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Weird things you never knew

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  • thecolourboxthecolourbox Frets: 9654
    scrumhalf said:
    What I find weird in English, is how the following sentence makes sense without even thinking about it and it sounds perfectly normal:

    "Can't you see the dog?"

    But when you think of what the apostrophe means, the sentence is actually thus:

    "Can not you see the dog?"

    Which obviously sounds ridiculous. 

    I wonder how this is explained to non-naive speakers? Or is it just something they are told "it just is that"

    Most languages have their "these are the rules, but..." moments. I like to think that we have them as a reward for not having grammatical genders or, as in the case of German, 437 words for "one" or "the" which vary according to grammatical case, gender and inside leg measurement of the person standing behind you.
    But I speak German and I feel confident I could explain to you which a/the to use and why quite clearly, and whilst some of it seems pointless actually using the dative saves you a word, using one word where English would require two.

    I know we are taught our native tongue differently than a foreign language, but I could not logically explain a lot of English grammar, such as what I mentioned above, without just finishing the explanation with "it just IS that, ok?!"
    Please note my communication is not very good, so please be patient with me
    soundcloud.com/thecolourbox-1
    youtube.com/@TheColourboxMusic
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  • sev112sev112 Frets: 2739
    Russians don’t even have a word for the / a 
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  • phil_bphil_b Frets: 2010
    you have a greater chance of being hit by lightning than you have of winning the lottery jackpot
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  • HattigolHattigol Frets: 8176
    edited July 2021
    phil_b said:
    you have a greater chance of being hit by lightning than you have of winning the lottery jackpot
    Doesn't that depend on a) where you stand during a storm and b) how many tickets you buy?
    "Anybody can play. The note is only 20%. The attitude of the motherf*cker who plays it is  80%" - Miles Davis
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  • bacchanalianbacchanalian Frets: 880
    Elizabeth Montgomery (Samantha from the TV series Bewitched) was Bill Asher's Mum.

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  • NiteflyNitefly Frets: 4901
    The one that does my head in is "prolly", presumably a contraction of "probably" as far as I can see from the context.

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  • GulliverGulliver Frets: 848
    More people have walked on the moon than have won Takeshi's Castle.
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  • thumpingrugthumpingrug Frets: 2890
    phil_b said:
    you have a greater chance of being hit by lightning than you have of winning the lottery jackpot
    Both would get you on the telly though.

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  • thumpingrugthumpingrug Frets: 2890
    Elizabeth Montgomery (Samantha from the TV series Bewitched) was Bill Asher's Mum.

    I had to look up who he is.  Nice guitars.

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  • grungebobgrungebob Frets: 3299
    boogieman said:
    You know that brown line that runs down men’s nutsack? That’s what turns into fanny lips if you were to be born female. As an early stage developing foetus we basically all share the same anatomy until we reach a certain point of growth. 

    You can thank Naked Attraction for that particular nugget of information.  
    It’s the other way round. All foetus are born female hence why men have nipples still with no biological need for them. 

    (At Least that’s what I remember being told)
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  • TanninTannin Frets: 5268
    ^Foetuses aren't born. :)
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  • EricTheWearyEricTheWeary Frets: 16253
    Elizabeth Montgomery (Samantha from the TV series Bewitched) was Bill Asher's Mum.

    Just from reading wikipedia his siblings appeared as Samantha's pregnancies on the show although it looks like Bill didn't. Interesting that Bill came from such a Hollywood background ( dad was the director of Bewitched as well as I Love Lucy and a close friend of Sinatra) and yet didn't take that direction at all. 
    Tipton is a small fishing village in the borough of Sandwell. 
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  • merlinmerlin Frets: 6595
    A penis can also be used for peeing. 
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  • EricTheWearyEricTheWeary Frets: 16253
    Tannin said:
    ^Foetuses aren't born. :)
    After ten minutes reading articles on the internet I'm none the wiser. It is a fetus ( or embryo before 8 weeks) and then it's a baby. Most people would call it a baby immediately prior to and during the period of birth although technically it is still a fetus. So during the birth you could probably use either - it is both and yet neither. 

    Then I got into foetus vs fetus. Foetus is a sort of olde worlde English spelling whereas fetus is the accepted medical spelling and truer to the latin ( fetus, like many latin words, has meaning dependant on context but essentially unborn child). So, people dislike fetus as an Americanism although it isn't really and both should pass a British English spell check. 

    [ Oh I hope the weather picks up a bit] 
    Tipton is a small fishing village in the borough of Sandwell. 
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  • TanninTannin Frets: 5268
    ^ Good research there, but it probably would have been easier to focus on the little :) at the end of my post than the nitpicky words in front of it. Still, the foetus vs fetus bit certainly qualifies as "weird things you never knew". :)

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  • EricTheWearyEricTheWeary Frets: 16253
    Tannin said:
    ^ Good research there, but it probably would have been easier to focus on the little :) at the end of my post than the nitpicky words in front of it. Still, the foetus vs fetus bit certainly qualifies as "weird things you never knew". :)

    It just interested me is all. There may even be some technical word for the fetus/ baby when it's half in and half out. My sister is a ( retired) midwife so something for conversation at the next family get together! 
    Tipton is a small fishing village in the borough of Sandwell. 
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  • 77ric77ric Frets: 539
    edited July 2021
    You know fruit flies? 
    Those tiny wee insects that are harmless but fucking annoying as they swarm around the fruit bowl that you keep your ornamental fruits in… yeah them. 

    The specials D. Bifurca, have the longest known sperm of an creature on earth. 

    Over 5 and a half centimetres long when untangled!

    Thats some pretty impressive coiling. Possibly the equivalent of a roadie coiling up 100ft cable, and I’m sure we know how wrong that can go. 


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  • SimonhSimonh Frets: 1358
    ICBM said:
    EricTheWeary said:

    One of my grandmother's friends was a man who wrote poetry and books in Black Country dialect and I think I understood it all at the time - listening into the conversations of elderly relatives some of whom would have been born in the 19th century. If I read those poems now it seems like a made up language, be very hard pressed to find anyone who speaks like that any more; certainly no one who isn't a pensioner. 
    I guess how people spoke in the 1960s was closer to how they spoke in the 1860s than our dialects are to those now. 
    I think a large part of this is the Americanisation of our culture via film and TV.

    [Old man shouts at clouds]

    The other night the newsreader on the BBC had adopted the American style of leaving out "on" when describing something that happened on a specific day. (eg "President Biden met with Prime Minister Johnson Tuesday".) It sounded ridiculously contrived and I'm sure he was doing it deliberately rather than naturally... massively annoying. And on the fucking BBC! Which is supposed to be delivered in proper English.

    [/Old man shouts at clouds]
    I get really annoyed when presenters say things like "that's all from Phil and me" NO NO NO it should be "That's all from Phil and I" and I know it is petty and pathetic but it does wind me up.
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  • KittyfriskKittyfrisk Frets: 18378
    77ric said:
    You know fruit flies? 
    Those tiny wee insects that are harmless but fucking annoying as they swarm around the fruit bowl that you keep your ornamental fruits in… yeah them. 

    The specials D. Bifurca, have the longest known sperm of an creature on earth. 

    Over 5 and a half centimetres long when untangled!

    Thats some pretty impressive coiling. Possibly the equivalent of a roadie coiling up 100ft cable, and I’m sure we know how wrong that can go. 


    Wonder if it affects their tone?
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  • the_jaffathe_jaffa Frets: 1778
    Simonh said:
    ICBM said:
    EricTheWeary said:

    One of my grandmother's friends was a man who wrote poetry and books in Black Country dialect and I think I understood it all at the time - listening into the conversations of elderly relatives some of whom would have been born in the 19th century. If I read those poems now it seems like a made up language, be very hard pressed to find anyone who speaks like that any more; certainly no one who isn't a pensioner. 
    I guess how people spoke in the 1960s was closer to how they spoke in the 1860s than our dialects are to those now. 
    I think a large part of this is the Americanisation of our culture via film and TV.

    [Old man shouts at clouds]

    The other night the newsreader on the BBC had adopted the American style of leaving out "on" when describing something that happened on a specific day. (eg "President Biden met with Prime Minister Johnson Tuesday".) It sounded ridiculously contrived and I'm sure he was doing it deliberately rather than naturally... massively annoying. And on the fucking BBC! Which is supposed to be delivered in proper English.

    [/Old man shouts at clouds]
    I get really annoyed when presenters say things like "that's all from Phil and me" NO NO NO it should be "That's all from Phil and I" and I know it is petty and pathetic but it does wind me up.
    Are you sure? You wouldn’t say “that’s all from I” would you. 
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