Re: Propper Englesh

real-address-in-sig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Rowland McDonnell) wrote:

Rosemary <mentally_subnormal@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Rowland McDonnell wrote:
Rosemary wrote:

<snip>

My dad was tested to have near-enough perfect vision by at least one
optician when he was in his 20s - well, aside from the colour
blindness, that is. The optics were nigh on perfect, it's just that
he's got dodgy retinas.

"Just"? My short sight and astigmatism are easily fixed, with a bit of
bent glass. You can't do that with colour blindness.

He started to use specs for close up work in his 50s, IIRC. (That was
when he got worried because he found that his resting pulse rate had
gone up ~10bpm to ~55bpm - it's been measured at less than 30bpm with
him quite unfussed and wide awake.

Yes he does have an unusually large heart - he got lucky with the
genes and did a lot of serious swimming for some decades when he was
young. Me? My body's more like my mother's, right down to the creaky
joints, damnit. On the other hand, they're no creakier now I'm 41
than they were when I was 16, so the arthritis that'll clobber me one
day probably hasn't started biting yet.)

I'll probably need glasses myself some time in the next decade.

It's only really noticeable for most people between around 40 and 50 when
they want to do very close work, or see fairly close at low light levels,
I think.

<snip>

And why oh why oh why oh why does `weird' have
the `ei' the wrong way round, eh? Mind you, I spotted that `i
before e except after c' didn't work reliably when I was first
introduced to the rhyme

That rule only works for ee sounds (and even then, I don't think it's
100%). I can tell you didn't do enough phonics at school. :-)

If that point had ever been made to me, I'd've understood it perfectly
well without having to mess about with any idiocy like phonics.

I'd guessed.

All I got was the straight spelling rule: `i before e except after c'
which, it was alleged, applied to all instances of ie and ei. And
like I said, I spotted that the claim was nonsense at the time.

That's stupid teachers for you. Who tells kids a rule which will help
them spell words, without giving them the second half of the rule?

That was one of the many occasions on which I learnt not to pay too
much attention to the claims of alleged experts. I've never been
inclined to pay much attention to alleged authority.

Anyway, weird's simple. It's we as in... well, we, and ird as in
jird, or third.

No, it's write the word, notice I've got it wrong (again) and try to
remember that it's an exception next time *before* I type the keys or
scribble the letters.

:-) But it's not an exception. Weird, their, weir, heir - none of them
have a plain ee sound in the middle, like receipt or priest, so they
don't follow the rule. Just telling someone "i before e except after c"
is like saying Richard Of York Grew Brassicas helps you remember the
colours of the rainbow.

BTW I really like typing "colours". It has a nice shape on the keyboard.

Rosemary

Rosemary
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Propper Englesh
    ... inclined to pay much attention to alleged authority. ... :-) But it's not an exception. ... spelling of such words from the point of view of `does it follow i ...
    (uk.people.support.depression)
  • Re: Analyzing this Progression
    ... 7ths of 7th chords resolve downward. ... No, it's not an exception. ... the lower member rises or falls. ...
    (rec.music.theory)
  • Re: When is a function not a function?
    ... a DOM element and Array or a value with falseness. ... assertion that the test betrays poor design. ... assume the worst case (that the exception will be thrown), ...
    (comp.lang.javascript)
  • Re: A C++ Whishlist
    ... Java is annoying enough with its exceptions to the operator overloading ... What's the point in "catching" an exception for a statement where you ... "Je ein Stueckchen Kreppsohle an die Fuesse eines Hamsters kleben. ...
    (comp.lang.cpp)
  • Re: Jon Skeets thread pooling sample
    ... that decision - I can't think of a good reason why the name of a thread has ... > 4) Add some sort of exception logging for this and the other events. ... It needs to be set before the 1st callback occurs ...
    (microsoft.public.dotnet.general)