Assume v. Presume

Mike0001 said:
The dog section should be adjacent to the Chinese food section.
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Near to Morrisons is a vets. Next door to the vet, a Chinese takeaway. Needless to say, I've not bought any food there.

Polish section: There used to be two of these in Morrisons. One aimed at visitors from Poland; the other for shining shoes.
 
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XKCD strikes again:
mispronunciation.png


Page link (if you want the mouseover text): https://xkcd.com/1816/
 
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"200,000 fewer tonnes of sugar by 2020"
(Headline announcement by Public Health England for a target reduction in annual sugar consumption.)

I don't think that reads correctly. 200,000 tonnes less? Clumsy. "200,000 tonnes reduction in sugar (consumption) by 2020".

Ten out of ten for realising it should be "fewer" rather than "less" when counting things, minus several million for thinking units of measurement are things!
 
It depends whether you drop you aitches. "An" forces the pronunciation "'istoric".

Is it "an L.E.D." or "a LED"? What you write shows how you say it.
 
I was taught by expensive private schools that it is 'an' before 'h', so 'an historic', 'an hotel', etc.
I agree with other Mike, it's 'an el-ee-dee', not 'a led'.
 
MikeSh said:
I was taught by expensive private schools that it is 'an' before 'h', so 'an historic', 'an hotel', etc.
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But that's when the toffs say "istoric" - it's the only way that works. The same toffs say "med'cine". Instead of mutating word endings to make things sound better, the Welsh language mutates the beginnings of words. It's a bugger looking them up in a dictionary.

MikeSh said:
I agree with other Mike, it's 'an el-ee-dee', not 'a led'.
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Personal preference.
 
LED elephant, surely?

She packed her bags and said goodbye to the Circus.
 
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Black Hole said:
But that's when the toffs say "istoric" - it's the only way that works.
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Can't say I've noticed toffs dropping hs, but then again I haven't paid much attention to any toffs for a long time.
In conversation I'm sure I say, eg, "... just book a hotel" but I think afterward that I was wrong; and I always write 'an'. But I'm odd ... I still use the indicators on the car to help other people.
 
Now that raises something I've often wondered (though I'm sure someone will point to it somewhere in this 150+ page thread).
Afterwards or afterward?
 
MikeSh said:
Can't say I've noticed toffs dropping hs, but then again I haven't paid much attention to any toffs for a long time.
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Not even a toff, but I do remember cringing when I heard John Thaw as Inspector Morose refer to "an 'otel".
I'm not sure about afterward(s). Probably depends on the context.
 
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