From Newsgroup: rec.arts.sf.written

Pearls Before Swine: The English
https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2026/01/09

Rat is right, the Brits economize too much in their language.

Lynn

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From Newsgroup: rec.arts.sf.written

On 2026-01-09 21:07:12 +0000, Lynn McGuire said:

Pearls Before Swine: The English
https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2026/01/09

Rat is right, the Brits economize too much in their language.

Lynn

You mean "economise" ... and English *is* "their" language (as the
comic strip says). :-p



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From Newsgroup: rec.arts.sf.written

On 1/9/2026 5:22 PM, Your Name wrote:

On 2026-01-09 21:07:12 +0000, Lynn McGuire said:

Pearls Before Swine: The English
-a-a-a https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2026/01/09

Rat is right, the Brits economize too much in their language.

Lynn

You mean "economise" ... and English *is* "their" language (as the comic strip says).-a :-p

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/economize

Lynn

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From Newsgroup: rec.arts.sf.written

In article <10js2j4$2p1ce$1@dont-email.me>,
Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> wrote:

On 2026-01-09 21:07:12 +0000, Lynn McGuire said:

Pearls Before Swine: The English
https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2026/01/09

Rat is right, the Brits economize too much in their language.

Lynn

You mean "economise" ... and English *is* "their" language (as the
comic strip says). :-p

I read somewhere that we get the THE in "he's in the hospital"
and other inclusions of the definite article by way of the Irish, or
Irish immigrants anyway.
--
columbiaclosings.com
What's not in Columbia anymore..
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From Newsgroup: rec.arts.sf.written

On 2026-01-10 02:04:44 +0000, Lynn McGuire said:

On 1/9/2026 5:22 PM, Your Name wrote:

On 2026-01-09 21:07:12 +0000, Lynn McGuire said:

Pearls Before Swine: The English
aaa https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2026/01/09

Rat is right, the Brits economize too much in their language.

Lynn

You mean "economise" ... and English *is* "their" language (as the
comic strip says).a :-p

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/economize

Lynn

'z' is an Americanism. Real English uses 's'. :-)

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From Newsgroup: rec.arts.sf.written

On 1/9/2026 9:28 PM, Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:

In article <10js2j4$2p1ce$1@dont-email.me>,
Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> wrote:

On 2026-01-09 21:07:12 +0000, Lynn McGuire said:

Pearls Before Swine: The English
https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2026/01/09

Rat is right, the Brits economize too much in their language.

Lynn

You mean "economise" ... and English *is* "their" language (as the
comic strip says). :-p

I read somewhere that we get the THE in "he's in the hospital"
and other inclusions of the definite article by way of the Irish, or
Irish immigrants anyway.

I have a unresearched notion that the distinction in the US is
whether the location referred to has an abstract meaning
independent of a particular physical structure, or whether
you're trying to talk about a particular instance.


I'm going to church.
vs
Get me to the church on time.

pt

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From Newsgroup: rec.arts.sf.written

In article <10jses5$2s9v3$1@dont-email.me>,
Cryptoengineer <petertrei@gmail.com> wrote:

On 1/9/2026 9:28 PM, Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:

In article <10js2j4$2p1ce$1@dont-email.me>,
Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> wrote:

On 2026-01-09 21:07:12 +0000, Lynn McGuire said:

Pearls Before Swine: The English
https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2026/01/09

Rat is right, the Brits economize too much in their language.

Lynn

You mean "economise" ... and English *is* "their" language (as the
comic strip says). :-p

I read somewhere that we get the THE in "he's in the hospital"
and other inclusions of the definite article by way of the Irish, or
Irish immigrants anyway.

I have a unresearched notion that the distinction in the US is
whether the location referred to has an abstract meaning
independent of a particular physical structure, or whether
you're trying to talk about a particular instance.

I'm going to church.
vs
Get me to the church on time.

Puts my trust in God & man
--
columbiaclosings.com
What's not in Columbia anymore..
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: rec.arts.sf.written

On 1/9/26 11:07 PM, Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:

In article <10jses5$2s9v3$1@dont-email.me>,
Cryptoengineer <petertrei@gmail.com> wrote:

On 1/9/2026 9:28 PM, Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:

In article <10js2j4$2p1ce$1@dont-email.me>,
Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> wrote:

On 2026-01-09 21:07:12 +0000, Lynn McGuire said:

Pearls Before Swine: The English
https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2026/01/09

Rat is right, the Brits economize too much in their language.

Lynn

You mean "economise" ... and English *is* "their" language (as the
comic strip says). :-p

I read somewhere that we get the THE in "he's in the hospital"
and other inclusions of the definite article by way of the Irish, or
Irish immigrants anyway.

I have a unresearched notion that the distinction in the US is
whether the location referred to has an abstract meaning
independent of a particular physical structure, or whether
you're trying to talk about a particular instance.


I'm going to church.
vs
Get me to the church on time.

Puts my trust in God & man

<golf clap>
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: rec.arts.sf.written

On 1/9/2026 9:45 PM, Your Name wrote:

On 2026-01-10 02:04:44 +0000, Lynn McGuire said:

On 1/9/2026 5:22 PM, Your Name wrote:

On 2026-01-09 21:07:12 +0000, Lynn McGuire said:

Pearls Before Swine: The English
-a-a-a https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2026/01/09

Rat is right, the Brits economize too much in their language.

Lynn

You mean "economise" ... and English *is* "their" language (as the
comic strip says).-a :-p

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/economize

Lynn

'z' is an Americanism. Real English uses 's'.-a :-)

It goes back a lot further than that. Its one of those
things were there was uncertainty, with both forms
in use in England and America, and England settled
on one variant, and America another.

https://www.etymonline.com/word/economize

pt



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From Newsgroup: rec.arts.sf.written

On 1/9/2026 9:51 PM, Cryptoengineer wrote:

On 1/9/2026 9:28 PM, Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:

In article <10js2j4$2p1ce$1@dont-email.me>,
Your Name-a <YourName@YourISP.com> wrote:

On 2026-01-09 21:07:12 +0000, Lynn McGuire said:

Pearls Before Swine: The English
-a-a-a-a https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2026/01/09

Rat is right, the Brits economize too much in their language.

Lynn

You mean "economise" ... and English *is* "their" language (as the
comic strip says).-a :-p

I read somewhere that we get the THE in "he's in the hospital"
and other inclusions of the definite article by way of the Irish, or
Irish immigrants anyway.

I have a unresearched notion that the distinction in the US is
whether the location referred to has an abstract meaning
independent of a particular physical structure, or whether
you're trying to talk about a particular instance.

I'm going to church.
vs
Get me to the church on time.

And then there's the difference between "I'm going to church" (now, or
soon) and "I go to church" (a claim of habitual practice). I was asked
to clarify this by a lab technician in France who was just learning English.
--
Mark Jackson - https://mark-jackson.online/
I'd rather find boring things interesting
than find interesting things boring. - Frazz (Jef Mallett)
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From Newsgroup: rec.arts.sf.written

On Fri, 9 Jan 2026 15:07:12 -0600, Lynn McGuire
<lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> wrote:

Pearls Before Swine: The English
https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2026/01/09

Rat is right, the Brits economize too much in their language.

And yet we use "in jail" and "in prison" the same way. And, as others
have noted, "in church".
But I suppose we had churches, jails and prisons long before we had
hospitals or universities.
I learned to read British English a long time ago. How could I not,
with so many British SF writers to choose from?
The phrase "baby is crying" may be a similar case.
English -- the language that never runs out of surprises.
--
"Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"
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From Newsgroup: rec.arts.sf.written

On 2026-01-10 16:15:41 +0000, Mark Jackson said:

On 1/9/2026 9:51 PM, Cryptoengineer wrote:

On 1/9/2026 9:28 PM, Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:

In article <10js2j4$2p1ce$1@dont-email.me>,
Your Namea <YourName@YourISP.com> wrote:

On 2026-01-09 21:07:12 +0000, Lynn McGuire said:

Pearls Before Swine: The English
aaaa https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2026/01/09

Rat is right, the Brits economize too much in their language.

Lynn

You mean "economise" ... and English *is* "their" language (as the
comic strip says).a :-p

I read somewhere that we get the THE in "he's in the hospital" and
other inclusions of the definite article by way of the Irish, or Irish
immigrants anyway.

I have a unresearched notion that the distinction in the US is whether
the location referred to has an abstract meaning independent of a
particular physical structure, or whether you're trying to talk about a
particular instance.

I'm going to church.
vs
Get me to the church on time.

And then there's the difference between "I'm going to church" (now, or
soon) and "I go to church" (a claim of habitual practice). I was asked
to clarify this by a lab technician in France who was just learning
English.

English is one of the hardest languages for non-native speakers to
learn thanks to all the inconsistencies, plain weirdness, and
Americanisms and other localisations (Australianisms, New Zealandisms, Canadianisms, etc.).


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From Newsgroup: rec.arts.sf.written

On 2026-01-10 16:11:12 +0000, Cryptoengineer said:

On 1/9/2026 9:45 PM, Your Name wrote:

On 2026-01-10 02:04:44 +0000, Lynn McGuire said:

On 1/9/2026 5:22 PM, Your Name wrote:

On 2026-01-09 21:07:12 +0000, Lynn McGuire said:

Pearls Before Swine: The English
aaa https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2026/01/09

Rat is right, the Brits economize too much in their language.

Lynn

You mean "economise" ... and English *is* "their" language (as the
comic strip says).a :-p

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/economize

Lynn

'z' is an Americanism. Real English uses 's'.a :-)

It goes back a lot further than that. Its one of those things were
there was uncertainty, with both forms in use in England and America,
and England settled on one variant, and America another.

https://www.etymonline.com/word/economize

pt

Often the Americanisms are actually the original old British English,
but Britain changed it and the Americans didn't bother whether due to laziness, stuborness, or simply thinking they're correct. The reality
is that it is *English* created by England (although "borrows" much of
it from numerous other languages).

The same of course happens in other areas, such as much of the world
switching to decimcal measurements, but America sticking with ye olde
Imperial measurements (and having different versions of some of those)
and the UK uses a mixture of the two systems.


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From Newsgroup: rec.arts.sf.written

Cryptoengineer <petertrei@gmail.com> wrote:

On 1/9/2026 9:28 PM, Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:

I read somewhere that we get the THE in "he's in the hospital"
and other inclusions of the definite article by way of the Irish, or
Irish immigrants anyway.

I have a unresearched notion that the distinction in the US is
whether the location referred to has an abstract meaning
independent of a particular physical structure, or whether
you're trying to talk about a particular instance.

It gets weirder in the case of surgery. It used to be that a person
"was in the surgery" when they were having an operation there. Then
they "were in surgery" through the same kind of transformation of the
article.

But now, THAT has been transformed into "he's having a surgery" in which "surgery" has come to mean the procedure instead of the facility. I
don't know how the hell that one came about.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."
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