Discussion
shakotan said:
Tony2or4 said:
sikth
If you're referring to speaking (indeed I am. Tony.), I can't think a way of saying sixth that doesn't make it sound very like 'sikth' phonetically in normal speech. You have to be a massive pedant to pick someone up on that.It's no more difficult than saying 'texting' instead of 'texing', or 'crisps' instead of 'criss'.
Also, my being irritated by that little foible doesn't make me any bigger a pedant than folk who get peed off by people saying 'bought' instead of 'brought', and so on. We all, for whatever reason, find that certain things that people do or say grate uncomfortably. However trivial the linguistic boo-boo happens to be, it's impossible to control the feeling of irritation which is created, and the whole, and only, point of this thread is to give everybody, including me, the opportunity to gnash some public teeth without offending any actual individuals.
Tony2or4 said:
I disagree entirely: I can't see why it should be difficult to insert an 's' sound between the 'k' and 'th' sounds. Just say 'six' then roll straight into a 'th'.
It's no more difficult than saying 'texting' instead of 'texing', or 'crisps' instead of 'criss'.
Also, my being irritated by that little foible doesn't make me any bigger a pedant than folk who get peed off by people saying 'bought' instead of 'brought', and so on. We all, for whatever reason, find that certain things that people do or say grate uncomfortably. However trivial the linguistic boo-boo happens to be, it's impossible to control the feeling of irritation which is created, and the whole, and only, point of this thread is to give everybody, including me, the opportunity to gnash some public teeth without offending any actual individuals.
Intriguing. Saying it as "sics-th" seems like I'm having to pronounce it as 2 syllables rather than the one in "sikthIt's no more difficult than saying 'texting' instead of 'texing', or 'crisps' instead of 'criss'.
Also, my being irritated by that little foible doesn't make me any bigger a pedant than folk who get peed off by people saying 'bought' instead of 'brought', and so on. We all, for whatever reason, find that certain things that people do or say grate uncomfortably. However trivial the linguistic boo-boo happens to be, it's impossible to control the feeling of irritation which is created, and the whole, and only, point of this thread is to give everybody, including me, the opportunity to gnash some public teeth without offending any actual individuals.
BrewsterBear said:
We're talking primary school English here.
A significant number of posters on PistonHeads - unless many are just spectacularly careless - would struggle to cope with the demands of the new (for 2014) National Curriculum for English, for primary children.The documents can be downloaded from here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/nation...
The requirements that pupils are expected to meet by the time of their move to the secondary phase might be of interest to parents here.
If anyone wants to check on his or her own knowledge and skills, or to improve his/her writing, the Appendix and the interactive Glossary are useful as these outline and define key aspects/terms and give clear examples for reference.
Several posters have mentioned spellcheckers. Some are not at all reliable, especially for picking up grammatical errors. SpellCheckPlus on-line is very hit-and-miss and the screenshot below shows how my version of Microsoft Word (11.6.1 - archaic, true) has accepted a couple of tweaks to the above without highlighting any issues. Give it a passive sentence though and it wants to kill!
RizzoTheRat said:
I don't ever remember learning english grammar at school (GSCE's in 1989), we did a lot of spelling tests but things like tenses I learned from French and Latin lessons rather than English. If the current curriculum is more rigorous it can only be a good thing.
It is; very rigorous and a good thing!FlossyThePig said:
Tony2or4 said:
...and her first car was apparently a Ford Angular...
The Ford Anglia from the '60s (as in the Harry Potter film) was very angular.BlackVanDyke said:
I keep seeing people on a forum I use referring to "restbite" care. Can't quite get my head around an adult who has completed secondary education, and who has had considerable involvement with such services, could have missed out on how to spell respite...
I can see the sense in that, they have actually made a new word which means the same as the old one.Think about it:
Rest-bite: A brief resting period
Respite: A brief resting period.
Almost a Spoonerism....
Evolution innit M8.
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