The English/American language... clear this up for me please!

[Erkan]

Haha this is funny, feels like I need to go back to elementary school!

Ok, so lately I have caught myself running to Google for help when I'm writing posts here. That is mainly because when I write words like "headache" etc that consists of two words, I'm not sure if they should be together or not.

Back in school, my english teacher told us that english has one major difference from swedish, which is that in english, you most often do not write the words together as one word, so I was assuming "headache" was "head ache" but all of those assumptions are false according to some googling about it. In Sweden, we always write those kind of words together as one word, but now I'm beginning to feel that this is the case in english too since MOST of the cases when I thought it was 2 separate words, has actually been a single word instead.

BUT... I'm still not sure. I was doing the same googling routine today when I wasn't sure if it was "Powergrid" or "Power grid" and it was actually the latter. So what's going on here... are there a million exceptions one must learn or is one way or the other the correct way? I really wanna know, I feel like I'm losing "it"

LET THE CLASS BEGIN! (and thank you)

 

[Metaltastic]

Unfortunately, it really is a case of "a million exceptions" with very few rules; English is an exceptionally stupid fucking language in that respect, and American English is even worse I'm afraid!

 

[Erkan]

So basically, I'm fucked?

But what should I do then when I'm not sure if it's supposed to be as one word or two separates, is there a way that is "more common" to just aim for and hope it's correct?

 

[Metaltastic]

Yeah, I would definitely err on the side of two separate words (or maybe hyphenated), cuz usually it's a case of it officially being two separate words, but people so often butcher it by cramming them together that the dictionary writers give in and make it officially one word. I just hope the same doesn't happen to "irregardless," "I could care less," and "Carmel"! (the last one is one of the worst for me, cuz I live right by the town of Carmel )

 

[-Gavin-]

My girlfriend (Studying to become a master of english... how ironic, she's better than me in my native language... oh and she's 100% fluent in swedish too... so better than me in that also ) had an english teacher who musta just made up rules cause none of them apply to the real word... for exaple she was told "YOU MUST SAY "AT THE AIRPORT" CAUSE IF YOU SAY "IN THE AIRPORT" NO NATIVE SPEAKER WILL UNDERSAND YOU!"... oops, guess no one has ever understood me.


My point is, as a native speaker, it doesn't really matter a shit.
As long as you use the right words, people understand you and if you're not a native speaker then generally no-one notices little mistakes.

 

[-Gavin-]

had an english teacher who musta just made up rules cause none of them apply to the real word... for exaple she was told "YOU MUST SAY "AT THE AIRPORT" CAUSE IF YOU SAY "IN THE AIRPORT" NO NATIVE SPEAKER WILL UNDERSAND YOU!"... oops, guess no one has ever understood me.

On that line of thought... some more gems...


"You must say "AZZ" when you say "as" with a very obvious Z sound or native speakers will think you're calling them an ASS."

"You must use Eraser instead of rubber or else people will think you want a condom"



Shit that has never happened in the history of anything.



In fairness, her teacher is Finnish and lived for 5 years in Texas. Explains a lot.

 

[Chryst Krispies]

As long as you never type with: CUZ, U, WTF, WH4T3VZ, KEWL ,LIEK, GURL, etc. etc. etc.

I don't give a FUCK.

 

[ahjteam]

Welcome to Finland, land of million compound words like sähköasennusinsinööriopiskelijalautakuntakokous! In english that would be something like "electrian engineer student board meeting"

 

[Line666]

"You must use Eraser instead of rubber or else people will think you want a condom"

Aw man that's gold.

Nobody ever told me my childhood was so dogged with sexual innuendo.

 

[Erkan]

Ah I see, so maybe my english teacher was right when he said that in english, you most often don't write the words together. He was/is an awesome teacher, would hate it if he was wrong

 

[JeffTD]

"You must use Eraser instead of rubber or else people will think you want a condom"



Shit that has never happened in the history of anything.

Actually had an exchange student from England ask one of my teachers for a 'rubber' two years ago - was hilarious!

 

[aberration]

This is a pretty international forum, so I'd say go ahead and smash some words together, man. It works for the Germans. Your compound words can't be any worse than some of the nonsense we come up with in the 'States. Besides, I'm in California so you can't scare me.

 

[-Gavin-]

Aw man that's gold.

Nobody ever told me my childhood was so dogged with sexual innuendo.

You never had the Pencil/Sharpener thing round about P2-3?

 

[Erkan]

This is a pretty international forum, so I'd say go ahead and smash some words together, man. It works for the Germans. Your compound words can't be any worse than some of the nonsense we come up with in the 'States. Besides, I'm in California so you can't scare me.

But I don't correct myself just to seem like I'm a hot shot here on this forum, I correct myself everytime I'm unsure so that I learn something... which I most often forget one hour later anyway, haha.

Yea call me a geek or whatever but I find language to be a pretty interesting thing and things like compound words are really interesting because people tend to use 'em as they want, and I just wanted to find out the truth behind it.

You say I can't scare you? Well, how about I speak some turkish, that should sound unfriendly and aggressive

 

[-Gavin-]

But I don't correct myself just to seem like I'm a hot shot here on this forum, I correct myself everytime I'm unsure so that I learn something... which I most often forget one hour later anyway, haha.

Yea call me a geek or whatever but I find language to be a pretty interesting thing and things like compound words are really interesting because people tend to use 'em as they want, and I just wanted to find out the truth behind it.

You say I can't scare you? Well, how about I speak some turkish, that should sound unfriendly and aggressive

I had to speak swedish for 4 hours last night in my job and I a 100% sure i fucked stuff up ! So don't worry about it man! Learning what works and what doesn't comes naturally with time! Don't stress!

When i read your posts, If this counts for anything, don't think "This guy has English as a 2nd language" I notice they read the same/better than most native speakers on here!

So just chill and you'll pick up the wee arsey details in time

 

[Glenn Fricker]

Unfortunately, it really is a case of "a million exceptions" with very few rules; English is an exceptionally stupid fucking language in that respect, and American English is even worse I'm afraid!

Only the Fahrenheit scale is more confusing. Seriously, the rules of English are clear as mud. We should all learn Esperanto.

 

[Erkan]

I had to speak swedish for 4 hours last night in my job and I a 100% sure i fucked stuff up ! So don't worry about it man! Learning what works and what doesn't comes naturally with time! Don't stress!

When i read your posts, If this counts for anything, don't think "This guy has English as a 2nd language" I notice they read the same/better than most native speakers on here!

So just chill and you'll pick up the wee arsey details in time

Hey, I'm not planning on staying here for the rest of my life so I gotta learn all the details so it doesn't hinder me when/if I get a job in some other country in the future

 

[lolzgreg]

You speak English better than many native speakers I know, Gojira. I wouldn't worry. I would say your best bet would be to fancy a dictionary for a bit, just browse around.

And just for the record, GOJIRA is BEAST (no pun intended)!

 

[The Unavoidable]

How about feet/yards/miles? That shit is fucked up. I guess a system were everything is based on 10s was to easy for you?

 

[raybrochill]

goose = geese
moose = meese?

mouse = mice
house = hice?