View Full Version : Threw vs Through
I notice there's a few posters who consistently (and I assume deliberately) spell "through" as "threw". Not that I'm having a go or anything, but is this down to some American spelling? Haven't seen it anywhere other than online, but then of course I guess internet forums are where I most commonly view unspellchecked text.
Just being nosy....
:wink:
RussSchultz
29-Apr-2003, 13:54
The internet and email has created a generation of people who spell phonetically.
Threw is the past tense of throw
Through is an adverb/adjective
While those that continuously misuse and mispell words may claim "you get the idea" of what they're trying to say. I'll say I also get the idea they're either ignorant or don't care how people view them.
covermye
29-Apr-2003, 14:00
Preach on, Brother Russ. While nobody's perfect, a simple grasp of the written form of the English language is becomming more and more scarce.
Note I'm complaining about those who use English as a native language. Obvious exceptions apply to those who use it as a secondary language...
What? No mention of "thru"? :lol:
MuFu.
Silent_One
29-Apr-2003, 14:32
waht U mean :?: I can C write thru what U be saying :!: U'r just against us who can't spell. LOL. U just a BUD spreading FUD. 2B a good speller dont matter, U not live 4 ever! In the world of cyberslang the rules r KISS. :lol:
TTFN - I need a bio-break :)
Heh. "Feersum Endjinn", anyone?
nutball
29-Apr-2003, 15:06
Note I'm complaining about those who use English as a native language. Obvious exceptions apply to those who use it as a secondary language...
My experience is that those for whom English is a second language often speak and write it significantly more betterer than those of us in the country in what it was invented, like. 'Nuff said.
K.I.L.E.R
29-Apr-2003, 15:11
Anyone have a problem with my spelling and gramma on these boards?
Russ, do you view my spelling as ignorant? :lol:
(I know that's not what you ment but I had to jest with you)
:)
That was quite funny nutball, well done ;)
Mariner
29-Apr-2003, 15:49
I think that everyone should talk proper English like what me does.
Seriously, though, I often have to resist the urge to correct spelling errors whilst reading message boards (it's "becoming" covermye :wink: ). Of course, I can't criticise those whose native language is not English as they are doing a fine job!
Back on topic: I'll agree that "thru" is irritating - this is an Americanism, I believe, but it smacks too much of SMS text message-speak for me. Here in the UK, this is becoming a real problem as kids send so many text messages they entirely lose the ability (if they ever had it) to write in coherent sentences or spell correctly.
And don't get me started on the incorrect usage of apostrophes!
I think part of the problem lies in that English in its correct form is probably the most inconsistent language on the face of earth. For each spelling there are in general at least three ways it could possibly be pronounced, and for each pronounciation there are probably at least three ways it could possibly be spelled. Compare these words for example:
Fear
Bear
Bare
The English language pretty much ended up this way because of Brittish imperialism in the old days, spreading it around the globe, mixing it up with local languages, and mostly mixing it up with french during the endless numbers of wars between the brits and french. In the end though, if people start to write it more or less phonetically this problem might in the end more or less solve itself after a number of generations.
RussSchultz
29-Apr-2003, 16:42
I had no idea there were three ways to pronounce 'existentialism'.
Mariner
29-Apr-2003, 16:44
Depends on how much you've had to drink. 8)
What? No mention of "thru"? :lol:
MuFu.
Thru I could understand. An Americanism, which I can understand since it at least it sounds the same as through. "Threw" just throws me though, since everything time I read the sentence the word just seems to grate (since it's phonetically differenct).
Other points. I'm a big Iain M Banks fan, but "Feersum Endjinn" was bloody difficult to read. Took a bit of effort to get through (ahemt) it.
Agree with Humus is a bugger of a language. Worth the effort of course!
My favorite iword is "payed", as in: Dont believe him, he is bias and prolly payed by <whoever>.
WhiningKhan
29-Apr-2003, 17:38
The English language pretty much ended up this way because of British imperialism in the old days, spreading it around the globe, mixing it up with local languages, and mostly mixing it up with french during the endless numbers of wars between the brits and french.
Actually, I remember my English teacher telling us that a large role in the messed up spelling and grammar of the language was played by the Norman invasion of the Anglo-Saxon Britain in the 11th century. So, as a true Englishman, he rolled the blame over to France. :)
Maybe the reason for us (the foreigners) making less spelling errors is that only the l33t ones are bold enough to post in a foreign language. People who don't trust their linguistical skills are less likely to voluntarily use foreign language.
covermye
29-Apr-2003, 17:42
(it's "becoming" covermye )
Umm... Yeah... I knew that. You passed my test! I did it on purpose, you know... :shock:
At any rate, I tend to usually forgive simple mis-spellings in forums such as this as they're (note the correct use of this contraction!) usually a product of a hurried response in between duties at work, etc... I'm sometimes a victim of those myself (as seen above).
However, the trend of grammatical deficiencies is something different altogether...
-Chris
Tagrineth
29-Apr-2003, 18:42
I always find the two-sided argument funny.
The people who don't spell right say:
"why should i have to waste my time typing right"
The people who respond say:
"If it's such a waste of time typing correctly, what makes me think that what you have to say is worth reading?"
The English language pretty much ended up this way because of British imperialism in the old days, spreading it around the globe, mixing it up with local languages, and mostly mixing it up with french during the endless numbers of wars between the brits and french.
Actually, I remember my English teacher telling us that a large role in the messed up spelling and grammar of the language was played by the Norman invasion of the Anglo-Saxon Britain in the 11th century. So, as a true Englishman, he rolled the blame over to France. :)
Maybe the reason for us (the foreigners) making less spelling errors is that only the l33t ones are bold enough to post in a foreign language. People who don't trust their linguistical skills are less likely to voluntarily use foreign language.
The language has borrowed words from all over the place, due to the habit of people to keep invading.
The ancient languages that form English are
Angles (Germans around 400AD). This is the real base of English.
Danes (Danish/Viking invader owned alot of Britain at various times)
French (Normans in 1066AD)
Welsh (Welsh Gaelic/Celtic, the original language of the England/Briton)
Scotch/Irish (both are closely related)
Latin (Romans, lived here for 400 years)
Hebrew (Christians can't lend money, so we have a big Jewish community)
Greek (we just liked it I think...)
The modern era is based on 'free trade' AKA British Imperilism, here we borrowed any words that described anything we liked. From tattoo to Bungalow (Polynesian and IIRC Bangla)
A sentence like "The tattoo on his skin was of a moose in a valley", involves about 5 difference languages (tattoo - polynesian, skin - danish, moose - native american, valley - celtic, basic structure - angles).
Does anyone know where the "@" originates from? Saw a post on it ages ago at Ars Technica, it was bloody fascinating!!!
I would also just like to add in the words of the infamous Ali G, "Is it cos I is black?" :twisted:
While looking around the net about English I found this great site (i don't agree with it) but it helps explain why learning English is a bitch
http://www.spellingsociety.org/pubs/leaflets/whyeng.html
The best bit is near the bottom, where they blame all the problems on one bloke. Over 1 billion people speak English and most of us have had the odd problem, its all his fault :-)
"Dr. Johnson stamped his authority on English spelling with his famous dictionary. In his day many words were still spelt differently by different writers. He chose his preferred versions, or linked different meanings to different spellings, e.g. 'there - their', paying very little heed to pronunciation. Many of our worst problems are due to him. His work is now very much due for a revue.
"
Does anyone know where the "@" originates from? Saw a post on it ages ago at Ars Technica, it was bloody fascinating!!!
I would also just like to add in the words of the infamous Ali G, "Is it cos I is black?" :twisted:
AFAIK Its shrouded in mystery, two story I've heard are
@ = ae, ae used to be common in middle english (I think) and it would often be written as a @ by lazy monks.
Or
Lazy monks got fed up of writing 'at' all the time, so the shortened it to @ (considering I find at easier to write 'at' I'm not sure I believe this one but...)
The "@" symbol is present in many languages from what I read at Ars Technica... and lazy monks.. hehehe that's funny.
Tagrineth
29-Apr-2003, 20:31
@ originally was used for prices.
Like 3 pretzels @$.99 (each).
Mariner
29-Apr-2003, 20:35
"Dr. Johnson stamped his authority on English spelling with his famous dictionary. In his day many words were still spelt differently by different writers. He chose his preferred versions, or linked different meanings to different spellings, e.g. 'there - their', paying very little heed to pronunciation. Many of our worst problems are due to him. His work is now very much due for a revue."
Ooh - I can't wait! Will it be "Dr. Johnson: The Musical"? I'm sure Andrew Lloyd Webber isn't too busy at the moment so he can probably whack some music out in no time at all.
I can recommend a book about the English language which was written by Bill Bryson. It's entitled "Mother Tongue" and is well worth a read.
The "@" symbol is present in many languages from what I read at Ars Technica... and lazy monks.. hehehe that's funny.
All the accounts I've heard involve Lazy Monks that (to me) doesn't make any sense, I'm sure they got sick of 'at' or 'ae' but surely they would have got rid of something the really took a long time before saving about 2 strokes (Like drop caps, any body who is going to send several days on a single letter isn't going to worry about @)
@ originally was used for prices
That use came much latter, presumebly when the realised they they had a 'spare' as the no longer had any Lazy Monks (Printed Press and Henry VIII got rid of all those Lazy Monks).
This sign originated as a scribe's quick way of writing the Latin word ad, especially in lists of prices of commodities. It is usually known as `the at sign' or `the at symbol', which is good enough for most people. It is sometimes called `commercial a', and occasionally by the French name arrobe or arroba. It has acquired various nicknames in other languages, but none has so far caught on in English.
http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutsymbols/atsign
Some translations of the "@" symbol:
Translations of @
Czech: zavinac (pickled herring)
Russian: sobachka (little dog)
Italian: Chiocciola (small snail)
Hebrew: strudel (Austrian cake)
Im adding my own, 'squiggly thing next to the semi-colon and I dont care if you have an american keyboard layout and it's not there dammit!!!'
;)
I apologise for labouring over this, but do ya know that really irritating itch ya get that you just can't reach? It bugs you and bugs you and is the most important thing in life, more important than Duff to Homer Simpson if I may illustrate my point? Well I been feeling like that looking for that arstechnica newspost.
I finally found it (thanks Google)...
:)
http://www.arstechnica.com/archive/2001/0701.html
2001? Man I thought I only read it a few months ago.. time sure does fly when you are aging!
Here is the article they linked to:
http://www.thestandard.com/article/0,1902,24139,00.html
But last July an Italian researcher discovered some 14th-century Venetian commercial documents clearly marked by the @ sign, where it was used to represent a gauge of quantity, the "anfora," or jar. Giorgio Stabile also found a Latin-Spanish dictionary dating from 1492 where "anfora" is translated into "arroba," a measure of weight. It's therefore natural that, in 1885 the "commercial a" was included on the keyboard of the first model of Underwood typewriter and from there migrated into the standard set of computing characters (such as ASCII) 80 years later.
Tag could be right.
Some think it originated in the early Middle Ages, when monks laboring over manuscripts contracted the versatile Latin word "ad" - which can mean "at" or "towards" or "by" - into a single character. Most linguists, however, say that the @ sign is a more recent invention, appearing sometime during the 18th century as a commercial symbol indicating price per unit, as in "5 apples @ 10 pence." Yet another linguist, researcher Denis Muzerelle, says the sign is the result of a different twist, when the accent over the word "Ã*" used by French and German merchants was hastily extended.
Or it could be the more popular theory the DeanoC mentions.
I killed the itch, I am threw with that damn @ symbol (for now). 8)
Some translations of the "@" symbol:
Translations of @
Czech: zavinac (pickled herring)
Russian: sobachka (little dog)
Italian: Chiocciola (small snail)
Hebrew: strudel (Austrian cake)
Im adding my own, 'squiggly thing next to the semi-colon and I dont care if you have an american keyboard layout and it's not there dammit!!!'
;)
Swedish: Snabel-a (Trunk-a) (unofficial)
RussSchultz
29-Apr-2003, 23:08
I assume you mean trunk as in the nose of an elephant.
I assume you mean trunk as in the nose of an elephant.
No, I mean trunk as in the boot of a car. :mrgreen:
:P
Trunk as in the elephant face.
Thowllly
30-Apr-2003, 11:33
Norwegian: alfakrøll (alpha curl, I think...)
Snabel-a and a lot of others are also used...
RussSchultz
30-Apr-2003, 21:07
http://www.ilovebacon.com/043003/k.shtml
For a list of of those nasty words that can mean 2 different things based on their pronunciation.
http://www.rathergood.com/elephants/
Some elephants for Russ and Humus.
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