While we're on the subject can an American explain to me why they call Petrol Gas?

I mean it being a liquid not a gas.

What do you call Real "Gas" like you find in a cooker?

Why is it, I-RAQ, I-RAN etc......

and you cant say Edinburgh properly......

No offence just intrigued?






[edit on 15-7-2008 by Sandals24]

Originally posted by Sandals24
While we're on the subject can an American explain to me why they call Petrol Gas?

I mean it being a liquid not a gas.

What do you call Real "Gas" like you find in a cooker?

Just hope they never try building a Gas Cooled Nuclear Reactor!

come on .....

does it really matter that much ! IMO the spelling of the word means nothing ... its what it represents thats key

Look at my member name ..... do i really care !!!!


............. nope !

I think it doesn't matter.
And as for stealing or bastardising languages, we are all guilty of it.
English have robbed bits from many languages so can't really moan at the Americans.

Having said that, the only one i find slightly annoying is GRAY.
Like "the grays are here".
Don't know why but that does annoy me.

I know it can be GRAY or GREY and Gray was even used in england til the 1930's possibly later.
even in the times newspaper they used Gray.

Always thought that it was grey in the usa and uk but it's not.

I think originally it was GRAEY....so we just dropped one letter each.
So really we're all wrong and it should be "The graeys are here"





[edit on 15/7/08 by blupblup]

The Trouble With Time Travel?

Without using google, read this proper english:

"That it was May thus dremed me
In time of love and jollite
That al thyng gynneth waxen gay
For there is neither busk nor hay
In May that it nyl shrouded ben,
And it with new leves wryen.
These greves eke recoveren grene,
That dry in wynter ben to sen,
And the erthe waxeth proude withal
For swete dewes that on it falle . . ."

And that is only 600 years on a single island. (And a good hint in the bargain.)

bloody pedants.

IMHO, writing is simply a graphical way to represent oral communication, it doesn't particularly matter what way something is spelt as long as it's reasonably legible. if your determined to get your knickers in a twist about something, punctuation and the correct use of paragraphs are a far bigger issue on the site than english vs. american spelling.

i can follow the writing of a bad speller using reasonably correct punctuation and paragraphing far more fluidly than someone who spells perfectly but uses neither correct punctuation nor paragraphing.

i've always found the strangest thing about the english language is the lack of accenting marks, especially seeing as there are so many letters that can be either soft or hard, or even silent.

Originally posted by Sandals24
While we're on the subject can an American explain to me why they call Petrol Gas?

I mean it being a liquid not a gas.

What do you call Real "Gas" like you find in a cooker?

Why is it, I-RAQ, I-RAN etc......

and you cant say Edinburgh properly......

No offence just intrigued?






[edit on 15-7-2008 by Sandals24]

We call it gas because we get our petrol at gas stations, not petrol stations. It's what our "father's" called it. But when you use the term petrol, we understand you. Why do you call a bathroom a water closet? Are they really that small?
We put diesel in our furnaces. Which is really expensive and dangerous, especially when they put gas in them accidentally. Do you pronounce Edinburgh, Edinboro? Why? edited to add~ we put oil in our cookers.

[edit on 15-7-2008 by seagrass]

Motor gasoline (mogas), petroleum spirit (rock oil).

The word gasoline actually came from the UK and was originally what they called lamp fuel. Petrol was a trade name that stuck. Kind of like calling a vacuum cleaner a hoover in the UK.

Edit; BTW very rarely do people in the UK use the term 'water closet', which came from the French, sometimes 'WC', but more common is the word 'Bog', or 'Loo' (sp?), and then toilet. You'll see 'water closet' on bathroom signs sometimes but no one actually says that word.

As in 'I'm dying to go to the bog'...



Why do Americans call it a 'rest room'?

[edit on 15/7/2008 by ANOK]

In America the C in SCEPTIC is silent thus making it sound like SEPTIC and thereby it reminds me of sewage.
it is a stoopid way to spell SKEPTIC.
and what is worse is when I see Americans spelling the British way!

and this is a stupid thread and i apologize for starting it.

Originally posted by ANOK
Motor gasoline (mogas), petroleum spirit (rock oil).

The word gasoline actually came from the UK and was originally what they called lamp fuel. Petrol was a trade name that stuck. Kind of like calling a vacuum cleaner a hoover in the UK.

Edit; BTW very rarely do people in the UK use the term 'water closet', which came from the French, sometimes 'WC', but more common is the word 'Bog', or 'Loo' (sp?), and then toilet. You'll see 'water closet' on bathroom signs sometimes but no one actually says that word.

As in 'I'm dying to go to the bog'...



Why do Americans call it a 'rest room'?

[edit on 15/7/2008 by ANOK]

because the fancier bathrooms have couches in there for resting, or gossiping, or breastfeeding. Or for whatever you can think to use them for... ha ha ha.

Here if you said you were dying to go to the bog, you would be looking for peat moss, or worms for fishing. Bog? why? Are your toilets bogged down with something? ewww.

Originally posted by Fathom
and this is a stupid thread and i apologize for starting it.

It's not stupid. It gives everyone a chance to vent in a harmless way!! We all need it.

BTW. In answer to the GHOTI = FISH thing.
Lets look at these three words cough women nation

Get it? like I said. The english language is all meesed up

I before e EXCEPT after C. (which is useless) and then there is... wEIrd. In German ie is the E sound and ei is the I sound. Also dumb.

Did you mean 'dieing' seagrass? Little aberrations in language/spelling are par for the course. And I'm headed for 18 holes.

Originally posted by jpm1602
Did you mean 'dieing' seagrass? Little aberrations in language/spelling are par for the course. And I'm headed for 18 holes.

dying, another possible dumb word. Do we need the Y if we have I?

Originally posted by VIKINGANT
It gives everyone a chance to vent in a harmless way!! We all need it.

I'm loving this thread as well. It's bloody well time everyone got a chance to vent about the way English gets twisted. It changes as time goes by and as it travels. I bet countries such as China, when English becomes more and more popular (and it will), they will tack a piece of Mandarin (for example) to an English phrase because it 'makes more sense' that way.

French, Latin, Gaelic, Native American (etc. ad infinitum) words got surrepticiously wedged into the lexicon over the centuries and nobody really gives a hoot, do they?

Anyways... my biggest irritant are the manner in which 'your' and 'you're get mis-used.

'Your' means it belongs to you and 'you're' means 'you are'. I mean, how hard is THAT to remember".

l