I was going to pop this on to the end of the bordel that emerged from the discussion on winter fuel payments - but the thread has been closed. A friendly suggestion to Mr Thackwray, if he publishes his promised article titled "Taking the piss out of British ex-pats in France". It would be worth taking the rogue hyphen out of expat, which is an abbreviation of expatriate (one word). Some time ago, an overenthusiastic newspaper sub-editor famously took his style book's preference for "former" over "ex-" and changed ex-pat to "former patriot". Hardly the same thing.
Hope this helps, as folk say nowadays.
Al
Pédantisme, peut-être ;-)
look hard enough and there is probably a t't which will be indistinguishable from petite which will also be t't, doh!!!!
Thank you for your friendly suggestion. I look forward to having you as a new reader.
Round here it's even more "reduced" : p'tet'
As in "p'tet' ben qu'oui, p'tet' ben qu'non"
I have a better friendly suggestion for Thackwray - not bother to write anything at all. In these days when just anyone can publish it's just as obvious that lots shouldn't. A good untrained amateur can be entertaining and informative but never like a professional, until they understand the training (Catherines' stuff is a great example of "proper" writing). Bad amateur writing, like Thackwray's blog, makes one embarrassed to have English as a first language. I must work harder at my French ;-)
I was thinking of how, now that you have it, they could really mess it for you ;-)
No, Brian, I was thinking of what my previous pronunciation would have been!
Lucky you don't live hereabouts then. It comes out p't'tra. They really do not like vowels and as for proppa French pernunciating, nah mate!
I'm just pleased that I could read 'peut-etre' - interpret it and pronounce it, without reaching for Google translate - and, to the best of my knowledge, I've never seen the word in written format before. Or, perhaps I have!
At one time it would have been 'pewt etra.'
Perhaps we can write it phonetically? I am always noticing how many people say it so that it sounds like 'spat'. I have often been tempted to ask them what the present tense is ;-)
Perhaps an SFN style book might help.
Many words which were always hyphenated when I was nobbut a lass are nowadays not so.
It is very kind of you to make your suggestion to Mr Thackwray a friendly one.