Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

"Limit should be 2 childs." from Shadow minister.

Malone

It was nice to see "Witness for the Prosecution" on TV again on Saturday. All those murderesses and burglaresses. I was hoping Charles Laughton would mention jigjag's lovely battereress, but sadly not.

Do you say an hotel or a hotel?

Grunger, I missed your comment last week - and missed 'Witness for the Prosecution' too. Maybe if we use 'batteress' often enough, it'll make it into one of those 'Words of the year' awards.

Swarbrules, I've never liked saying 'an hotel', even though I was told that was correct. It always sounds rather contrived to me, and 'a hotel' sounds clunky. I tend to work round it - 'Are you staying in a nearby hotel?' rather than 'Are you staying in a/an hotel?'

At the weekend, there were several crossword clues which annoyed (not aggravated) me...

Coveted category, by the sound of it? (6)

Serves drinks for audience in interval (5).

Definitely a hotel in Standard English. If the h is sounded as in house, hotel, hovel etc. then it's 'a' not 'an'. Just had to look up that the h sound is a glottal fricative. Conversely it would be an hour, an honest person etc.

Don't know what Cockneys do about it.

This should make the 'haitch' brigade think again. A haitch? Try an aitch.

I was once at a quiz where one of the questions was "what animal lives in ay 'olt?" The answer was "ay hotter lives in ay 'olt".

Malone

I like your way of avoiding the problem. I would probably say a hotel, but as I dont use them, I dont have to worry about it.

My problem is with plural of animals e.g. mongoose or hippopotamus. And why do animal people talk about a herd of elephant or zebra? Whats wrong with elephants and zebras? We dont talk about a herd of cow.

Thanks, grunger. I like avoiding problems - linguistic and otherwise!

For plurals, I'm quite happy to stick an 's' (a s?) on most words, though it occasionally has to be 'es', for words such as 'hippopotamus'. I've never liked 'hippopotami' or 'stadia' or 'crania', those always sound too affected. By the same token, I never told my children to say 'To whom are you talking?' - I could imagine the reception that would've got from nine- and ten-year-old boys in the playground.

malone

Yes, adding an s must be right generally. Some people have problems with the singular though. My boss asked the staff once "Has anyone got a scissor?"
I replied helpfully that I had a pair of them. He seemed most put out when I handed him one object. I didnt stay there long.
Another man asked me what style of "jean" I liked. I cant remember my reply, but I dont suppose it was humorous.

Swarbrules, this is a fine place for your comment - the thread features moans (and whinges and the occasional rant) about all sorts of things.

Your GBO also affects some of my chosen programmes. 'Surgeons: Your Life In Their Hands' (and similar) - 'This programme contains scenes of surgery which some viewers might find upsetting'.