Why is rough (coarse ) spelt like that but ruff (16th century ) spelt like that?

ps Why is coarse spelt like that ?

Why not a golf coarse with the ball in the ruff?

Why elephant but not giraph or ruph(gamebird)  ?

finally why Arkansas not Arkansaw?

It's a phunny old gaim.

  No wonder I flunked my English exams.   

However I did pass German, french and Spainish - Now that I find weird. 

No-one's mentioned 'bought/brought' yet 

Bought, as in purchased - past tense of the word 'buy', eg. "I bought a new loco"

Brought, as in transported - past tense of the word 'bring', eg. "I brought my new loco home from the shop"

Common mistake 


Paul

Another common one now is people using 'to' instead of 'too'. As in "I bought one of those to!"

Cheers, Tim

Get round that one by just using 2. 

Now that's just text speak. I used to teach the army and Air Force how to do fuel testing, and a couple of people tried to do their exams in text speak. They got them back and told to resit them.

Cheers, Timmo 😃

That reminds me of when I forgot to sign my expenses and got them back with a note on saying "please resign".  I didn't realise it was a sackable offence! 

I think it is far too easy to judge without knowing the background. Whilst I appreciate it can be easy to mock poor spelling/grammar, and that a lot of it is down to education (in itself or the absorption of said education), we have to remember some have a disability when it comes to the written word.
Personally I feel so many people now learn the US of A way of doing things rather than English that we have become just another state of America. One in particular I hate is to the question "How are you?" the reply all too often is "I'm good, thanks" What the heck does that mean?

We must forgive the colonials for their manner of speech,
one presumes that the reply means I'm in good health, but
I think it can also be used in offering to get someone a
drink and they already have one .

Another aspect is the double negative, eg "I ain't got no money"
which contradicts itself.
Often used by geezers like Harry Redknapp eg "We ain't got no
injuries in the squad etc." Another wrongly used word becoming
more frequently used is "plethora " meaning an excessive amount
of something you don't want or need, now used in describing a
large number or quantity.

Perhaps the forum should appoint a grammar moderator to review
postings, followed by "Could do better".
Standards of speech have declined since BBC radio announcers
were no longer required to wear dinner jackets when they were
on the air.

That's another error as radio waves don't need air to travel.

Quote from: newportnobby on January 14, 2013, 12:10:37 PM
Personally I feel so many people now learn the US of A way of doing things rather than English that we have become just another state of America. One in particular I hate is to the question "How are you?" the reply all too often is "I'm good, thanks" What the heck does that mean?

Maybe they mean good  as opposed to evil  ? 

An adopted Americanism that annoys me is to "fill out a form". Sorry, but here in the UK we fill IN forms, because we insert information IN to the form. 


Paul

The USA is the world's largest English speaking nation and provider of most
movies, and much tv and pop music so it's inevitable that Americanisms
will enter into speech and writing in this country. We may dislike it
but it would be Canute-like to try to stop it.

Funnily enough many English phrases and words are appearing in the US
as a result of films and tv series from this country.Remember Obama's
cor blimey welcome to David Cameron last year. Like Dick van Dyke from
Mary Poppins.

Quote from: newportnobby on January 14, 2013, 12:10:37 PM
I think it is far too easy to judge without knowing the background. Whilst I appreciate it can be easy to mock poor spelling/grammar, and that a lot of it is down to education (in itself or the absorption of said education), we have to remember some have a disability when it comes to the written word.
Personally I feel so many people now learn the US of A way of doing things rather than English that we have become just another state of America. One in particular I hate is to the question "How are you?" the reply all too often is "I'm good, thanks" What the heck does that mean?

I have to agree,somebody might be dyslexic and you have to think of people's feelings.typo's are something that affects us all myself included.i also hate text speak and won't use it.basically though there is no excuse for bad spelling,preview before posting or use a spell checker.

Simply answer in Australia it seems is just to shorten every word as much as possible and the add "O"

Hence StevO, bottlO, renO etc. But even I cringed at the TV last night when the broadcaster  made a reference to the new smash hit film as......Les MisO.

Still living, in a country that has news headlines refering to someone being beaten up as " a man was bashed " - it does make you wonder.

Hello Trainsdownunder, in the UK the O thing was usually used for
some sportsmen eg Roy Keane =- Keano ' Sir Bradley Wiggins
= Wiggo, but seems to be a bit infrequent. Anyways  I hope the bushfires
are being contained and send best wishes to all in Australia, always one of
our greatest allies.

Quote from: newportnobby on January 14, 2013, 12:10:37 PM
I think it is far too easy to judge without knowing the background. Whilst I appreciate it can be easy to mock poor spelling/grammar, and that a lot of it is down to education (in itself or the absorption of said education), we have to remember some have a disability when it comes to the written word.

Thanks for that  Ive rather sat here squirming  a bit after reading this thread . Mainly because I have problems memorising numbers and letters (car number plates/phone numbers etc) for more than a few minutes. Similar with spelling, most of the time I am ok but others I just 'blank out' a word and have problems finding an alternative.
This is all down to a mental block which gives me no problems 99.99% of the time. Was lazy,slow etc at school and during my apprenticeship?  ...no I dont think so but who am I to say
Anyway its nice to see that Newport has stood up for us 'challenged ones'