Assume v. Presume

[EEPhil]

It's like cabinet reshuffles.

If only. There's some deadwood in the current cabinet that wants shuffling about.

 

[Trev]

It seems that some of them are not even useful idiots.

 

[EEPhil]

No partying here. Tier 3 lockdown in 13 hours 2 minutes time.

As you were. Some of the deadwood have postponed tier 3 for the city and 3 boroughs so that the whole of Notts can go into lockdown on Friday at 00:01.
Party time! Just don't let those that organise the tier structure anywhere near it. You know what they can't organise!

 

[Black Hole]

There's an episode of Tenable on this afternoon where one of the questions was "The first 10 5-letter words (alphabetically) ending -ASH"... but the list of answers started with AWASH not ABASH.

Their list was:

AWASH
BRASH
CLASH
CRASH
FLASH
GNASH
LEASH
QUASH
SLASH
SMASH

Tsk.

 

[Black Hole]

In any case, it's not about the exact practises of the time - what matters is the number of people doing them (ie population explosion).

BH making a mistake? Surely not!

Que?

Practise is the verb, practice is the noun.

I agree. That doesn't mean I've made a mistake.

The Humpty Dumpty defence?

This raises an interesting point, and no doubt one we've already discussed (but I don't remember the answer): can a verb be pluralised? I deliberately chose "practises", because I meant multiple actions.

 

[everthewatcher]

You put the definite article in front of it so surely it's a noun?

 

[Black Hole]

So, the "practise of discarding waste plastic" isn't a noun, and the "practise of leaving the lights on" isn't a noun, but the "practises of discarding waste plastic and leaving the lights on" should be? It's a lot easier in American.

 

[Deleted member 473]

can a verb be pluralised?

Of course!

Some verbs!

 

[everthewatcher]

So, the "practise of discarding waste plastic" isn't a noun, and the "practise of leaving the lights on" isn't a noun, but the "practises of discarding waste plastic and leaving the lights on" should be? It's a lot easier in American.

All the examples are nouns and should be spelt with a 'c'.

 

[Deleted member 473]

I always get those mixed up too.

 

[everthewatcher]

I always get those mixed up too.

Easy to remember. Verbs end in 'ise' or 'ize', e.g. criticise.

 

[Black Hole]

Hmm. OK, I think the problem is I was never educated in English syntax (being the product of the liberal sixties) - I find adverbs, pronouns, etc confusing (and it's not easy to look up - I tried).

 

[gomezz]

Easy to remember. Verbs end in 'ise' or 'ize', e.g. criticise.

When it comes to chopping up onions do you dice or dise?

 

[Deleted member 473]

Easy to remember. Verbs end in 'ise' or 'ize', e.g. criticise.

Well, you say it is easy to remember

 

[Deleted member 473]

When it comes to chopping up onions do you dice or dise?

Off to ize the xmas cake...after spising it. Rejoise, everybody, I made it myself so it would not be overprised.

Now to servise the car.,

 

[EEPhil]

Hmm. OK, I think the problem is I was never educated in English syntax (being the product of the liberal sixties) - I find adverbs, pronouns, etc confusing (and it's not easy to look up - I tried).

I'd endorse that. But I find it even more confusing. I was a product of that experiment the "initial teaching alphabet". So that's mucked up my spelling a bit, but not to Mike2's standard.

 

[everthewatcher]

When it comes to chopping up onions do you dice or dise?

I just chop them finely or coarsely as required.

 

[everthewatcher]

Hmm. OK, I think the problem is I was never educated in English syntax (being the product of the liberal sixties) - I find adverbs, pronouns, etc confusing (and it's not easy to look up - I tried).

We had fun discussing this in another forum (CIX) and here's the most comprehensive response. [Edit: Reproduced here by permission.]

In the phrase "the <anything>", <anything> can only be noun or a gerund - "the <verb>" is not a known grammatical construct. So "practise" preceded by "the" must be a noun (and so should be "the practice").

In any case "<verb> of" is not a grammatical construct I recognise - "of" must be preceded by a noun. Thus in the phrase "practise of", "practise" must be a noun (and so should be "practice").

There are therefore two compelling reasons why in the phrase "the practise of" we are looking at a noun and not a verb (and so it should be "practice").

Having established that we are dealing with a noun and not a verb then there is no problem with using the plural - "practices" (but not "practises" as they have used, which is the only third person singular form of the verb "to practise".

(I assume throughout, of course, the convention that "practise" is a verb, and "practice" a noun; I suppose this might be considered pedantic these days - but even if one accepts that spellings are a little more fluid these days than in my youth, that does not and cannot change where the word is a noun and where it is a verb, and your interlocutor simply doesn't know his grammar. All IMHO, of course. )

 

[MikeSh]

When it comes to chopping up onions do you dice or dise?

I've never had an onion that could be cut into small cubes - it always ends up as arcs.
(Exception if you go down to the millimetre level, but it's more like slush then.)

 

[Black Hole]

Excellent. To which my response is: what the **** is a gerund?

that's mucked up my spelling a bit

I couldn't spell until I was well into my 20's and started taking more interest. Spelling is easy to look up.