[speaksfromexperience]Unless you have a hitherto unnoticed topical sensitivity to honey...[/speaksfromexperience] ;p


@ Foots: owwwww! Just, fucking owww. Hope it feels bettersoon m'dear. I am genuinely sorry about your finger.

Burnt, not burned?
If I was still teaching a phonics class I'd have to check whether the useage was correct.

But I'm not. I'm burnt.
Does anyone know of a vacancy for a TA?
Good refs from parents. Willing to relocate.

If I were teaching an English course I would say that, generally, Brits say burnt, and smelt, and whilst, and learnt, while Americans say burned, smelled, while, and learned. ;)

At least I thought so. I think foot has been influenced by all the British Telly he's been watching.

I burned the lasagne - the lasagna was burnt. I think. Though spoken usage is slightly different to written in many areas.


[eta] just googled and apparently in British English they are used more or less interchangeably :P Which actually fits..when I think about it.

Yeah, you're right about burned/burnt. I might say I burned my hand but the toast at breakfast was burnt.

But you don't hear smelt or whilst or learnt around here, much.

They don't teach grammar to kids around here any more. My eldest is taking Spanish, and the Spanish teacher is teaching them English grammar first so she can explain the Spanish grammar. But she's forbidden to teach English grammar, so she does it on the sly.

Now, you see, my phonics class consists of a set number of children.
So I believe was is correct.

Can't speak about the rest of it though.
They assigned me to Grade 6.
I can easily understand the spelling, but not necessarily the rule which makes it corect

I think Infi was pointing out 'were' used as a subjunctive. If I were to teach this blah blah, rather than If I was to teach this.

Except that I don't think the use of 'was' in that way is considered incorrect these days. Very much a dialect thing. Personally I skip about with it. Use both forms.

Sometimes it sounds so awkward to use 'were' I go ahead and use 'was.' Usually though I use 'were' if for no other reason is it makes me feel smart inside and people think I'm stupid for using 'were' which you only use with, like, 'we.'

It's like when someone asks how you are. I say 'I'm good, thanks, and you?' Whereas I know a lot of my educated cow orkers would say 'I'm doing well, thank you...' which I think just sounds pretentious.

However, my sources show either is OK.

It may be from my mom that I say burnt. I've said it as long as I can remember. As in, burnt to a crisp.

I don't do the others, whilst, amidst, that often.

http://grammarist.com/usage/burned-burnt/

I remember my ex bf the Swede from Minnie Soda saying 'smelt' and it drove me bonkers! What are you, fusing ores?

And he and his friend thought it was heeelarious that I would say "I have to stop by the grocery."

The grocery what? all snide and Yon Yonson sounding.

The grocery store...the fucking grocery STORE, OK?

:lol:

My Mum would sat "Burnt to buggery."
But in her (slight) London/ Essex accent it could have been "burned".

English language - written - is a minefield.
Spoken only slightly less so; there's no record for other people to check.

The children I used to teach would say things in phonics that they had already grown out of IRL. When learning -ed as a suffix for example, "I hurted my knee."

I dont care how you spell it. I'm not sorry about ur finger.

What, the one sticking up? :p:

Up what?