NationStates Jolt Archive

Okay, so I know that "colour" is spelled just like that -- with the u. But, IIRC, "major" doesn't have that "u".

So, what's the rule for that? Or am I wrong with the "major" =/= "u".

I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major General.
Ahem. There is no rule; if there was it would be boring!
Coloured armour for majors? Doubtless it will be criticised in all civilisation.

<snip>
So, what's the rule for that? Or am I wrong with the "major" =/= "u".
I've always assumed that the rule is based on etymology. All those words where we (in the UK) use the "u" (colour, favour, labour) all come from the same origins, I suppose, whereas other "-or" words must come from a different origin. Either way, we're right and you're wrong!

American spelling :sniper:

:p

Ooo... a little off topic, but I can't pass over the oppourtunity for a proper debate: is the word "Lieutenant" pronounced Lef-tenant or Loo-tenant?

(Also, are trousers called pants in America? I need a US to English dictionary. I'm going to America, I think I'll enjoy it, but I keep having recurring nightmares about being unable to buy new underwear and getting fresh trousers instead)

it is without the U, there is no rule that I no, you just remember (like remebering irregular verbs in French), it is what makes British English such a wonderfully confusing language.

It may have something to do with the sound of the j before it, but I couldn't think of another word ending in -or-our with a j preceding to check it out.

or it could be just the way the French spelled it when we accepted it.

the english language needs no rules. we just make it up as we go along or bastardise other languages till they can be slurred by drunken english football hooligans between slurps of cheap beer and kebabs.

I call them pants, or "slacks" if they're of the more formal variety, like part of a suit. "Trousers" means the same thing, it just doesn't seem to be used in everyday conversation, sort of like the word "apparel" means clothes, but you don't go around telling folks their apparel looks all wrinkled. :)

Ooo... a little off topic, but I can't pass over the oppourtunity for a proper debate: is the word "Lieutenant" pronounced Lef-tenant or Loo-tenant?

(Also, are trousers called pants in America? I need a US to English dictionary. I'm going to America, I think I'll enjoy it, but I keep having recurring nightmares about being unable to buy new underwear and getting fresh trousers instead)

definately Loo ten ant, not lef or even worse loot-nant
just stick to kecks and don't forget to ask if you can bum a fag off them,

it is without the U, there is no rule that I no, you just remember (like remebering irregular verbs in French), it is what makes British English such a wonderfully confusing language.

It may have something to do with the sound of the j before it, but I couldn't think of another word ending in -or-our with a j preceding to check it out.
or it could be just the way the French spelled it when we accepted it.

Juror? Hmmmm.

DAmn this thread. Damn it. I must now find out. And I don't want to.
In fact, you could say I'm right orf colour. In a major way. :)

Ooo... a little off topic, but I can't pass over the oppourtunity for a proper debate: is the word "Lieutenant" pronounced Lef-tenant or Loo-tenant?

(Also, are trousers called pants in America? I need a US to English dictionary. I'm going to America, I think I'll enjoy it, but I keep having recurring nightmares about being unable to buy new underwear and getting fresh trousers instead)

I am fluent in both.

Yes, trousers are called pants. Much as they are in the grittier parts of NE England.

It's also okay to pat someone on the fanny. You can even do that to another man.

Underpants, ironically, are not usually called underpants -despite going under your pants - shorts or underwear are the usual terms. Also sometimes tighty-whiteys.

Never, and I don't want to hit this one to hard but it's important, use the **** word. Americans are terrified of it, and it will provoke a reaction.

Subways are the underground.

Finally, there are a small group of idiots that think they are really clever by rolling out their best Dick van Dyke chimneysweep impression. Ignore them. The other americans think they are morons too.

hope this helped.

the english language needs no rules. we just make it up as we go along or bastardise other languages till they can be slurred by drunken english football hooligans between slurps of cheap beer and kebabs.

I could go a kebab right about now. Or a souvlaki. Mmm, a souvlaki would be even better.

It's pronounced leftentant. Written colour, night, through, etc.

Isn't it 'lef' because we nicked the word from the French (just like we did with entrepreneur, Mr President).

Also, how do you pronounce 'advertisment'?
The Americans say 'ad-ver-tize-ment'
The Brits should say 'ad-ver-tis-ment'

or it could be just the way the French spelled it when we accepted it.
Amusingly, "major (http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery;jsessionid=1w840jox9rxym?tname=major&method=6&sbid=lc06a)" is from middle English "majour". And is apparently from Latin and not via French.

I've always assumed that the rule is based on etymology.Indeed. The 'u' is in some words and not in others just because of the word in question's etymological history. Some have held to the same they were many years ago and in the course of linguistic evolution, some have not. They are correctly because British lexicography still dictates that they are, though oftentimes alternative versions of a word (eg. "ize" as opposed to "ise") are accepted as equally correct.

Isn't it 'lef' because we nicked the word from the French (just like we did with entrepreneur, Mr President).

Also, how do you pronounce 'advertisment'?
The Americans say 'ad-ver-tize-ment'
The Brits should say 'ad-ver-tis-ment'

Americans should say ad-ver-tis-ment too. Remind them of that.

It's also okay to pat someone on the fanny. You can even do that to another man.
Can you explain, please?

You'll excuse me, I hope, for not typing "fanny" into Google at work ;)

Amusingly, "major (http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery;jsessionid=1w840jox9rxym?tname=major&method=6&sbid=lc06a)" is from middle English "majour". And is apparently from Latin and not via French.

I thought the latin was Magnus,

We brits do say ad ver tis ment
we also call a VCR a Video it drives americans nuts
I would say that see you next tuesday is an offensive word in most of the UK, not in the casual London way it is used, but call them a twat (and twat is most definately not pronouned twot)

Juror has an R before the -or

Isn't it 'lef' because we nicked the word from the French (just like we did with entrepreneur, Mr President).

Also, how do you pronounce 'advertisment'?
The Americans say 'ad-ver-tize-ment'
The Brits should say 'ad-ver-tis-ment'

I pronounce it 'd-ver-t's-m'nt.

Ooo... a little off topic, but I can't pass over the oppourtunity for a proper debate: is the word "Lieutenant" pronounced Lef-tenant or Loo-tenant?

It's Lef-tenant to you, sonny-jim ;)

I'm not entirely sure why that is though? Maybe a trick to trap people into making a social faux-pas?

Anyways, there was an American in my grandfather's class back in High School (or whatever it was called then). He couldn't quite grasp that it was pronounced 'Lef-tenant', and used to get quite a beating for it, apparantly.

(Also, are trousers called pants in America? I need a US to English dictionary. I'm going to America, I think I'll enjoy it, but I keep having recurring nightmares about being unable to buy new underwear and getting fresh trousers instead)

Maybe you'd be best off showing them what you mean? I hear they're very socially-progressive over there lately :D

Can you explain, please?

You'll excuse me, I hope, for not typing "fanny" into Google at work ;)

I must admit I was a little shocked when someone said she bruised her fanny after a fall (my mind just couldn't picture it)

Can you explain, please?

You'll excuse me, I hope, for not typing "fanny" into Google at work ;)

Yah, on this side of the pond, fanny=arse, not working parts. (When my family moved back to the states after I grew up in the UK, that one gave me years of fun).

Also, bum bags are fannypacks. Though americans find the expression bum bag funny. Something to do with homeless people.

I must admit I was a little shocked when someone said she bruised her fanny after a fall (my mind just couldn't picture it)

I remember as a teenager, a girl told me that her fanny was sore from riding all day. She couldn't understand why I couldn't stop laughing.

I must admit I was a little shocked when someone said she bruised her fanny after a fall (my mind just couldn't picture it)

Maybe there was some sort of stick or pole involved. :p

To me, fanny is the same as the word that rhymes with shunt.

I remember as a teenager, a girl told me that her fanny was sore from riding all day. She couldn't understand why I couldn't stop laughing.

priceless:D

Why do you call trucks loris (sp) or is it lories or lorys or loreeeeeeeesssss:confused:

the english language needs no rules. we just make it up as we go along or bastardise other languages till they can be slurred by drunken english football hooligans between slurps of cheap beer and kebabs.

YAY HOOLIGANS! :D

If I were british, I'd be a Hooligan. You all know I would. :)

Why do you call trucks loris (sp) or is it lories or lorys or loreeeeeeeesssss:confused:
"Lorry", plural "lorries". Because we're right, and you're wrong ;P

Dunno, apparantly it comes from Lurry however since the only definition of lurry I can find is
n.
1. A confused heap; a throng, as of persons; a jumble, as of sounds.
To turn prayer into a kind of lurry.

I dunno, it's just another one of our cunning ploys to confuse Johnny Foreigners what, is it time for tea yet ?

YAY HOOLIGANS! :D

If I were british, I'd be a Hooligan. You all know I would. :)
Not a hooligan in the common sense of the word - someone who finds any excuse to get into a fight. Be it football, be it beer or be it both (all preferably in another country).

Naw, I'd see you as being more of a ruffian.

YAY HOOLIGANS! :D

If I were british, I'd be a Hooligan. You all know I would. :)

It's not something that people usually aspire to old boy. I mean, I suppose there is a certain satisfaction to be derived from crushing Italians with badly repaired brick walls, but it's not something you'll get praise for.

Not a hooligan in the common sense of the word - someone who finds any excuse to get into a fight. Be it football, be it beer or be it both (all preferably in another country).

Naw, I'd see you as being more of a ruffian.

Hmm... I think that's worth a poll...

Even better! Scallywag or Rapscallion or Scamp. Such a great words. :D

Ah, well, thanks for all the responses to the question. It helped. You see, I like the British spelling better than American (because A: It's right, and B: It looks nicer :)), and I'm trying to get some of my friends to use it, as we all hate our English teacher, and British spelling angers her. :D

The American spellings are directly taken from the Latin, it would seem - but I don't know if this is intentional on the part of Americans or if it is just because they are too dumb to write anything in a non-phonetic form.
Major comes from the Latin 'maior' (as in Latin words that are transferred into English, the consonantal 'i' [I don't care whether consonantal is a word; I think it should be] is converted to a 'j'), which is the comparative form of 'magnus' ('great') therefore meaning 'greater'; the Latin for colour is 'color'; the Latin for work/task is 'labor'. I expect that armour comes from the passive form of 'armo' - 'I arm/equip' - which is, incidentally, 'armor' - 'I am armed/equipped'.
So theoretically the Americans have got it right, and as a Classicist I ought to prefer the American spelling. But I don't; I think the English one looks far nicer, and the American ones just annoy me. Illogical I know, but oh well. Hope this helps. Yay for entymology :)

Okay, so I know that "colour" is spelled just like that
And 'spelled' is spelt 'spelt'.

And 'spelled' is spelt 'spelt'.

This is something I've always wondered actually, is there actually a grammatical difference? Like with words such as learned/learnt - do you use different spellings depending on whether you're using the perfect with have, perfect without have, or passive? I've always figured that one spelling must correspond to 'written' and one to 'wrote', but I can't work out which is which. My instinct would lead me to think that 'spelled' corresponds to 'wrote' and therefore, actually in this case, as the sentence is passive, Derscon is, as you pointed out, wrong. Although this is just what my instinct says. Any experts on English accidence?


Edited because I re-read the post after posting it and changed my mind, lol.

This is something I've always wondered actually, is there actually a grammatical difference? Like with words such as learned/learnt - do you use different spellings depending on whether you're using the perfect with have, perfect without have, or passive?
The spelling is based on the pronunciation. In certain cases British English voices the alveolar plosive - that is, the 'd' sound becomes a 't' sound. This happened sometime after the 'e' was elided. So 'blessed' which was once pronounced 'bless-ed' had its pronuncation changed to 'blest' (the 'd' became a 't', because the 's' is unvoiced) and Brits changed the spelling to 'blest' (although 'blessed' is also used). The same goes for 'spelt', 'learnt', and 'dreamt'.