English Chess Forum

"it would be ridiculous if we copied the French and said Paree for Paris."

Yes, I think you save that for when you're speaking French or if you're in France. If you happen to be in Poland and order a "zywiec" beer, it's best to pronounce it (approximately) "zuvvietts", but back here, it causes confusion. "That's zweek, mate."

Kevin Thurlow wrote: ↑

Sun Apr 25, 2021 6:13 pm

If you happen to be in Poland and order a "zywiec" beer, it's best to pronounce it (approximately) "zuvvietts"...

Hm. Probably best if you just point to it.

Paul Habershon wrote: ↑

Sun Apr 25, 2021 4:54 pm

MJMcCready wrote: ↑

Sat Apr 24, 2021 12:24 am

Paul, how would you pronounce, "The water in Majorca don't taste quite like it ought to"?

If the issue is the last two words, I wouldn't elide 'ought' and 'to'.

However, I may well go wrong with 'Majorca'? J sound or Y sound? I think I usually go Y, but I don't know what's pedantically correct. I suppose the Spanish go Y, but it would be ridiculous if we copied the French and said Paree for Paris.

I don't know also, I just remember the ad linked below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKRuG4oIu_o

Kevin Thurlow wrote: ↑

Sun Apr 25, 2021 10:59 am

"I would prefer a factual 'one meter rule, two meter rule ' etc."

or even "metre", but I agree your main point.

"Social distancing" is a continuation of the fad for using words and phrases wrongly, like "homophobia", which means "fear of the same", using "bad" to mean "good", and "wicked" to mean "very good". Employers say, "We value our staff" meaning "We will rob them blind, and hope they die of exhaustion, as we are too lazy to murder them, whoever they are."

Shouldn't it be two metres/meters rule rather then two metre/meter, since it is a regular plural?

Some comments on recent posts (no particular order).

Nick Ivell wrote: ↑

Sun Apr 25, 2021 9:29 am

But being pedantic, perhaps this belongs in a COVID thread.

Unattached participle alert! (Whatever "this" was, it isn't the one being pedantic.)

A lot of misplaced stresses (e.g. REsearch) and mispronunciations (e.g. PROH-ject) are probably down to our American cousins, and a desire to be seen (heard?) keeping up with them, or with the trend in general.

Some of course are sheer ignorance or failure to take necessary pains. A short-lived revival of Mastermind in NZ a few years ago featured questions on some area of organic chemistry, one of which referred to covalent bonds - read by the question-master as "COVVuhlent".

Militate vs mitigate: this sort of thing is my main bugbear lately. Grab a word that sounds vaguely similar to the correct one and shove it in, saying all the while "well, you know what I really mean" or "near enough's good enough".

For my money, the correct spelling is Mallorca, with the double l pronounced "y" (as in, for example, caballero). Majorca is an unnecessary Anglicisation which in Spanish would sound something like MaHORca.

"covalent bonds - read by the question-master as "COVVuhlent"."

Good grief - of course it helps if you know the meaning or origin of the word. Chemistry is full of this, especially due to its use of German-style portmanteau words, like "ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid", pronounced "ethylene-DI-amine-tetra-aceetic acid", with possibly sneaky elision of the double "a". Non-chemists could struggle though.

Another one is a pesticide, "dieldrin", which even some chemists pronounce "Di-eldrin", (thinking it's two eldrins stuck together), and not realizing it's named after the German chemist, Dr Diels, so it should be "Deel-drin".

Paul Habershon wrote: ↑

Sun Apr 25, 2021 4:54 pm

it would be ridiculous if we copied the French and said Paree for Paris.

Maybe. But one which annoys me is the famous football team being referred to as "Bayern Munich". It should be "Bayern München". If they want to anglicise it then fair enough, but why only do half the job? The completely anglicised version would be "Bavaria Munich".

Kevin Thurlow wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 27, 2021 9:16 am

"covalent bonds - read by the question-master as "COVVuhlent"."

Good grief - of course it helps if you know the meaning or origin of the word. Chemistry is full of this, especially due to its use of German-style portmanteau words, like "ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid", pronounced "ethylene-DI-amine-tetra-aceetic acid", with possibly sneaky elision of the double "a". Non-chemists could struggle though.

The first time I encountered EDTA was at 20, Gordon Street, WC1H OAJ when I used it for complexometric titrations : oh what fun!

Second time was in the MOLS building in Falmer, East Sussex for more or less the same thing. Salad days!

Reading the meniscus level on a burette is an art lost on the youth of today...

Like and agree with the four last posts.

Today's ITV quiz, 'The Chase', had an irritating mistake in a question caption.

'Which of these creatures practices haemotophagy?'

Practice - noun
Practise - verb

So we need 'practises'. Trivial maybe, but I would be sorry if the distinction disappeared.

The two words are in a group of pairs which should follow the same rule.

Licence/license, advice/advise, device/devise.

Those last two pairs are a useful aide-memoire because you can hear the distinction.

The answer, incidentally, was vampire bat.

Our American friends seem to use "practice" and "license" for both noun and verb, which is odd.

They also say eyeglasses for glasses. You would have thought they could just call them glasses, since its pretty obvious where they go.

John Upham wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 27, 2021 5:26 pm

Reading the meniscus level on a burette is an art lost on the youth of today...

Why's that, John? I know the old chemical balances went out once affordable electronic ones became widely available (thus depriving one of the joys of sliding those little bits of metal along the scale at the top, in order to get the exact measurement) . But burettes??

Alistair Campbell (In another thread) wrote: ↑

Fri Jun 25, 2021 1:55 pm

I believe "Good Morning Britain" (which is some sort of television program) ...

It's not a television program. It's a television programme. It has nothing to do with computing.

Back to what started me on this thread.

BBC1 lunchtime news today at a Cotswold archaeological site rich in fossils.

Unsurprisingly the reporter said the fossils were laying in the mud.

Strengthening my belief that this usage is so prevalent nowadays that it will eventually be validated in dictionaries.

I have previously written unsuccessfully to The Times about 'off his own back' (sic), so I enjoyed this letter from Saturday's edition:

Sir, Mrs Malaprop would be in her element had she been commentating on the Olympic Games this year. She would have had stiff opposition, however, to judge by the mangled idioms spoken by several of the commentators: 'Off his own back'; 'They are having a conflab'; 'Edging their bets' and that old chestnut 'In one fowl swoop'. The abundance of regional accents on radio and television is to be applauded but ignorance of the language is not.

Jane Edwards
Eldersfield, Worcs