Using Middle Earth to Predict the Future

Great link, Alex; thanks! Especially impressed by the MAC/Mac reference. It drives me absolutely nuts when people write MAC when talking about Apple products.

Do people really use forte that much?

Yeah, most of these apply only to Americans. You screwed our language up good. ^_^ But it's odd how some American things actually make more sense than the english version. For example, Americans usually drop the "h" in "herb", while in England it's always pronounced. But the American version is actually correct, as the word herb was originally French and the French don't pronounce the h either. I find it weird how English was invented over here and we still manage to mess it up sometimes, while you guys get it right...

what about americans saying "COOP" for coupe i know its a french accented word but you dont have to go out of your way to say the wrong thing:P

Rosi
As for the way the English use english there are a few other things that I think Americans did to "correct" english (I know you were the first speakers but that doesnt mean you are always the most correct ;) ). How can -re at the end of a word possibly be pronounced as -er? That has never made sense to me. Using standard rules of english the could only be pronouced as it is written ("ray" or "ree"). Also, why do you love your u's so much? honour, colour. So pointless. Again contradicting your own pronounciation rules. But I do love a lot of the British slang (us using the word "bathroom" is rather pointless when the vast majority of bathrooms have no bath these days, no showers)

Jeez I should have read over my comment before I posted it! I was trying to give American english speakers a good name but my comment is full of typos! haha what can ya do

Rob, you could argue about the -er thing from a French point of view, too. -er is pronounced "ay", not "er". -re is usually just pronounced as "r". So everyone probably thinks everyone else says it funny.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_and_British_English_spelling_differences#-re.2C_-er

The one that really grates with me is the American unwillingness to differentiate insure from ensure.

You can insure against something happening, but it's better to ensure it doesn't happen in the first place.

OK, if they just want one word for it, fine, but it's spreading over here!