Why do circuit breakers go up for on and down for off?

Yes, I imagine that the lack of gender and the lack of word-ending agreement, and the separate "little words" (prepositions, articles, pronouns) as opposed to conveying those things in word endings - all those are things that probably make it easier. English is probably an easy language to *speak* (when you can use a subset of the vocabulary) but a hard language to *understand* when people use unusual vocabulary or make subtle distinctions between words and/or phrases which might be the same in another language.

Pronunciation is definitely weird. Cholmondley and Featherstoneshaugh (Fanshaw) are beyond weird. Leicester, Gloucester, Bicester are weird but it's an easy rule to learn - but as usual there are exceptions: Cirencester is pronounced as-spelled (Siren-sess-ter) unlike all the other -cesters. Then there are Chesham Bois and Theydon Bois where the "bois" is clearly from the French for "wood", but it's pronounced "boys" rather than "bwa" (the French way). Do other English-speaking countries have their own place/people names that have non-intuitive pronunciations?

A lot of Native American names that were transcribed by the French and butchered by later colonists can be challenging.

Mackinac and Mackinaw are pronounced the same, but both spellings are in use. By contrast, Sanilac is prounounced "San-i-lack".

Detroit has lost its French pronunciation. A bunch of street names in that city have suffered the same fate.

Kansas and Arkansas don't rhyme.

And a lot of them are just funny, like Kalamazoo, Potawatomi, or Ocqueoc.

Yes, one can learn a limited subset of a language, enough to do things (even professionally), but beyond that there is a lot to learn. Then there is a moment in which there are many little things that make a difference. Including cultural knowledge of the society where one is conversing.

You notice this if you try to read texts that are three or four centuries old, in your own language, because unless you are a scholar you miss the context. The archetypical example in Spanish is Don Quixote. The novel has so much context that you can get editions where the comments and explanations on the side are larger than the novel itself.

For instance, the book I started learning English taught the expression "it is raining cats and dogs". Most of the times I tried to use it, nobody understood it and I had to explain :-D

The installer's standard installation is apparently to use Henley blocks to split the feed between the existing CU and a new, 2-way one, with a double pole MCB in it. They will then use whatever cable is needed to meet the regulations without RCD protection (T&E or SWA).

The charger incorporates its own RCD protection and monitoring of the Earth/Neutral), so does not need one on the supply and no earth rod is needed either. There is no facility for isolation at the charger, unless a separate, weatherproof enclosure is fitted.

In my case T&E was fine, as it runs in the (indoor) electricity cupboard, into the cavity (the cupboard is recessed into the wall, so the back of the cupboard is the outer skin of the wall) and then through the wall into the back of the charger, less than 2' away. At no point is it less than 50mm from the surface, except where it is visible in the cupboard or completely behind the charger.

I preferred not to have the Henley blocks and second enclosure in the cupboard, so I confirmed with them that if I supplied an RCBO (type A, with a C curve), purely for combining the 2-pole isolation and single slot form factor, they would terminate in my existing CU.

In message snipped-for-privacy@Telcontar.valinor, Carlos E.R. <robin snipped-for-privacy@es.invalid writes

English (well, British English) is absolutely saturated with such expressions, and this must mystify and confuse the benighted foreigner.

IIRC, the theme of one of the early Startrek episodes was devoted to understanding the inhabitants of a planet whose language consisted almost entirely of metaphors and the like.

Thee and Thou are still used by some people in Yorkshire.

I don't know any Spanish. I only did French and Latin at school.

English is generally considered very difficult to learn. While it doesn't have the complication of everything being gendered, it has drawn on so many other languages from around the world, retains lots of words or derivations of them from very long ago and has had Latin grammar forced upon it, so much of it is inconsistent, non-intuitive and downright impossible to guess at.

For a good example of pronunciation, see

It already has a couple of informal ones, yous and you-all for yanks.

I used to say 'you two' when asking the parents say where they would be at a certain time etc, but my step mother didn't like that style. She was a rather silly woman tho, hated the use of the word holidays for university students, insisted on vacation for some reason.

We do have one here, 'darl', even when referring to a man.

Always struck me as very odd when I hear it at say a garage sale.

You lot do use 'dear' quite a bit.

We have a lot of aboriginal words, particularly for place names.

Not sure anyone knows how the abos pronounced them, likely nothing like the word we use today, like with Peking, Paris, Bombay etc.

Fark. All those foreign devils who have just hanged themselves are all your fault.

Jane Austen and Sir Walter Scott are perfectly readable. Shakespeare, less so. Chaucer is difficult.

Just don't confuse it with 988 or the white coats will be on their way.

"We are British, dear. We only show affection for dogs and horses."

you guys or y'all.

dawlin and honey in the south, by salesgirls for example. That's sort of nice.

Ah, French... Amazon Prime has a series 'Three Pines' that is set in Quebec. I couldn't figure out one of the detective's names until I saw it written Jean-Guy. I would have picked up on Jean-Paul or Jean-Marie but Jonkey left me puzzled.

That's what ours is derived from.

'you bugger' is common between men here.

IN NYCity, my apartment building and I'm sure most apartment buildings, rentals in general, used Fustats. It's an insert that screws into the original fuse holder (which I think used the same thread as a lightbulb), but the inserts have a different pitch internal thread for each amperage. So in the basement, I could only use one 20-amp Fustat, and in my apartment, I could only use two 15-amp Fustats.

Fustat was the first capital of Egypt under Muslim rule, and the historical centre of modern Cairo -- oops, wrong link.

Menards has Cooper Bussmann® Tamper-Proof Fustat Heavy Duty Plug Fuse

I used to, had to power the whole 6-room apartments, including sometimes the last couple years a small air conditioner, on 20 amps. Only blew the fuse about 4 times.

I'll look, I'll even open it up eventually, but like most of what I own, it's buried. I know where, but that doesn't help.