What expressions (or words) drive you nuts?? - Part 3

Hi Dahlia! Are you home?

Well Mom was particular about spelling and grammer too but it didnt rub off so much on me!

In any case:spelt:spelt vb
a past tense and past participle of spell

(Of course I cant remember what a past participle is - have to go look that one up too!)

Home Thursday nite. Still hanging with the roadrunners and cactii (which BTW are really, really prickly if you touch them which of course I keep doing).

spelled/spelt, spilled, spilt, burned/burnt, learned/learnt - either way is fine by me!

Fancyvan, that's exactly what drives me nuts - that the English pronunciation of specialty puts in an extra syllable! Again, doesn't bother me so much with the aluminum. Don't know why special-i-ty gets my goat, lol.

But Digger both spellings exist - just like aluminum/almuinium. But I hear you - I lived in UK for a few years and still the pronunciation aluminium bugs me

Ah well it is these little differences that make life interesting!

Yes - two spellings, but it is supposed to be the 'sh' pronunciation in both.

When in NE England I enjoyed watching a TV show & told that the tanker shown was 'bring aluminum ore, for the manufacture of al-u-min-i-um. Both pronunciations, had to drink water to stop laughing.

At least you can say aluminum, one way or the other. It wasn't until recently that I could even say it right! (can't remember how it mixed it up, and don't want to remember, I might not remember the right way! same with medicinal - always saying mecidinal)

carrielamont: Oh no! My own, 58-year-old husband was repeatedly heard describing operations at work as "epic fail".
Hilarious and awesome!!

Voss, "short-speak" is contagious. Lately I've found myself actually saying the initials "LOL" in conversation after I say something that I think is funny but wonder whether the hearer gets it!

Anybody remember how British people say "SHED-ULE" with the soft "sh" sound? This always made me fall about laughing (so did "al-u-min-i-um") and I'm sure my uncouth American pronunciation of the same words sounded hilarious to our British friends!

BTW, "Xmas" has been a common abbreviation for Christmas since 1551, or so says my Oxford Universal Dict. (the same one that gives "shedule" as the preferred pronunciation.)
What a fun thread; I've learned so much!

Yeah, I think the Brits get the right of way on pronunciation. It is their language.

Except they say "Chicago" with a ch sound like in the word "church" and "Las Vegas" like the first syllable of "Lassie" and "pizza" like "pit-sa."
Okay, you're actually right Dave, those words aren't really English ones.
Just saying.

Well, then, I stand corrected. I never in my life saw an alternate spelling for specialty - or for that matter, aluminum, lol. Gee, not only can we learn about gardening on DG, but we can learn about language too! Two of my favorite things - gardening and words! Now only if someone liked hockey...

hi dave

I'm kick butt at shinny DigD. Does that count?

hello Dave

Hmm, I'm not sure, D'nut, lol. Too many variations to tell just yet. On ice, or the street? Do you have goaltenders? On the street with no goaltenders, even I could kick butt, lol! Well, actually, my skating may be better than any form of running I could muster up....

Oops, just saw that you are from AB - so I should probably assume it's on ice. Okay, that counts!

I love going to Army hockey games!

Shinny by def is on street DigD. Nets, goalies, forwards, defenseguys. A GREAT Canuck tradition. Anyone can play 'hockey' with nets, sticks and a tennis ball. The 'Car' call is the only thing thats different cuz coursely you have to let the cars go by when you're blocking the street.. Yank the nets out of the way and it's all good for the car guys, although often the carguys bail from the cars and join in ^_^

I'll start a new thread tomorrow since there is renewed interest. This was interesting:

http://www.livescience.com/history/090226-first-words.html

New:

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1067289/