Thread: ABUSE of the English Language

I never understood the "She is the cat's mother" business that my mum went on about.

So I ignored it until I went away....

I am sure its another example of the abuse of the English language.

You aint seen nothin yet... :confused: :confused:
Bit like the question what colour is God.
White boy said he asked him and he told him he was white, did you see him, no but he told me.
How do you know he is white?, he said "I am what I am, if he was black he would have said 'Ah is what ah is'

I use the hard / difficult one quite a bit but I also think they are somewhat interchangeable.

The can I / may I bothers me.

Another one that is not used correctly is the who/whom.

Please explain the wood/timber one to me..... (this is not flame bait) I honestly haven't heard the reasoning behind calling it timber vs wood.

In another thread I used the word lumber and I am used to calling the wood supplier the "lumber yard" although I think lumber in my mind is more of a construction type wood....2x4s and the like.

Anyway, I am sure this will be a interesting thread.

"Lumber' is not a word in use here, seems to be more USA, Canada and I have heard it used in the UK.

Originally Posted by Firewalker

The can I / may I bothers me.

The phrase " Can I " is asking someone if they believe whether I am able to do something whereas " May I " is asking permission to do it.

Please explain the wood/timber one to me..... (this is not flame bait) I honestly haven't heard the reasoning behind calling it timber vs wood.

In another thread I used the word lumber and I am used to calling the wood supplier the "lumber yard" although I think lumber in my mind is more of a construction type wood....2x4s and the like.

Trees are made of wood but here when they are cut into planks they are called timber not lumber. Hence we go to a timber yard and buy timber and also we use the larger size first so we would buy 4 * 2 and not 2* 4. Neither do we use the phrase 5/4 or 8/4 but 1 1/4 and 2. Similarly nails are described by their lenght and not their pennyweight.

Just cultural differences I suppose but it is handy to know these differences.

That's interesting to know the differences in terms.

I did know the can I / may I ........just agree that it's irritating when used wrong.

I originally typed a long winded reply but my browser froze and it erased......screw it........will just drink another beer instead of retyping.

Cheers!

Scott

And if we go to a wood yard its to get firewood

Originally Posted by Ivan in Oz

Rick got me to thinking about the use and ABUSE of the English Language.
I believe we are all guilty, at some time.
My pet hate is the incorrect use of 'Hard' when 'Difficult' should be used.

When ever I make concrete it goes "difficult ??", Huh.....??

Al :confused:

A phrase that REALLY annoys me is one that you hear a lot by financial analysts and politicians and that is "going forward". Why not use "the future".

It seems that most industry sectors are developing into sub-cultures with their own words, phraseology and industry specific acronyms. I surpose wood working can be included in that as well.

At the risk of offending you lot who have goosetepping tendancies re language, swearing, spelling and such... I venture the following ; Is not the purpose of language/s to convey meaning, express thought, profess opinion, laud poetry and song ?? if so who cares if I use difficult instead of hard ? so long as the meaning of the intention of the sentance is expressed without missunderstanding theoretical right or wrong grammer, pronunciation and spelling is TOTALLY irrelevant.

Everyone gets it wrong; politicians, judges, winos, grunt, frank zappa, , you, me. why burden your life with the hating of the irreconcilable ?

wars have started due to misunderstandings in inflection, grammer and pronunication - what a waste!

Alfred Einstien was right when he said (If you allow me to paraphrase his quote here and twist it to my argument as a descriptor) "Nationalism is the bane of civilisation, the scourge of humanity" What am I trying to say here ? The sooner we have a common language the better. I hope my being difficult wasnt too hard for you goosteppers.

I love the smell of difficultwood, but it's a basterd to machine.

I agree with Zed (could be a first! )

I have some other thoughts on the subject but they're difficultly worth peopletioning.

I've never cared much for correct 'grammer'. I can see how its important, in so far been understood. But thats as far as it gets with me.

But what I think is a little worse, is letting oneself worry about it. For me, the question is.......'do I know what the guy's talking about ? ' .....and most of the time the answer is 'yes' even if he's writen/spoken it the wrong way.

And then what do you do about it, when somebody annoys you with poor english ? ...tell him so ! Like bloody hell I would. The last thing I would wish to resemble is some kind of vigilante,....the bloody grammer police.

well ..ahhh, actually, thats ' Difficult,,,,not hard' <- most people would tell you, or at least think, 'get stuffed' after hearing you say that. ...

Each to their own , Ivan, of course, ....some people probably think my pet peeves are bloody ridiculous as well.

p.s. ......sorry about my poor english. ..bound to be a lot in my ravings

Originally Posted by Driver

I agree with Zed

Surely not even the bit about Frank Zappa!!! :eek: :eek: :eek:

P