It's Legos in the US. Maybe I have to say it twice.
Weather....
- Thread starter D_W
- Start date
Help Support UKworkshop.co.uk:
John Brown
Freeloading Social media influenza
Well, OK.
You can say what you like.
I just thought you might be interested in knowing that the rest of the world don't use that word.
Yet.
I'm sure we'll all be linguistically bullied into adopting the US term in time. Better get used to it.
You can say what you like.
I just thought you might be interested in knowing that the rest of the world don't use that word.
Yet.
I'm sure we'll all be linguistically bullied into adopting the US term in time. Better get used to it.
Well, OK.
You can say what you like.
I just thought you might be interested in knowing that the rest of the world don't use that word.
Yet.
I'm sure we'll all be linguistically bullied into adopting the US term in time. Better get used to it.
You can swing your purse as much as you like. We'll duck, not make you swing ours.
Legos is the accepted term in the united states, even in lego enthusiast publications here. I was curious enough after you made your statement to actually look it up as I've heard the word "legos" thousands of times in my life. I'll spare folks here from the same kind of badgering "no - that's not the right way to say it!!".
Too much signaling for me.
Time out, gentlemen. If both of you are referring to the small plastic toys that snap together, the proper spelling worldwide is LEGO.
For what it's worth, all nouns in German are capitalized, such as Radio, Auto, Panzer, Tischfräser, Holzbearbeitung, and so on. If a business wants to be creative with using a noun as part of its business name, it can register it any way it likes and thumb its corporate nose at proper grammar. However, LEGO is the way The Lego Group chose to trademark those small blocks that feel real good when you step on them in the middle of the night in bare feet.
Mike, Legos is literally the accepted term in the states. The criticism of it caused me to look it up - one never knows if it's just a regional thing.
Plural "chiefly american" is Legos. I'm guessing a lego brand manager may be forbidden from using it here, but it's the dominant terminology. All the way up to professionally edited literature on the New Yorker and NPR.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Lego
That aside, if someone called them legos and it was a regional thing and they built with them regularly, I'd hesitate to try to tell them what they should do. The effect of that is very woodworking forum-like - to dicker over what things should be called without actually doing them.
We do note (those of us who have been exposed to Germans) that Germans are very technically particular about everything language-wise. The English among us in the states vary, but often end up harassing each other about what's proper vs. what's just being pedantic. Like levels - the guy who got me into woodworking is English. He likes to correct things that I say, but another acquaintance of his is pompous and he often complains about how it's impossible to have conversations that are enjoyable as it's nothing but a contest to find something to correct. I've met both of them, he's right - so when he wants to go on at length about how the English speak the only real English, I refer to him by the name of the second person.
I can't post his response to that here.
Plural "chiefly american" is Legos. I'm guessing a lego brand manager may be forbidden from using it here, but it's the dominant terminology. All the way up to professionally edited literature on the New Yorker and NPR.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Lego
That aside, if someone called them legos and it was a regional thing and they built with them regularly, I'd hesitate to try to tell them what they should do. The effect of that is very woodworking forum-like - to dicker over what things should be called without actually doing them.
We do note (those of us who have been exposed to Germans) that Germans are very technically particular about everything language-wise. The English among us in the states vary, but often end up harassing each other about what's proper vs. what's just being pedantic. Like levels - the guy who got me into woodworking is English. He likes to correct things that I say, but another acquaintance of his is pompous and he often complains about how it's impossible to have conversations that are enjoyable as it's nothing but a contest to find something to correct. I've met both of them, he's right - so when he wants to go on at length about how the English speak the only real English, I refer to him by the name of the second person.
I can't post his response to that here.
Last edited:
John Brown
Freeloading Social media influenza
"Swing your purse"!
There's really no need to question my masculinity!
Really, David, you make me laugh. I was feigning outrage. I don't really give a tinker's cuss how you say things. I have an American wife, three American stepdaughters, five hybrid grandchildren who can't decide if it's "tomato" or "tomato" and
about a billion American in-laws. I'm virtually bilingual.
There's really no need to question my masculinity!
Really, David, you make me laugh. I was feigning outrage. I don't really give a tinker's cuss how you say things. I have an American wife, three American stepdaughters, five hybrid grandchildren who can't decide if it's "tomato" or "tomato" and
about a billion American in-laws. I'm virtually bilingual.
J-G
Established Member
J-G
Established Member
Fahrenheit is a strange measurement with its negative threshold based on the freezing point of water when fully saturated with salt - what was the relevance of maximum strength brine?
And why do people think it is British? the bloke, as far a I can tell, never ventured onto out shores.
But just as I am mixed up with most measurements, some situations have me thinking in Fahrenheit, Summer days for instance, my thoughts turn to ºF such as 'it is very pleasant out, 70 ish, or it was hot today we touched 85. But then if it is a cold winters day I can imagine only in centigrade, same with the measurement of any thing else, annealing point of steel, well that would be centigrade too.
Linear measurements is another mixed bag for me, walking driving cycling it has to be miles, what else could it possibly be. But small measurements, lets say under 10' then I turn to metric.
Weight, there's another confused mix up, I try to keep myself under 13stone (failing a bit at the moment) , but anything below, lets say, 4 stone, I need grams
My car gets mpg, but I fill it with litres, my beer is brewed in litres, but I consider the end product as pints.
- Joined
- 7 Aug 2003
- Messages
- 7,588
- Reaction score
- 1,008
He‘s confused between a handbag and a purse.
John Brown
Freeloading Social media influenza
I know. See above remarks re. American wife!!
Pineapple
Established Member
clogs
just can't decide
didn't Jame May, *Top Gear* refer to the metric system as something Napleon did to annoy us....
Cozzer
Established Member
John Brown
Freeloading Social media influenza
To be fair, the Americans mangle the language in certain ways, but in other words or usages, they remain closer to old English, and the British English has evolved. British and American English spent a lot of time diverging, and now we are converging again, probably with a bias towards American.
What a curious and pointless discussion, so I can't resist!
I was brought up on imperial and am fully conversant with metric. From my point of view sometimes imperial is less prone to mistakes, too easy to move the point in metric! Most of the big advances in engineering were using imperial measurements. The idea that the UK doesn't use cm only mm, isn't true in my case and is often used online. As for differences in US versus English spelling/pronunciation, who cares? Provide both parties understand what's the beef? Having worked in the US and worked with many Americans, it is only the little things that divide us. As John Brown says the English language is constantly evolving and many words (Gotten, anyone?), have faded and new ones added. To me that is a plus. The US has Websters and we have the Oxford English dictionary, though too many English people have never used any dictionary.
As the French might say Vive La Difference (though they may never have said that!).
I was brought up on imperial and am fully conversant with metric. From my point of view sometimes imperial is less prone to mistakes, too easy to move the point in metric! Most of the big advances in engineering were using imperial measurements. The idea that the UK doesn't use cm only mm, isn't true in my case and is often used online. As for differences in US versus English spelling/pronunciation, who cares? Provide both parties understand what's the beef? Having worked in the US and worked with many Americans, it is only the little things that divide us. As John Brown says the English language is constantly evolving and many words (Gotten, anyone?), have faded and new ones added. To me that is a plus. The US has Websters and we have the Oxford English dictionary, though too many English people have never used any dictionary.
As the French might say Vive La Difference (though they may never have said that!).
Ah well you're capitalising and that's German...
- Joined
- 16 Sep 2006
- Messages
- 338
- Reaction score
- 137
I can remember in the 40s and 50s that 5 shillings were known as a dollar, and a half-crown was 'alf a dollar! A pound was a quid, and I asked my Mum why Mary didn't have a quid for a bed in the carol. ("No crib for a bed")
John Brown
Freeloading Social media influenza
I agree. Miles, gallons, feet and pounds, but Celsius for temperature. If I'm estimating a drill size, or the thickness of plywood I use mm.
Cups(American, but who knows where they originated) when baking(talking about bread - I can do without having my macho credentials scrutinized again!).
Estimates: London buses(Routemasters, obvs.), Blue Whales, Wales, your right arm and football pitches, the latter being very approximate, as apparently there's no standard size.
