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-   -   English (https://britishexpats.com/forum/spain-75/english-745692/)

Rosemary Jan 20th 2012 8:05 am

English
 
A friend of mine has put this on Facebook and I thought that it would make a few of you smile.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fb...&type=1&ref=nf

Rosemary

Dick Dasterdly Jan 20th 2012 8:09 am

Re: English
 

Originally Posted by Rosemary (Post 9855257)
A friend of mine has put this on Facebook and I thought that it would make a few of you smile.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fb...&type=1&ref=nf

Rosemary

It might if we could see it,but seems the link has expired.
Could always try a bit copy/paste if it's only a bit of text.

jimenato Jan 20th 2012 8:59 am

Re: English
 
I can see it and it made me smile:)

Dick Dasterdly Jan 20th 2012 10:02 am

Re: English
 
Got it now, quite good.
Similar one has been doing the rounds for a while.

snikpoh Jan 20th 2012 8:24 pm

Re: English
 
Nope, it's gone again;

This content is currently unavailable
The page you requested cannot be displayed at the moment. It may be temporarily unavailable, the link you clicked on may have expired, or you may not have permission to view this page.

Rosemary Jan 20th 2012 8:42 pm

Re: English
 

Originally Posted by snikpoh (Post 9855971)
Nope, it's gone again;

This content is currently unavailable
The page you requested cannot be displayed at the moment. It may be temporarily unavailable, the link you clicked on may have expired, or you may not have permission to view this page.

I did a link to the item which is on Facebook so wonder if that is why it keeps on coming and going. It will not copy and paste.

Rosemary

lynnxa Jan 20th 2012 8:44 pm

Re: English
 
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net...92020395_n.jpg


:fingerscrossed:

Rosemary Jan 20th 2012 8:51 pm

Re: English
 
Thanks for that. Can you please tell me how you did it so that I can learn.

Rosemary

lynnxa Jan 20th 2012 9:00 pm

Re: English
 

Originally Posted by Rosemary (Post 9855992)
Thanks for that. Can you please tell me how you did it so that I can learn.

Rosemary

go to the picture & click on the picture itself

right click & select 'copy image location'


then back in the message box, select http://images.ibsrv.net/ibsrv/res/sr...nsertimage.gif
& paste in the url :)

Rosemary Jan 20th 2012 9:29 pm

Re: English
 

Originally Posted by lynnxa (Post 9856001)
go to the picture & click on the picture itself

right click & select 'copy image location'


then back in the message box, select http://images.ibsrv.net/ibsrv/res/sr...nsertimage.gif
& paste in the url :)

Weird, mine does not come up with either of those. What I did was Copiar Acceso Directo and then Pegar but this seems to be unstable when in the thread.

Rosemary

lynnxa Jan 20th 2012 9:37 pm

Re: English
 

Originally Posted by Rosemary (Post 9856022)
Weird, mine does not come up with either of those. What I did was Copiar Acceso Directo and then Pegar but this seems to be unstable when in the thread.

Rosemary

it's weird, because my laptop is in Spanish & yet I'm getting English options on some things


what you want is something like copiar ubicación de la imagen, after you have actually clicked on the image - when you click on the image it might get a bit bigger & sort of 'jump' to the front of the screen...........


then you right click etc. .....


are you clicking the little image box I showed you & then pasting the link into the window which pops up?

Rosemary Jan 20th 2012 9:43 pm

Re: English
 

Originally Posted by lynnxa (Post 9856026)
it's weird, because my laptop is in Spanish & yet I'm getting English options on some things


what you want is something like copiar ubicación de la imagen, after you have actually clicked on the image - when you click on the image it might get a bit bigger & sort of 'jump' to the front of the screen...........


then you right click etc. .....


are you clicking the little image box I showed you & then pasting the link into the window which pops up?

Must be down to different operating systems because I do not have the same list as you and do not get the envelope image just words (in Spanish).

Normally I do what I did and it is OK, stable but not this time. I do wonder whether it is because I copied it within FB.

Rosemary

lynnxa Jan 20th 2012 9:45 pm

Re: English
 

Originally Posted by Rosemary (Post 9856032)
Must be down to different operating systems because I do not have the same list as you and do not get the envelope image just words (in Spanish).

Normally I do what I did and it is OK, stable but not this time. I do wonder whether it is because I copied it within FB.

Rosemary

the image is above the message box on BE - unless you are just using the quick reply box?


I copied it from FB too - maybe it doesn't work your way if the person viewing doesn't have FB? - getting too techie for me then...

Rosemary Jan 20th 2012 10:10 pm

Re: English
 

Originally Posted by lynnxa (Post 9856035)
the image is above the message box on BE - unless you are just using the quick reply box?


I copied it from FB too - maybe it doesn't work your way if the person viewing doesn't have FB? - getting too techie for me then...

It was not quick reply because it was a new thread. I just tried a few different things but none of them worked for me not even the envelope button above the message box. Stranger and stranger.

Never mind people can see it anyway now that you have put it on.

As an aside I am an avid reader and now find that sometimes I have to read some words several times because they appear to be alien to me then I realise that I am pronouncing them in my head the Spanish way (even though it does not exist in Spanish) and that is why I am confused. Before you say it, I do know that it takes very little to confuse me nowadays, I blame OH completely of course.

Rosemary

lynnxa Jan 20th 2012 10:13 pm

Re: English
 

Originally Posted by Rosemary (Post 9856058)
It was not quick reply because it was a new thread. I just tried a few different things but none of them worked for me not even the envelope button above the message box. Stranger and stranger.

Never mind people can see it anyway now that you have put it on.

As an aside I am an avid reader and now find that sometimes I have to read some words several times because they appear to be alien to me then I realise that I am pronouncing them in my head the Spanish way (even though it does not exist in Spanish) and that is why I am confused. Before you say it, I do know that it takes very little to confuse me nowadays, I blame OH completely of course.

Rosemary

of course it's his fault - everything is my OH's fault too :D


I do that sometimes - read an English word phonetically .........as do the kids :(

Rosemary Jan 20th 2012 10:15 pm

Re: English
 

Originally Posted by lynnxa (Post 9856063)
of course it's his fault - everything is my OH's fault too :D


I do that sometimes - read an English word phonetically .........as do the kids :(

Thank you for that, I was beginning to think that I was losing it slowly. Mind you it makes me chuckle a lot even when reading something serious.

Rosemary

paintermujer Jan 20th 2012 11:37 pm

Re: English
 
How about this then. From facebook too.

http://www.thepoke.co.uk/2011/12/23/...pronunciation/

JLFS Jan 21st 2012 12:17 am

Re: English
 
And plurals,very logical too..:D

The English Lesson
We’ll begin with box, and the plural is boxes,
But the plural of ox should be oxen, not oxes.
Then one fowl is goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.
You may find a lone mouse or a whole lot of mice,
But the plural of house is houses, not hice.

If the plural of man is always called men,
Why shouldn’t the plural of pan be pen?
The cow in the plural may be cows or kine,
But the plural of vow is vows, not vine.
And I speak of a foot, and you show me your feet,
But I give a boot… would a pair be beet?
If one is a tooth, and a whole set is teeth,
Why shouldn’t the plural of booth be beeth?

If the singular is this, and the plural is these,
Why shouldn’t the plural of kiss be kese?
Then one may be that, and three be those,
Yet the plural of hat would never be hose.
We speak of a brother, and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren.

The masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
But imagine the feminine she, shis, and shim.
So our English, I think you will agree,
Is the trickiest language you ever did see.

I take it you already know
of tough, and bough and cough and dough?
Others may stumble, but not you
on hiccough, through, slough and though.
Well done! And now you wish, perhaps
To learn of less familiar traps?
Beware of heard, a dreadful word
That looks like beard and sounds like bird.
And dead; it’s said like bed, not bead!
For goodness sake, don’t call it deed!

Watch out for meat and great and threat,
(They rhyme with suite and straight and debt)
A moth is not a moth in mother,
Nor both in bother, broth in brother.
And here is not a match for there,
Nor dear and fear for bear and pear,
And then there’s dose and rose and lose –
Just look them up – and goose and choose,
And cork and work and card and ward
And font and front and word and sword.

And do and go, then thwart and cart.
Come, come, I’ve hardly made a start.
A dreadful language: Why, man alive,
I’d learned to talk when I was five.
And yet to write it, the more I tried,
I hadn’t learned it at fifty-five.

[An alternative version quotes the final couplet as:

And yet to write it, the more I sigh,
I'll not learn how 'til the day I die.]

Rosemary Jan 21st 2012 12:24 am

Re: English
 
Love them both, thanks.

Rosemary

Lynn R Jan 21st 2012 1:07 am

Re: English
 

Originally Posted by JLFS (Post 9856184)
And plurals,very logical too..:D

The English Lesson
We’ll begin with box, and the plural is boxes,
But the plural of ox should be oxen, not oxes.
Then one fowl is goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.
You may find a lone mouse or a whole lot of mice,
But the plural of house is houses, not hice.

If the plural of man is always called men,
Why shouldn’t the plural of pan be pen?
The cow in the plural may be cows or kine,
But the plural of vow is vows, not vine.
And I speak of a foot, and you show me your feet,
But I give a boot… would a pair be beet?
If one is a tooth, and a whole set is teeth,
Why shouldn’t the plural of booth be beeth?

If the singular is this, and the plural is these,
Why shouldn’t the plural of kiss be kese?
Then one may be that, and three be those,
Yet the plural of hat would never be hose.
We speak of a brother, and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren.

The masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
But imagine the feminine she, shis, and shim.
So our English, I think you will agree,
Is the trickiest language you ever did see.

I take it you already know
of tough, and bough and cough and dough?
Others may stumble, but not you
on hiccough, through, slough and though.
Well done! And now you wish, perhaps
To learn of less familiar traps?
Beware of heard, a dreadful word
That looks like beard and sounds like bird.
And dead; it’s said like bed, not bead!
For goodness sake, don’t call it deed!

Watch out for meat and great and threat,
(They rhyme with suite and straight and debt)
A moth is not a moth in mother,
Nor both in bother, broth in brother.
And here is not a match for there,
Nor dear and fear for bear and pear,
And then there’s dose and rose and lose –
Just look them up – and goose and choose,
And cork and work and card and ward
And font and front and word and sword.

And do and go, then thwart and cart.
Come, come, I’ve hardly made a start.
A dreadful language: Why, man alive,
I’d learned to talk when I was five.
And yet to write it, the more I tried,
I hadn’t learned it at fifty-five.

[An alternative version quotes the final couplet as:

And yet to write it, the more I sigh,
I'll not learn how 'til the day I die.]

I like that one, haven't seen it before.:thumbup:

I've tied myself in knots a few times when trying to explain some of these to my intercambio partners, I end up as mystified as they are. I can't do any better than "because it just is!".

stevesainty Jan 21st 2012 10:47 am

Re: English
 
I saw this on a tea towel once.

CRICKET: As explained to a foreigner...

You have two sides, one out in the field and one in. Each man that's in the side that's in goes out, and when he's out he comes in and the next man goes in until he's out. When they are all out, the side that's out comes in and the side thats been in goes out and tries to get those coming in, out. Sometimes you get men still in and not out.

When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out try to get him out, and when he is out he goes in and the next man in goes out and goes in. There are two men called umpires who stay all out all the time and they decide when the men who are in are out. When both sides have been in and all the men have been out, and both sides have been out twice after all the men have been in, including those who are not out, that is the end of the game!

Dick Dasterdly Jan 21st 2012 11:00 am

Re: English
 

Originally Posted by stevesainty (Post 9857038)
I saw this on a tea towel once.

CRICKET: As explained to a foreigner...

You have two sides, one out in the field and one in. Each man that's in the side that's in goes out, and when he's out he comes in and the next man goes in until he's out. When they are all out, the side that's out comes in and the side thats been in goes out and tries to get those coming in, out. Sometimes you get men still in and not out.

When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out try to get him out, and when he is out he goes in and the next man in goes out and goes in. There are two men called umpires who stay all out all the time and they decide when the men who are in are out. When both sides have been in and all the men have been out, and both sides have been out twice after all the men have been in, including those who are not out, that is the end of the game!

Thats a cracker. Heard it many moons ago but I had forgotten all about it.
Shall have to save it somewhere now.

Lorna at Vicenza Jan 21st 2012 11:09 am

Re: English
 
My 8 year old speaks great English but because he's at Italian school I let him learn to read and write in Italian first.

The other day he asked me what "eeetch-ay cray-am" was?

What are you on about? I asked him.

"Eeetch-ay cray-am."

There's no such word - I said. What are you doing?

"English homework."

When I looked at his book the word was ICE CREAM. His reading is all Italian phonetical so now it's time to teach him how to read in English.

lynnxa Jan 21st 2012 7:18 pm

Re: English
 

Originally Posted by Lorna at Vicenza (Post 9857072)
My 8 year old speaks great English but because he's at Italian school I let him learn to read and write in Italian first.

The other day he asked me what "eeetch-ay cray-am" was?

What are you on about? I asked him.

"Eeetch-ay cray-am."

There's no such word - I said. What are you doing?

"English homework."

When I looked at his book the word was ICE CREAM. His reading is all Italian phonetical so now it's time to teach him how to read in English.

lol that's what we did - although my oldest was 8 nearly 9 when she started at Spanish school & had a tested reading age of 12 in English - my younger dd was 5 & could read a bit in English, but we decided to 'forget' english since she was going to have to cope with learning 2 new languages because of where we live

when she was reading confidently enough (bearing in mind she is dyslexic) in Spanish a couple of years later, we started buying English comics for her - & we still had English books which her big sis had read at that age

they both mis-pronounce some new words now & then, & their spelling could still do with a bit of help, but they both read happily in any of their three languages

Rosemary Jan 21st 2012 7:27 pm

Re: English
 

Originally Posted by lynnxa (Post 9857514)
lol that's what we did - although my oldest was 8 nearly 9 when she started at Spanish school & had a tested reading age of 12 in English - my younger dd was 5 & could read a bit in English, but we decided to 'forget' english since she was going to have to cope with learning 2 new languages because of where we live

when she was reading confidently enough (bearing in mind she is dyslexic) in Spanish a couple of years later, we started buying English comics for her - & we still had English books which her big sis had read at that age

they both mis-pronounce some new words now & then, & their spelling could still do with a bit of help, but they both read happily in any of their three languages

I suspect that spelling becomes harder the more languages you know. If you only have one language it is relatively easy to picture a word in your head before writing it down, whereas if there are similar words in several languages your brain probably cannot hone in so well.

I do admire your girls skills.

Rosemary

JLFS Jan 21st 2012 7:42 pm

Re: English
 

Originally Posted by Rosemary (Post 9857527)
I suspect that spelling becomes harder the more languages you know. If you only have one language it is relatively easy to picture a word in your head before writing it down, whereas if there are similar words in several languages your brain probably cannot hone in so well.

I do admire your girls skills.

Rosemary

I awalys found the G J words the most confusing.........

How can shower GEL be the J sound while JELLY which is the longer sounding version be spelt with a J.

:confused:

fionamw Jan 21st 2012 7:48 pm

Re: English
 

Originally Posted by JLFS (Post 9857534)
I awalys found the G J words the most confusing.........

How can shower GEL be the J sound while JELLY which is the longer sounding version be spelt with a J.

:confused:

My 9yo made me an (otherwise delightful) picture yesterday which said..verbatim...

Yust for a perfect mum like you!

I couldn't decide whether to well up with emotion or pmsl at his spanglish!!

lynnxa Jan 21st 2012 7:52 pm

Re: English
 

Originally Posted by Rosemary (Post 9857527)
I suspect that spelling becomes harder the more languages you know. If you only have one language it is relatively easy to picture a word in your head before writing it down, whereas if there are similar words in several languages your brain probably cannot hone in so well.

I do admire your girls skills.

Rosemary

I think you're probably right, although Spanish is certainly easier, being so phonetic

to be fair, when I look at the spelling skills of some kids who have been through an English language education (such as my neice & nephew in Aus) my two aren't too bad - but when they need to spell something unfamiliar they always revert to phonetics


Originally Posted by JLFS (Post 9857534)
I awalys found the G J words the most confusing.........

How can shower GEL be the J sound while JELLY which is the longer sounding version be spelt with a J.

:confused:

& then there's US english - you'd put your jelly in a sandwich rather than a bowl


I thought gel was for hair :confused:

jimenato Jan 21st 2012 8:01 pm

Re: English
 

Originally Posted by JLFS (Post 9857534)
I awalys found the G J words the most confusing.........

How can shower GEL be the J sound while JELLY which is the longer sounding version be spelt with a J.

:confused:

Such ponderings are fruitless and liable to make your head explode. English is awful in this respect where Spanish is just about perfect. What about other languages? I reckon French is pretty difficult although perhaps not as bad as English.

Here is Mark Twain's take on this:


A Plan for the Improvement of English Spelling

For example, in Year 1 that useless letter c would be dropped to be replased either by k or s, and likewise x would no longer be part of the alphabet. The only kase in which c would be retained would be the ch formation, which will be dealt with later.

Year 2 might reform w spelling, so that which and one would take the same konsonant, wile Year 3 might well abolish y replasing it with i and Iear 4 might fiks the g/j anomali wonse and for all.

Jenerally, then, the improvement would kontinue iear bai iear with Iear 5 doing awai with useless double konsonants, and Iears 6-12 or so modifaiing vowlz and the rimeining voist and unvoist konsonants.

Bai Iear 15 or sou, it wud fainali bi posibl tu meik ius ov thi ridandant letez c, y and x — bai now jast a memori in the maindz ov ould doderez — tu riplais ch, sh, and th rispektivli.

Fainali, xen, aafte sam 20 iers ov orxogrefkl riform, wi wud hev a lojikl, kohirnt speling in ius xrewawt xe Ingliy-spiking werld.

jimenato Jan 21st 2012 8:06 pm

Re: English
 
If I see a new word I don't know too always use the Spanish system to pronounce it. In fact I think I might be taking on a slight Spanish accent when speaking English - I have a friend Leon and I have to think carefully how to pronounce his name.:unsure:

JLFS Jan 21st 2012 8:10 pm

Re: English
 

Originally Posted by jimenato (Post 9857554)
Such ponderings are fruitless and liable to make your head explode. English is awful in this respect where Spanish is just about perfect. What about other languages? I reckon French is pretty difficult although perhaps not as bad as English.

Here is Mark Twain's take on this:

Thanks for posting that J.

Veri funi and rerly briliant.

Is it any wonder that Shania turned out to be so talented with a Dad like that?

:thumbsup:

jimenato Jan 21st 2012 9:10 pm

Re: English
 

Originally Posted by JLFS (Post 9857564)
Thanks for posting that J.

Veri funi and rerly briliant.

Is it any wonder that Shania turned out to be so talented with a Dad like that?

:thumbsup:

OMG I've just pronounced Shania = Shánia. I think I'm turning Spanish:eek:

lynnxa Jan 21st 2012 9:24 pm

Re: English
 

Originally Posted by jimenato (Post 9857621)
OMG I've just pronounced Shania = Shánia. I think I'm turning Spanish:eek:

I had to think twice, too :o


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