Yes English spelling can be really confusing. Weird is one word that doesn't
follow the general rule and Neil - my nephew's name - is another which really
confused me I always wanted to follow the rule. Rules in English spelling are
always only guidelines and as the old adage says 'The exception proves the
rule'. Which of course doesn't make sense until you realise that prove in this
case means test.
For those word smiths it is also the case that we can say whether a particular
word in English or not by the letter combination(s). So for instance if a word
contained the following combination of letters -tchst- we would say the word
is not English or is it?
Another item I find fascinating is once children turn approximately 2 years if
they have not been exposed to particular sounds then they are unable to
differentiate between similar sounds - I suppose in English an example would
be free and three - that's why some people never manage a good accent in a
foreign language and why Chinese have problems with the r sound.
With regard to Jean's
"Are you fed up of scratching or
overloading your car?"
I think it should be:
"Are you fed up with scratching or
overloading your car?"
If I read them in the first sentence I want to put a pause after scratching (a
comma). With my education in the UK we did not study grammar as such and so I
can only go by whether something sounds right - once had a 'discussion' with a
work colleague as to whether who or whom was correct in a particular sentence.
The lack of a grammatical education meant that in a recent quiz the question
"Which TV show features a split infinitive in the opening?" left me reaching
for an English usage book - (so which tv show? and, what's the split
infinitive?).
As English is a living and diverse language to try and stop changes will be as
successful as Canute was in trying to stop the tide coming in, or indeed any
other language trying to stop English words from creeping in. My own bugbears
as far as English usage are:
- the use of the word sick for something thats good
- the invention of the word yous as an unnecessary plural for you (an Aussie
invention as far as I'm aware).
- the use of the word loan for both borrow and loan.
On that note the printer has stopped printing the designs, so I can put the
freshly made yoghurt in the fridge and go to bed!!
Peter
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