Off of

We don't say an 'ospital, so it doesn't apply to most things of French origin. I've always found it an odd quirk and don't like to hear it. Just as I don't say five and twenty past / to. I wonder where that comes from ?

I wonder where these strange ' rules' came from in the first place?

Unless you're American and then no rules apply!

Or 'a hotel' .....

It ought to be 'an hotel' .........

Yes Eirel, it's like an otel. I've never understood why.

It seems that upper crust Americans say 'erbs for mint , parsley et al.

Why does an istorian ring a faint bell? Maybe I imagined that one!

Always taught . Sorry

Anya we were ways taught it was correct to say ' an ' otel' . Don' t know why.

Belini I hate it when people drop their aitches to try to sound 'posh' and change the indefinite article to 'an' ....as in 'an 'otel'

Or dropping their aitches. .

My pet hates are, people dropping there aitches at the start of a word, and not pronouncing there r's. My cah 'ad a puncture, instead of my car had a puncture. Mainly done in England.

Preductive text these days is very different from the old T9 method we had on phones. It's much smarter in predicting a range of potential words, so easier to use but you do have to watch which word is the app's preferred option. It's easy to miss the preferred word when you're tapping away.

Ha ha. I'm one too, but then I think others can probably compute, do complicated mental arithmetic, or can indeed understand maths, which I can't so I'm a bit forgiving. Sometimes

then, not them - serves me right!

Lots of inaccuracies are not unusual (such as it's for its, your for you're etc.). Doesn't excuse them IMO - but them I am an ultra-pedant where such matters are concerned!

Text

Well it probably isn't predictive test but it's, well, not unusual, although of course the pronunciation is different.

You may be right, Bellanonna. I only post from my PC so I wouldn't know about predictive text (although I would certainly turn it off if I had it on any sort of device!)

Ok, true. But it happens. Often

How can it be? They are two words with completely different meanings...

anno and ana. Predictive text - hopefully ?

Bellanonna I say 'driving licence' and I promise I will never say 'driver's licence'.

I say 'train station' and have often heard 'railway station', but lots of people just say 'station' now though and I say that more often than 'train station'. It all depends on the situation. I use 'coach station' and 'bus station' because I travel by coach a few times a year, but unless I need to make it clear I'm talking about the train station or the coach station, I just say 'station'. Waffle over!

anno, yes, I despair...

I spent my childhood in Wales and still use some of the dialect words Cwtch( cuddle) , daps( plimsolls) ganzy ( cardigan) to name but a few.. My daughter has just moved back there so had a head start when talking to people.Dialect is lovely, sloppy speech and grammar is not.