mention the infamous ghoti!
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 1,773
Pooh-Bah
|
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 1,773 |
dalehileman
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 155
member
|
member
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 155 |
Especially if you could deliver it in unceasing iambic pentameter (is that the one?).
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
Especially if you could deliver it in unceasing iambic pentameter (is that the one?). Heh. Yep!
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295 |
wun uv thu gratest riters ov tha inglish langwidge, Wilyum Shaksper, cudn't spel hiz oan naym dhe saim twys in uh roh. He may have had doubts himself whether he was William Shakespeare, Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe or Edward de Vere, the Earl of Oxford.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
wun uv thu gratest riters ov tha inglish langwidge, Wilyum Shaksper, cudn't spel hiz oan naym dhe saim twys in uh roh. He may have had doubts himself whether he was William Shakespeare, Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe or Edward de Vere, the Earl of Oxford. Oor eevene goode Queene Bess hirself.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290 |
He may have had doubts himself whether he was William Shakespeare
My favorite candidate for author of the plays by Wm Shagsberd is Mercutio Florio.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 155
member
|
member
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 155 |
One issue I've heard discussed is whether anyone without extensive exposure to or membership in the royal court could have written all the works credited to W. S. Was there any place else to hang out in and acquire sufficient knowledge?
|
|
|
|
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 1,067
old hand
|
old hand
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 1,067 |
One issue I've heard discussed is whether anyone without extensive exposure to or membership in the royal court could have written all the works credited to W. S. Was there any place else to hang out in and acquire sufficient knowledge? Well considering he made up most of the detail in the plays about Royalty and got much of it quite historically wrong, it doesn't necessarily follow that he did in fact acquire sufficient knowlege.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 155
member
|
member
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 155 |
Shakespeare apparently acquired sufficent knowledge to avoid characterizing or caricaturing powerful personages in a manner so objectionable as to result in his banishment, or worse.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 1,067
old hand
|
old hand
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 1,067 |
Shakespeare apparently acquired sufficent knowledge to avoid characterizing or caricaturing powerful personages in a manner so objectionable as to result in his banishment, or worse. Or sufficient tact to present previous Royal dynasties in a suitably unfavourable light so as to suck up to the Tudors.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 155
member
|
member
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 155 |
Whatever Shakespeare's exposure to history and the ways of the royal court, at least he did not have the World Wide Web to distract him.
Last edited by morphememedley; 06/03/08 05:15 AM. Reason: No literal he he intended
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 155
member
|
member
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 155 |
I'll go ahead and nail myself: Thou doth protest too much.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 1,067
old hand
|
old hand
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 1,067 |
I'll go ahead and nail myself: Thou doth protest too much. To deny is to affirm - Lenin What do you mean I protest too much? Do you mean what the word meant in Shakespeare's day (ie affirm, confirm, attest, confess, aver, vow, etc) or what it means now (ie object, complain, etc)? The quote by the way, is "The lady doth protest too much, methinks," and is Gertrude's comment on the play Hamlet has arranged when he asks her how she likes it. She is saying that the Queen in the play promised too much in declaring she would never marry another if her husband died.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 2
stranger
|
stranger
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 2 |
Stationary or stationery? (finally stand has an A and write has an E... (and the first word with an A (ary) is standing still not moving, the second with an E (ery) is paper for writing on..
if something stays - it is stationary (the "a"s have it..)
if you are using stationery, you can use a pen or pencil (check the "e"s
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290 |
Thou doth protest too much.
Doth is the (archaic) third person singular present indicative of do. The correct second person singular form would be Thou dost protest too much.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 155
member
|
member
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 155 |
I became unable to connect here not long after making the ungrammatical quotation-based comment, and did not timely execute my common practice of posting first and consulting references later. The edit function spoils me. Corrected I stand.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 155
member
|
member
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 155 |
Some might protest that I tortured protest or missed its meaning altogether. I was hinting at my having evidenced, by speaking of how distracting the web can be, the likelihood that I have firsthand experience of being distracted by–or, as a person assuming active responsibility would put it, distracting myself with–the web.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 1,067
old hand
|
old hand
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 1,067 |
Some might protest that I tortured protest or missed its meaning altogether. I was hinting at my having evidenced, by speaking of how distracting the web can be, the likelihood that I have firsthand experience of being distracted by–or, as a person assuming active responsibility would put it, distracting myself with–the web. You should be a politician - by the time I got to the end of that sentence I'd forgotten what the beginning was!
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 155
member
|
member
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 155 |
Thanks for the light hammer blow. Some folks can get mean with the pein.
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics13,913
Posts229,372
Members9,182
|
Most Online3,341 Dec 9th, 2011
|
|
0 members (),
767
guests, and
1
robot. |
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
|