[Trinidad]

cherdano, on 2013-January-14, 11:39, said:

BullshitRubbish! There are two flavours of spelling. And native-speakers can't even agree whether they use a cart or a trolley to bring the prescriptions for theird cold their menthol sweets and bags of herbal tea from the drugstorechemist across the parking lotcar park to their station wagonestate car.

STOP! I am laughing so loud I am wetting my err my err... well.. pick one!

Rik

[Trinidad]

Cyberyeti, on 2013-January-14, 10:34, said:

Many Brits know that if you want to get a higher quality of English spelling and grammar, you ask a Dutchman.

Vampyr, on 2013-January-14, 10:36, said:

Surely a Scandinavian!

I'm not sure whether you are referring to me, but I consider myself to be somewhat of both.

Rik

[gwnn]

If you trust a Dutchman's English too much you're bound to be disappointed eventually.

[Trinidad]

gwnn, on 2013-January-14, 12:20, said:

If you trust a Dutchman's English too much you're bound to be disappointed eventually.

I agree.

The Netherlands is probably one of the countries -without an English history- with the largest density of people who can speak English as a second language.

On the other hand, The Netherlands is probably also the country with the largest density of people who think they know English. "Ent sum prominent dutsj fooks (pollitisjuns kum toe majnt) aar riel bet eksempuls et inglisj."

Rik

[blackshoe]

Vampyr, on 2013-January-14, 10:33, said:

But how curious that a (native English-speaking) person could have heard of lead or any other element without having attended school... no, it's probably more that teaching spelling and grammar is no longer considered important, because it takes time away from teaching things like "empowerment" and "self-actualisation".

It is certainly true that learning spelling and grammar is not considered important — by the students, at least.

[gordontd]

Bbradley62, on 2013-January-14, 11:51, said:

Every 5-year-old who has played CLUE knows about lead pipes :-)

You call it CLUE? Presumably you mean CLUEDO?

[Bbradley62]

gordontd, on 2013-January-14, 17:13, said:

You call it CLUE? Presumably you mean CLUEDO?

It's been CLUE in the USA for more than 40 years, so y'all can call it whatever you want in UK, but don't be arrogant enough to expect the rest of the world to conform.

[mgoetze]

Bbradley62, on 2013-January-14, 17:15, said:

don't be arrogant enough to expect the rest of the world to conform.

Well, it's called CLUEDO in Germany.

[Trinidad]

mgoetze, on 2013-January-14, 18:05, said:

Well, it's called CLUEDO in Germany.

and perhaps the rest of the world...

Rik

[gordontd]

Bbradley62, on 2013-January-14, 17:15, said:

don't be arrogant enough to expect the rest of the world to conform.

I thought, in the context of this thread, that I didn't need a smiley for my intention to be clear. Obviously not. Sorry.

[the hog]

Bbradley62, on 2013-January-14, 17:15, said:

It's been CLUE in the USA for more than 40 years, so y'all can call it whatever you want in UK, but don't be arrogant enough to expect the rest of the world to conform.

I assume it is called "Clue" in the US because Americans lack the English ability to pronounce words of 2 or more syllables.

[gordontd]

the hog, on 2013-January-16, 01:51, said:

I assume it is called "Clue" in the US because Americans lack the English ability to pronounce words of 2 or more syllables.

Let's see if the smiley saves you.

[Cyberyeti]

the hog, on 2013-January-16, 01:51, said:

I assume it is called "Clue" in the US because Americans lack the English ability to pronounce words of 2 or more syllables.

Reminds me of the old joke (XXXX is pronounced 4X and is/was one of their most common brands) "Why do Australians call lager XXXX" - because they can't spell beer.

[Vampyr]

the hog, on 2013-January-16, 01:51, said:

I assume it is called "Clue" in the US because Americans lack the English ability to pronounce words of 2 or more syllables.

Well, also "Ludo" was known by the brand name "Parcheesi", so the allusion to the former would have been lost on the Americans.

[kenberg]

Do kids still play CLUE? And Parcheesi? These were two of my favorite childhood games, back in the 1940s. Checking with the Wik, I see CLUE hit in 1949. I was ten. Sounds right. I hadn't realized either were imports, or knock-offs, from other countries. Please don't tell me Uncle Wiggly was not homegrown. I learned to read by following the adventures of the Rabbit Gentleman as I picked up cards that determined his fate. I greatly enjoyed "Taxi; The game with rules made to be broken". I'm not sure you can still get it, probably we no longer accept the idea of rules made to be broken. Better that the kids pick up a remote and blow somethinig up.

[billw55]

kenberg, on 2013-January-16, 08:08, said:

Do kids still play CLUE? And Parcheesi? These were two of my favorite childhood games, back in the 1940s. Checking with the Wik, I see CLUE hit in 1949. I was ten. Sounds right. I hadn't realized either were imports, or knock-offs, from other countries. Please don't tell me Uncle Wiggly was not homegrown. I learned to read by following the adventures of the Rabbit Gentleman as I picked up cards that determined his fate. I greatly enjoyed "Taxi; The game with rules made to be broken". I'm not sure you can still get it, probably we no longer accept the idea of rules made to be broken. Better that the kids pick up a remote and blow somethinig up.

We have Clue and Parcheesi and sometimes play them with our kids. Other times Acquire or Dominion, and several other games both modern and dated.

[kenberg]

billw55, on 2013-January-16, 08:21, said:

We have Clue and Parcheesi and sometimes play them with our kids. Other times Acquire or Dominion, and several other games both modern and dated.

I'm very glad to hear this. When young, I had both the best board game collection and the best comic book collection in the immediate neighborhood. We also had one of the first televisions in the neighborhood, but the board games got far more use. I try not to get too nostalgic about this, but it does sometimes seem as if childhood was easier back then.

[jillybean]

CLUEDO in UK and NZ

[blackshoe]

Cyberyeti, on 2013-January-16, 04:32, said:

Reminds me of the old joke (XXXX is pronounced 4X and is/was one of their most common brands) "Why do Australians call lager XXXX" - because they can't spell beer.

American beer commercial: "Fosters! It's Australian for 'beer'"!
Australian: "No. It's Australian for 'Budweiser'".

[TimG]

Vampyr, on 2013-January-14, 10:33, said:

But how curious that a (native English-speaking) person could have heard of lead or any other element without having attended school... no, it's probably more that teaching spelling and grammar is no longer considered important, because it takes time away from teaching things like "empowerment" and "self-actualisation".

Perhaps time well spent?

Quote

That's not true. There is a right way and there are wrong ways. Unfortunately, sources like newspapers, which non-native speakers would tend to trust, do not always use the right way.

Sometimes there are right ways. Sometimes there are many ways which are not wrong. The right way evolves, what was correct 100 years ago may not be considered correct today. Who is really to say that we are right today instead of yesterday or tomorrow?

I think the important part is that we communicate. I see "your" or "ur" used instead of "you're" quite often. I know it is wrong. But, I also understand what is being communicated. Perhaps when you see "lead" instead of "led" the author becomes less credible to you, meaning that she has hindered her ability to communicate her ideas to you. Or, maybe your perception (your hangup on grammar) has hindered your ability to understand the author's ideas or distracted you from focus on the author's ideas instead of the presentation. In short: why do we care about grammar as long as the idea, thought, or fact was communicated to us in an understandable way?