Thread: Millimetres vs Millimeters

English is a constantly evolving language, which is a strength.

English speaking countries do not have a conference to decide the "proper" spelling or pronunciation of a word or to make up new words. We don't need to as we will adapt as necessary.

For instance, there is no English word for large wave caused by undersea earthquake (a tidal wave is a different phenomenon). We have adopted Tsunami, a Japanese word. Similarly with many other new concepts, we have just freely adopted whatever happened to fit.

We do not speak the same English as Chaucer (1343-1400). Apart from scholars and the occasional enthusiast of middle English literature very few people would understand what is being said without a translation. If you want to try, have a look at this link. I have only a passing ability to parse this into something I can understand without assistance. I expect that 700 years from now "English" speakers may have a similar problem with our contemporary version of the language.

In summary, there are far greater contemporary issues that deserve the attention we give to what is in the long term a dead argument anyway.

Originally Posted by niki

OK, so, during the 2nd word war, the Aussie's came to help the British forces.

At that day they were under heavy bombardment and one of the Aussie's was standing and looking around.

The British officer shouted on him "Hey you, get down, did you come here TO DIE".....No Sir, YESTERDAY" replied the Aussie

Happy new year to all of you mates
niki

actually Niki it was yestdy and a happy new year to you.

Mike

Originally Posted by Koala-Man

Yes It's Pajero you're thinking of, but there's actually no such Spanish word, despite the urban myth that it means w#nker in Spanish.....

It's just one of those dopey car names marketing types think up, like Celica or Elantra, that have no meaning.

Gaz.

So you're proposing that Mitsu made up TWO dopey Spanish car names when they could have had the same mileage (kilometrage) out of one? I don't buy it. The Pajero was the Montero in the US and South America. Why bother?

Especially after the disaster that was the Chevy Nova in South America.

Face it mate, you guys can't speak English OR Spanish.

Next time you run into Pauline Hanson, ask her what "a strayer" is!

Originally Posted by Barry_White

And centimetres should be banned along with feet and inches

What about deci- and decametres?

Originally Posted by Spear

Next time you run into Pauline Hanson, ask her what "a strayer" is!

She won't be getting up if I run into her to ask...

Originally Posted by Koala-Man

Yes It's Pajero you're thinking of, but there's actually no such Spanish word, despite the urban myth that it means w#nker in Spanish.....

It's just one of those dopey car names marketing types think up, like Celica or Elantra, that have no meaning.

As for the millimetre/millmeter thing, I'm still fuming that we rejected such useful measures as the foote and the ynche.

Gaz.

Had a female friend come over from Argentina a couple of years back who got terribly embarresed when the word "Pajero" was uttered, she point blank refused to utter it, which made things interesting when we were deciding which vehicle to take. It may not show up in any dictionaries but I can assure you that it does, in fact mean "wanker" or "wanking" in the venacular of Spanish speaking South Americans.

Mick

Originally Posted by journeyman Mick

It may not show up in any dictionaries but I can assure you that it does, in fact mean "wanker" or "wanking" in the venacular of Spanish speaking South Americans.

Mick

Thank you. Remember I lived in LA for the last 12 years. I speak spanish better than strine. Which doesn't mean I speak either well, but at least I know all the bad bits.

Originally Posted by markharrison

She won't be getting up if I run into her to ask...

Tsk tsk Mark.
Violence will get you everywhere - especially with Pauline.

Niki,
English is quite easy to learn. Can't see your problem. take this poem for example

The wind was rough,
T'was cold and blough.
She kept her hands within her mough.
And yet although there was no snoogh,
The wind it was a cruel fough.
She gave a cough,
Pray do not scough,
She sneezed her head and tail right ough.

Sorting that one out might while away a little free time. English is easy cos I can speak it.

Jerry

Everyone is entitled to my opinion

I've always liked the story from many years ago with the Mitsubishi range.

They already had the small car Colt out for a while, then decided to bring out a big brother version, and call it a Stallion.

They had to seek approval from the parent company in Japan, but somewhere along the lines, the words got minced up largely due to the Japanese English of the parent company, and the name Starrion was born.

Well it does sort of sound plausible

You are so correct Jerry
And you are lucky that you don't have to study other languages because English is widely spoken in the world.


Ray
Yes, the Japanese don't have the letter L and all the L's are pronounced as R....
You can imagine how shocked I was when a Japanese friend told me:
"Today is eLection day"...just change the L with R and you will see what I mean....

Regards
niki

Niki,

At schoiol I had to try to learn Latin, German and French. Failed badly. Had better luck with Chaucerian Middle English which I can read with reasonable fluency.
As to Japanese English I travelled back to England a couple of years ago on JAL and had a problem saying straight faced when a charming Japanese girl introduced herself as our Fright Attendant and at the end of the journey hoped we had enjoyed our Fright.
How did you like the poem?

Jerry

Everyone is entitled to my opinion

Originally Posted by Blocklayer

It seems that Americans spell Millimetre as 'Millimeter' (as well as meter, liter, center etc). I Googled 'Millimetre' and got 756,000 results, and for 'Millimeter' I got 6,270,000 results. So it seems theres more American spellings of it than the other. But Americans don't even use Metric!
Its hard enough trying to convert between Metric and Imperial without having to worry about the spelling also.
I've ended up with a mix up of spellings, where if I think an American is converting Imperial to Metric I'll say 'Millimeter' and if anyone else is converting Metric to Imperial I'd say 'Millimetre'
So whos right and whos wrong. Surely there cant be 2 right ways to spell it.
What do you reckon?

How about just mm , then everyone's happy? If Americans or anyone else are not sure what it means, they can look it up, eh?