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Old 2nd April 2017, 15:39   #2716
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Re: A YetiGuide® : How To Post In Proper English

It's thirteen if memory serves me right.
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Old 2nd April 2017, 17:00   #2717
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Re: A YetiGuide® : How To Post In Proper English

13 --- Yes, memory serves you right.
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Old 2nd April 2017, 17:05   #2718
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Re: A YetiGuide® : How To Post In Proper English

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13 --- Yes, memory serves you right.
I thought it was 11. As in when a baker cheats you by putting 11 buns in the packet but charges you for a dozen.
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Old 2nd April 2017, 17:30   #2719
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Re: A YetiGuide® : How To Post In Proper English

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I thought it was 11. As in when a baker cheats you by putting 11 buns in the packet but charges you for a dozen.
It was the other way. In the middle ages, there were strict penalties for bakers cheating people out of bread (as it was a primary/staple food), so bakers erred on the side of caution by tossing in an extra loaf anytime someone ordered a dozen.

Refer this link: http://www.todayifoundout.com/index....instead-of-12/
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Old 2nd April 2017, 17:49   #2720
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Re: A YetiGuide® : How To Post In Proper English

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Yes, it is twenty, and I'd forgotten that. Again, it was a common word just a few decades ago.
I too had forgotten, till I read about Abe Lincoln's Gettysberg speech which says 'four score and seven years ago...'. The speech was delivered in 1863 and he was referring to the declaration of independence in 1776.
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Old 2nd April 2017, 18:34   #2721
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Re: A YetiGuide® : How To Post In Proper English

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I too had forgotten, till I read about Abe Lincoln's Gettysberg speech which says 'four score and seven years ago...'. The speech was delivered in 1863 and he was referring to the declaration of independence in 1776.
I took this photo from a book my son was reading:

A YetiGuide® : How To Post In Proper English-img_20161223_120649.jpg
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Old 2nd April 2017, 22:43   #2722
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I thought it was 11. As in when a baker cheats you by putting 11 buns in the packet but charges you for a dozen.
I didn't know the origin as mentioned by Arun, but it was certainly extra. A kind of quantity discount. An early BOGOF... Buy twelve get one free!

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I too had forgotten, till I read about Abe Lincoln's Gettysberg speech which says 'four score and seven years ago...'. The speech was delivered in 1863 and he was referring to the declaration of independence in 1776.
Now you come to mention it, it is biblical ("Authorised" Version) language. Four score and ten, ninety.

I seem to remember it meaning lots, in the same way as dozens is used. Like, "I head that scores of times."

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I took this photo from a book my son was reading:
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Old 3rd April 2017, 06:43   #2723
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Re: A YetiGuide® : How To Post In Proper English

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.... Four score and ten, ninety.
....
And how would you say five score and twelve pounds, Sir?
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Old 3rd April 2017, 16:34   #2724
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Re: A YetiGuide® : How To Post In Proper English

How would you say one score hundredweight?
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Old 4th April 2017, 14:48   #2725
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Re: A YetiGuide® : How To Post In Proper English



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A self-declared “grammar vigilante” is spending his nights prowling the streets of Bristol and correcting the punctuation on business signs.

Among the mystery man's targets have been signs reading “Vicenzo and Son Gentlemens Hairstylists”, “Herberts the Bakery” and a greengrocer display advertising “potato’s”.
Thad, do you have a brother in Bristol?

Link

Last edited by noopster : 5th April 2017 at 07:28. Reason: Replacing the scan with online newspaper link
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Old 4th April 2017, 23:49   #2726
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Re: A YetiGuide® : How To Post In Proper English



Well, good for him!

But what is a self-styled device? Being a bit of a gadget freak, I have lots of devices, but, thankfully, not even those with fairly powerful CPUs have, so far, given themselves names or descriptions!
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Old 8th April 2017, 15:21   #2727
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Re: A YetiGuide® : How To Post In Proper English

Came across this headline which had me thinking until I read the article to understand what the writer meant:

"India not China, we're not politically fixing GDP numbers".

Probably nothing wrong in the statement (I thought a comma was missing in this confession ) but the way it has been drafted makes it open to ambiguity; meaning exactly opposite of what the author means.

Link: http://www.moneycontrol.com/
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Old 8th April 2017, 16:43   #2728
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Re: A YetiGuide® : How To Post In Proper English

If you want to see headlines that you have to click just to find out what the mean, try the BBC News website!

My gripe of the day...

Than does not stand alone and it does not imply more.

Priya is beautiful than Chitra is meaningless, as well as as ugly English. The more or less must be included.

(And she isn't. She may be prettier but Chitra has the most amazing eyes )
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Old 11th April 2017, 17:42   #2729
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Re: A YetiGuide® : How To Post In Proper English

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*SNIP* apart from the [horse] racecourse, furlongs!*SNIP*
I grew up with "furlong" being in common use in Tamil Nadu to denote distances, say from bus stops to homes for example. Eighth of a mile, and when I was a child, India spoke miles and Fahrenheit instead of kms and Celsius.

Cheers
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Old 11th April 2017, 21:22   #2730
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Re: A YetiGuide® : How To Post In Proper English

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I grew up with "furlong" being in common use in Tamil Nadu to denote distances, say from bus stops to homes for example. Eighth of a mile, and when I was a child, India spoke miles and Fahrenheit instead of kms and Celsius.
Furlongs: amazing!

I also grew up with miles and Fahrenheit --- and now I have to adjust back to miles in uk! (I suppose you do too, for USA).

But furlongs never figured in my life, which reached back to early 1950s.

We used to joke about rods, poles and perches at school, but we had no real idea how long they were. Fathoms, of course, were very much in use. There might even be some unrevised-for ages UK Admiralty charts with depths in fathoms, though probably most, if not all, have been updated. My sailing life, from about 1981, was navigated depths-in-metres, even though I, at that time, probably still preferred to think in inches, feet and yards.
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