Assume v. Presume

Black Hole said:
Practice v. Practise.
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Thanks very much! I thought I understood the usage - now I'm just confused. :confused:
* - If "skill" is a noun, it seems reasonable that it should be practice.
** - any search I do on "practise ground" returns "practice ground" results at the top. You might use doctor's practice to refer to the surgery. Is it a similar thought process that calls that tatty field a practice ground?
 
Black Hole said:
Practice v. Practise.

The former is the noun, and the latter the verb - but in some cases I have trouble working out which is appropriate. One goes to practise one's football skills at a club practice. Playing football at the top level requires skill and practice*, and we train at the practise** ground.

* I'm pretty sure this should be a noun

** adjective! I suppose this should be "practising", but the -ing seems to be dropped these days... so is s or c appropriate???
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** or is that a pronoun?
 
Well I never. And there was me thinking that meaning of til/till was a lazy (or wrong) abbreviation of until. :oops:
 
"Car ploughs into Southampton building as driver rushed to hospital"
(Southampton Daily Echo)
I can think of two ways that headline could be correct, but of course the story under it reveals that the driver was taken to hospital after he crashed into a building.
 
MikeSh said:
"Car ploughs into Southampton building as driver rushed to hospital"
(Southampton Daily Echo)
I can think of two ways that headline could be correct, but of course the story under it reveals that the driver was taken to hospital after he crashed into a building.
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But was he rushing himself to the hospital when he crashed?
 
EEPhil said:
But was he rushing himself to the hospital when he crashed?
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So his rushing to the hospital resulted in him being rushed to the hospital? Possible ... as is "He parked on a hill near the hospital, got out and rushed to the hospital but forgot to set the handbrake."
But the article only says:
"Residents of the building on Bitterne Road West were given a rude awakening when the car smashed through a wall and into a downstairs flat in the early hours of yesterday morning.
Destroying half of the wall, bricks were sent flying through the air, smashing a window of the house next door and breaking a fence just before 4am.
The 25-year-old driver had to be rushed to hospital for treatment and the road closed after the incident that left residents ‘shocked’."

I do like the possibility that the car might have crashed at 2am but the bricks only arrived at the fence later. (Apparently the road was reopened at 4:30 after all the debris had been cleared - quick work.)
I'm also intrigued by the residents being 'shocked' rather than shocked. :confused:
 
I think that they parenthesised shocked to indicate that the residents were in a state of shock, but not really as shock is a medical thing. Surprised perhaps, but shocked, no, other than the possibility of the person inside the flat, where shock could have been a possibility.
 
Parenthesised? Quoted. The quotes simply imply that somebody said they were shocked rather than the reporter's own judgement.
 
MikeSh said:
So his rushing to the hospital resulted in him being rushed to the hospital?
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It's possible. Ambulances have been known to be rushing somewhere, have an accident, and then the paramedics/patients require transport to hospital. The man could have been rushing his pregnant wife to hospital, have a smash, and then get a lift in one of those green and yellow buses. (Not the ones with Morrisons on the side!)
 
Trev said:
I think that they parenthesised shocked to indicate that the residents were in a state of shock, but not really as shock is a medical thing. Surprised perhaps, but shocked, no, other than the possibility of the person inside the flat, where shock could have been a possibility.
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I have a work colleague who persists in using the term 'shocked' when another word such as 'surprised' would be more appropriate.
 
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