Home & Garden0 min ago
Sliver / Slither
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Some time ago I had a rant here about barter vs haggle and it seems that they are broadly interchangeable now (sigh).
HOWEVER Sliver and slither are not the same, they are different parts of speech and are not interchangeable.
GET IT RIGHT, BRITAIN.(Other English-speaking nations are available).
Thanks.
HOWEVER Sliver and slither are not the same, they are different parts of speech and are not interchangeable.
GET IT RIGHT, BRITAIN.(Other English-speaking nations are available).
Thanks.
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You need to be a little careful Dave.
Such is the state of education in the UK these days that many people do not have the basic levels of literacy that many of us take for granted. The example of the confusion mentioned here is one of many which abound. People are not being educated to a sufficient degree to make such confusion less prevalent. Of course the correct spelling and meaning of every word cannot be taught at school, but a part of being educated to a reasonable level includes the development of an enquiring mind. However, this is no longer seen as “cool” and people who demonstrate what appears to be ignorance are not necessarily stupid but poorly educated.
Such is the state of education in the UK these days that many people do not have the basic levels of literacy that many of us take for granted. The example of the confusion mentioned here is one of many which abound. People are not being educated to a sufficient degree to make such confusion less prevalent. Of course the correct spelling and meaning of every word cannot be taught at school, but a part of being educated to a reasonable level includes the development of an enquiring mind. However, this is no longer seen as “cool” and people who demonstrate what appears to be ignorance are not necessarily stupid but poorly educated.
Your spot on New Judge (Yes, I know, I did it for affect and because it's all over the web) (Yes, and affect). Instead of looking for the correct way to speak, there is often a presumption that what sounds 'posher' is necessarily right, hence 'she is giving you and I dinner' and, I suspect, slither sounds better than sliver because thing sounds posher than fing.
I intend to continue the struggle but feel that it may be impossible to defeat 'whatever'.
I intend to continue the struggle but feel that it may be impossible to defeat 'whatever'.
The purpose of speech is to communicate, if somebody wants a small slice of cake then they need to successfully communicate this to the cake controller. If the cake controller understands that the diner wants a small slice and serves accordingly then that's job done. This can be communicated using many word combinations and some combinations may be rarer than others, what is the problem?
There seems to be very little point in complaining about words which get confused for no reason other than that they SOUND alike, but - if you must - pick on true barbarisms such as 'could of' instead of 'could've', the abbreviation of 'could have'.
Also nowadays, if broadcasters are to be believed, we have a month called Feb-yoo-ary and lots of people who are vun-ribble. King Cnut knew he had no prospect of turning back any such tide...you might as well get used to the idea, too.
Also nowadays, if broadcasters are to be believed, we have a month called Feb-yoo-ary and lots of people who are vun-ribble. King Cnut knew he had no prospect of turning back any such tide...you might as well get used to the idea, too.
> there is often a presumption that what sounds 'posher' is necessarily right,
This is particularly true of the increasing usage of reflexive pronouns in a business context, e.g. "Anything else for yourself today?"
The slither / sliver thing is surely nothing more than the inability of some speakers to pronounce the voiced dental fricative correctly, cf brother / bruvver.
This is particularly true of the increasing usage of reflexive pronouns in a business context, e.g. "Anything else for yourself today?"
The slither / sliver thing is surely nothing more than the inability of some speakers to pronounce the voiced dental fricative correctly, cf brother / bruvver.
MarkRae, you will not infrequently see slither in print instead of sliver, so people are not only saying it wrongly, they're writing it wrongly too. For instance, here are the results of a Google News search (so just picking up recent usage):
http://www.google.co....1&fp=acdf426d122b1dae
http://www.google.co....1&fp=acdf426d122b1dae
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