Proofreading Service - Pain in the English
Proofreading Service - Pain in the English

Your Pain Is Our Pleasure

24-Hour Proofreading Service—We proofread your Google Docs or Microsoft Word files. We hate grammatical errors with a passion. Learn More

Proofreading Service - Pain in the English
Proofreading Service - Pain in the English

Your Pain Is Our Pleasure

24-Hour Proofreading Service—We proofread your Google Docs or Microsoft Word files. We hate grammatical errors with a passion. Learn More

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jayles

Member Since

August 12, 2010

Total number of comments

748

Total number of votes received

228

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Latest Comments

“Anglish”

  • August 28, 2012, 8:20pm

Cloze -->> gapfill

“Anglish”

  • August 23, 2012, 1:04am

I was wondering if someone (or anyone) could cast some/any light on how today's usage of "some' / "any" came about. Yes, "any" "einig"; some summige. But how did the meanings and the use of "any" after negatives develop in OE?

He was sat

  • August 19, 2012, 12:20am

a) "The vegetables grew" (Subject+ verb)
b) "We grew the vegetables" (Subject+verb+object)
In a) the verb is intransitive; in b) transitive and causative, that is it really means "we made the vegetables grow".
So the meaning of "grow" changes slightly, but the change is not marked in any way.
There are only a few verbs in English which do mark the change:
rise/raise; fall/fell (fell a tree); sit/set.
Since the meaning of the past participle is passive, its meaning is (usually) transitive and causative. Hence 'set', as in a 'set' piece, and so on.
There are however a few adjectives derived from intransitive verbs, usually different in form from the past participle : shrunken, drunken ... (not shrunk, drunk)
and one or two that happen to be the same: grown, fallen.
As you can see, most of these end in "-en", so it would be mighty strange indeed to put forward 'sat' as the past participle of an intransitive verb.
However it does seem to work that way.

“Anglish”

  • August 18, 2012, 6:48pm

@goofy: I thought Anglish has at root a wish to turn back the inflow of (snobby), mostly latinate words in today's English. My ask is what rede could we give to today's writers - in news/books/universities/business so as to make English more "sturdy" ?
I am thinking of a short rule of thumb which does not mean learning the word roots. For instance avoid words of more than one syllable which end in -ate, ation, ative; or words with forefasts like "trans-", "extra-". It would mean a word like "scarce" (which at first I thought might be ON) would not be targeted. But overall it would be a step in the right heading.
What rede would you give today's writers of English?

“Anglish”

  • August 18, 2012, 4:17pm

Oh dear me! sighed Teddy, so now I must learn historical linguistics as well as Latin and Greek, just to show the other bears how to speak true English. Oh dear me, I'm quite stuffed as it is.

“Anglish”

  • August 14, 2012, 6:22pm

@Gallitrot: I would fain say the irony was intentional; but in truth it wasn't. Of course I blame my "education". Glad I brought some sunshine into your life though.
Another example of "political correctness" might be:
"Your behaviour is inappropriate" instead of "you shouldn't have done that"... and so on.

“Anglish”

  • August 13, 2012, 9:36pm

"All told, approximately 600 words were borrowed from Latin during the Old English period[4] "
wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_influence_in_English
http://www.orbilat.com/Influences_of_Romance/English/RIFL-English-Latin-The_Inflluences_on_Old_English.html

These include both church and non-church words. Hardly surprising when stone churches from 654AD are still standing in southern England. But it does surely mean that words are not "bad" English simply because they have latin roots.

The other thing that might be looked at is the whole academic tradition of writing without using "I" or "you"; and stating one's opinions as if they were fact.

“Anglish”

  • August 7, 2012, 12:57am

@Ængelfolc: I often uncloud the meaning of a latinate word to overseas learners by going back the roots: thus "ex" "cept" means take out, and so on.
"Ahhhh soooo, except mean take-out" mutters the Japanese guy, looking at me as if we are mad not to say take-out in the first stead.....

“Anglish”

  • August 6, 2012, 9:05pm

At the end of the day, the word root hardly matters. What is noteworthy is whether the message is clearly understood. Part of the problem is that at school and college we are instilled with the idea that nominalisations, passives, latinate vocabulary, and impersonal structures are the stuff of academic and formal writing. Thus for example:
A) "Government intervention is required"
B) "The government should do something".
Version A gets the plaudits for being the 'right' style. However version B is clearer and sturdier.
"Government intervention" as a phrase is quite hard to render into something more Anglish; what is needed is a less contuminous (!=)) approach... whatever that be.

“Anglish”

  • August 6, 2012, 1:18am

How does one teach the word "susceptible" to overseas students?
Well of course it is "sub"+"cept"+ible = under - take - able -> wide open to
we can link it with:
acceptable (ad = to) -> take-on-board-able -> well-takeable
reception receive receptacle -> foreroom, get, ??
capture caption captive -> taking, headline, taken-man/heldman
perception perceive -> seeing/ making-out
deception deceive -> take someone in
exception except -> aside from / take-out
...
and now we come to the word "intervention".... inter+venire veni ventum
a coming-between
with another great batch of linked words made up with either inter or ven

I think many of these words are benoted in today's English because it is not easy to find a ready stand-in, and it is mighty hard to find the path from the latinate word to a truly English one. The wiring is truly not there in my mind already, and it gives me a head-ache. Truly "pain in the English".