DIY English

[Owain]

nightjar > 'You're' ....

We was allowed them in direct speech.

Owain

[Woodworm]

Bloody hell, Mary Whitehouse has been reincarnated as *tje* English language watchdog of the uk.d-i-y forum!

It's more irritating to me when people post Off Topic on stuff like this - grammatical or spelling precision is not required here - and if *taht* is all you have to worry about, then you must be living a life of ease or have a very pedantic personality.

What is the problem anyway, especially as the 'English" language is a very fluent one and has changed dramatically over the years (and will continue to do so) because of *teh* various inputs of dialects from far and wide - especially the various 'bastardised words from the USA (center being one)?

Disclaimer:

All spelling *abd* gramatical mistakes are the fault of my computer

*keybaord* or the *inabillity* of my *spellchequer* to correct these inaccuracies - please refer all *compliants* to Microsoft.

ROTFL at the crassness of this *forums* or *forums'* or *forum's* (I'll leave you to argue which is correct) word police - there really are more important things in life!

Woodworm

[The Nomad]

None - they are fora "I think" aren't they?

[Cash]

Notwithstanding the fact that many illiterate people [1] are very good with their hands and have an in-depth knowledge of their subject gained from years of work that can be far superior to the 'literates'.

I wonder if *they* "very quickly start to get annoyed" when ill-informed d-i-yers ask rather silly questions here (as do some so-called professionals)?

[1] In the sense of being poor 'spellers' and lacking in grammatical skills - rather than being unable to read.

Cash

[Andy Luckman (AJL Electronics)]

Try AND???

Try TO shirley?

[T i m]

R, what makes you think that those of us who don't have high levels of education in English (or in anything) aren't trying our best already?

No, you are right, it doesn't matter (IMHO of course) especially to the poster of a DIY question getting a helpful reply nor to those of us who read for content not construction.

On an English literacy ng it would be more important of course. ;-)

Misspellings, typo's poor use of punctuation or any such things are nowhere near as important to general communication as the spirit of the facts. Even the facts can be refined with a little Q&A dialogue, even if the grammar is atrocious. (And whilst I do understand your plea) If reading things here 'grates' then I suggest your lives are going way too easy! It would be like standing by the side of the road compaining to all the drivers about todays driving standards. ;-)

Or those who regularly say 'we was', 'nothink' or 'aks' without realising they are wrong but in spite of that we still fully understand what they mean.

Someone I regularly swap emails with is constantly using the 'we was' but as they are mature adults I don't feel it is my place to try to put them right.

Mine two ;-)

T i m

p.s. If I didn't have a spelll check on here I guess 30% of the words would be misspelled. Reading them back 20 times would not affect the outcome.

[Unbeliever]

Steve,

Definition time I believe for those who think they are the bees-knees in all subjects:

An online discussion group. Online services and bulletin board services (BBS's) provide a variety of forums, in which participants with common interests can exchange open messages. Forums are sometimes called newsgroups (in the Internet world) or conferences

As supplied by:

entering the search word *FORUM*

Disbeliever

[Bob Eager]

Misuse of 'myself' instead of 'me'. And I really cringe at 'meet with'.

[TheOldFellow]

They've been called 'lists' since Darpa days, well at least I remember them as that from the 70s. It's a contraction of Mailing-List, methinks. Usenet is a means of subscriber-management of mailing-lists.

When my PDP-11 (could have been a VAX, or even a Sun W/S) connected using NNTP over UUCP via some server in Belgium, IIRC, we called them 'lists'. Putting dates to all that history would take too long.

Another thing I hate is pretending to a knowledge of Latin but using 'Fora', when the perfectly good English word 'Forums' is available. I would mind less, if the 'Fora' was italicised to indicate its foreignness - but, of course, I also don't tolerate HTML in mail.

R.

[Bob Mannix]

or "Do try... and get it right">

[Roger]

The message

from robgraham contains these words:

I think this may well be influenced by the age of the writer. ISTR that Rob is much the same as as me so would have attended school when the English teachers still had a good grasp of the language and weren't afraid to correct their pupils mistakes.

[Roger]

The message from "Unbeliever" contains these words:

You shouldn't believe all you read on the Internet. The writer of that definition seems particularly clueless. A newsgroup is a type of forum but a forum is not necessarily a newsgroup. And if this was an "online discussion group" I for one would not be participating. I read and write off-line. (And if you think I am splitting hairs just have a look at the webopedia definition of online).

[Steve Firth]

No, that's mailing lists which are not news groups. Perhaps you could involve in a little bit of beam-removing before attending to your neighbour's mote?

[Bob Mannix]

Roger's a bit of a "grumpy old man" sometimes but spot on above. The Jeremy Kyle show is a forum, as is an on-line discussion group and a newsgroup (and a bulletin board) but none of the others can be taken to mean each other.

[Alang]

tow the line. principle and principal there and their I confess to misusing licence and license. Can never recall which is which so I adopt the american usage and use either interchangeably :)

But. cod philosophy cod latin

why cod?

Always puzzled me. I have asked a number of graduates in english over the years and none can tell me. One had Phd and was a rabid pedant over the use of english and even he couldn't tell me.

[Alang]

There is a phrase my children picked up when we moved here 40 years ago that still winds me up. It is 'can I lend xxx'. Meaning will you lend me xxx. Took me years to break them of it because all their school friends used it.

[Alang]

My dictionary gives definition for forum as

1. a. The public square or marketplace of an ancient Roman city that was the assembly place for judicial activity and public business. b. A public meeting place for open discussion. c. A medium of open discussion or voicing of ideas, such as a newspaper or a radio or television program.

1. A public meeting or presentation involving a discussion usually among experts and often including audience participation.

1. A court of law; a tribunal.

Seems to be an accurate use of the term.

[Mike Tomlinson]

In article , Alang writes

Wikipedia suggests it's a contraction of codswallop.

[stuart noble]

From today's Daily Telegraph

"The pound is now broadly week against a basket of currencies"

Oh FFS

[Huge]

The point of trolling is to make *other* people look stupid.