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Previous Thread Next Thread Print Thread Page 2 of 2 1 2 Re: Interesting item on English #105346 06/11/03 12:36 PM Joined: Apr 2000 Posts: 10,542 this too shall pass tsuwm Carpal Tunnel tsuwm Carpal Tunnel Joined: Apr 2000 Posts: 10,542 this too shall pass >=83,333,333,333,333,333,333,333,333,333,333,333,333,333,333, 333,333,333,333,333,333,333,333,333,333,333,333,333,333,333,333. That's a couple orders of magnitude of difference. Not exactly googol range. not exactly a couple, either! <g> Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: Interesting item on English #105347 06/11/03 12:38 PM Joined: Jun 2002 Posts: 7,210 Vermont Buffalo Shrdlu Carpal Tunnel Buffalo Shrdlu Carpal Tunnel Joined: Jun 2002 Posts: 7,210 Vermont thppt! formerly known as etaoin... Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: Interesting item on English #105348 06/30/03 07:03 PM Joined: Mar 2000 Posts: 11,613 Louisville, Kentucky Jackie Carpal Tunnel Jackie Carpal Tunnel Joined: Mar 2000 Posts: 11,613 Louisville, Kentucky Interesting post, JH. Who is Robert Chapman, anyway? I have my doubts about that "But only 43 of them make up half of everything you say", too. Let me try and think, here--and of course this will have to discount proper nouns, as they would change from person to person. Here we go--as many as I can think of, of the words I use most commonly: a, an, and, the, I, you, he, she, it, his, hers, yours, theirs, it's (apostrophe deliberate--I don't use "its" all that often), we, they, your, yours, be, am, is, are, were, was, go, going, to, for, some, too, went, gone, out, in, of, about, just, only, few, quite, think, thinking, thought, ask, asked, asking, read, reading, talk, talked, talking... That's 51, and I haven't even gotten to the nouns yet. Did Mr. Chapman give a list of these 43? Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: Interesting item on English #105349 07/01/03 01:40 AM Joined: Jan 2003 Posts: 171 Hawaii, USA J JohnHawaii OP member OP JohnHawaii member J Joined: Jan 2003 Posts: 171 Hawaii, USA Chapman was the author of "A Dictionary of American Slang," published in 1960. I wasn't familiar with the man or his work until I came across a short item in the newspaper that made the statement I posted. I'm not prepared to defend it, having no information on his methodology. Your list of most-used words casts reasonable doubt on his conclusions. Unfortunately, the 43 words were not included in the article. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: Interesting item on English #105350 07/01/03 01:16 PM Joined: Mar 2000 Posts: 1,027 Switzerland wsieber old hand wsieber old hand Joined: Mar 2000 Posts: 1,027 Switzerland Im a little surprised you didn't include arrrrgh.. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: Interesting item on English #105351 07/01/03 06:03 PM Joined: Mar 2000 Posts: 11,613 Louisville, Kentucky Jackie Carpal Tunnel Jackie Carpal Tunnel Joined: Mar 2000 Posts: 11,613 Louisville, Kentucky Augh! Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Page 2 of 2 1 2 Moderated by  Jackie  Hop To General Topics ------  Information and announcements  Q&A about words  Wordplay and fun  Words and languages in schools  Miscellany  Weekly Themes  Looking for (writers, speakers,... (Old) Weekly themes. (have been... ------  Words from medicine  Beheading words  Meta-words  Words from classical mythology  Animal Safari  Words with unusual etymologies  Eponyms or words derived from p...  Loanwords from German  English as a global language Print Thread Switch to Threaded Mode Show Likes Link Copied to Clipboard View Profile Private Message Website Follow User Forum Posts Like Summary View Profile Private Message Website Follow User Forum Posts Like Summary View Profile Private Message Follow User Forum Posts Like Summary View Profile Private Message Follow User Forum Posts Like Summary View Profile Private Message Follow User Forum Posts Like Summary View Profile Private Message Follow User Forum Posts Like Summary Forum Statistics Forums16 Topics13,913 Posts229,331 Members9,182 Most Online3,341 Dec 9th, 2011 Newest Members Ineffable, ddrinnan, TRIALNERRA, befuddledmind, KILL_YOUR_SUV 9,182 Registered Users Who's Online Now 0 members (), 854 guests, and 1 robot. Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod Top Posters(30 Days) wofahulicodoc 32 A C Bowden 15 ddrinnan 1 Top Posters wwh 13,858 Faldage 13,803 Jackie 11,613 wofahulicodoc 10,542 tsuwm 10,542 LukeJavan8 9,916 Buffalo Shrdlu 7,210 AnnaStrophic 6,511 Wordwind 6,296 of troy 5,400

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