this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2024
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[–] 1hitsong@lemmy.ml 6 points 2 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 2 months ago

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

[–] ianonavy@lemmy.world 1 points 2 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 2 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 2 months ago

British English - lieutenant is pronounced "Lef-tennant"

[–] Nemo@slrpnk.net 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

pulchritudinous

such an ugly word, yet it means "beautiful"

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

It's so similar to "putrid"

[–] radix@lemmy.world 3 points 2 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 2 months ago (1 children)

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

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

Thanks, stole it myself!

[–] tahoe@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Thank the French for this one

[–] tiredofsametab@fedia.io 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

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

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

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

[–] Davel23@fedia.io 3 points 2 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 2 months ago (2 children)

Gerrymandering sounds like some sort of magic class.

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[–] palordrolap@fedia.io 2 points 2 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 2 months ago

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

[–] LemmySoloHer@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] kureta@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 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 2 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 2 months ago

Awkward is spelled awkwardly.

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

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

[–] ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Languages that conjugate every verb for every person:

[–] viralJ@lemmy.world 1 points 2 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 2 months ago* (last edited 2 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 2 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 2 months ago

The word Through is just cheating at Scrabble

-Eddie Izzard

[–] chiliedogg@lemmy.world 0 points 2 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 2 months ago* (last edited 2 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 2 months ago (1 children)

Colonel. Why is it pronounced like kernal?

[–] kureta@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 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 2 months ago* (last edited 2 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 2 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 2 months ago (2 children)
[–] GiddyGap@lemm.ee 1 points 2 months ago

Trump, that you?

[–] Interstellar_1@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 2 months ago

That's a word?

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