Looks like I may have egg on my face

[Robotstar5]

SO saying a 5 amp fuse is, grammatically, the same construction as saying a blue fuse.

The standard colour for a 5A fuse is black

 

[the snooper]

The standard colour for a 5A fuse is black

 

[tigler]

Unless it's an automotive fuse, which for 5 amps is Tan

 

[Robotstar5]

Unless it's an automotive fuse, which for 5 amps is Tan

Unless it's a ceramic one which is yellow this could go on all night!

 

[MattF]

Merely an acronym, which is a perfectly acceptable form of abbreviation, unlike some plonk typing m8 instead of mate, or u instead of you, just for the sake of avoiding typing a whole two letters more.

It's one of things which is irksome at the best of times. The context can make it more or less so. Someone giving advice online, for example, it's irksome but one of those things you can bear. However, when someone is asking advice, stuck and needing help etc. and then has the gall to actually make you work to decipher their post before you can attempt to help or advise them? Generally not going to happen.

 

[ajlelectronics]

However, when someone is asking advice, stuck and needing help etc. and then has the gall to actually make you work to decipher their post before you can attempt to help or advise them? Generally not going to happen.

When you point this out, the offender gets all upset and tells you that the forum is clearly only for middle class types and they are not going to renew next year etc. (Oh yes, it is ETC for Etcetera, not ect. :-) ) Not only that, but do we not realise that some people have Dyslexia? (Why is that such a complex word? )

I found this interesting..

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2186948/Spelling-It-Out-book-Why-English-confusing.html

 

[rtbcomp]

....... (Oh yes, it is ETC for Etcetera, not ect. ......[/URL]

&c. is acceptable too. Should really be etc., the full stop indicates that it's an abbreviation.

"Oh yes, it is ETC for Etcetera" should be "Oh yes, it is ETC for etcetera" - capitals for proper nouns and following a full stop. There should be 2 spaces between a full stop and the start of the next sentence.

 

[ajlelectronics]

Agree with the capitalisation and the missed full stop to denote the abbreviation, but I was taught to have one space after a full stop. I will look into that some more, thankyou.

 

[rtbcomp]

The spaces thing may not be so relevant now with proportion spacing, but it was mentioned in the Wordstar manual and I've had this confirmed by someone I know who had a proper (in her words) eductaion.

Wordstar was a very early word processing program and it used hard & soft spaces, soft spaces could be added or removed by the software to make the text look pretty, two spaces together consisted of a hard and a soft space, except after a full stop and unless the user forced a hard space (ctrl-space if I remember correctly).

 

[MattF]

Not only that, but do we not realise that some people have Dyslexia? (Why is that such a complex word? )

It is almost as if the person who named dyslexia did it just to pee off the dyslexics. On the subject, you usually tend to find that people with dyslexia are generally far more understandable than most, simply for the fact that they make an extra effort. Some of the most pedantic people I know with regards to grammar and spelling suffer from dyslexia. You also tend to find that a lot of people who aren't dyslexic use it in an attempt to excuse their God awful spelling.

 

[the snooper]

well this ampere guy has a lot to answer to, colour of fuses grammar and the word dyslexia as all these topics have evolved from the 1st post about the word amperage

 

[Robotstar5]

I think it's known as off topic

 

[brightspark]

I think it's known as off topic

and the far end of a fart as usual and where it comes from

 

[the snooper]

I think it's known as off topic

now bad chocolate bars

 

[brightspark]

now bad chocolate bars

this forum gets better after 11pm

 

[mike os]

on a similar vein who came up with lisp?

 

[ajlelectronics]

The Dyslexia business is indeed interesting. On the other forum I frequent, we have at least two true sufferers. I only found this out secondhand, because there was no way that you could tell from their use of English. It was the "inverted snobs" that expect everyone else to interpret what they might be asking. One in particular gets very upset when someone suggests that he may want to explain what he means, from someone trying to help. We have another who thinks it is perfectly acceptable to miss out the "e" in words. He knows it isn't right, but he sees it as a form of personal expression.

 

[Robotstar5]

We have another who thinks it is perfectly acceptable to miss out the "e" in words. He knows it isn't right, but he sees it as a form of personal expression.

Unless he's lost the "e" key from his keyboard?

A bit like when George W Bush became president, the story goes, the staff of the previous administration removed the "w" key from all the keyboards before they left!

 

[Drains]

This thread reminds me of the weeks and months of debate in Private Eye over the name of their new 'Pedants Corner' on the letters page - the options being the former, pedant's corner, or pedants' corner (note subtle change of apostrophe position or lack of). It went round and round in ever more erudite, informed and pedantic circles until some wag cut through the Gordian Knot and suggested it be called Pedantry Corner. That shut 'em up.

 

[pedrobedro]

I woul like to a to this threa but a key is missing from my keyboar

yours, Ewar Woowar.