General Chat

Peter Piper picked a peck of.........Aww...who cares....too late at night for me :-))))

OMG - not 'shan't'

I will never live down the day my daughters and I were playing Monopoly - they were cheating - I said 'I shan't play if you carry on'

Since then - Monopoly has been known as 'shan't play'!!!

The word 'Shall' is in decline as well, replaced by 'will'.
Not necessarily a command, surely?
eg:' I shall water the plants.'

Hmmm!

I would have thought that "You WILL do as I say" is also a command :0))

Allan

I remember when I was about ten, our teacher explained that
"You will do as I say" is a statement
"You SHALL do as I say" is a command.

I don't know why she bothered, because I haven't used it and haven't heard anyone else use it from that day to this!

Ann and Berona

Although both words are used interchangeably these days, the actual words, shall and will, which are both auxiliary verbs, do have a slightly different meaning

Shall implies futurity ie some time in the future as in I shall do it tomorrow, or in the negative, I shan't do that tomorrow, but perhaps do it next week.

Whereas will implies definite committment: I will do it or again in the negative, I won't do that.

Will is more forceful than shall

Allan

I shan't tell you Berona lol

Actually, I say I won't or in this context probably I'm not telling you lol

I say "I won't" But won't is will not and shan't is shall not so maybe both are correct.

I sound my Rs I don't roll them.

Allan's being naughty again.

Just came across another word we don't seem to use here at all, but I heard it used in the UK years ago. Is it still used? Shan't. We say won't.
You might want to toss that one around for a few pages.

I feel discriminated against because I can't roll my r's.

I like the way an attractive woman rolls her 'R's' when she is walking and talking

:0))

Allan

We both sound our Rs me from Hampshire living in Gloucestershire and him from Devon living in Gloucestershire.

Alright. All together.

Around the rugged rocks the ragged rascal ran.
She sells sea shells by the sea shore. The sea shells that she sells are sea shells I'm sure.
How much wood can a woodchuck chuck if a wood chuck could chuck wood. As much wood as a wood chuck could chuck if a wood chuck could chuck wood.
I'm a pheasant plucker's - whoops no not that one, sorry

As it happens Janey, not all regional dialect have dropped their 'r's. The west country, from Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and even Hampshire all have distinctive rounded r's. But it really does depend on where you come from.

When I was at school, I was taught in 'proper' english, the r's are rolled, rather like the scots, but who does that any more?

Hah, quoting yanks (the NYTimes) on who speaks the best English. A new low!

But oops, it is an opinion from "The London Academy", 1908. Alrighty.

The west coast of Scotland, and Ireland.

Well -- Ireland has retained some original English, it's true -- and that's what got passed on to North America, too, from the original English settlers and also the later Irish influence. You people there didn't start dropping your "r"s until the 1700s, for instance. The Irish (and North Americans) still pronounce a distinct "r" at the end of words like "father" (unless you're a New Yorker saying "hello mudda, hello fadda"). No poncy "ah"s for us.

Just like "back and forth". Good English that we kept, and you're forgetting. ;)

No, Lesley, I think it is true, it was told to me by a man in a Dublin pub many years ago and I believe him:)) lol BC XX

BC I thought it was the Irish that had the best education but I could have sworn it was Scotland that spoke the best English. However, it may depend on when it was said. It was a few years ago that I'd heard it.

I don't know how old this is:

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9B05E4D7153EE233A25751C1A9619C946997D6CF

no Cheshire BC..

And it is a well known fact, Secret Squirrel, that the best English is spoken in Dublin, not Scotland..... lol....

And never, ever end a sentence with a preposition.

Rushes in after skipping pages between 4 and 8. Now noticed mention of mice. Certain am far to late for the original question. Too busy to skip back and forth between the pages.

Answer to your question. Most emphatically YES.

All the time.

And PS. Janey. Are you arguing with yourself? Must be!