...I *know* that 'whinge' is a real term that is used in Australia(especially, and elsewhere I guess), but every time I read it it makes me cringe, because I cannot seem to read it as anything but an improper spelling of 'whine'...
no, no, no, glen.;-P whinge is a real word (and yes, it is related to whine) and has been English English for at least 60 years.
try being canadian! we spell things with british spelling, usually. unless we use american spelling. or sometimes just a completely canadian version.
it's like imperial and metric here. we measure long distances in kilometres, personal height in feet and inches, carpenters use inches, but everyone else uses metric (who wants to do fractions if you don't have to?) food is sold in kilos, but everyone calls it pounds. thank god we don't have stones here as well (14 pounds - english wieght measurement)
My Australian Oxford Dictionary says I am correct in saying 'spelt'. You had me worried for a moment that my English was slipping. I have spelt "spelt" this way since I started spelling.
I'm happy we are all concerned about such things. It makes me very gruntled.
Sorry, I stole that from the upcoming Office episode. It's a great line though.
Doc, ya ever been sheveled? That's a line from an old MASH episode, when BJ is getting dressed for a date and Hawkeye says he's looking mighty sheveled.
My two cents on the whole grammar, spelling, punctuation thing????
I use and abuse the language for effect, I know what I'm doing, and I have long since given up trying to change others' usage of it.
In some cases, it's like trying to teach a pig to sing......it wastes your time and annoys the pig.
One of the things that makes me more tolerant about it is that I know people who genuinely cannot spell and just don't "get it" grammatically.
That makes me feel grateful, and less likely to be pedantic about the whole mess, though it still makes me twitch when people are just lazy.
My obsessiveness about it assures that I will take care of my own "English" behavior, utilize my skills correctly most of the time, wrongly for FX here and there, and obtusely whenever I can just for giggles.
What really bothers me, and it's a characteristic typical of the rural area that I live, is when I get abused and denigrated for having a large functioning vocabulary.
This whole word thing reminds me of my when my parent first came to Australia. They were invited to tea so arrived, had a cup of tea and were going to leave. Their hosts had to explain that 'tea' was dinner, the night meal. My parent had learnt text book English, breakfast, lunch and dinner. Here many people say, breakfast, dinner and tea. They also got into trouble when they were invited to a BBQ and were asked to bring a plate. Mum brought heaps of plates thinking the host must not have had enough to go round. No food on them though!!
