Assume v. Presume

[everthewatcher]

I need a mnemonic for when to spell "breach" or "breech". Any suggestions? Kudos points on offer.

Simple enough - one's breech is the buttocks which are plural and breech has two e's.

 

[EEPhil]

For the other spelling I thought:

Breaking regulations ends all Covid hospitality. Take note Boris!

 

[Black Hole]

Geez. No wonder English is considered hard.

Breech
Breach
Break
Brake
Minute (small) vs. Minute (60 seconds)
Lemonade
Roulade (okay, so that's French)
Reed
Read
Lead
Led
Head
...

 

[everthewatcher]

Off the top of my head:
Bought
Cough
Hiccough
Plough
Rough
Though
Through

Then there's slough

 

[prpr]

Leicester, Cirencester, Leominster and loads more... oh I thought you were talking about Slough, but maybe not.

 

[gomezz]

A breach in your breeches?

 

[MikeSh]

breech/breach birth?

 

[Black Hole]

breech/breach birth?

It's a breech birth - when the rump comes out first. So a whale can breach and breech at the same time.

 

[EEPhil]

Following on from the lists of words with difficult spellings - years ago an Algerian colleague forwarded an email with a rhyme describing how "English is tough stuff". It's long so I've appended it as a text file.

 

[EEPhil]

Breaking regulations ends all Covid hospitality.

(In poor taste...) Backdoor rectal examination enables cancer help.
Emphasis obviously on the back/bottom area for that spelling.

 

[Luke]

Following on from the lists of words with difficult spellings - years ago an Algerian colleague forwarded an email with a rhyme describing how "English is tough stuff". It's long so I've appended it as a text file.

A longer version, and some history, is listed at http://ncf.idallen.com/english.html

 

[EEPhil]

A longer version, and some history, is listed at http://ncf.idallen.com/english.html

I didn’t know where this had come from - only that a group of Algerian PhD students were passing it around in Nottingham University in 1991. Back in those days google didn’t exist so I didn’t look it up. When i saw the lists of words (a few posts back) i remembered the old email. Nice to find the origin.

 

[Black Hole]

Still copy's it to the trash.

 

[prpr]

Grocer's arent quite dead yet.

 

[Black Hole]

That's not a Grocer's Apostrophe though, at least not by my definition. A Grocer's Apostrophe would be where the possessive has been used as a plural, but the above has used the possessive as the third person present tense.

 

[gomezz]

Back in those days google didn’t exist

But Archie did.

 

[prpr]

Careful what you say. Somebody might try and copyright it.
There was also Gopher of course. Not Gordon, but I did work with him/it once.

 

[prpr]

A Grocer's Apostrophe would be where the possessive has been used as a plural, but the above has used the possessive as the third person present tense.

Most grocers wouldn't have a clue what you was on about.

 

[Black Hole]

Hodges was common

 

[tim1882]

Interesting discussion, thanks. I too tend towards the pedantic with my written language ('phone anyone?). Now if we can just get people to sort out less/fewer!

Should that be "'phone" anyone?

Or as I'm quoting you (and now quoting myself) I should say "Should that be " "'phone" anyone?"?"