@liss I was recently reminded you use the Oxford comma and it just made me happy to know you are on the Right Side Of History. 🙌
@simonwoods Oxford comma is correct. Took me a long time to get on board with only one space though. 😬
@simonwoods I didn’t even know this was a thing. I’ve come across so many sentences in my own writing where knowing this would have been so handy. The things you learn. //@liss
@vishae I latched onto it so hard at school. For some reason it just clicked with my approach to writing.
@vasta Oh that sounds interesting, I'll find an EU-compliant resource for it. I delight in horrifying grammarians so this wouldn't be entirely new ground for me to break. 😇
@liss As an Australian, it would be fun to debate with you—in good humour, of course—about the Oxford comma, not to mention American spelling, haha. (Don’t get me started on the Celsius vs. Fahrenheit thing though!) We ‘drive-on-the-left-hand-side-of-the-road people’ must often remind ourselves that the majority of English speakers in the world are now US English speakers. Tolerance is crucial in an age of world Englishes! 😀
@martinfeld Not before you and I argue (in good nature) about the idiosyncrasies of NZ vs Australian English. Why do you pronounce the letter H as “heych”? Why does your Labour party not have a U in its name? What’s with sticking an O at the end of so many words?
@yorrike Haha great questions!!! 😂 I do not personally pronounce it as ‘heych’ (that is incorrrect and sickening) and as far as I’m aware, ‘Labor’ took off with post-war Americanism. That annoys me too. When it comes to ‘o’ on the end of words, I use it sparingly. ‘Servo’ is one that I use, as ‘service station’ is occasionally tiresome to say when one is in a rush!
@martinfeld It’s definitely “aitch”. Anybody who thinks it’s okay to say “heytch” is wrong - whatever nationality you are!
@martinfeld I have an “O” sentence from the time I spent in WA, where I found it particularly overused: “I’m going to Freeo before I get the ferry to Rotto to meet Steveo who drives an ambo and my mate Dobbo who works at the servo next to the bottle-o and has a dingo called Jono.”
Maybe the haych is a Queensland thing?
@yorrike Haha that is classic! I’m surprised that he didn’t throw in ‘arvo’! On ‘heych’, it could be a Queensland thing, however I hear plenty of fools saying it in New South Wales too. Any weird NZ terms that frustrate you?
@martinfeld Oh, for sure. Much of the annoyance I get is from mispronunciations of Māori place names. Writing our “aye” as the Canadian “eh”, and the confusingly common “yeah, nah.”
@yorrike Like your issue with place names, I’m occasionally annoyed with Sydney people’s mispronunciation of our local Aboriginal names. That being said, I probably do the same thing when I travel elsewhere in Australia; a lot of the names have been semi-anglicised and that makes things difficult!
@martinfeld • Oxford comma or risk unnecessary misinterpretation • imperial is stupid • but so is Celsius • a millioun unnecessary Us is superfluous • driving on the left side of the road is an anachronism • I want to visit Australia so badly it hurts • everyone i know who has ever gone swears by it
@liss last week's ATP question “How do we avoid crapping on future tech that we don't inherently understand?” ...now look at your Celsius comments again :P
@liss I’ll never give up my letter U and driving on the left is lovely as it is! Australia would love to have you and I’d be happy to discuss this at greater length if you make it over here. 🌏 Hopefully it’ll be a nice 25 degrees Celsius at the time 😜 in the great state of New South Wales.