Diageo Posted December 5, 2011 Share Posted December 5, 2011 That's what I get for trusting people. Actually, I just remembered wrong I think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heroicjanitor Posted December 5, 2011 Share Posted December 5, 2011 This is a good example of something that you couldn't possibly know without researching, so I did a quick and dirty check. I searched the headwords of the Oxford English Dictionary for the following strings (where * is a wildcard ranging over strings of any length, including empty strings): *ie* = 5500 matches. *ei* = 2500 matches. So while we might expect some of these to be obsolete quirks or false positives, it looks fairly clear that you're wrong. And for a bit of fun: *cie* = 300 matches. *cei* = 181 matches. So "i before e except after c" doesn't really seem to work either... but then we knew that already, I guess. (it is, however, said to work better as "i before e except after c, when pronounced [i:]", although that'd be harder to verify, and probably wouldn't work for all dialects) That first search includes an awful lot of plurals, which shouldn't count. According to QI there are more exceptions to the rule than there are adherents (and not counting plurals I am pretty certain) And yes I am aware that QI is not an incredibly reliable source of information, but they can probably check something like this reliably. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diageo Posted December 5, 2011 Share Posted December 5, 2011 Yes it was him that told me about it, if you were wondering. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supergrunch Posted December 5, 2011 Share Posted December 5, 2011 (edited) That first search includes an awful lot of plurals, which shouldn't count. Plurals (or any inflected forms) aren't headwords. Although it depends what you mean by "count" - I don't see why spelling rules shouldn't extend to inflected forms, which could be a weakness of my approach. As for QI, I don't really trust anything they say as they give no references. It's supposed to be funny rather than accurate, and if we can't check these things, how do you think they manage? Edited December 5, 2011 by Supergrunch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heroicjanitor Posted December 5, 2011 Share Posted December 5, 2011 Plurals (or any inflected forms) aren't headwords. Although it depends what you mean by "count" - I don't see why spelling rules shouldn't extend to inflected forms, which could be a weakness of my approach. As for QI, I don't really trust anything they say as they give no references. It's supposed to be funny rather than accurate, and if we can't check these things, how do you think they manage? Jut because I'm not aware of their methods doesn't mean it can't be done :p Also I think it is probably similar to what you did, just with a more robust search tool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diageo Posted December 5, 2011 Share Posted December 5, 2011 I'm sure you could email QI and ask for their references. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supergrunch Posted December 5, 2011 Share Posted December 5, 2011 Jut because I'm not aware of their methods doesn't mean it can't be done :p Also I think it is probably similar to what you did, just with a more robust search tool. Well, they're presumably quoting someone else who did the searching, although as we saw there's no "ideal" way of doing it, so precise numbers are always going to be a little bit meaningless. I'm sure you could email QI and ask for their references. Hmm, I'm not so sure of that given they don't put any in their books, but maybe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bob Posted December 7, 2011 Share Posted December 7, 2011 I speak Danish and English fluently, and I know some German as well, though my vocabulary is lacking. I've studied Latin and Ancient Greek and gymnasium for three years, and at the moment I've almost finished my first semester of studying those languages at university. You speak fluent gymnasium?! You must teach me. I wish i'd continued learning German after GCSE, but alas i don't think i am a language person. I think some people are just better at languages than others. Some of my friends just pick up languages like bad smells, and then somehow manage to keep hold of all that knowledge. I on the other hand, struggle to learn any language and then forget it almost instantly. I did Welsh up to year 9, and then German for 5 years, and i barely remember much of either. They have just plopped out of my head like a used teabag hitting the bottom of an empty swing-bin liner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WiiUMarryMii Posted December 7, 2011 Share Posted December 7, 2011 Well I actually think most of us should learn to speak and read Chinese. How else we're going to understand our grandchildren when they all work for some China-based big arse corporation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MoogleViper Posted December 7, 2011 Share Posted December 7, 2011 Well I actually think most of us should learn to speak and read Chinese. How else we're going to understand our grandchildren when they all work for some China-based big arse corporation. Actually it will more than likely be our children who will work for the Chinese companies. By the time our grandchildren are of working age it's more likely that India will be the superpower. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WiiUMarryMii Posted December 7, 2011 Share Posted December 7, 2011 Actually it will more than likely be our children who will work for the Chinese companies. By the time our grandchildren are of working age it's more likely that India will be the superpower. India? I dunno... the way things are done down there it takes ages for anything to get done. They won't be a superpower for many, many decades. Its like in Russia... you have to spin around several times before things happen. So much red tape to deal with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MoogleViper Posted December 7, 2011 Share Posted December 7, 2011 Its like in Russia... you have to spin around several times before things happen. So much red tape to deal with. No you're thinking of dizzy dots. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EEVILMURRAY Posted December 8, 2011 Share Posted December 8, 2011 How else we're going to understand our grandchildren when they all work for some China-based big arse corporation. We teach their parents English so they'll teach their kids English. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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