Typos and Oh, how I wish it was better English in general

[wyleu]

Can't say I agree with the 'spelling used to be better ' argument either.
Things change and personally I like the serendipity of a good spelling mistake.
 With the perversity that humans tend to demonstrate,in these on-line spell-checked days, it will probably become an affectation that may become fashionable.

I can't spell gaurentee to save my life but I'd be surprised if anyone (except possibly a machine) mis-interpreted the context and meaning.
 

[djh]

These have been for cases where people have got units wrong and where leaving the error in place would likely contribute to further confusion on the subject.

The SI symbol for the unit of charge is "Ah" or, ideally, "A·h".

It's worth getting that right

Just so, and in that spirit ...

Actually the SI symbol for the unit of charge is C. The unit of charge is the Coulomb.

An ampere-hour is 3600 Coulombs.

[martin]

I think it's a case of "you don't appreciate it until you've lost it". The English language is a tool capable of great precision, and the conveyance of subtle nuance - spelling is only part of the general disintegration of the use of it. A year or four ago I tuned in my earphone radio whilst walking the dogs (as is my wont), to find the first episode of a serialisation of the reading of "Rebecca" by Daphne Du Maurier, and was about to twirl the dial to something less "girlie" when I suddenly realised the beauty of the writing......
The now nearly forgotten art of being able by judicious use of the language to produce a simple sentence that precisely and concisely defined a place, a time, a feeling, all in the space of a few well-chosen words.
This is a forum devoted a great deal to precision, measurements, "getting it absolutely right", and some may mutter about the relevance of the English language to it - imprecise computer coding gives nonsense results, sloppy plumbing or wiring rightly makes people wince, so should the poor use of that most useful of tools - our language!

ps, I've given up trying to use the shorthand I've used for over 40 years (kw/h etc) and now ignore the probably US-derived "proper" version* and use the full "kilowatt hour" nomenclature to save squawks!

(* a real billion has got 12 zeroes, not 9!)

[wyleu]

I've been told that English is a remarkably imprecise descriptive language. It's remarkably easy to squirrel round it, lawyers do it all the time.Just read any peace of current legislation to see how much is left open to interpretation. I understand French is used for maritime law because of it's stressing of verbs (and hence action) over description.

As a language it's a mess, it is a sea of general rules with many, many exceptions. I'd prefer to devote effort to learning other languages, but laziness has always prevented any actual effort at this task.

It's a personal suspicion but I suspect some of the general English unease at the moment is that althou' we hold a partial license on the general language of exchange throughout the planet, we lack a language to conspire in. Perhaps Cockney ryhming slang has a purpose after all, and spelling might well morph, regionally, as a result of the imposed strictures of the spell checker.

[martin]

Polari exists, and is there to be used - here's a couple of the greatest practitioners - could not Frotter and your good self revive it?

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/LMMSSseKCmM?fs=1&amp;" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/LMMSSseKCmM?fs=1&amp;</a>

[frotter]

Moi? Shome mistake shurely..? I wouldnt want all and sundry thinking i was an omi-polone.
Or owt.

 

[martin]

aw go on........ it'd be fantabulosa!

[mespilus]

William Hague

currently denying any knowledge of Polari.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/sep/01/william-hague-denies-gay-rumours

[StBarnabas]

Wotcha

Nuff said?

Desp
being Dyslexic that's the way I see English anyway!   I agree with EA, the use of incorrect units such as W/h (or even the much  more venial Kwh) gets me far more upset than poor English. I will take EA's very good advice regarding PMs as my recent smite rate seems highly correlated with my shirty remarks regarding abuse of units!

[Eleanor]

Seems we have a ready made team of "monitors"   :

1. Spelling - SatCure  
2. Naughty words - me
3. Grammar - Martin    
4. Units - EA/StB  
5. Technical content - Wookey  

All we need now is a spreadsheet so we can score every post on a scale of 1-10 for each category and produce weightings combining both language and technical skills. It would be quite easy to rank everyone by taking into account the number of posts they have made and it would be even better if we could correlate it with age  

I'm sure there must be a one wire application in there somewhere. Ken .....  

The smiley police will be along in a minute

[Amy]

William Hague

currently denying any knowledge of Polari.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/sep/01/william-hague-denies-gay-rumours

The way this article was written makes it look as though being gay is still a crime. Poor guy would be getting it in the neck if his advisor was female  so maybe its time for political advisors to be eunachs.
Offering their tackle in a jar would be to follow in the Manderin court footsteps of old but I do wonder if any of these people have balls to eppicure to start with.

I think William should revise his wardrobe as hes doing a very good impersonation of campness

[tony.]

William Hague

currently denying any knowledge of Polari.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/sep/01/william-hague-denies-gay-rumours

The way this article was written makes it look as though being gay is still a crime. Poor guy would be getting it in the neck if his advisor was female  so maybe its time for political advisors to be eunachs.
Offering their tackle in a jar would be to follow in the Manderin court footsteps of old but I do wonder if any of these people have balls to eppicure to start with.



He may not be getting it in the neck,possibly elsewhere
I think William should revise his wardrobe as hes doing a very good impersonation of campness

[dhaslam]

[maybe its time for political advisors to be eunachs.

In China only about 50% survived the qualification process but still there were lots of applicants.  Modern medical  procedures   would  have slightly higher  success rate  but still  be useful test of sincerity.