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My (Dutch) team decided to standardize on British English. That didn't work out so well for our Organization entity. The Initialisation function is fine though
I admit I find it difficult sometimes. I know color and colour, but who uses center and centre? I guess I could use some counseling and counselling so I may cast a better judgment and judgement. I my defense and defence, English isn't my first language so you can't expect me to memorize and memorise all the differences. So don't criticize and critizise, because for a non-native English speaker I'm pretty skillful and skilful. Of course, I always welcome dialog and dialogue on the subject
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M.D.V.
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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That's okay. You can always fly in a gray or grey airplane or aeroplane with tires or tyres, and have some yogurt or yoghurt though.
You have just been Sharapova'd.
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I tend to use "Center" as in "The center of a circle" and "Centre" as in "The Transit Centre".
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As an Englishman, I hate to say it, but I do think that the language is gradually drifting towards the American version.
I often hear younger devs talking about dee-em-zees rather than dee-em-zeds these days and the practice of sticking a zed where an ess should be (organize etc.) seems to be growing.
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It's confusing because a lot of the 'z' instead on 's' is old English where the Americans have kept it as it was, and the Brits softened it, and then there's others which the Americans have changed whereas the Brits have kept the old English.
Not that anyone in Britain speaks English anyway, we love our regional dialects.
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Wastedtalent wrote: Not that anyone in Britain speaks English anyway, we love our regional dialects.
I've always thought of myself as being fluently bilingual, I speak English and Brummie.
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You're not from Dudderlay by any chance?
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Nope, If I were from Dudley, I'd speak yam-yam not Brummie - there really is a massive difference between the two. I actually find the Dudley accent about the hardest to decipher in Britain (with the obvious exception of Glasgow) even though it's only a few miles away.
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PeejayAdams wrote: I actually find the Dudley accent about the hardest to decipher in Britain
For me, that's Yorkshire. Every time I've been there, they can understand me fine but I have to hold out a handful of change to pay for anything...
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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Geordie? [puts hand up]
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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I'm a Brummie too but thankfully I somehow managed to avoid picking up too much of the dialect [though it seems to come out after a few jars!].
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Yes, I'm similar in that my Brumminess is in inverse proportion to my sobriety.
I also find that when I'm elsewhere, my accent tends to fade quite rapidly. When I used to work away from home, I remember a hotel receptionist saying "It's ever so odd, you come down every Monday sounding all Brummie and by Friday you sound proper!"
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My brother and I, having grown up in various bits of the country don't have regional accents. However, my brother has spent his entire married life in cannock and his kids are pure yam-yam.
My dad was born and raised in Derbyshire but has spent most of his adult life elsewhere. He doesn't have much of an accent now, but as soon as he crosses the border back home it becomes thick again.
Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them.
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PeejayAdams wrote: I hate to say it, but I do think that the language is gradually drifting towards the American version
Odd that you fear that, US english is just an older form of English that split off (and stayed fossilised as off shoots tend to) in the 17th century.
By the way, Enquire and Ensure were invented in the UK around 1840 ish. If you read Trolope for example you will see him use them the old, and American, way.
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Munchies_Matt wrote: Odd that you fear that, US english is just an older form of English that split off (and stayed fossilised as off shoots tend to) in the 17th century.
To a large extent, yes, it was a natural branching though I suspect that Webster created a few more differences than would have occurred naturally.
I have nothing whatsoever against American English and I'm a huge fan of American literature. I'd also be the first to point out that American English gets many things right that British English gets wrong. I think that much of the reason that I don't want to see the two merge back into one is that I enjoy the differences.
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Do you think there really is that much difference? Beyond the colloquialisms (rubber for durex, fanny for bum, spunk for spirit, always makes me cringe, those last two) and the interesting affect French has had on it (butte, the pronounciation of bouy, and the really odd habit Americans have of using 'that' to join sentences that just doesnt work in English (but does with 'que' in French)) they are identical IMO.
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Munchies_Matt wrote: Do you think there really is that much difference?
A fair old bit, I think.
"Villa are my favourite football team" vs. "Villa is my favorite soccer team" - that's a difference of spelling, terminology and grammar in half a dozen words (and I'd have to concede that the Americans are right to use "is" where we use "are" so win on grammar at least!)
Most of it goes unnoticed but the one that always sticks out like a sore thumb when I read an American book is lighted in place of lit as in "he lighted a cigarette." That always sounds plain wrong to me.
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I'm American and that still sounds wrong!
What do you get when you cross a joke with a rhetorical question?
The metaphorical solid rear-end expulsions have impacted the metaphorical motorized bladed rotating air movement mechanism.
Do questions with multiple question marks annoy you???
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PeejayAdams wrote: "Villa are my favourite football team" vs. "Villa is my favorite soccer team" - that's a difference of spelling, terminology and grammar in half a dozen words (and I'd have to concede that the Americans are right to use "is" where we use "are" so win on grammar at least!) Yeah, I think we have that one right... If you're referring to just the city/state, it's singular. The team names themselves are usually plural. For instance, "The Mets were my favorite team", or "New York was my fav--" Err, ok, there are two New York teams, so can't just call them "New York"...
PeejayAdams wrote: I read an American book is lighted in place of lit as in "he lighted a cigarette." That always sounds plain wrong to me. Um, that sounds like plain old bad writing to me. We use "lit", not "lighted". I mean I guess "lighted" is valid, but yeah, it sounds stupid.
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Ian Shlasko wrote: Um, that sounds like plain old bad writing to me. We use "lit", not "lighted". I mean I guess "lighted" is valid, but yeah, it sounds stupid.
It's used frequently by Ed McBain and I'm sure that I've come across it in a fair few novels by other American writers - wasn't there a Hemmingway story about a "well-lighted room" or something similar? Is it something that used to be common but has fallen out of use?
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Could be... I sure don't use it in my novels... At least I don't think I did... If I did, I blame grammar check.
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PeejayAdams wrote: "he lighted a cigarette."
Yes, the strong to weak verb change thats taken place in English.Its just old English the Americans use, so like weaved and wove, dived and dove, perhaps we should just accept lighted and lit side by side each other?
Another old word is the use of 'gotten', whereas in the UK it only exists as a fossil in a phrase (phrases tend to keep their original words) as in 'ill gotten gains'.
When I left the UK many years ago and learnt French and to some extent Dutch, and hence the origin of much of English, I stopped being so pedantic about its usage, and am far more accepting of its foibles and oddities, and even its miss-usage. It realy is such a bastardised language that I dont see why we shouldn't continue to do so!
--edit--
Correction, its weak to strong change thats happened in general.
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PeejayAdams wrote: "Villa are my favourite football team" vs. "Villa is my favorite soccer team" That's a common referent difference, where both are grammatically correct, i.e:
- (That team) is my favourite
- (Those eleven players) are my favourite
The same works with other collective nouns, like "the government", which can be referred to as 650 individuals ("the government are voting on a bill") or as an institution ("The government is voting in a summit").
At the same time, though, "Villa are my favourite football team" and "Villa is my favorite soccer team" are both just so incredibly wrong, because Villa's cr@p.
And how about we use a proper word, for the other issue: "He enlightened my cigarette"? I'm sure the mayor of Springfield would approve.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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