Why is official English so different from spoken English?

9 years ago

It has always been the case where certain "language" is used instead of the real words. This can apply in your working life. It can apply in Facebook or other social media sites. It happens in people's websites and in big corporate websites.

It's just a case of learning what things mean and even using the same words.

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seasoned

9 years ago

Originally Posted by peter_act

I was listening to a policeman giving out a report on a murder, and he referred to "two deceased male persons" being discovered. I assume he meant two dead men.

ACTUALLY, two deceased male persons does NOT mean MEN, though men are male. It COULD have meant babies or boys, or any combination. And with PC, WHO KNOWS?

BTW with decomposition, maybe they couldn't determine age. And they wanted to make it clear they weren't male DEER!

And later on, a victim of a motorcycle accident had been taken to hospital with a broken leg and two cracked ribs. His condition was described by the hospital as being "comfortable" I am "comfortable" sitting in my easy chair watching TV, not lying in a hospital bed with bits of me broken.

That was DUMB! The STANDARD statement is "STABLE"! But they meant that they believe he is fine.

And why are all high level political meetings characterised as being "full and frank discussions", instead of saying "We couldn't agree on anything".

FULL AND FRANK is SUPPOSED to mean discussed at length and nothing was held back. It can be full and frank and STILL have agreement!

If you look at the world of advertising, you will see non-English words everywhere. When did your spouse ever praise your home made soup as being "hearty?, or when did you ever call a pack of tampons a "feminine hygiene" product?

HEARTY means basically that it should be satisfying. It IS an english word, like all the others! And what would YOU call a tampon? REMEMBER, you can NOT use the word tampon because it is TOO narrow, and it can't describe itself! "feminine hygiene" is probably about as good as it gets. You can put them in one part of the store and most people that go there will be women, and WHY!?!?!?!? YEP! And AGAIN, PC is a B*h.

Well, I must go now, I need to go to the "powder room", or is it the "rest room"?

In the US, for males, it is RESTROOM, at least in the US. For women, SOMETIMES, powder room. I THINK that has to do with makeup. AGAIN, ENGLISH!

SOME of this, like restroom and powder room, is not STANDARD english. It can be misunderstood in England, etc.... HEY, IIRC, last I knew, the English language was supposed to have about 750,000 words. A LOT of ideas are conveyed equally well with DOZENS of word combinations, or even single words. It goes to show you that a phrase book will NEVER be PERFECT!

BTW This is likely true with ANY language! I KNOW it is with arabic, japanese, chinese, hindi, german, spanish, french, danish, norwegian, swedish, etc....

And ifyou want to hear something that sounds REALLY stupid, NO OFFENSE TO THE BRITISH, WHY do many countries call a "rest room" a water closet, or WC for short?

Steve

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LynnM

9 years ago

Originally Posted by seasoned

And ifyou want to hear something that sounds REALLY stupid, NO OFFENSE TO THE BRITISH, WHY do many countries call a "rest room" a water closet, or WC for short?

Mostly we call it the loo

Water closet refers to very early toilets, and that was truncated to WC over time: The Men That Made the Water Closet by theplumber.com

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KimW 9 years ago

Originally Posted by LynnM

Mostly we call it the loo Water closet refers to very early toilets, and that was truncated to WC over time: The Men That Made the Water Closet by theplumber.com

And I never can remember this correctly, is it leave a penny or drop a penny?
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seasoned 9 years ago

Originally Posted by LynnM

Mostly we call it the loo Water closet refers to very early toilets, and that was truncated to WC over time: The Men That Made the Water Closet by theplumber.com

Oh YEAH, THAT TOO!!!!! You know, some people in the US are called LOU, short for Louis!

Steve
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sbucciarel

Banned 9 years ago

Originally Posted by peter_act

If you look at the world of advertising, you will see non-English words everywhere. When did your spouse ever praise your home made soup as being "hearty?, or when did you ever call a pack of tampons a "feminine hygiene" product?

Well, I must go now, I need to go to the "powder room", or is it the "rest room"?

What would you call a tampon? And do you really rest in the bathroom?

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Joe Mobley 9 years ago

Originally Posted by sbucciarel

What would you call a tampon?

Someone born and raised in Tampa.

Originally Posted by sbucciarel

And do you really rest in the bathroom?

I am a man. I have reading material... Yes.

Joe Mobley
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lanfear63

9 years ago

Originally Posted by peter_act

I was listening to a policeman giving out a report on a murder, and he referred to "two deceased male persons" being discovered. I assume he meant two dead men.

And later on, a victim of a motorcycle accident had been taken to hospital with a broken leg and two cracked ribs. His condition was described by the hospital as being "comfortable" I am "comfortable" sitting in my easy chair watching TV, not lying in a hospital bed with bits of me broken.

And why are all high level political meetings characterised as being "full and frank discussions", instead of saying "We couldn't agree on anything".

If you look at the world of advertising, you will see non-English words everywhere. When did your spouse ever praise your home made soup as being "hearty?, or when did you ever call a pack of tampons a "feminine hygiene" product?

Well, I must go now, I need to go to the "powder room", or is it the "rest room"?

If you were transported a hundred years into the future, lets say 200 for the sake of argument, you would find it difficult to understand what people were saying, so much new slang and new words and accents. would have been introduced. Think back several hundred years, that would be equally difficult.

You must also note that the new words are listed in the updates of the dictionary so technically they are legit, so what is the English language, an ever changing entity.

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Claude Whitacre

9 years ago

Originally Posted by peter_act

I was listening to a policeman giving out a report on a murder, and he referred to "two deceased male persons" being discovered. I assume he meant two dead men.

And later on, a victim of a motorcycle accident had been taken to hospital with a broken leg and two cracked ribs. His condition was described by the hospital as being "comfortable" I am "comfortable" sitting in my easy chair watching TV, not lying in a hospital bed with bits of me broken.

And why are all high level political meetings characterised as being "full and frank discussions", instead of saying "We couldn't agree on anything".

If you look at the world of advertising, you will see non-English words everywhere. When did your spouse ever praise your home made soup as being "hearty?, or when did you ever call a pack of tampons a "feminine hygiene" product?

Well, I must go now, I need to go to the "powder room", or is it the "rest room"?

"two deceased male persons". It sounds more respectful. And to anyone listening to them, it is not offensive.

"comfortable" They say "comfortable" for a few reasons. It's a nicer way of saying "drugged up until they are not screaming". And when the patient hears the word "comfortable", it makes them feel a little more at ease. Comfortable is a calming word.

"full and frank discussions" is a non-threatening way of saying "not much was accomplished". It's diplomacy.

"hearty" Nobody says hearty to each other. But the word is used to put an image in the head of the audience. It's really smart marketing.

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AprilCT 9 years ago

One of my least favorite terms is what the hospital class for mothers to be taught us about childbirth for my first son.

"You will have discomfort." Talk about understating things... Anyway, the icing on the cake was the class trip through the delivery ward and some poor woman screaming her lungs out in one of the labor rooms. It seemed rather third world to me that they didn't give her something to lessen her "discomfort."

Yes, lots of words and strange descriptions of events really aggravate me because they seem to tell a lot less than the truth. PC speech was alive and well way back when I had my first child. Even so, I do have to agree with the possibility of "two deceased male persons" being accurate if that is a first report without medical confirmation since the states of decomposition might be impossible to determine age.
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alistair

9 years ago

Originally Posted by KimW

And I never can remember this correctly, is it leave a penny or drop a penny?

Spend a penny.

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peter_act

9 years ago

Originally Posted by alistair

Spend a penny.

This almost leads on to a whole new thread.
How many euphemismss can you think of for going to the toilet?

"Spend a penny"
"Going to see a man about a dog"
"Going to point Percy at the porcelain"
"Take a leak"

And how could people who's main language is not English comprehend them?

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seasoned

9 years ago

Originally Posted by peter_act

This almost leads on to a whole new thread.
How many euphemismss can you think of for going to the toilet?

"Take a leak"

And how could people who's main language is not English comprehend them?

On the star trek episode where the borg try to destroy earths past, jordie watches theguy go t "take a leak", and it takes a whileto figure out what is happening.

Steve

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LynnM

9 years ago

Originally Posted by seasoned

Oh YEAH, THAT TOO!!!!! You know, some people in the US are called LOU, short for Louis!

Steve

Yes, here too

Originally Posted by peter_act

This almost leads on to a whole new thread.
How many euphemismss can you think of for going to the toilet?

"Spend a penny"
"Going to see a man about a dog"
"Going to point Percy at the porcelain"
"Take a leak"

Going for a ...
Wee
Jimmy Riddle
Slash
Tinkle

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Dan Riffle

9 years ago

I gotta:
Hit the head.
See a man about a horse.
Pay the (beer) rent.
Snip a turtle head.
Drop a log.
Drop a deuce.
Pinch a loaf.
Take my talents to South Beach. (Regional. Only northeast Ohio.)
Take a massive Whitacre.

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Why is official English so different from spoken English?

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