Complaint-Teachers who use incorrect grammar

(blinks)

Um, are we talking about the same TeacherGroupie - ??

 

You have a clever username too!

 

309 POSTS THIS IS A HOT THREAD !!!!!!!!!

 

Yes, but it was funny for several pages and then....it went all serious again. The funny was more fun. Also, it was more fun when people were brining up interesting points like word origins, etc., for example Teacher Groupie's comments. Now I know I'm going to get yelled at, but I was really enjoying the entertainment last Friday, this thread had me laughing so hard. And who wants to think serious on the weekends? God knows, I do it often enough.

 

You mean when THIS conversation started eduk8r????????? hehehe!

 

Yes! L O L

 

Well, perhaps it's that little girls play with Barbies and big boys play with barbells... ?

 

I made my brother play barbies with me. He never complained.

 

Ha ha ha! That's so funny.

Okay, here's one for you grammarians to sink your teeth into: Until the funnies restarted, I was "whingeing". What does that mean? (and where does it come from?)

 

Oh, that's British, or at any rate one heard it a good deal in England in the late 1980s.

According to the American Heritage Dictionary as quoted at http://www.answers.com/topic/whinge, to whinge is to complain repeatedly, especially in an annoying manner. The suburban parent whose emails fill everyone's in box, whose hovering is constant, loud, and fruitless, whose shadow falling on the threshold of the office causes even the hardiest of school secretaries to quail, is probably a whinger.

(For the record, whinge rhymes with hinge.)

 

Good heavens: whinge has got its own Web site! http://www.whinge.net/

 

I wonder if that's where we get whine? I'll have to look it up.
I do prefer kvetch, though.

 

Yup, that's me.

Okay, what about bollocks? (He, he)

 

That's getting awfully... anatomical, eduk8r!

 

No, wait!!! It's an expression used in a lot of British and Irish films, books, shows. (Which our family watches and reads almost exclusively.) I think it means the equivalent of BS., but we can't really tell in the contexts used.

 

oh, that is what it means, though there is a more literal translation.

 

'BS' would be a derived sense, but the original is definitely anatomical: http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=bollocks&searchmode=none.

 

Oooh, I'm afraid to look.

 

while we are on words, does anyone happen to know why macabre is spelled and pronounced so.

 

Oh, I just did. (Blushing heavily!) Strike this from the record, please. I am so blonde sometimes. It's because of the roots, I only have some blonde roots, but it's obviously enough. (So embarrassed....)

 

Because it's French. And it sounds cool like that.

 

I figured it must be french. But, why do we only pronounce some french words similar to how the words are spoken in french.

 

I know. Maybe because the words we mispronounce have been so Anglicized?

As an aside, it really grates on my nerves when we know how to pronounce a word or name the way it should be pronounced, but we don't do it. Probably irritates me more than incorrect grammar, as a matter of fact. It's like people don't hear the sounds or something.

Not to drag this thread away from the wonderful sense of frivolity that I enjoy so much!

 

There's some correlation between how long ago a word was obtained from French and how it's pronounced: as a very general rule, the earlier the borrowing, the likelier the word is to have been Anglicized.

 

HMMMMMMMM getting my blonde jokes out

 

Oh, yeah? Bring 'em on!

 

I am a former Blonde (my nick name as a little kid was "cotton" now its "silver fox" (well I think fox) my students say "Gringo de Plata" well that is the nice way they say it LOL

 

Two blondes walked into a building.

You'd think one of them would have noticed...


How do you drive a blonde crazy?

Put him (gotcha!) in a round room and tell him to go sit in the corner.

What drives you crazy is when they tell you they've found the corner!

 

Well, at least it is not diablo plato.

 

Or, harking back to the word that's given poor eduk8r such grief, silver bollocks...

 

Don't start that again! I went to bed blushing.

 

I found this link, and thought of all of you (or Ya'll).
http://www.offthemark.com/school/school02.htm
Check out the first cartoon on the right.

 

So funny! I can see how it reminded you of this thread.

 

Hahah... My grandma used to say don't be such a whinger....LOL

 

Now I wonder whether the term's current among our co-continentalists to the north.

 

Only if you are directly related in some way to an individual from the continent to the east. I, as a co-continentalist, was only made aware of the expression "to whinge" by my best friend and neighbour, who hails from across the pond. (You will have undoubtedly noted, however, the British spelling that we continue to employ....)

 

Precisely why I asked, my dear. (Hm. I wonder if whinge is more common in BC...)

 

And bonus points to you for not having caviled at my linguistic invention.

 

The hyphen makes it alright.

 

All people should be coached if they are having trouble with basic grammar, NOT just students or people from "socially disadvantaged" backgrounds.

What is a "socially disadvantaged" background?