"Not to be confused with hanger."

Fowlers: “The King’s English” advises us to avoid words of Romance origin eg. French, Italian, Spanish and to use instead, words of Anglo Saxon provenance.

So far as that goes, our American friends are correct with their spellings. Center, meter, color, honor, in place of that we normally use, is desirable if you want to get as close as possible to the Germanic language of our early kin.

Churchill’s 1940 ‘fight on the beach’ speech is entirely Anglo Saxon save for one word – the very last – ‘surrender’.

John Green

Thank you Pondskater, I have learnt something !!!!

Planemike

I’m also irritated by the use of the American spellings for (UK) English things – the worse being airplane instead of aeroplane – widely used by those who should know better.

Of course some of us ARE in the North American continent. 😉 Airplanes are common here, aeroplanes not so much.

Ryan

Well that works if “None” is “no one” but my OED says that none is defined as “not one or not any (persons)” hence both singular and plural.

My three style guides all state that none can be singular or plural.

Partridge’s Usage and Abusage goes as far as to say that a mistaken understanding in the 18th-Century led to the idea that “no-one” became “none”, but ignored the history. He explains that “no” is a short form of “none”, as in the archaic form “thou shalt have none other gods but me”. “My” is a similar short form of “mine” as in “mine eyes” and “my eyes”

His suggested usage is that when “none = not one” then use singular and when “none = no persons”, then use the plural, but accepts it is not a hard rule.

I found that quite interesting, but then I don’t get out much.

Ok 🙂

None – equivalent to zero – is neither singular nor plural so both “none of us is . . .” and “None of us are . . .” are both correct.

By referring to us – more than one – it feels more comfortable to me as plural.

I would suggest the following by preference but is and are can be substituted without error:
None on the forum is perfect
None of the forum members are perfect

I did check that one in my “troublesome words” guide first though. 😉

Whilst you may be correct with ‘none’ = zero, in the context ‘none of us’, surely it should be ‘no one of us’, which is clearly singular and not plural. Another case of lazy speech where one word runs into another.

If anyone want to correct me, I am always willing to learn.

Ok 🙂

Just for the record it should be “None of us IS perfect….. !!!

None – equivalent to zero – is neither singular nor plural so both “none of us is . . .” and “None of us are . . .” are both correct.

By referring to us – more than one – it feels more comfortable to me as plural.

I would suggest the following by preference but is and are can be substituted without error:
None on the forum is perfect
None of the forum members are perfect

I did check that one in my “troublesome words” guide first though. 😉

Discovery channel today, program called Gold Rush. Two guys in Alaska who run a struggling small airfield may have to sell it, so decide to take up Gold mining…Sign next to the Hangars reads

Hangers for sale!!

mmmm how do I correct that one, LOL

😀

I think the one that bugs me the most is, “Can’t we do this……..” Well, no, not if you don’t want to.
What’s wrong with, “Can we do this………..”
Jim.
Lincoln .7

But then we get the regular appearance of the grocers’ apostrophe too.

“Please post pictures of FW190’s”

:confused: FW190’s what?

Moggy

I haven’t bothered to read this thread until today and I must say, I’ve enjoyed the discussion.
Re Dave’s post #11,, I’m with you Dave, the miss use of the apostrophe. Basically this has been bought about by poor speech and the slow ‘habit’ of running one word into another. In time this has crept into writing as well.
Example1: “There’s a hangar…..” should be There is a hangar.
Example2: “The aircraft’s tail….” not spoken but means the aircraft(its) tail, meaning belonging to.
As for spellin, well that’s gone to pot,’ hasn’t it'(has not it….oh my God)
For all you older and more correctness minded people, hang in there, it’ll all be right ‘on the other side’.

Most of us wouldn’t dream of flying with out proper planning and preparation. Writing, though less potentially hazardous, requires the same attention to detail. Dictionaries to the ready………

John Green

It has been suggested that this thread his here to run down member/s who have issues with spelling and grammar.

I dont agree – no-one has been mentioned by name, and I think it is coincidence that we have another thread running where such issues have been picked up on.

However, it is best placed in General Discussion, which is rather more appropriate for it.

Bruce

Bruce……….

Thanks for putting the thread back, albeit in different location: that is fair enough.

As you point out there were no personal attacks, just several posters pointing out that there are correct and incorrect ways of spelling words and using the English language. I find it distracting when reading information that does not have capitals in the correct places, little attempt at punctuation and blatant misspellings. I was taught to try and write correctly.

Is it wrong to try and encourage young people to write good English? I don’t think so: they could just be grateful later in life.

If anyone wants to correct me, I am always willing to learn.

As always just my thoughts……..!!!

Planemike

PS How do you use spell check on this forum?

Remembering, of course, it was a Brit that ‘invented’ the net 😉

it was a brit that invented the fully moveable tail plane to enable supersonic flight also

but they had the foresight to spend and develop whilst we stood around worrying about spelling and tea !!

Remembering, of course, it was a Brit that ‘invented’ the net 😉

realy don’t give a damn about american spellings of words on the net a lot of them crop up

maybe we should take all the american involvement away from the net and see how far brits get with thier good spelling on pencils paper and carrier pigeons !!

Exactement…!

Flak-jacket:)

That’s what comes of posting at ungodly hours…! 😮

With a gulp … I cast a stone … from my glass house

BTW I would never correct a persons grammer, wrong usage of a word in a particular topic yes, a whole post no.

But we are agreed it’s a good idea to note when a spelling error results in a different meaning … or perhaps when a word simply doesn’t exist?

Grammar.

:p

Agreed Steve, one post referring to it in itself isn’t bad, though personally i wouldn’t even demean them or myself by being that discourteous, multiple posts from several people in my eyes is harrassing them and a no no… Especially on a site that has nothing to do with the study of the language and bearing in mind as a cosmopolitan worldwide forum a lot of people here either do not have English as their primary language or may have dyslexia or any number of multitude reasons one is neither aware of or to be honest should be. In a nutshell, it boils down to common courtesy.

And that Stevo76, is the most sensible thread I have read on this topic so far.;)
Anyway, as long as one can understand the general gist of what is or has been written, I can’t understand why all the fuss.
Just remember the person who has never made a mistake, has yet to be born.
Jim.

Lincoln .7

All that needs to be remembered when attempting to correct the use of an incorrect word is a bit of courteousness. Dont make it seems like you’re trying to get one over or make the person look stupid because of something they may not be aware of…no-one knows everything its an impossibility. Advice I would give is to always do it via a private message and let the person know in a polite way.

I did it this way twice, on an aviation website and a flight simulator website where Hanger was used. I did a brief intro of myself, explaining what I was emailing for and the difference between to two words, They didnt realise that they where using the wrong word (just like I didnt before I was corrected about the same thing on AIX). I was thanked for my assistance and the websites where changed accordingly. No issue at all.

BTW I would never correct a persons grammer, wrong usage of a word in a particular topic yes, a whole post no.

Manners and a bit of tact I think cost nothing, besides you really have no idea who is sat on the other side of the words you have been reading.

😉