How Long Is A Fortnight?

[eaglesaquarium]

Yummmm... free sample!!!

 

[Mamashack]

I'm guessing Mamashack watches "QI"

I have watched QI on occasion tho probably not enough to learn anything.
Actually I read regency novels! Amazing the way they used to talk and behave in those days - very Austenesque! lol

 

[Mamashack]

Has a post been removed from here? Had notification about 20 mins ago but nothing to be seen - was someone naughty??

 

[Skies]

Here's a few for you Stan..
 
Dungarees are?
A Bin is?
How do the British pronounce Aluminum?
 
lol I've got more!!! My husband spent 7 years in England, 2 of his daughters were born there, I hear this stuff all the time. xD 

 

[This Old Spouse]

Not to mention lift, torch ...

 

[Mamashack]

Aluminium is spelt with 2 i's! lol
Enlighten us Brits with some of the answers, Skies! I know lift = elevator, and torch = flashlight, don't know the American version of dungarees, and bin tho.
dungarees = overalls?

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Don't listen to them. 1 fortnight = 2 castleweeks. There are 7 outpostdays in a castleweek and 24 trenchours in an outpostday. Bet you are sorry you asked, now

 
Blue Jeans = dungarees-  or now just jeans.
 
How about-
re cars: bonnet, boot, round about, fly over, petrol
You smoke a fag, go to the loo, hoist a pint and get knackered.............   and don't get me started on chips......

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Aluminium is spelt with 2 i's! lol
Enlighten us Brits with some of the answers, Skies! I know lift = elevator, and torch = flashlight, don't know the American version of dungarees, and bin tho.
dungarees = overalls?

Aluminum is only spelt Aluminium in the UK, not the US!  In the US Aluminum is correct.  Trust me, I am a science teacher.  Why you folks add an extra 'i' and pronounce it so silly is beyond me. 
 

 

[TallTree01]

An Aussie ' snag ' is.....?
An Aussie ' hills hoist ' is.....?

 

[DrRob]

 

Aluminium is spelt with 2 i's! lol
Enlighten us Brits with some of the answers, Skies! I know lift = elevator, and torch = flashlight, don't know the American version of dungarees, and bin tho.
dungarees = overalls?

Aluminum is only spelt Aluminium in the UK, not the US!  In the US Aluminum is correct.  Trust me, I am a science teacher.  Why you folks add an extra 'i' and pronounce it so silly is beyond me. 

 

 

 
Ahhhh, but it depends on where you teach Chemistry. It was only aluminum in American after 1925. If you go back all the way to the name it's discovered first gave it then it's really alumium, although Sir Humphrey Davey latterly called it aluminum and then aluminium, which was the originally scientifically accepted name.
 
Overall both aluminum and aluminium are scientifically acceptable names, although aluminum is only widely used in the US.
 
As for the why, the extra "i" was added to conform with the standard "ium" ending of other metallic elements.

 

[This Old Spouse]

Dungarees = blue jeans?

 

[DrRob]

I think I've lost track somewhere of which is supposed to be the Americanism and which is proper English.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

 

 


Aluminium is spelt with 2 i's! lol
Enlighten us Brits with some of the answers, Skies! I know lift = elevator, and torch = flashlight, don't know the American version of dungarees, and bin tho.
dungarees = overalls?

Aluminum is only spelt Aluminium in the UK, not the US!  In the US Aluminum is correct.  Trust me, I am a science teacher.  Why you folks add an extra 'i' and pronounce it so silly is beyond me. 

 

 

 
Ahhhh, but it depends on where you teach Chemistry. It was only aluminum in American after 1925.


 
How old do you think I am?!

As for the why, the extra "i" was added to conform with the standard "ium" ending of other metallic elements.
 

 
That only makes sense up to a point.  Certainly, Group 1&2 have that convention with lithium, barium, calcium, etc.  And even group 3 with thallium, gallium and indium... but then you scoot over to Group 4...  And Germanium, polonium and tellurium (all metalloids) have the convention while tin, lead, and bismuth (metals) do not. 
 
The language that's been handed down truly doesn't make sense, in the end.  There's so many exceptions to 'rules' that it nearly makes the rules nonsensical to talk about. 
 
Silent 'e' rule: a silent 'e' at the end of the word makes the vowel sound long.  Except in 'give'.
 
rhyming words:
 
Go, no... but not to, do.
 
'i' before 'e' except after 'c', except in 'eigh' words - or 'science' ironically! 

 

[DrRob]

You mean you're not that old? 

 
I was more making the point that the Americans could spell it right until 1925, so it's more that an "i" has gone missing from their version than needing an understanding of where it has come from.
 
Nobody, at any point within my hearing, has ever claimed that the English language made sense, it has more irregularity than any language I've ever studied, and the dialects that manage to survive are virtually incomprehensible to even fluent native speakers.

 

[the_lock_man]

There is the rule of "i" before "e" except after "c". Except that there are more exceptions than examples that fit the rule.