[Wobble73]

I agree that standards in English Education have gone down though. A local butchers has a sign in the window that states.............

"All major credit cards excepted"   

[Rick James]

I've said it before and I'll say it again:

If yu cn rd this thn you dnt nd 2 spl wrth a dmn.

[Mika]

The "cool" in "cool as a cucumber" doesn't refer to being "awesome," but instead to temperature.  Cucumbers tend to stay cool inside, even in relatively warm weather.  So if you're as cool as a cucumber, you generally stay calm, even when under pressure.

And I'm not really sure what you mean by reality contradicting the sun rising every day.

I never thought it would mean awesome, but for example, to describe that some person remains calm. The reason the cucumber expression doesn't make sense is that the cucumber only remains above zero for about five months in a year around here... And two of those months are cold enough that you won't notice the difference.

What it comes to sun not getting up, ever been around the Arctic circle in winter time?

But really, how about that "spline"? Where does it come from? Somehow related to "spine"? Any takers?

[Herra Tohtori]

But really, how about that "spline"? Where does it come from? Somehow related to "spine"? Any takers?

Wikipedia suggests connection to "splinter", I would put my money on "splint" as in splint mail. Splint is a thin long strip of metal, which is essentially what the flat spline tool is as well (though it can be other material than metal as well).

However, the etymology of the word is unknown according to Merriam-Webster and a few other dictionaries.

[Mongoose]

I never thought it would mean awesome, but for example, to describe that some person remains calm. The reason the cucumber expression doesn't make sense is that the cucumber only remains above zero for about five months in a year around here... And two of those months are cold enough that you won't notice the difference.

What it comes to sun not getting up, ever been around the Arctic circle in winter time?

Keep in mind that these expressions were coined by cultures in more temperate, lower-latitude climates, where they'd actually make sense.  They may not apply to those who come from the land of the ice and snow, from the midnight sun where the hot springs flow.

Hammer of the gooooooods...

[MP-Ryan]

"can not" is quite legitimate and it's correct grammatical spelling is actually "cannot."  The space is omitted because there are two soft vowel signs adjacent to each other separated only by the same consonant.  It's analogous to how "a les" in French becomes "aux."  Written language is derived from spoken, and separating "can" and "not" in English speech is linguistically difficult.

There are a lot of things that make me despair for the future of the English language (the number of dunces who use "then" in place of "than," for example, is astounding) but 'cannot' isn't one of them.

[Scotty]

Truly, English has bigger problems than the addition and change of words or the subtle change of grammer.  This is hardly new, nor is it a bad thing.

I've seen "then" in place of "than," but that seems much less widespread than complete and utter abuse of the trifecta of "there," "their," and "they're."

[Mika]

I guess "spline" will remain as a mystery then. But I think that the draftman's spline was not made of metal strip. See for reference http://math.emich.edu/~aross15/coursepack3419/draftspline_files/draftspline.jpg There is few pictures of that tool in the Google's image search, though it has been used in the airplane construction and ship building long before computers were available.

There are a couple of others: where are the roots for the word "program"?
What is the idea behind the phrase "Easy come, easy go"? I do know the meaning of the phrase but still it is hard to understand what is going on in the native English speaker's mind when he says that.
Where does the word "midge" come from? I think "midge" cannot be related to "midget", or is it?

[Nemesis6]

"Incase anyone was wondering..."  - Certain mistakes should have violent, physical consequences! 

Also, I tend to get annoyed when I see native English speakers make mistakes that I made when I was learning the language when I was about 13-years-old. One thing that really bugs me is the "there", and "their" thing - Same amount of letters. That implies some pretty profound intellectual laziness as far as I'm concerned.

Oh, I have a test for you guys, stop the errors in this sentence: "Who you going to the store with?"

[SpardaSon21]

Random guess, but shouldn't that sentence read:"With whom are you going to the store?"

[Herra Tohtori]

Oh, I have a test for you guys, stop the errors in this sentence: "Who you going to the store with?"

Depends on whether you consider ending a sentence with a preposition to be an error, but it definitely misses the auxiliary verb "to be".

"Who are you going to the store with?"
"With whom are you going to the store?"

In spoken language, the "are" can be omitted or included as an almost silent "who're". Personally I don't consider finishing a sentence with preposition to be a mistake, especially if it's spoken language or dialogue.

Of course, an example of the superiority of Finnish language is that you can say the same with four words:

"Kenen kanssa menet kauppaan?"

All behold the elven tongue.

[FreeSpaceFreak]

If you think English is hard, try Dutch. It's my native language, but I'm actually having less problems writing in English. We have a ton of non-coherent rules. For example, with word compositions, you have to do them either connected to each other, with a space in between, or with a dash. And if you connect them, you have to put an n, an s or just nothing in between. All this is governed by rather dumb rules. So far so good, people can remember all that, if they try.

But, we also have a club of old mad people who change all the ****ing rules every ~5 years! By the time people get to know the rules, they change again!
I used to be fairly good at spelling, even ended up pretty high in a contest once, but I gave up at the latest rule change. Now I just write whatever I think is fitting. The good thing is, the one who reads what you've written probably doesn't know the rules either.

[/rant]

[Mongoose]

There are a couple of others: where are the roots for the word "program"?

"1625–35;  < LL programma < Gk prógramma  public notice in writing."

What is the idea behind the phrase "Easy come, easy go"? I do know the meaning of the phrase but still it is hard to understand what is going on in the native English speaker's mind when he says that.

Your average English speaker would probably be thinking something along the lines of, "Well, if I came by this easily, i.e. for free, and then lost it, I haven't really lost much of anything in the long run."  Easily come by, easily gone.

Where does the word "midge" come from? I think "midge" cannot be related to "midget", or is it?

"bef. 900;  ME mygge,  OE mycg(e); c. G Mücke, ON mȳ; akin to Gk myîa,  L musca fly "

Dictionary.com is fun!

[S-99]

Were these spelling mistakes intentional?

As for using foreign words in Scrabble, that all depends if that word has fallen into everyday usage in english, i.e. bidet. and words of that ilk.


P.S. I also notice you used aren't instead of are not.  

Yes the mistakes were intentional. My point was that my fear of the future of english will include remarkably stupid compound words that don't exist like "everymonth".  I still feel that using foreign words in scrabble is cheating. Just purely from the absolutionist frame of mind i look at it with. It doesn't matter if a foreign language word has gotten into everyday usage among english speakers, because that foreign language word is still a foreign language word.

So i used aren't. Don't, isn't, can't, didn't. The shortening of the word not is actually handy. I don't really consider this zombifying the subject or me waiting until i could have the last word. Just me finally able to reply to another topic after fixing the local landfill's electronic scale computer (2 weeks of fixing a problem that was a pain my ass, but getting my work sub contracted got me $1200).

For the mean time, it's currently popular to not read your books, eat your wheaties, have horrible grammar and spelling, and to speak like a two year old with a speech impediment (gangsta talk). Stuff i am't (yes that means am not) happy about. Engrish is too flexerble.

[TopAce]

Read some primers in language change and revise your arguments.

My point was that my fear of the future of english will include remarkably stupid compound words that don't exist like "everymonth"

If that becomes the standard spelling, it won't be considered "remarkably stupid" when it'll be used like that. Words change. Get over it. Read some older (100-150-year-old) pieces of writing, and look for compounds that "don't exist", or words that you know as compounds but exist in a separated or a hyphenated form.

It was clarified already that "everyday" exists as an adjective: "an everyday activity"; but: "I go swimming every day/once in every week/every weekend". "Everymonth" will not become a word because we have "monthly" to denote the same idea.

It doesn't matter if a foreign language word has gotten into everyday usage among english speakers, because that foreign language word is still a foreign language word.

So consider isn't a valid Scrabble word because it comes from Latin? What about taxi, or chauffeur, or pizza, or lance? Or units of measurement such as meter/metre; liter/litre? Who decides which ones are "pure" English words and which ones aren't? You? And what about forum? It's not an English word, either.

[Mika]

Quote from S-99

For the mean time, it's currently popular to not read your books, eat your wheaties, have horrible grammar and spelling, and to speak like a two year old with a speech impediment (gangsta talk). Stuff i am't (yes that means am not) happy about. Engrish is too flexerble.

And of course, the most brilliant way of countering this is then to spell things intentionally wrong in public media.

Hearing "LOL" being said repeatedly by a Finnish teenager as a reply to a joke his buddy made sounded really atrocious for me. How much can you copy from other cultures or from the internet and think it is still cool? Hopefully it sounds the same for them and this wave of stupidity passes by, like many others before it. Luckily English is so far from Finnish that English acronyms sound outright stupid when being said here.

Surprisingly, I find it that it is most difficult to talk English in UK, as in there I really need to think about what preposition I'm supposed to use with each word.

Shooting down posts with bad grammar sounds like the way to go, should the problem become serious. I have seen a lot worse in C Programming forums where on some occasions it is impossible to even guess what the original poster even wanted to ask.

[TopAce]

Hearing "LOL" being said repeatedly by a Finnish teenager as a reply to a joke his buddy made sounded really atrocious for me.

It happens in Hungary, too. I don't find it atrocious myself. It's slang, that's prone to change very rapidly. What I find interesting, however, is that mostly it's not followed or preceded by laughter, which means that it's used more like a fashion word than a word of expressing fun.

[S-99]

If that becomes the standard spelling, it won't be considered "remarkably stupid" when it'll be used like that. Words change. Get over it.

But, if people in the past were able to see the future. Then they'd probably consider the use of everymonth to be retarded.

It was clarified already that "everyday" exists as an adjective: "an everyday activity"; but: "I go swimming every day/once in every week/every weekend". "Everymonth" will not become a word because we have "monthly" to denote the same idea.

Of course everyday is a word. I never said it wasn't. Just using it as a comparison to a word that doesn't exist in a so called step up from the word, the next best thing to everyday would be everymonth, but how about we follow up everday with everyhour? Here's another one, "todayly" (it's an adverb now).

So consider isn't a valid Scrabble word because it comes from Latin? What about taxi, or chauffeur, or pizza, or lance? Or units of measurement such as meter/metre; liter/litre? Who decides which ones are "pure" English words and which ones aren't? You? And what about forum? It's not an English word, either.

The words that already exist as part of the english language backbone is one thing. Another is new foreign words that don't really need a place that not everyone knows. My absolutionism for scrabble really just tends to wish a fire death to the foreign language words that currently don't exist as part of english that get used in the game all the time.

[Scotty]

So, summing your whole post into a single statement:  "Change is bad."

[The E]

Yep. Language evolution cannot and should not be legislated; trying to impose some rules on which words can and which words can't be used by administrative fiat just doesn't work.