Other Issues and Workarounds (Not the App)

This feels really evil and pernickety, but for the Southern course in Levels 1, Challenges 1 and 4 the vocab lists say that ‘ymarfer’ means ‘to practice’, but it actually means ‘to practise’, as ‘practice’ is a noun, and ‘practise’ is a verb.

Could someone please change that? (If it’s easy, don’t worry if it takes a lot of effort.)
Thanks!
(And sorry for being such a hide-bound pedant.)

My local butcher would like to advice all their customers they are under new ownership.

Apparently this was done on purpose, no doubt because of the little known correlation between picky spellers and pork pie consumption. Perhaps there’s a similar plan going on here…

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Well, I am a vegetarian …

To be perfectly honest, I would never have noticed the difference myself. In this course, we’re not initially concerned with grammar when learning to speak Welsh (although many of us take to studying Welsh grammar after we’ve learned enough Welsh here). But after nearly 39 years of being an English speaker, I still struggle to fully comprehend proper English grammar!

That said, Practice and Practise both mean pretty much the same thing however they’re used. Unlike words like Patience and Patients, which have completely different meanings!

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Oh, good catch. That particular mental block seems to creep up on me when I’ve been typing in Welsh previously, for some odd reason…:slight_smile:

And fixed… diolch yn fawr!

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Diolch yn fawr Aran! :relaxed:

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On the contrary - diolch i ti, Nienor! :slight_smile:

I still have trouble with this after, er, a lot of years. Similarly license and licence, and then trying to remember if its the same or different for American English.

(And to think, I used to think I was a good speller, years ago. Years of typing with spell-checkers put paid to that little illusion…).

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I was totally confused by this question at first…

…because I am American, and it’s all “practice” or “license” here! No difference in spelling between nouns and verbs! :slight_smile:

So now I’ve learned something, because I thought “practise” would be the British spelling for both :slight_smile:

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For would be pedants - my mnemonic , learned some 65 years ago, c comes before s in the alphabet, so c for a noun and s for a verb, as n comes before v in the alphabet. Actually easier to remember and apply than explain!

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Then there is “device” and “devise”…although that slightly runs into conflict with the old regional joke:

(to be read with a heavy fake West of england accent…)
“There be lots of potatoes in Wiltshire
But there baint no Devizes fer Chippenham…”

:slight_smile:

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Mine has always been advice - advise where you can hear the difference.

Applies not only to practice - practise, licence - license, defence but also to prophecy - prophesy where the final vowel sound changes but the preceding consonant sounds the same in both words.

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Not sure if “defence” belong in this list does it?

(And I’m not sure if “defense” exists in modern British English - even if etymologically, it’s as logical as “defence”, at least going by this:

Origin
Middle English: from Old French defens, from late Latin defensum (neuter), defensa (feminine), past participles of defendere ‘defend’.

So both Latin and Old French would suggest the “s” spelling).

Just to add a complication. The modern French word “défendre” can also mean “to forbid” :confused:

It doesn’t have an associated verb with -s-, but in my mind it belongs in that list to remind me/others that the UK spelling is with -c- “because it’s a noun” (like “advice”).

Also, if you follow Latin for spelling, then you’d be using -ize, which I don’t either :slight_smile:

Though there, both -ise and -ize are UK usage, even though some think that “US = -ize, UK = -ise only”.