American pronunciations, spelling, terminology from Dave Man

.. As for the trade wanting to give me a ranking, I could care less, and I know it would make no difference to me as a client ....

Why do Americans routinely say "I could care less" when they clearly mean "I couldn't care less"????

I've noticed a number of them make this "error" (dear old Justme/Da Boss does it all the time!) and I can't understand why - it's the direct opposite of what they mean.

:dontknow: :dontknow: :dontknow:

OK I decided to split the thread anyway as it is a very interesting topic that could esily have many many pages and nothing to do with Dave Man Club. DaBoss

[Neal]

Blame it on our fathers fathers father! We are not making a mistake, it was the way we were taught. Same with Orgeano and aluminum etc. Get off our backs, we inherited it! :sign5:

so there you have it from the horses mouth scotty ...
americans are wierd !!!!!!!!!

[Brad the Impala]

so there you have it from the horses mouth scotty ...
americans are wierd !!!!!!!!!

They are indeed wierd! You should see some of their spelling!

so there you have it from the horses mouth scotty ...
americans are wierd !!!!!!!!!

They are indeed wierd! You should see some of their spelling!
grrrrrr weird then happy now ??

[Neal]

same same some spellings as with pronunciations. I think we should get back to Dave Man Club or someone is going to complain that I went and split the topic! Before we do that, it might be interesting if some of you researched and tried to figure out when, where and why our spellings and pronounciations took a different path. Now I shall go off to the restroom and not the water closet!!

same same some spellings as with pronunciations. I think we should get back to Dave Man Club or someone is going to complain that I went and split the topic! Before we do that, it might be interesting if some of you researched and tried to figure out when, where and why our spellings and pronounciations took a different path. Now I shall go off to the restroom and not the water closet!!Dont you mean Im off to have a slash? King George III when he was having his mad attacks used to have purple piss is thats whats wrong with you?

How about,

GLOBAL FORUM!!

How about,

GLOBAL FORUM!!


There you go Mr. Quill

[christianpfc]

Good idea to split the topic. I remember and found this post by Marsilius, which fits in:




I am afraid that this thread will be locked shortly so please make any final comments soon.
Thanks DaBoss

An interesting instance of a difference in meaning of English-English and American-English...

The American writer clearly meant that he worried that this thread might be closed shortly, though as yet all options remained open.

To a speaker of English-English, though, "I am afraid that" means something like "I am sorry to say that" something definitely will happen.

An instance of the perils of operating a multi-cultural forum... Maybe the safest way for the owner to make his pronouncements in future is in literal terms, without metaphor, simile or an other verbal affectation!


And here is a funny explanation how to avoid the most common errors: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/misspelling and some more funny grammar stuff here: http://theoatmeal.com/tag/grammar

[RonanTheBarbarian]

Some funny cartoons there Christianpfc.

Did you see the one about how the different generations celebrate Halloween?

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/halloween

[Narakmak]

You Brits are so funny.

It is most certainly not an error for Americans to say could care less. That is the way we say it mostly.
Why? Jewish irony, you dullards. American speech patterns and language are wonderfully peppered with Yiddish language structures.


As Liberman observed in a 2004 post at Language Log, тАЬcould care lessтАЭ is not uniquely odd. Its pattern is familiar in other phrases like тАЬI could give a damnтАЭ (and its ruder variants), and in the lyrics of Sammy CahnтАЩs 1940s classic, тАЬI Should Care.тАЭ But whatever its sources тАФ sarcasm, irony, Yiddish, or (as its detractors say) ignorance тАФ тАЬcould care lessтАЭ is snugly embedded in the American idiom. Yet the complaints keep rolling in.http://articles.boston.com/2010-10-24/lifestyle/29303907_1_care-peeves-decades

A real British prig displaying almost Germanic literalness about could care less:

http://www.jest.com/video/2824/i-could- ... nglish-psa (http://www.jest.com/video/2824/i-could-care-less-english-psa)

[Marsilius]

You are failing to distinguish between spoken and written forms.

In my mind's ear I can hear that "I could care less", when spoken sarcastically, could well mean by inference that the speaker could not care less.

But this thread started with consideration of lonely-farang putting "I could care less" in a piece of written - not spoken - English. And, as we cannot hear any verbal inflection to connote sarcasm in that, we are forced to take what he writes literally - in which case it is nonsense.

[Narakmak]

It is mostly a spoken expression.

[netrix]

I just wanted to say something purple. There, now I feel all special and stuff.



Posted in Guidelines and Rules Sept 28th
It has been posted that font colours can be used to express yourself, however the use of colour fonts throughout an entire post or the majority of a post will not be allowed. The use of colour fonts throughout are to be used by moderators only to bring attention to a post and identify that a comment, edit or deletion has been made by a moderator. Each moderator is permitted to select their own color to identify which moderator as well as their signature to the post.

same same some spellings as with pronunciations. I think we should get back to Dave Man Club or someone is going to complain that I went and split the topic! Before we do that, it might be interesting if some of you researched and tried to figure out when, where and why our spellings and pronounciations took a different path. Now I shall go off to the restroom and not the water closet!!

we call it a toilet or in the case of a lady such as youreslf daboss its known as the powder room

[Neal]

Sorry to revive this thread after so long but I want to get an answer to this one that baffles me for so long.
OK, call it Ore-e-gano or Orgeano or call in Alu- min-ium or aluminum they both are spelled and pronounced similarly and I can understand why you say it the way you do, BUT what I cannot understand are these ads on the radio, Pattaya People that when saying a phone number they say "treble two" for 222 rather than triple 2. Now come on guys, there is no freaking B in the word TRIPLE. Why do these announcers keep saying to call blah blah blah... TREBLE two?? Where the hell do they get this freakin B from??!! I am sorry but when I hear these ads on the radio (2 of them) they drive me nuts.

Mate theres this wonderful invention called The Internet and if you put words into things called Search Engines theyll come up with the answer when I put "treble" in it came up with something called a Web Site for a dictionary that said that treble means "threefold; triple" maybe you should investigate this Web Site and Internet thing yourself http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/treble

It does not matter what the freakin dictionary said smart ass. You yourself quote the word spelled TRIPLE and there aint no freaking B in triple, so dont get so cocky. Now still waiting for someone else and not a moron to explain why it is pronounced with a B that is not in the word. Tsk tsk! Fighting aa battle with words that you cannot hope to win!

[RonanTheBarbarian]

It is simple.

In British English you can use either treble or triple. It is not a pronunciation issue, treble and triple are regarded as two entirely separate words (although they basically mean the same thing).

They are used in a slightly different form in usage though. For instance, if you were talking about costs you could say either:

"The cost of my holiday this year was treble the cost of my holiday last year" or "The cost of my holiday this year was triple the cost of my holiday last year"

Both are fine in that sentence.

But if you are talking about a an object you would almost alway use "a triple" - for instance a "triple bed room " rather than a "treble bed room", or the "the Triple Crown" rather than "The Treble Crown"

(The Triple Crown is a rugby trophy).

[RonanTheBarbarian]

It is also acceptable (although becoming archaic now) to use "thrice" instead of triple or treble in British English.

So in the above example about the holiday:

"The cost of my holiday this year was thrice the cost of my holiday last year".

But that usage would mark you out as a bit of an old duffer.

Would "thrice" be used at all in the US?

[Neal]

Thrice is certainly not a common word that we would use in the USA. The word treble was heard when calling out a phone number.

[Beachlover]

For goodness sake... Brisbaneguy may be coming across as a dick but he's actually right.

It might just be a slack voice over but there's a good chance you're hearing "treble" because that's the word they mean to use.


From http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/treble

tre┬╖bleтАВ тАВ[treb-uhl] Show IPA adjective, noun, verb, -bled, -bling.
adjective
1.threefold; triple.

2.Music .
a.of or pertaining to the highest part in harmonized music; soprano.
b.of the highest pitch or range, as a voice part, voice, singer, or instrument.
c.high in pitch; shrill.


Having said that, the word isn't commonly used for that purpose so f*** knows why anyone competent would use it in an advertisement.

[latintopxxx]

sweetnesses...the magic of the English language is that there is NO correct pronounciation...all forms are acceptable..thats why it rules the world....unlike the dumb frogs who desperately try to protect the purity of their language the English are complete whores,,,they will steal and use words from any other language..thats why its such a rich language...so get over it..

[Neal]

Fine it is just I only heard of treble as in music. Never heard it a three. always a first time!