Split: English Lessons

[Crisalys]

definitely

Hehehe... someone FINALLY read that second-to-last line in my sig!

[Nukej00]

Hehehe... someone FINALLY read that second-to-last line in my sig!

Rofl, yeah it's definately annoying when people misspell things.

<3

P.S. Thanks for the sticky.

[Crisalys]

Not to derail the thread, but personally, it doesn't matter to me one way or the other... with so many players and posters in this game that learn English as a second language, you have to recognize that all anyone wants to do is relay their thoughts and opinions to all readers, whether in these forums or in-game.

But when I look at a post by someone from the Netherlands (where they learn Dutch, English, German and French) and it reads like it was typed by tenured English professor at Oxford University, then look at the response made by some self-professed red-blooded functionally-illiterate American that reads like he's retaking 6th grade for the third time, it makes my teeth itch and makes me want to crawl into a hole in total embarrassment of my entire nation.

Search google.com for "definately" and you'll find more than a few people who are considerably less tolerant than I am... but I think #1 and #5 from urbandictionary.com's definition of "definately" sums up all those opinions quite nicely:

1. definately: Idiot-speak for "definitely". One of the most common moronic misspellings found on the internet.
5. definately: as blogged, emailed, or texted by a complete moron.

I'll reiterate; I have no issue with a non-English speaking person spelling the word phonetically, and I'll never intentionally embarrass anyone by correcting or insulting them about their misspellings in mid-discussion. I just hope my sig helps them in their English studies.

[Shrubberyman]

For some weird reason, that word just won't spell right on the first try ever with me. First take is usually "definilety", sometimes "definitley".

[Crisalys]

I do, actually find myself spelling it wrong as well, but I usually catch it long before clicking the "Submit Reply" button.

Although this is not how the word came about, think of it as a the combination of two words:

To DE●FINE something means to describe in detail, (Define the term "sizzle chest"; 1) a male with well developed pectoral muscles; 2) a female with well developed... um... nevermind.

If something is FIN●ITE, it has an end (There is a finite length of time we have to wait after raising the shields before we can initiate another Alien Raid in our city).

so if something is DE●FIN●ITE, there is an exact and specific reason for an event or description of an item which has no alternative or needs no more discussion (as in it's definite I'm going to hell for that description of the word "define")

So by adding 'ly", we create create the adverb DE●FIN●ITE●LY which now can be used to accent a verb or another adjective, such as "That description for 'sizzle chest' is definitely suggestive" (meaning the adjective [suggestive] is unquestionably appropriately describing the subject [That description]), or "I definitely have a warped sense of humor" (accenting the verb [have] by suggesting the object of the sentence [the warped sense of humor] is the final word about the subject [which is "I"]).

But enough thread derailment, Crisalys, please? Thank you. (I won't post anymore on that subject).

[Crisalys]

... and because I derailed myself, I forgot to actually mention what a great post it was originally... Every time I sat down to try to compile a similar one I got sidetracked (see above) or some other research got in the way (currently the discussion on Detonation Matrix) or RK4 pulled me away and I forgot about it. Thank you, Nukej00, for taking the time to compile the Research buffs into a well organized post.

[Eskarin]

lol you are such a spelling nazi Cris

[Nukej00]

lol you are such a spelling nazi Cris

Less digression. Please?

[RedWatr]

I'm thinking someone got smacked around by an Engrish teecherr wen thei werr yungger <3

[Crisalys]

These posts were moved from the AUNO NT Research Rip thread to allow thread to remain on-topic. It may get moved to Reet's Retreat by someone else, but for now, all is good.

[Crisalys]

Actually, my high school English teacher was pretty cool... Her name was Mrs. Starratt, and the way she said to remember spelling it was "Double R, Double T, with a "rat" in the middle."

I wouldn't consider myself a "spelling Nazi"... Do you see me raggin' on people spelling things wrong just to try to get my goat? (It's all good fun ), or embarrassing anyone by correcting their spelling mistakes mid-thread?

I do, however, believe that a person who wants to be articulate might want to know whether they're actually doing so... I've sent PMs to people (whose posts adequately reveal that they don't speak English natively) explaining the correct spelling or syntax or sentence structure, after which they just thank me and that's the end of it-- No need to chastise the person for it.

I believe that if a person does something incorrect, then the embarrassment of learning they've been doing it wrong for so long is so much greater than finding it out early. I'd hope that if I made a mistake, someone would tell me early enough so I'm not embarrassed about doing it constantly for weeks or months and looking like a total idiot.

[aramsunat]

cris, ever considered to be an English teacher?
your enthusiasm and commitment is overwhelmingly impressive

[aramsunat]

also, u cant help, most ppl in AO is eurotrash (including myself ) and some ppls English knowledge is limited to such phrases as:
"lol", "credz plz", "sfa plx", "***", "nerf NTs", "tripplenoob" (which is utterly bull****, cuz triple is one 'p' )

[Crisalys]

cris, ever considered to be an English teacher?
your enthusiasm and commitment is overwhelmingly impressive

also, u cant help, most ppl in AO is eurotrash (including myself )

That first statement is conclusive proof that you aren't eurotrash so I'd have to disagree with you there.... but do I agree that there are just some people who refuse to learn... but it doesn't mean that others won't listen.

[aramsunat]

lol, I'm Hungarian
the fact is that English spelling is, by far, easier than Hungarian spelling XD

[-Bugsplat]

Firefox even added an on-board spell-checker.

Oh well

[Crisalys]

I have it-- don't see Hungarian in the list of character encodings .

(Don't go all ape-sh*t on me-- I KNOW it doesn't TRANSLATE Hungarian!)

[aramsunat]

maybe I should change Firefox spell check to English... I type most of the time in English while using Firefox anyway

I have it-- don't see Hungarian in the list of character encodings .

try "latin-2" or "ISO-8859-2"

then you can type öüóőúűáéí etc characters (luckily unicode or UTF-8 contains 'em )

[Graftmage]

[irony]this is definately a good thread[/irony]

[Crisalys]

[irony]this is definately a good thread[/irony]