What do you say when...THE GREAT DIVE GRAMMER THREAD

[Scuba Jim]

Scuba Jim, how is your German anyway? Oh thats right, your still speaking proper English thanks to a little assist you got beating the Austrian Corporal. Seems you needed mucho help then, which you got from the country that didn't care about you. I'm glad some in your country have not forgotten that.

I believe it is called irony. It's a little like humour, but with bits of iron in it.

And i'm not sure i understand your analogy of Queen = British and plastic Jackson = American. Uh, he is not typical of Americans, is he? Gawd knows what is going through his mind. All i know is we hide our kids when he comes around.

Course he's typical of Americans...! Look at all that plastic surgery!!!

Agree with you that as time goes on he is looking more & more like Diana but there is another conspiracy theory out there on him. Mike & his sister Janet are the same person. Think about it. Have you ever seen them both in public togeather at the same time? Creepy!

I've never seen either of them in public. I've seen them on TV. But he's always got a scarf over his face (is this because he is worried about pollution, just had some more surgery, or concerned he might scare us all?), so you could be right. It may in fact not be him, just a skinny eunuch with a skin condition pretending to be Michael Jackson, while he puts on a tutu and minces around as Janet. Perhaps that is why he's always fondling his groin while in concert. Just to remind himself of whether he's a man, a woman or something in between.

 

[o2 clean]

I dove a dive with a dove.

 

[Phoenix]

Um, no body actually knows if our old Austrian advesary would of ever managed to conquer Britain, and as such its pretty arrogant to speculate we would be speaking german if you hadn't joined in

The fact is I dont recall American troops actually killing many germans on british soil, nor infact do I recall many british troops killing germans on british soil (apart from the occasional strays)
It was indeed our combined effort that liberated "Europe" from his clutches (See: Europe, not the UK)

Ahem, anyway, if it were the case we would be saying

Tauchen : Dive
Taube : Dove
getaucht : Dived

My german is not perfect so my apologies to any germans
But we know Jim was only joking so all of this is irelivent (more mangled spelling I presume)

 

[danceswithoctopus]

"It was indeed our combined effort that liberated "Europe" from his clutches (See: Europe, not the UK)"

Besides, the 'Austrian Corporal" haben nicht getaucht.\

(I hope my cr**py German doesn't offend anyone.)

 

[WileEDiver]

I received a PM this weekend (in response to some post(s) I made in the past in which I used the word "dove") that read,

not to be picky...but
there is no word "dove" it's actually "dived".

It sounds weird, I know, but it's correct.....if you care.

In fact, I do care, but I have to take issue. According to dictionary.com,

Usage Note: Either dove or dived is acceptable as the past tense of dive. Usage preferences show regional distribution, although both forms are heard throughout the United States. According to the Dictionary of American Regional English, in the North, dove is more prevalent; in the South Midland, dived. Dived is actually the earlier form, and the emergence of dove may appear anomalous in light of the general tendencies of change in English verb forms. Old English had two classes of verbs: strong verbs, whose past tense was indicated by a change in their vowel (a process that survives in such present-day English verbs as drive/drove or fling/flung); and weak verbs, whose past was formed with a suffix related to -ed in Modern English (as in present-day English live/lived and move/moved). Since the Old English period, many verbs have changed from the strong pattern to the weak one; for example, the past tense of step, formerly stop, became stepped. Over the years, in fact, the weak pattern has become so prevalent that we use the term regular to refer to verbs that form their past tense by suffixation of -ed. However, there have occasionally been changes in the other direction: the past tense of wear, now wore, was once werede, and that of spit, now spat, was once spitede. The development of dove is an additional example of the small group of verbs that have swum against the historical tide.

I post this not to start a war, but to make this board safe for my fellow New Jersey natives (or those from other states considered as being "in the North").

 

[GQMedic]

I am roaring in hysterics here!

My now ex and I, over a year ago have a heated debate about "Dove" -v- Dived.

I was pro "dove" and she, "Dived". OH did it go on and on, and it was quite a charming little argument too! Some colorful retorts were exchanged until both of us did our research. But not after we were both told how silly we were, did we end the tiff. We were both right. Good memory. She was fun and kept me on my toes.

-Dennis

 

[Jonathan]

like a yokel to me!

Anyone want to throw in guage? OED actually lets you have all three - we were that hacked off with the hole argument we actually looked it up:

guage
gauge
gage

All legitmate.

Now Pedant is a new one on me - thanks for the education. Bet you didn't know it meant male school teacher did you?

Alright don't get too heated it does also me:

1 obsolete : a male schoolteacher
2 a : one who makes a show of knowledge b : one who is unimaginative or who unduly emphasizes minutiae in the presentation or use of knowledge c : a formalist or precisionist in teaching

My problem is I think I may be slightly dyslexic as I thought you said "pendant" to start with

 

[WileEDiver]

Jonathan-

The male schoolteacher definition wasn't the first one listed, was it? That would surprise me!

 

[Jonathan]

straight out of Merriam-Webster on line dictionary.

It's about the only good free one I could find even though it does not recognise guage.....

Jonathan

 

[nickjb]

We had a poll a while ago

http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=14332&perpage=15&display=&pagenumber=1



http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=14366&perpage=15&display=&pagenumber=1