SNUB, not SNOB | Imamother

ImaMum

Thu, Jun 19 2014, 11:41 am

Iymnok wrote:

Prenatal
Postpartum

What is post-natal? I see it everywhere, it really bugs me. Why not prepartum? Is there postnatal depression? Post natal check-up?

Maybe I'll just stat using prenatal to get awareness up...

I really can't stand preteen texting on a mature foum

As brownies and 5*mom said, these are English terms. So yes, there is such a thing as postnatal depression and check ups in UK.

Also, did you mean forum rather than foum Wink

Kitten

Thu, Jun 19 2014, 12:23 pm

ewa-jo wrote:

Incorrect.

"voir" is the French verb for look... if you want to conjugate it to say "you look" it is "tu vois"
"la" is the French word for there

Voila literally means "look there"

Also incorrect. "Voilà is a verb and a preposition. Yes, if you want to say "see there", it's "vois là" (with an accent on the "a"), which can lead to "voilà".
"Voilà" comes from "vela", which first use was found in a 1342 text and was used to designate a person or thing more or less far away. For more info, you have a detailed etymology there http://atilf.atilf.fr/dendien/.....5040;
There have been many scholarly articles written about "voilà" (etymology, uses, different forms). I guess it's not so obvious what it is Smile

Kitten

Thu, Jun 19 2014, 12:53 pm

Ruchel wrote:

Voila may sound like walla said quick... but it's voila. And no, not "viola" Rolling Eyes

Who said something about "viola"? Is there something I missed, or a typo I didn't see? Meanwhile, "voila", with no accent on the "a", means (he/she) veiled. VOILÀ!

Miri1

Fri, Jun 20 2014, 2:13 am

Okay, this is all beginning to sound snobby and intimidating.
Not everyone on here writes English as their first language, and not everyone on here writes the English you learnt in school, (learnt being a purposeful example of British English)

If you want to get really linguistic about it, there is a difference between written language conventions, and colloquialisms, which are entitled to fluidity (hence "snob" as a verb may be accepted in spoken interactions with certain English speaking subsets).

I think the clash here, and what grates on the nerves is that perhaps with the increase in texting (when did that become a verb? See? things are fluid), the written word has taken on colloquial qualities. And spelling has gone out the window along with punctuation.

Which of us is the pedant? Wink

penguin

Fri, Jun 20 2014, 9:30 am

Sequoia wrote:

Quote:

doughnut wrote:

Quote:

I don't have what to wear.

It's a calque from Russian.

Or Hebrew or Yiddish.

As in, 'ein li ma lilbosh' - translated literally - would be "I don't have what to wear"
"Ich hob nisht vos tzu troggen" ditto.

"Ein li ma le'echol" - "I don't have what to eat."

Not excusing. If you're speaking or writing English, kindly do so!

pause

Fri, Jun 20 2014, 9:37 am

penguin wrote:

Sequoia wrote:

Quote:

doughnut wrote:

Quote:

I don't have what to wear.

It's a calque from Russian.

I always hear/use this sentence without knowing that it is incorrect. Can you kindly translate into English?

Barbara

Fri, Jun 20 2014, 10:26 am

Ruchel wrote:

french here Smile

Yes, but you speak (or at least) write English better than a large percentage of native English speakers I know.

I deal with foreign counsel on a regular basis, and it always amazes me that I can call their offices, and their receptionists and assistants speak English so well. Its a testament to their schools, and an indictment of the ethnocentrism of US schools.

mizle10

Fri, Jun 20 2014, 11:12 am

Snobbed is definitely a teenage slang word... at least were I come from. "She snobbed me out." Some of us get married while still in our teens, just sayin....

penguin

Fri, Jun 20 2014, 11:26 am

Quote:

"Ein li ma le'echol" - "I don't have what to eat."

Quote:

Not excusing. If you're speaking or writing English, kindly do so!

I always hear/use this sentence without knowing that it is incorrect. Can you kindly translate into English?

I don't have anything to eat. I don't have anything to wear.
I don't have what to do about this -->I don't have the tools to deal with this
OR: I don't know what to do about this.

He didn't have what to talk about-->
He didn't have anything to talk about. He didn't know what to talk about.

If you want to provide more examples, we'll be glad to give you some more correct ways to phrase them

pause

Fri, Jun 20 2014, 1:54 pm

penguin wrote:

Quote:

"Ein li ma le'echol" - "I don't have what to eat."

Quote:

Not excusing. If you're speaking or writing English, kindly do so!

I always hear/use this sentence without knowing that it is incorrect. Can you kindly translate into English?

Thanks! I didn't even realize what was wrong with these sentences! (Here we go... is that better phrased as I didn't even realize anything was wrong with it? or am I now being too aware of the use of the word what?)

tryinghard

Sat, Jun 21 2014, 8:48 pm

sequoia wrote:

No no no, it's fine. You just can't use "what" with "have" in standard English.

Unless you want to say "what have you done?"

Ruchel

Sun, Jun 22 2014, 5:48 am

Barbara wrote:

I tear my hair out with my students... unfortunately Frenchies are very bad at languages. It's sloooowly going better... but urgh. Not even tackling the accent or pronounciation...

ROFL

Sun, Jun 22 2014, 5:53 am

shoeboxgirly wrote:

definitely defiantly Shaking

I find this something a lot of people I work with do and then I discovered that spell check changes definitely when spelled wrong to defiantly.

mommyla

Sun, Jun 22 2014, 8:19 am

ROFL wrote:

I find this something a lot of people I work with do and then I discovered that spell check changes definitely when spelled wrong to defiantly.

That's because they spell it "definately."

m in Israel

Mon, Jun 23 2014, 2:18 am

Barbara wrote:

You remind me of a favorite joke of mine:

What do you call someone who speaks many languages? multilingual
What do you call someone who speaks two languages? bilingual
What do you call someone who speaks only one language? an American

(Of course even the fact that citizens of the U.S. refer to themselves as "Americans" is rather ethnocentric considering we are just a small part of the American continents. . .)

zaq

Mon, Jun 23 2014, 4:58 pm

Brownies wrote:

There is also the expression to "turn up your nose" at something you disdain. (In British English - does it also exist in America?) Possibly they are related? Maybe in the past touching the tip of your nose was a way of showing contempt..

Of course Yanks "turn up their noses" to show disdain. Not with our fingers, though--we're far too refined for that. We just tilt our noses up and away--which, physiologically speaking, is no different from raising our chins, but is accompanied by a simultaneous moue of distaste, or a contemptuous lift of the eyebrows.

If one has a snub nose, this movement has the effect of putting the viewer eyeball-to-eyeball with one's nostrils. Well, that would be eyeball-to-nostril. Not very appealing. Might even turn the viewer's...stomach.