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Thread: Our poor language getting vulgariZed

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    Default Our poor language getting vulgariZed

    A bit of a rant about something rather trivial, but anyway.

    Boy, are the yanks going to love me after this one...

    As someone having proudly British ancestry it has somewhat aggravated me to see the extent to which our English language has been forced to "adapt" to a new "standard" because of someone who could not be bothered to find out the right way, or let's face it, just think about what they are writing/saying.

    First of all, your Microsoft hero William Gates the third, is no billionaire. He would in fact be called a milliardaire. And as I type that word, your auto-correct is underlining that perfectly normal word with a hideous red wavy-line, to chastise (didn't consider using a z yet in this word, BTW?) me. What is it with all the z's anyway? The only z's I like are the ones I can catch at night. That would be "zeds" too, not "zees".

    A billion is exactly what it says -- a million twice over (you seem to have no problem understanding bisexual, bi-partisan, bi-lateral, bipolar) and a trillion is a million thrice over. Those things you call a billion and a trillion are in fact a milliard and a billion, respectively, and 1000 billion is a billiard (not in any way related to the game billiards BTW, and considering that good old pool is a much better game).

    Speaking of the "long numbers" you don't like the scientific expression of "parts per million (ppm)" and "parts per billion (ppb)"? You say "it is not a clear unit". It was never meant to represent any unit -- it is dimensionless. It is there especially so that you guys didn't have to convert micrograms per litre (yes, not liter) into Troy-ounces per non-imperial gallon or whatever it is you guys use.

    Speaking of science, I have no idea what the hell "sulfur, sulfate and sulfide" is. The only one I know is "sulphur, sulphate and sulphide". And you guys must have invented aluminum in your imagination because no such metal exists.

    And, you don't know how to handle the plural of a word ending on -us? Like one genius many genii? Obviously there were never enough of them over there so that you could ever have two or more in the same room. Same with the several viri you carry around in you. Never heard of antennae or formulae either (plural of words ending on -a)?

    What am I on about? English was invented this way to be elegant, and to avoid sounding crass and like the lingo of a simpleton.

    Now I shall retire to the estate and let thee peruse over these most imperative points I have raised.
    Last edited by irritant; 03-04-19 at 06:30 AM. Reason: They even got me confused at one point...

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    Also, 86 degrees is f*cking horrifically hot, as hot as hell. But, 30 degrees is a nice warm summer's day.
    Last edited by irritant; 02-04-19 at 06:39 PM.

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    Well, if we're putting sh*t on seppos, lol, here's a couple...
    Using 'an' in front of everything is annoying.
    Dates, they have the month and day arse about, which is also quite annoying.
    From memory I think the date swap was done deliberately for no other reason than to be different from the British.
    With different words some pronounce 'ing' as 'ink', noticed it becoming more common over the last few years, one in particular irks me somewhat but I can't remember it at the moment, when I hear it again I'll post it.

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    Don’t get me started. I’ve even heard an Australian use the term “sidewalk” and gas is not the liquid that makes your car move... it’s, well “gas”.

    Does anyone know why Americans pronounce solder “sodder”? They still spell it with an L,

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    From my years in the education system, an English billion was a million million as you say but the American billion was 1000 million and I always assumed that was to make it easier to claim yourself as being a 'billionaire'. All these years later it appears that the US billion and trillion definitions have won out just like VHS emerged victorious over Beta.

    The US officially adopted the SI system (metric) but didn't make it mandatory for public use so it's only used in scientific circles
    Last edited by Skepticist; 02-04-19 at 09:45 PM.

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    The way they pronounce Aluminium makes me want to break something
    Last edited by Uncle Fester; 02-04-19 at 11:31 PM.
    Update: A deletion of features that work well and ain't broke but are deemed outdated in order to add things that are up to date and broken.
    Compatibility: A word soon to be deleted from our dictionaries as it is outdated.
    Humans: Entities that are not only outdated but broken... AI-self-learning-update-error...terminate...terminate...

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jma View Post
    ~ was done deliberately for no other reason than to be different from the British. ~
    The more of these Americanisms I see, the more I think this of everything they do. I swear there is/was a deliberate effort made just to be different from everyone else, what they don't realise is that it just makes them look semi-illiterate.

    They even changed the volume of their measurements, the good old pints, quarts & gallons. An Imperial gallon is (roughly) 4.55 litres whereas an American gallon is only 3.78 litres (17% smaller), did they do this just so they could say 'we've got more gallons now'?

    Andrew

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    They swear better than we do......the word "sh!t" just rolls out.
    The fact that there's a highway to hell and a stairway to heaven says a lot about the anticipated traffic flow.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Bigfella237 View Post
    .................................................. .... An Imperial gallon is (roughly) 4.55 litres whereas an American gallon is only 3.78 litres (17% smaller), did they do this just so they could say 'we've got more gallons now'?

    Andrew
    Probably so they can fit a smaller brain inside a ten gallon hat.
    The fact that there's a highway to hell and a stairway to heaven says a lot about the anticipated traffic flow.

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    An American person once asked me to "Xerox" something for him. Took me a while to figure out the poor soul wanted me to make a photocopy.
    Last edited by irritant; 03-04-19 at 06:33 AM.

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    well a aussie could be sent over there and buy some guns and do a christchurch there!NO wait a minute they already do that themselves dont they would,nt even make the local paper now sorry dont know how to fix it ,lol

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    Not all Aussies are mass killers.

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    I have downloaded and set Australian dictionaries and language into my system and browsers and have spent a lot of time trying to get the spell check to recognise them but the Fking things insist on spelling everything with a Z or other screw up of the English language into American. Shits me to tears.

    Not as much as " Sodder" irritates me which to me sounds like some perverse sexual act, " A loooominum" and what the fk is it with the goddam date? Is it the the 1st of April or the 4th Of January? Not always possible to tell who wrote it and what they meant. What idiot ( and their followers) would take a 123 format and make it 213? 321 is logical as well but 213??? WTF??

    The other thing that I'm not sure makes me more infuriated or in despair is the spreading and ridiculous use of the word "SO" to start each and every sentence written or worse still, spoken,
    I was watching a promotional vid the other night for a US car company. They had the head of promotions and company spokes person doing an interview and every single question he was asked started with the word "So".
    I thought to myself how the Fk does someone get to be a spokes person for a huge multi national company when they cannot even structure an answer to a simple question correctly?

    You could ask this guy what day of the week was it and the answer would come back " So it's Wednesday today" And what time is it please? " So it's 10 past 11. " Seriously, I'd correct the guy the first 2 times and then slap him the 3rd time he said it. Unfortunately I am noticing more and more people falling into this desecration of our language here as well.

    What the yanks hang up with the metric system is I'll never know. Raise it with them and they go into orbit about how much better imperial ( their version which again is a screwed version of the original) is and endless other excuses they want to keep it but then in practice you see they rate car engines in liters, they do have orange juice in liters as well, the military have used " Clicks" for Km for decades as well as meters for ranging etc.
    They don't know which way they are going. Jap cars which they have as many as we do are all metric bolts and sized but I have seen forum posts and vids where people bitch they have to go out and buy metric tools like it's some offence to their parentage or something.

    As I say in my YT Vids " That's 10 liters, and for the Americans watching, that's ummmm..... 10 Liters!"

    When did Europe become a single country like it is in the eyes of so many in the US?

    How come a country where they pride them selves on bigger and better, more powerful etc ( AKA, more excessive, inefficient, wasteful and heavier) than anywhere else has a pissant power system based on 110V as standard and 220V as " heavy duty" ?

    They are seriously the biggest pussies or most brain washed people in the world.
    " Now before you open a can of soup or attempt to make a sandwich, make sure you have all your safety equipment on including your safety glasses or goggles, gloves, apron, hard hat, Hi Vis vest and steel capped boots. And be sure to have a fire extinguisher handy just in case and don't try this at home. Leave it to a trained professional. Remember, safety third!"

    Ever Mentioned to an American you have a gas BBQ and seen the look on their face when they think it runs on petrol?
    To them thats "pro Paaaane"

    Don't even start me on the truly universal unit of measurement of Americans..... Football Fields.
    " The aircraft Carrier is 6 Football fields long and 2 football fields wide" " It's an area larger than 100 football fields" You could place 50 Football fields end to end. There is enough water to fill a football field 20 Ft high.....

    They are so Dumb they can not relate the size or length of anything to a unit of measurement other than " A football field"??

    Maybe we should introduce our own units of Measurements.... " It's as long as 3 harbour Bridges and is high as 3 Ayres rocks stacked on top of one another..."
    For smaller measurements we could say " It's about as long as your average Didgeridoo" or " It weights as much as 5 Fully grown Goanna's"

    That ought to give them something to think about and maybe even realise they and Europe aren't the only " Countries" in the world.

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    Quote Originally Posted by WhiteOx View Post
    Not all Aussies are mass killers.
    Try convincing the twitterati and bigots on places like the ABC that mate!
    The fact that there's a highway to hell and a stairway to heaven says a lot about the anticipated traffic flow.

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    Quote Originally Posted by nomeat View Post
    The way they pronounce Aluminium makes me want to break something
    That's because they actually spell it aluminum. It makes me cringe as well but it's actually pronounced correctly with that spelling.

    My pet hate: Nuclear is pronounced new-clee-ah not new-cue-la like the yanks say it.

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    Quote Originally Posted by hinekadon View Post
    well a aussie could be sent over there and buy some guns and do a christchurch there!NO wait a minute they already do that themselves dont they would,nt even make the local paper now sorry dont know how to fix it ,lol
    That is NOT funny, Hinekadon!

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    Quote Originally Posted by Skepticist View Post
    The US officially adopted the SI system (metric) but didn't make it mandatory for public use so it's only used in scientific circles
    I guess it's not mandatory for scientific circles either

    "The Mars Climate Orbiter (formerly the Mars Surveyor '98 Orbiter) was a 338-kilogram (745 ) launched by on December 11, 1998 to study the . However, on September 23, 1999, communication with the spacecraft was lost as the spacecraft went into , due to ground-based computer software which produced output in units of pound-force seconds (·s) instead of the of newton-seconds (N·s) specified in the contract between NASA and . "




    It produced a great headline in the media: METRIC MATH MISTAKE MUFFED MARS METEOROLOGY MISSION
    Last edited by mandc; 03-04-19 at 02:30 PM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by george65 View Post
    ~ They are seriously the biggest pussies or most brain washed people in the world. ~
    You could add to that they have the biggest stick up their collective butts too!

    Have you noticed how America is anti-nudism lately? Everyone from Google (Youtube) to the movie studios is trying to quash any content that even hints at being 'raunchy', it's as if they are all totally ashamed of their bodies and disgusted at the sight of anyone else's? I guess you could lay blame for that on their religious zealotry, which is another thing in and of itself...

    Yes there is a place for religion in everyday life if you so choose, but don't carry on like an evangelist on Sunday morning TV with every sentence you utter. And please, please, stop trying to impose your morals on the rest of the world, God help us if all the world behaved like Americans!

    And who the hell appointed America as the sheriff of the world? Seriously, if two idiots in Grrfurjiclestan start an argument, you don't need to 'saddle-up and form a posse' to invade their country on their behalf!

    Andrew
    Last edited by Bigfella237; 03-04-19 at 02:47 PM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Bigfella237 View Post

    Have you noticed how America is anti-nudism lately? Everyone from Google (Youtube) to the movie studios is trying to quash any content that even hints at being 'raunchy', it's as if they are all totally ashamed of their bodies and disgusted at the sight of anyone else's?
    But still seem to be the home of and have a huge porn industry.

    Does the word Hypocrite apply?

    I really get tired of all this " Family" censorship mentality. Have they every been in schoolyard full of 10 yo's and hear what comes out of their mouths let alone High school smoking, Drinking and getting Funky and they they think they have never seen tits or arse or said the word shit before?

    They think every parent sits dutifully with their kid when they are on the computer and rip the cord out the wall the minute a pic comes up that is showing too much Cleavage?

    Do gooders. They are breeding but we don't need any more of them. More than enough to use as wheel chocks at the airports to stop the planes running away all around the world.

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    Quote Originally Posted by enf View Post
    Try convincing the twitterati and bigots on places like the ABC that mate!
    It's better to start with the ones who have found themselves on this forum.
    I can appreciate a joke but that wasn't even half funny.

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