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Confidence in foreign language skills

old_tv_nut said:
Hi Chris,

Strict (or at least older) grammarians would not use "their" as a word of indeterminate gender (using "their" only for the plural), but would prefer "his or her." Even older grammarians would use "his" as the indeterminate case, but current regard for avoidance of sexism takes us to "his or her" or "his/her."

Frankly, I think these are both awkward, and agree with some of the latest generation that it is best to use "their" as either the plural or the indeterminate gender, because the meaning will be clear from the context; and, "their" just sounds better to my ear than stumbling over "his or her."
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Exactly.

Language is a living, changing thing, usually for the better. Usually. I'm still pissed that we have now officially accepted the wrong pronunciation of "harassment". :gigglemad

However, an example of a good thing is that the prohibition against ending a sentence with a preposition has been abandoned, mainly because it results in unnecessarily awkward sentence structures up with which most people will not put. :D
 
Thank you for your comments my helpful friends. The question rised particpating in tybrad's fun game "Prediction". Since all participants (well - at least I think so) are male the use of "their", which I now know stands for "his or her", was so confusing.

Learning English with AudioKarma is such a pleasure, I can't repeat that enough!


:banana:
 
HarmanKardon said:
Thank you for your comments my helpful friends. The question rised particpating in tybrad's fun game "Prediction". Since all participants (well - at least I think so) are male the use of "their", which I now know stands for "his or her", was so confusing.

Learning English with AudioKarma is such a pleasure, I can't repeat that enough!


:banana:
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Chris- That was my post. I've just gotten into the habit of using "their" instead of "he/she" for the reasons stated. It is less awkward and it covers both sexes. Sorry for the confusion. :thmbsp:
 
Of course I know that. So your lawyers started already copyright claims? Does that mean I am bankrupt now? Does that mean I have to sell all my vintage gear and anything else I have? :sigh:

;)


:beerchug:
 
"AK spell check" - how does that one work here? Makes it sense?

I know something like that probably from the my home office program and at least in German it sucks from time to time because my German is better than the German of this tool...
 
Not a grammar checker Chris, only a spell checker for individual words.

So, you could type a load of old nonsense and providing it was spelt correctly 'spell check' would pass it without flagging an error. Which is how most of my posts are :D, judging by the response I get to many = zilch, nada !


BTW: I dispute that "their" is a replacement for 'his' or 'her' - it indicates 'plural' (more than one) and 'belonging', (without gender) which itself could be to a 'him' or a 'her', but there is no direct link.
 
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Apple is having her dinner.
Jasper is having his dinner.
She is having her dinner.
He is having his dinner.
A person is having their diner.
They are having their dinner.
A husband and wife are having their dinner.
He and her are having their dinner.
Apple and Jasper are having their dinner.

A cat is having it's dinner.
The cats are having their dinner.
Morris the cat is having his dinner.
We are having our dinner.....so I got to go (grin)
 
Vielen Dank für die Erklärungen, das ist interessant.

Many thanks for the explanations, that is interesting.

I have much more problems with grammar than with spelling.
 
bhundu said:
...
He and her are having their dinner.
...
A cat is having it's dinner.
...
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Please forgive me, but for Chris' sake...

He and SHE are having their dinner. The easy way to figure out which pronoun to use when two people are involved is to break it up into two sentences: HE is having HIS dinner, and SHE is having HER dinner, so HE and SHE are having THEIR dinner.

A cat is having ITS dinner. No apostrophe, the possessive pronoun is spelled "its".

Sorry, sorry. :sigh:
 
One of the most sucking anglicisms in German language is the English use of the apostrophe.

(People with average or lower education and politicians and the commercial industry LOVE to use anglicisms. It is bitter for somebody like me thinking German is one of the most beautiful languages, not just precise and therefore appreciated for example by scientists, but simply beautiful. Read a poem by Hermann Hesse or Rainer Maria Rilke and you know what I am talking about...)

Okay. The apostrophe. There is no use of the genitiv S apostrophe in German. But German morons adore apostrophes and so you see things like "Susi's Nagelstudio", correct "Susis Nagelstudio", English "Susi's nail studio".

I can understand (not accept) if weakheads absorb any nonsense because they think that's cool or just don't know better. But it makes me angry when politicians and the media use more and more anglicisms. And the advertising copywriters are the most evil language destroyers, but I think not only in Germany.
 
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In current American society, the stupidity of adding an apostrophe to every single word that ends with the letter "s" has become a horror.

I thought I'd seen the worst, but no. My local newspaper, which is actually very, very good, just hit a low point.

Her's.

Dear Lord, just kill me now.
 
Clay - a sorrow shared is a sorrow halved - geteiltes Leid ist halbes Leid - I can feel your pain! :yes:

Just one terrible anglicism by a German mobilephone provider:


"O 2 can do!"

By the way - I think it is even wrong or at least bad English, I think "O 2 can do it" would be correct but that would kill the end rhyme of the handy slogan. And here comes another stupidity: handy. The Germans call their cell phone "Handy! :screwy:

:smilemad:
 
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A panda walks into a café. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and proceeds to fire it at the other patrons.

"Why?" asks the confused, surviving waiter amidst the carnage, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"Well, I'm a panda," he says. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry in the manual and, sure enough, finds an explanation. "Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

HK, I have this book at my desk at work and though I don't have to refer to it as a rule, it has solved a few discussions. You might find it an interesting read if you can get a copy.

I think you do very well in English. I wish I could approach the quality of your writing in another language. I'm not bad in French and work in an environment where a lot of French is spoken and written but it's not required for me, which is almost unfortunate.
 
HarmanKardon said:
One of the most sucking anglicisms in German language is the English use of the apostrophe.

(People with average or lower education and politicians and the commercial industry LOVE to use anglicisms. It is bitter for somebody like me thinking German is one of the most beautiful languages, not just precise and therefore appreciated for example by scientists, but simply beautiful. Read a poem by Hermann Hesse or Rainer Maria Rilke and you know what I am talking about...)

Okay. The apostrophe. There is no use of the genitiv S apostrophe in German. But German morons adore apostrophes and so you see things like "Susi's Nagelstudio", correct "Susis Nagelstudio", English "Susi's nail studio".

I can understand (not accept) if weakheads absorb any nonsense because they think that's cool or just don't know better. But it makes me angry when politicians and the media use more and more anglicisms. And the advertising copywriters are the most evil language destroyers, but I think not only in Germany.
Click to expand...

If my knowledge of the German language is correct (in relation to the genitive case), neither Susis Nagelstudio nor Susi's Nagelstudio is correct. Susis Nagelstudio is itself a informal contraction of the genitive case, n'est ce pas?
 
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