General Chat

The size of the notice board was limited to what the council could afford

Allan, excessive letters are definitely a no-no!
It's 'aitch', surely?

aitch it is, Maggie, for the letter, even though it has a totally different sound when spoken as part of a word. :-0

An historic, an hotel that’s what I was taught ;-) ;-)

An hour :-D

...so it would be 'an' LSA?

Maggie, if using the initials LSA then, yes, 'an' would be used, but if using the full title you would say 'a' :-S

Allan, there are some haitch users here too.

Sadly, I have heard teachers say haitch too so what chance do their pupils have unless parents are 'on the ball'?

It’s not possible to derive a rule of English grammar from logical principles. :-S

Ur rite Dermot, cos if we cud we wud. Owr spelling must drive foreners to tare owt thare hare. :-D

Totally agree, JoyLouise, whatever you said. :-S

JoyLouise, you are obviously too young to remember the Initial Teaching Alphabet, an invention of Sir James Pitman (grandson of Isaac Pitman, the inventor of shorthand), which aimed to simplify spelling. He was the MP for Bath, where I lived at the time, which may be why I remember it.

Anyway, it didn't catch on, people hated it and it sort of faded into obscurity!!

Grammer & spilling are regaining there wrightful plaice in some multilingual secondary skools. (Pudsey Ryan.) ;-)

Giving away how young I am, AndysMum!

Wrong side of 75 ...

I also remember a short period when one of my nephews was taught phonetically in England. It didn't work either. :-D


Dermot. :-D :-D :-D

I was taught French phonetically for the first term at secondary school and didn't do well at all!! :-(

The next term we switched to "proper" letters and we all suddenly improved dramatically!

As a nation I think we are naturally resistant to change, whether it's decimalisation or new houses in an old village.

JoyLouise, I remember a new teacher starting at the school I was working in, who had been taught phonetically - we LSA's had to check her spelling :-S

Maggie, it was good for her pupils that you checked her spelling. Sad to think that you had to though.

I don't recall any phonetic alphabet/spelling when I was at school. Unlike Andysmum, we were taught 'proper' French from the get-go. Our youngest grandson (now second year seniors) has chosen to do French, German and Latin - none phonetically. I am not aware of any school in our area that still uses phonetics however I don't know about the rest of the country.

JoyLouise, she was taught English phonetically :-(
Words were simplified, an idea mooted by Noah Webster in the 19th Century - and which led to the spelling differences between American and English (color, colour).
A few example of Webster's 'simplifications'
1. Cloke — cloak

2. Soop — soup

3. Masheen — machine

4. Tung — tongue

5. Greef — grief

6. Dawter — daughter

7. Korus — chorus

8. Nightmar — nightmare

9. Turnep — turnip

10. Iland — island

For a short time, in the 1970's it was tried in the UK.

What is absolutely ridiculous, in the list, is that the 'ught' is removed from 'daughter', but the 'ight' is retained in 'nightmare'.
Surely it should be 'nitemare' :-S :-S :-S

The poor woman struggled to work out the 'proper' spelling of words.
Fortunately, she taught reception class, so only basic spelling was necessary.
However, 'report' time, was busy, all LSA's were asked to check through her spelling in the children's end of year reports.