Assume v. Presume

Richard Hammond (Big, at the Volkswagen factory) spoke about the "rail station" and the "railway station", but not "train station". Deep joy. (Amazing factory)
 
Interesting one, that. I can't find a reliable way of locating either in Google Maps. I get all the tram stops too, in Sheffield.

Ah, you aren't going to like it. Railroad Station finds them.
 
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It was always the railway station to me. Even British Rail, not British Trains. What about you?
 
The other day an historian presenting from a train on a preserved railway told the camera that "In [yyyy] a six coach locomotive left .... ". :rolleyes:
Disappointing.
 
prpr said:
I always hate that, regardless of whether it's considered correct or not.
It tends to lead to sloppy sounding speech i.e. an 'istorian.
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I suspect the h is supposed to be silent, so "'istorian" is correct rather than a case of a dropped h*.

Originally (or so I am lead to believe by the likes of QI), what we now know of an an orange was "a norange".

* I have been contemplating that (say) the Greek letters have specific names used in English, with clear phonetic spellings (alpha, beta, gamma...) which cannot represent their pronunciation when used to form a word, while the English alphabet appears not to.

This isn't just a gap in my post-formal education, I have come across "aitch" as the spelling for the letter h, but that does not appear in even the old dictionaries I have to hand. I did a spot check on Greek letters, and alpha and beta are listed but upsilon is not.
 
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prpr said:
I always hate that, regardless of whether it's considered correct or not.
It tends to lead to sloppy sounding speech i.e. an 'istorian.
Click to expand...

Black Hole said:
I suspect the h is supposed to be silent, so "'istorian" is correct rather than a case of a dropped h*.
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This is one of those things where I don't care that the h is supposed to be silent. Like prpr I hate it. I cringed in an episode of Inspector Morse where he referred to an 'otel.
 
Black Hole said:
I suspect the h is supposed to be silent, so "'istorian" is correct
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Huh. I've never thought of that. From my schoolboy French I think they pronounce hotel (with the hat on the 'o') as "otel", so it could be valid. (In fact IIRC they drop the h in writing sometimes, as in "d'otel" - or is that my imagination?)

I actually find it easier to say "an historian/hotel/whatever", without dropping the h, than prefixing with only "a". By now it's hard coded into my brain wiring.
So as I was taught to use "an" I still do.
Hate away prpr :)
 
Or perhaps only some initial aitches are supposed to be silent, and it's only the silent ones which should be "an"?

Either way, I regard either "a hotel" or "an 'otel" as acceptable, but "an hotel" is clearly ridiculous if we assume the purpose of mutating the indefinite article is for pronunciation - much the way Welsh mutates the beginnings of words to sound better according to what precedes them (and makes it bloody difficult to use a Welsh dictionary).
 
One thin I am findin irritatin is Pritti Patel's silent gs all the time, whatever she says.
 
Black Hole said:
Or perhaps only some initial aitches are supposed to be silent, and it's only the silent ones which should be "an"?

Either way, I regard either "a hotel" or "an 'otel" as acceptable, but "an hotel" is clearly ridiculous if we assume the purpose of mutating the indefinite article is for pronunciation - much the way Welsh mutates the beginnings of words to sound better according to what precedes them (and makes it bloody difficult to use a Welsh dictionary).
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I agree, apart from an 'otel, which sounds slovenly to me.

I don't think we can fall back on istorical precedents to justify 'merkins saying urb for herb. If we do, then squirrels will have to eat hnuts!
 
Scrat said:
One thin I am findin irritatin is Pritti Patel's silent gs all the time, whatever she says.
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I hadn't noticed. Mainly because I turn the sound down when she's babbling away! From your description it sounds like a common problem that has been going on for years. I remember a rather old British film where some copper was announcing on the radio that the suspect was carryin' a bag.
Scrat said:
'merkins saying urb for herb.
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Why would a pubic wig be talking?
 
Scrat said:
I don't think we can fall back on istorical precedents to justify 'merkins saying urb for herb.
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It doesn't matter what 'merkins say, that's a different language. We know they don't spell aluminium properly, but even spelled properly they don't pronounce solder right.
 
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