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.
 
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.
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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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.

I suspect the h is supposed to be silent, so "'istorian" is correct rather than a case of a dropped h*.
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.
 
I suspect the h is supposed to be silent, so "'istorian" is correct
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.
 
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).
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!
 
One thin I am findin irritatin is Pritti Patel's silent gs all the time, whatever she says.
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.
'merkins saying urb for herb.
Why would a pubic wig be talking?
 
I don't think we can fall back on istorical precedents to justify 'merkins saying urb for herb.
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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