Subtle differences between the US and the UK that baffle me/you/us. - by SubJeff
faetal on 1/12/2012 at 12:37
Quote Posted by Eshaktaar
I've always been puzzled why in American English the letters 'c' and 'z' are pronounced nearly the same way. Why not go with "zed" as the Brits do and avoid any potential confusion?
Z used to be pronounced as 'zee' in the UK (some posh old people still pronounce it this way), it's actually us who changed the way we pronounce it to 'zed'.
faetal on 1/12/2012 at 12:49
Quote Posted by Dia
And faetal: 'irregardless' may be a word, but since the prefix "ir" and the suffix "less" both mean "not or with" they cancel each other out, so what you end up with is regard. Yeah, and I'm the OCD bitch who just corrected you for using it. Sorry, but it's one of my pet peeves, just like 'your/you're', etc.
Yes, that was my point. Irregardless is killed by redundancy (and not needed in the first place since the word 'regardless' already exists)
[EDIT] - whoops, multipost.
SlyFoxx on 1/12/2012 at 14:47
I watch Top Gear UK all the time so not much baffles me anymore save James May's wardrobe and the Brits belief they drive on the correct side of the road. (Just about 3/4 of all the world's roads are right hand.)
SubJeff on 1/12/2012 at 17:27
Quote Posted by faetal
I generate a looooot of data with my research and the way I name my directories is, e.g. 20121107 which means they all sort chronologically. That's almost irrelevant though I now realise since both the US and UK systems put the date at the end.
This just means you name your directories incorrectly. What data is it? Are there any other date or time values you store? Incorrect design of data storage is one of the worst things for data mining I can imagine and I usually hate working with other peoples data because of this and I'm pretty insistent on designing all the data collection for hospital audits I'm involved too.
SlyFoxx - it's partly for the reason I stated earlier; 90% of people are right handed and so 90% of people should have their dominant hand on the steering wheel when changing gear. Historically it may have been because 90% of people would draw their sword with their right hand too, but that may be bunkum.
Interestingly, to me at at least, one jousts riding on the right and not the left so you yanks may at least take comfort from being on "your" side before being unceremoniously unseated in the manner you blaggards rightly deserve.
Duncan on 1/12/2012 at 17:46
Quote Posted by demagogue
It may be a more Australian thing, sawr, lawr, idear...
Jumping in a little late here, this definitely sounds like an Aussie thing. Bakerman nailed it with the flow of what comes after a word. I was noticing myself doing that very thing when reading this thread. It is the main thing that I get picked up on at work (I'm Aussie living in the U.S) and provides much amusement at my expense. Another is a lot of words ending in 'r' will be pronounced as 'a' by Australians. Corner becomes cornah for instance. So as much as this gets pointed out to me, I like to believe that I am slowly teaching this backwater country how to speak propah.
Trance on 1/12/2012 at 19:27
Quote Posted by Subjective Effect
Interestingly, to me at at least, one jousts riding on the right and not the left so you yanks may at least take comfort from being on "your" side before being unceremoniously unseated in the manner you blaggards rightly deserve.
Stick a lance out of your window the next time you go driving and let us know how that goes.
faetal on 1/12/2012 at 21:14
Quote Posted by Subjective Effect
This just means you name your directories incorrectly. What data is it? Are there any other date or time values you store? Incorrect design of data storage is one of the worst things for data mining I can imagine and I usually hate working with other peoples data because of this and I'm pretty insistent on designing all the data collection for hospital audits I'm involved too.
I just name my folders so that they sort chronologically when I sort by name. The data I'm storing are mass spectra.
SubJeff on 1/12/2012 at 21:35
Does it end up being the same order if you do it by date?
frozenman on 2/12/2012 at 00:09
This isn't a thorough observation- but I've always been curious about how the British seem to phrase conversational questions in a particular way. You might hear something like "It's not like he robbed a bank, did he?" vs. "He didn't rob a bank" I don't know how to describe this linguistically, but whenever I watch British TV it jumps out at me and I can't unhear it.
faetal on 2/12/2012 at 01:32
Quote Posted by Subjective Effect
Does it end up being the same order if you do it by date?
Depends how recently I've worked with the contents of the folder.
