Starting sentences with 'So'

[Harbornite]

I suspect that 400-odd years ago, a fair few English-language pedants / precisians / purists / prescriptivists were yelling for that Shakespeare son-of-unmarried-parents to be hanged, drawn and quartered; for the havoc that he was wreaking on the beautiful and precise English tongue.

Possibly. Back in Roman times, people were moaning about the misuse of Latin.

 

[LexyBoy]

So many replies!

 

[D6975]

Personally I couldn't care less about Americanisms (although their pronounciation of Aluminium is a bit iffy) .

They pronounce it as they write it - they drop an i, spelling it aluminum.

Nobody has mentioned one word usage that I find annoying.
Basically is nearly always used where its omission would make no difference whatsoever to the meaning.

 

[Harbornite]

They pronounce it as they write it - they drop an i, spelling it aluminum.

Nobody has mentioned one word usage that I find annoying.
Basically is nearly always used where its omission would make no difference whatsoever to the meaning.

Indeed, another word that that shouldn't be used to start a sentence (like and, but and though).

 

[DynamicSpirit]

They pronounce it as they write it - they drop an i, spelling it aluminum.

Nobody has mentioned one word usage that I find annoying.
Basically is nearly always used where its omission would make no difference whatsoever to the meaning.

Are you sure it makes no difference at all? To my mind 'basically' is a very useful word to use to qualify a statement by indicating that the statement is more by way of a close approximation, or has some rare exceptions that you don't want to go into - it's almost but not quite 100% correct. I often use 'basically' in that sense, especially in debates etc. My own vague impression is that usually when I've seen other people use 'basically', it normally carries that meaning, and so could not be removed without slightly changing the meaning.

 

[Calthrop]

Nobody has mentioned one word usage that I find annoying.
Basically is nearly always used where its omission would make no difference whatsoever to the meaning.

Are you sure it makes no difference at all? To my mind 'basically' is a very useful word to use to qualify a statement by indicating that the statement is more by way of a close approximation, or has some rare exceptions that you don't want to go into - it's almost but not quite 100% correct. I often use 'basically' in that sense, especially in debates etc. My own vague impression is that usually when I've seen other people use 'basically', it normally carries that meaning, and so could not be removed without slightly changing the meaning.

DynamicSpirit, I concur. I'm perhaps a bit over-ready to use "basically"; but that's the meaning which I intend, by using it.

 

[Cowley]

I suspect that 400-odd years ago, a fair few English-language pedants / precisians / purists / prescriptivists were yelling for that Shakespeare son-of-unmarried-parents to be hanged, drawn and quartered; for the havoc that he was wreaking on the beautiful and precise English tongue.

I've always wondered why we say hanged instead of hung? It's often said like this. I think I might have been asleep in class that day (blackboard rubber in the head. Again). Do you or anyone else know?

 

[Busaholic]

DynamicSpirit, I concur. I'm perhaps a bit over-ready to use "basically"; but that's the meaning which I intend, by using it.

'When I use a word' said Humpty Dumpty 'it means just what I intend it to mean - no more or less.'

Lewis Carroll, out of copyright, but still as relevant today as in the nineteenth century.

 

[Harbornite]

I've always wondered why we say hanged instead of hung? It's often said like this. I think I might have been asleep in class that day (blackboard rubber in the head. Again). Do you or anyone else know?

Good question, I've also pondered this.


On another note, I've wondered before why we refer to the cutting off of one's head as beheading and not deheading.

 

[DaleCooper]

I've always wondered why we say hanged instead of hung? It's often said like this. I think I might have been asleep in class that day (blackboard rubber in the head. Again). Do you or anyone else know?

I've never heard anyone described as "hanged like a donkey".

I think the difference is something to do with transitive and intransitive verbs.

 

[Cowley]

I've never heard anyone described as "hanged like a donkey".

That's true actually. Mrs Cowley says hung. Hung like a donkey.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

That's true actually. Mrs Cowley says hung. Hung like a donkey.

Hanged = as in executed and involving a noose.

Hung = as in having put a picture up on the wall.

Hung like a..... = oh, Google it. Just Google it*.:roll:



*But not while you are at work.

 

[Cowley]

Hanged = as in executed and involving a noose.

Hung = as in having put a picture up on the wall.

Hung like a..... = oh, Google it. Just Google it*.:roll:



*But not while you are at work.

It's just that when they say "You will be taken from this place and hanged by the neck until you are dead", it sounds a bit strange.

 

[DaleCooper]

Hanged = as in executed and involving a noose.

Hung = as in having put a picture up on the wall.

The hanged man hung from the scaffold.

 

[backontrack]

The hanged man hung like a Hungry Hungry Hippo.

 

[yorksrob]

Good question, I've also pondered this.


On another note, I've wondered before why we refer to the cutting off of one's head as beheading and not deheading.

Similarly, why does inflammable mean the same as flammable ?

 

[Calthrop]

Similarly, why does inflammable mean the same as flammable ?

And why does invaluable mean "extremely valuable", rather than "not valuable at all"?

 

[J-2739]

Another one is dated and outdated; never known the difference well.

 

[cb a1]

Similarly, why does inflammable mean the same as flammable ?

and ravel the same as unravel?

 

[DaleCooper]

And why does invaluable mean "extremely valuable", rather than "not valuable at all"?

"Invaluable" means the value is so great it cannot be determined; similarly "indecipherable" means "cannot be deciphered".
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

and ravel the same as unravel?

Unravel never composed any music.

 

[Calthrop]

And why does invaluable mean "extremely valuable", rather than "not valuable at all"?

"Invaluable" means the value is so great it cannot be determined; similarly "indecipherable" means "cannot be deciphered".

I still think we have a mad language...

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Similarly, why does inflammable mean the same as flammable ?

As far as I can make out, originally there was only inflammable - the word flammable did not exist. 'inflammable' was probably imported as one word from either French or Latin, so the 'in' is not actually a negation. At some point more recently, some people started dropping the 'in' to make the word 'flammable'

 

[Busaholic]

Why 'overwhelming' and not just good plain ' whelming'?

 

[Cowley]

Why 'overwhelming' and not just good plain ' whelming'?

I'm feeling whelmed right now, but not overly so.

 

[backontrack]

And why is 'inwhelmed' not a word?

 

[Cowley]

And why is 'inwhelmed' not a word?

Good point. It's enough to leave you unwhelmed.

Sometimes the more you look at a word the more strange it looks. Sometimes I write a word down and I'm slightly unsure of the spelling but think it's right, but the more I look at it the more unsure I get and end up checking it.
Also, with predictive text I find that I type the first part of the word out but don't need to think about the rest of it because the technology does it for me and consequently my brain seems to be losing the ability to retain splellings,

 

[Harbornite]

Good point. It's enough to leave you unwhelmed.

Sometimes the more you look at a word the more strange it looks. Sometimes I write a word down and I'm slightly unsure of the spelling but think it's right, but the more I look at it the more unsure I get and end up checking it.
Also, with predictive text I find that I type the first part of the word out but don't need to think about the rest of it because the technology does it for me and consequently my brain seems to be losing the ability to retain splellings,

I experienced this once with the word queue. What an oddly spelled word.

English also has plenty of what could be considered as strange pronounciation rules. You've got similar sounding words (they're, their and their) and words that have mostly the same letters but are prounced differently (tow and cow). As for the word row, that has two different pronunciations that depend on the context!

 

[Cowley]

I experienced this once with the word queue. What an oddly spelled word.

English also has plenty of what could be considered as strange pronounciation rules. You've got similar sounding words (they're, their and their) and words that have mostly the same letters but are prounced differently (tow and cow). As for the word row, that has two different pronunciations that depend on the context!

Queue is definitely a wierd one, especially when you think how good we are at doing it.

 

[Calthrop]

English also has plenty of what could be considered as strange pronounciation rules. You've got similar sounding words (they're, their and their) and words that have mostly the same letters but are prounced differently (tow and cow). As for the word row, that has two different pronunciations that depend on the context!

And as for all those "ough" horrors -- probably, enough said...

 

[Harbornite]

On the one show, they're talking about how dating and language has evolved with new words like selfie and instagram. Well they also mentioned how nowadays, people start sentences with so!