Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/05/09

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Subject: [Leica] "Even us natives don't write English good"
From: jls at runbox.com (Jeffery Smith)
Date: Sun May 9 06:59:00 2004

Ironically, most of the folks who use "it's vs. its" and "compliment vs.
complement" incorrectly seem to be English as a first language folks. I
suspect that the biologists are less prone to make the latter error.

I blame it on the person who came up with the word "complement". He/she
should have used a less confusing word.

How about loath vs. loathe? By the way, when you say something like "B&W
photography is his forte", it is pronounced "fort" rather than "forte'"
(which is a term in music). That is misused so often, I'm loath (or is
it loathe?) to even *use* the term when speaking. This is one that will
probably eventually officially be changed to the *wrong* pronunciation
simply so Americans don't look so dumb mispronouncing it all of the
time..

Jeffery Smith (the grammar police, who knows better than to mention it
out of context)
New Orleans, LA


-----Original Message-----
From: lug-bounces+jls=runbox.com@leica-users.org
[mailto:lug-bounces+jls=runbox.com@leica-users.org] On Behalf Of Oliver
Sent: Sunday, May 09, 2004 8:47 AM
To: Users Group Leica
Subject: [Leica] "Even us natives don't write English good"

Buzz wrote:
<snip>
I add my applause for all the non-native speakers who join the LUG
dialogue in English.  I only wish a couple of us native English speakers
made even the smallest effort at writing clearly.

Buzz Hausner"

I hope that there will be more than a couple. May I suggest "Eats,
Shoots
and Leaves" by Lynne Truss, subtitled "a zero tolerance approach to
punctuation". The book is a most entertaining discourse on misplaced
apostrophes (as in "its" vs. "it's") and other ways of mangling the
English
language.
Oliver Bryk (English was not my first language)


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Replies: Reply from Jim at hemenway.com (Jim Hemenway) ([Leica] "Even us natives don't write English good")
Reply from mark at rabinergroup.com (Mark Rabiner) ([Leica] "Even us natives don't write English good")
Reply from pdzwig at summaventures.com (Peter Dzwig) ([Leica] "Even us natives don't write English good")
In reply to: Message from oliverbryk at iqmail.net (Oliver) ([Leica] "Even us natives don't write English good")