this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2024
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[–] 1hitsong@lemmy.ml 6 points 10 months ago (4 children)

Biweekly.

It means twice a week.

Or, it means once every other week.

Good luck.

[–] blackstrat@lemmy.fwgx.uk 2 points 10 months ago

The fact that American English doesn't have the word 'fortnightly' is incredibly confusing on every level.

[–] ianonavy@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

I usually say “semiweekly” to mean twice per week. I also say “semimonthly” to mean twice per month (24 times per year) as opposed to “biweekly” (26 times per year).

[–] RBWells@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

Biweekly is every two weeks (fortnightly)

Semi-weekly is twice a week.

Same rule as bimonthly and semimonthly.

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[–] Adderbox76@lemmy.ca 6 points 10 months ago

British English - lieutenant is pronounced "Lef-tennant"

[–] Nemo@slrpnk.net 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

pulchritudinous

such an ugly word, yet it means "beautiful"

[–] gofsckyourself@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

It's so similar to "putrid"

[–] radix@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago (2 children)

queue

Most "Q" words are weird to start with, then just adding a bunch of silent vowels at the end doesn't make it any less so.

[–] radix@lemm.ee 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

It's a Q: a bunch of vowels are lined up behind it!

[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)
[–] radix@lemm.ee 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Thanks, stole it myself!

[–] tahoe@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Thank the French for this one

[–] tiredofsametab@fedia.io 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

oiseau -- for when consonants are overrated. (it means bird).

[–] SorteKanin@feddit.dk 1 points 10 months ago (2 children)
[–] Blisterexe@lemmy.zip 1 points 10 months ago
[–] tiredofsametab@fedia.io 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

You can toss it into google translate and listen to audio. It would probably be better than any attempted typing I can do here.

[–] MadBob@feddit.nl 1 points 10 months ago

Wiktionary has a lot of audio transcriptions too: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/oiseau

[–] Davel23@fedia.io 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I suppose technically it's Latin, but I've always been fascinated with "syzygy".

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[–] Corno@lemm.ee 3 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Gerrymandering sounds like some sort of magic class.

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[–] palordrolap@fedia.io 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Akimbo

It's an honest-to-goodness English word and not derived from French, Latin, Greek or anything else, like a lot of the words here. Yes, it looks like it might be from an African language, but it's a squashed form of "in keen bow" meaning "well bent" or "crooked".

[–] scroll_responsibly@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 10 months ago

I always assumed it was a loan word from Japanese. TIL.

[–] LemmySoloHer@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)
[–] kureta@lemmy.ml 1 points 10 months ago

This word makes me physically angry. Why b? Why not governatorial? It is from the same word. Government, governor, etc. I know hsitorically bs and vs change places a lot, beta in Greek is pronounced veta but just pick either v or b god damn it!

[–] PM_ME_WRISTS_GIRL@lemmynsfw.com 1 points 10 months ago

Albeit, caveat, awry, segue, haphazard, and facsimile are all pronounced weirdly and incorrectly for those who learned a lot of English by reading.

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 1 points 10 months ago

Awkward is spelled awkwardly.

[–] charonn0@startrek.website 1 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Be, is, are, was, am, were, being, been... are all the same word.

[–] ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Languages that conjugate every verb for every person:

[–] viralJ@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

"be" is an irregular verb in all languages, so it's not unique to English. Bonus fun fact: Russian doesn't have the verb "to be".

[–] kureta@lemmy.ml 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Not in Turkish. It is "olmak" but the actual "to be" as it is used in "I am, they were, etc." is, now unused "imek". it has become a suffix and it is completely regular. Just i + person suffix.

[–] Clepsydrae@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago (4 children)

"Though"

The first two letters don't sound like themselves, and the last three are silent. The word is 83% lies.

[–] AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

The word Through is just cheating at Scrabble

-Eddie Izzard

[–] chiliedogg@lemmy.world 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

It would be half-true if we hadn't gotten rid of a letter (the thorn, which made the"th" sound)

For a long time, they used the letter "Y" instead of "th".

That's how we have weird relationships with old English words like "You/Thou," and "The/Ye."

[–] CoggyMcFee@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

“You” and “thou” come from different roots. They are not simply different orthographies like “ye” and “the”.

https://www.etymonline.com/word/thou

https://www.etymonline.com/word/you

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[–] son_named_bort@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Colonel. Why is it pronounced like kernal?

[–] kureta@lemmy.ml 1 points 10 months ago

Let me introduce you to the British pronunciation of the word "lieutenant".

lieutenant (UK: /lɛfˈtɛnənt/ lef-TEN-ənt)

[–] angstylittlecatboy@reddthat.com 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

"Cwm"

One of a few words that use W as a vowel. (This is how the word "Pwn" works too)

[–] OldWoodFrame@lemm.ee 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

A Welshman about to traverse a steep-sided hollow at the head of a valley: "Oh baby I'm gonna cwm!"

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[–] RizzRustbolt@lemmy.world 0 points 10 months ago (2 children)
[–] GiddyGap@lemm.ee 1 points 10 months ago

Trump, that you?

[–] Interstellar_1@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 10 months ago

That's a word?

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