Putting me out of my misery ...

[Tatsukun]

Well, I'm half British and an English teacher. But every time my dad goes on rants about American spellings I just remind him politely that British opinions used to be relevant for a lot of things…

As for how to say Coup De Grace, I think it doesn’t really matter how you say it, as long as you say it with "Outrageous Ennui" and your "tres sheik beret". Oh, and you have to be smoking at the time.



-T

 

[Desdichado]

Instead I choose one of the following:
(1) Pronounce it as if it were an English word based on my intuitive knowledge of how to translate spelling to pronunciation in English. (Which is often wrong even in English. )
(2) Pronounce it as I hear other English speakers pronounce it.
(3) If I suspect it is French, I only pronounce up to the vowel preceeding the last consonate cluster, as that seems a decent approximation to me.

Or,
(4) Look it up in a dictionary, since it's a reasonably common phrase in English as well.

 

[Desdichado]

Rampant miss-use of possessive apostrophes. For example, people keep putting PC's (belonging to a PC) when they mean PCs (plural of PC). Annoys the hell out of me.

It's not a "possessive" apostrophe, it's the correct way to pluralize an acronym. Although I rarely do it except when the Word style guide starts yelling at me with little green underlines.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

and "herb", because as Eddie Izzard so correctly states, it's got a <bleep> H in it.

Yeah, but so does "hour." And "honor." And many other words. (Note that I'm not expressing a pronunciation preference; just making an observation.)

BTW, Cam, good to see you around. It's been a long, long while.


Zachary Taylor Chance, Random-son

 

[RFisher]

But my favourite...still is... people who mispronouce: chimera.

I know I'm unable to pronounce that word the way the scholars tell me the ancient Greeks did. I have absolutely no control over whether I aspirate consonants or not.

 

[Desdichado]

If I'm reading the various comments correctly, it should rhyme with "the cow performs a 'moo the grass' on the high mirror."

More or less.

Except that drow was a perfectly legitimate word for a faerie, goblin or elf before E. Gary Gygax further defined it for D&D as our own lovable dark elves. And guess what? It's pronouned to rhyme with crow, not cow.

Just because Gygax said it that way doesn't mean it's right.

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

Just to throw in my two coppers: Yes and No.

while "Merci" translates as "Thanks".

uh.

Merci nom féminin
(latin merces, mercedis, salaire)
Litt. Demander merci : demander grâce.
- Dieu merci : grâce à Dieu, heureusement.
- Être à la merci de qqn, de qqch, à la discrétion de qqn ; soumis à l'influence de, à l'action de qqch.
- Sans merci : sans pitié.

AND

Merci nom masculin
Parole de remerciement. Vous pouvez lui dire un grand merci.

(c) Larousse.

AR

 

[Desdichado]

I know I'm unable to pronounce that word the way the scholars tell me the ancient Greeks did. I have absolutely no control over whether I aspirate consonants or not.

Despite its roots, chimera is still an English word with a correct English pronunciation.

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

As for how to say Coup De Grace, I think it doesn’t really matter how you say it, as long as you say it with "Outrageous Ennui" and your "tres sheik beret". Oh, and you have to be smoking at the time.



-T

lol

(it's "chic" beret. sheiks were djellabas )

AR

 

[Jeff Wilder]

It's not a "possessive" apostrophe, it's the correct way to pluralize an acronym.

No, it's not. Everything I can find, both online and in several style guides left over from undergrad (including MLA, APA, and Chicago) indicates that one pluralizes acronyms with just the "-s" ... no apostrophe. A couple sources do say, however, that if the acronym is typically written with periods, the "-'s" is acceptable.

E.g., "PCs," but either "Ph.D.s" or "Ph.D.'s."

Since "no apostrophe" is always correct, and "with apostrophe" is only correct in some cases, I'll go with the consistency and take my chances with hobgoblins.

If Word's grammar checker is telling you otherwise, Word's grammar checker is, as it often is, wrong. (That's not a slam on Word, BTW. Grammar checking is difficult, and it's not Microsoft's fault that a good human grammarian beats a computer at language use.)