On the cromulency of pedancy and other questions of English languacy, a quest for our common joy and enlightenment.

[Confuzzled]

I would advise to take the mailing list with a pinch of salt, because what you read there is part of a conversation, not exactly a public statement.

All in all, in case anyone missed it:

Everything else is sitting in my office and I plan to deliver as many
Pyras as possible until Christmas (hopefully the first 500).

So now we know for certain, the official plural for Pyra is indeed Pyras.

For the German speakers out there, the use of 'until' in that sentence is somewhat confusing for people whose first language is English. Such people would use 'by' instead of 'until'.

 

[Swordfish II]

No, that photo was posted by ED on the mailing list. Two problems are being discussed at the moment, battery charging (which just at the moment might not be anything to do with heat, but it's still slightly unclear to me), and the backlight minimum power.

Edit: Yeah, the before/until confusion seems to be an error that ED makes quite often. He's quite good at stopping to think and picking the right one when he makes a forum topic these days, but evidently it's still not automatic for him when he's knocking off a quick email. When you think about it, the two terms are quite difficult to distinguish even in English; they both mean something happens before a specific date. It's just that until kind of suggests a continuous action that happens between now and the specified date, while before or by means it ought to happen once between now and the date. In most cases, it's pretty obvious if something is continuous or not, so having two words for a very similar thing is kind of excessive.

"Until" also means a termination. Aka ship as many as possible until Christmas means they stop at Christmas. "By" means continuous but says nothing about a termination at Christmas.

Either way we know what he means.

 

[Djoga'Ro]

Please keep pointing out stuff like that. I didn't recognize the "until" as odd either.

 

[Swordfish II]

Please keep pointing out stuff like that. I didn't recognize the "until" as odd either.

I never point out stuff like that because I get the meaning behind it and guys like ED speak better English than I speak German

 

[Djoga'Ro]

Call me selfish, but I'd like to improve my English. And I can't learn from mistakes, I don't recognize as such.

 

[gpsqueeek]

And I can't learn from mistakes, I don't recognize as such.

Here for example the coma should be removed ; this is a good way to spot germans
The French have the same issue with "before / until /by" though. And many more issues too (I do what I can but I also make mistakes, of course)

 

[Djoga'Ro]

Here for example the coma should be removed

That's me improving everyone's English.

 

[matzesu]

Aber wenn deutsche die englisch schreiben Probleme machen, warum schreibt dann keiner nur in deutsch?? Problem gelöst ^^
But when Germans that write In English tends to make issues, why ditnt write everyone in German?? Issue solved ^^


Send from something, i guess ^^

 

[Bosbeetle]

Aber wenn deutsche die englisch schreiben Probleme machen, warum schreibt dann keiner nur in deutsch?? Problem gelöst ^^
But when Germans that write In English tends to make issues, why ditnt write everyone in German?? Issue solved ^^


Send from something, i guess ^^

Weil personen aus der niederlanden, zum beispiel, kein deutsch können schreiben, sprechen oder lesen. Das macht communizieren zehr schwierig. Ich habe auch keine ahnung wie gut oder slecht mein deutsch ist. Es ist mehr eine fremde niedersacksiche in einander gebastelde sprache in mein fahl.

 

[Djoga'Ro]

Weil personen aus der niederlanden, zum beispiel, kein deutsch können schreiben, sprechen oder lesen. Das macht communizieren zehr schwierig. Ich habe auch keine ahnung wie gut oder slecht mein deutsch ist. Es ist mehr eine fremde niedersacksiche in einander gebastelde sprache in mein fahl.

Die Rechtschreibung koennte besser sein, aber sonst unmissverstaendlich. Im Niederlaendischen hingegen verstehe ich immer nur ein paar Worte.

 

[matzesu]

It was more meant ironic, I know that most people don’t speak German, and some refuse to even want to hear German..
I can remember that our canceler spokes some years ago in the Capitol of Israel, and some of the politicians where annoyed because she spoke in German, the language of the men’s who put them in the holocaust camps in the 3th Reich ..

But English is the Language of Trump, so also not that good

 

[Bosbeetle]

Now I know where cancel culture comes from! Canceler Merkel

 

[RZR]

But English is the Language of Trump, so also not that good

English is the language of Shakespeare. Trump does not speak, he tweets.

 

[Swordfish II]

Call me selfish, but I'd like to improve my English. And I can't learn from mistakes, I don't recognize as such.

Fair enough. If I see an odd word choice I'll gently point it out.

 

[ClockworkCoder]

English is the language of Shakespeare. Trump does not speak, he tweets.

If he tweets, does that make him a twit?

Edit: sorry, for some reason I thought this was the World News thread. I prefer to talk about flickering keyboards and Xmas Pyras here Grammar pedancy is always welcome though

 

[Confuzzled]

I'm sorry if I came across as over-critical of ED's English. It was not meant to be.

English is my primary language, but I speak three others (two of which are closely related to each other). English is pretty much a lingua franca in business and for technical stuff, which makes my life easy. I have nothing but admiration for people for whom English is not their primary language who, nevertheless, succeed in communicating well in English. There are plenty of people with English as a second, third, or n'th language who are better at it than me.

My goal in using a language is to communicate, and if I make errors that make things difficult for my interlocutor to understand, I am failing, and I find it embarrassing, so I am usually happy to have mistakes that make my meaning unclear pointed out.

I have every sympathy with people who find English spelling difficult. One problem is that many English words are not spelled in accordance with their sounds. This is because the spelling of many words was standardised before the 'great vowel shift', when, for no apparent reason, English speakers en masse made a simultaneous change in the way they pronounced certain vowels - but did not change the spelling of words to reflect this.

I have just enough German to read a menu, so if this forum were in German, I would not be able to read it or participate, so I am very glad people are gracious enough to use English. Thank you.

 

[ClockworkCoder]

I'd prefer if more native English speakers could learn at least more than one language to a moderate level. Learning a second language, and about the culture, can be quite eye opening. I wish there were more than 24 hours a day so I could study German...

 

[matzesu]

Well, this is a international community, and in „The Da Vinci Code“ Dan Brown wrote that the old Language of the Scientific Society was English to be diverent to the Latin of the Church, I think whe should use English..

I wonder how many Dan Brown Books I can finish until the Order Mails start,
Im at Page 5337 of the Lost Symbol
According to my kindle it’s 6:30 until the end of the book


Send from something, i guess ^^

 

[Phlyra]

Well, this is a international community, and in „The Da Vinci Code“ Dan Brown wrote that the old Language of the Scientific Society was English to be diverent to the Latin of the Church, I think whe should use English..

I wonder how many Dan Brown Books I can finish until the Order Mails start,
Im at Page 5337 of the Lost Symbol
According to my kindle it’s 6:30 until the end of the book


Send from something, i guess ^^

My grandfather, a chemist born and raised in England, learned a lot of the subject in German because, at the time, that was considered the key language of Chemistry.
Given how many significant Quantum Physicists were German, it wouldn’t surprise me if the key language for Physics had been German for a significant part of the last century.
Biology, though - no idea...

 

[matzesu]

Maybe it was just a part of the Universe of the Novell because otherwise, some of the conspirations wouldnd work that good..
I mean its just a Book that should be entertainment, and no sience