This thread is a focused discussion group. Please see the first post below for the current topic and upcoming book discussions. While natter will inevitably happen, we encourage you to treat this like a virtual book club and try to keep your posts in that spirit.
By consensus, this thread is reopened specifically to discuss Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It will be closed again once that discussion has run its course.
***SPOILER ALERT***
- **Spoilers for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows lie here. Read at your own risk***
Huh. Looks like they also added the commas for compound sentences. And in at least one case, fixed the subjunctive. Are British rules for those things different?
some British grammar rules are different. For example (and my horror at the time) the past tense of learn is learnt.
The Brits like to leave out commas where I would put them, but put in commas where I would take them out (helloooo comma splices).
Snerk. In trying to google to figure out what a humbug looks like, I found a math paper that says "On the other hand, L2 is the Cayley table of the group of symmetries in 3- space of a traditionally shaped peppermint humbug. This group is often called ..." Unfortunately, it's on JSTOR, which I don't have access to on this computer, so I can't find out the more common math name for it, which leaves me still confused, since "L2" can mean almost anything in different contexts.
I'm disproportionately annoyed (ok, ridiculously enraged) by the change from "large tawny owl" to "large, tawny owl". The tawny owl is a species, which makes that comma as out of place as if it the phrase were "a large, owl". That comma is hurting my eyes. Ow ow ow.
For example (and my horror at the time) the past tense of learn is learnt.
Fowler's accepts both learned and learnt (and they can be pronounced the same when used as a pp.).
they can be pronounced the same when used as a pp
Really? I've always pronounced them differently (three pronounciations now that I think of it: learnt, learnd, and learnéd).
Really? I've always pronounced them differently (three pronounciations now that I think of it: learnt, learnd, and learnéd).
Again, according to Fowler's:
Learnéd is only when used as an adjective. In the past tense, the pronounciation is either learnt or learnd--but always monosyllabic.
Huh. Elizabeth Enright's uncle was Frank Lloyd Wright.
In the past tense, the pronounciation is either learnt or learnd--but always monosyllabic.
I just had no idea that learnt and learned were ever pronounced the same.
I just had no idea that learnt and learned were ever pronounced the same.
they're not. At least not with my English friends. I asked a bunch of people because I just couldn't believe that it was correct.