1 space or 2 after a full stop?

[Stokey Sue Profile]

I use a Larousse compact French dictionary - not a translating dictionary one aimed at French people

According to this canapé in French means 1 a sofa or 2 the small piece of bread, usually fried in butter, on which a morsel of food is placed so we’ve only broadened the meaning to include all such morsels

Etiquette I actually knew but Larousse confirms that as well as the primary meaning of a small label an etiquette is the card or thing on which the order and details of a ceremony or formal event are inscribed - like an order of service or a programme - and again we’ve just broadened it to mean any rules of formal behaviour

The French of course have pinched a lot of English - Le weekend, Le five o’clock, les baked beans etc but when I worked in a shop a Frenchwoman once asked what was the English for cardigan I replied that it is cardigan, as that is a place in Wales, to which she said no it can’t be (conversation in French). To be fair her friend found her very silly.

[Renee Profile]

I used to enjoy reading Larousse, but it went to charity in the end. I can remember Nigel Slater saying that it would make a good door stopper!

[Sakkarin Profile]

I think Stokey means the dictionary, not the cookbook, Renee!

[aero280 Profile]

Etikette is the German for label as well.


The French government had a Minister of Culture who was in charge of the French language use. He headed a group that invented words for new things. They came up with "ordinateur" for a computer, etc. They also campaigned against the use of foreign words in French, and actually banned the use in official documents.

At one time the minister was a M. Jacques Toubon. The French called him "Mister Allgood"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toubon_Law

[Stokey Sue Profile]

I have a Larousse Gastronomique as well - Larousse is just a publisher that puts its own name in the title, like the Oxford Dictionary.

I was rather annoyed when I found that the English language version is not a simple translation of the French Larousse Gastronomique but an English version overhauled by a committee of British foodies, as I’d specifically bought it as an accurate reference on French food.

[karadekoolaid Profile]

Remember that the French conquered Britain in 1066 and that French became the language of the upper classes for the next 450 -odd years. That´s probably why we´ve got so many French words in English.
Two that really bug me, however, are gauche and adroit.
Gauche means tactless, socially awkward.
Adroit means skilful.
So what´s wrong with being left-handed, eh?

[smitch Profile]

I believe left handedness used to be associated with clumsiness, bad luck and evil. I know my grandad (born 1921) was forced to use his right hand at school.

[aero280 Profile]

Left handedness is also sinister.

[Grasshopper Profile]

I only use one space. On my phone, one space after the full stop automatically changes the next letter to a capital one.

Same thing happens on my phone. But when I'm doing word processing on my computer - it is ALWAYS 2 spaces after the FS.


Grasshopper

[Stokey Sue Profile]

Left handedness is also sinister.

I believe left handedness used to be associated with clumsiness, bad luck and evil. I know my grandad (born 1921) was forced to use his right hand at school.

Yup, my mum, vintage 1920, was naturally left handed, and forced to be right handed

It made her clumsy, wrecked her confidence, and rendered her handwriting unreadable, even to herself

Bizarrely she could knit like a pro (though I often did the sewing up), cook well (but from the age of 7 or 8 I did the decoration) and won the practical dispensing prize every one of her 3 years at pharmacy school

[karadekoolaid Profile]

Left handedness is also sinister.

Correct! And right-handed is dextrous.
Beethoven, Chopin, Rachmaninoff were left-handed.
Glenn Gould and Martha Argerich - left-handed.
And of course, Derek Underwood and Gary Sobers!!

[Rainbow Profile]

I believe left handedness used to be associated with clumsiness, bad luck and evil. I know my grandad (born 1921) was forced to use his right hand at school.

An aunt of mine (father's sister) was left handed and made to write with her right hand at her Catholic boarding school!! She was ambidextrous after that, but I never understood what was so bad about being left handed - although our language does make it sound sinister/evil

[Stokey Sue Profile]

I remember someone on the BBC board smugly announcing that she had “corrected” someone at a wedding breakfast for being “rude” for eating with her knife and fork reversed


I checked - she was much younger than me, and had had eaten school dinners

When I was at school almost 20 years ahead of her there were 1 or 2 people in each class who were lefties, and we all had a go at doing it the “unnatural”way round. I was the only one of 32 who could use a knife and fork both ways, because of course my mother never taught me either, just let me get on with it.

I was gobsmacked

[Suffs Profile]

OH can and does use a knife and fork either way around and both just as efficiently (dextrously? ) ... if the table has been set with cutlery in place settings he will use the knife in his right hand and fork in his left ... however if he is given his cutlery wrapped together in a napkin as often happens in foodie pubs etc, he is likely to eat with the knife in his left hand and the fork in his right ... he says he had no idea that he does this

I use both hands when making large charcoal drawings ... right hand for the right side of the paper and left hand for the left ... but I’m not truly ambidextrous.

[Pepper Pig Profile]

Two of my four are lefties. B, my oldest daughter, was in a class at Primary School where eleven out of the 30 strong class were too. That’s miles away from the average 2-3. Anne, the teacher, said it was the brightest class she’d ever taught. Mind you she was also a Southpaw.

Re KK’s cricket reference there are also cricketers who bowl right handed and bat left handed. What’s that all about?

[Earthmaiden Profile]

I can remember children at school still being made to use their right hand instead of left. Ex OH is left handed and he also experienced that so it was still going strong in the 50s and 60s.

I find it very difficult to use left instead of right. Those poor children.

I have a fondness for words derived from Norse. I expect it means I am common .

[Pepper Pig Profile]

That reminds me of my mother when I was at school. “Why do you always choose friends that are the lowest of the low”?

She was living up to my grandfather’s expectations and has improved since then!

[Stokey Sue Profile]

My mother having been careful not to force me into being either right or left hand, I’ve ended up doing most things right handed

But I could hand sew with either hand, which came in useful sometimes and for some reason I threw darts left handed although I was naturally right eye dominant

Now I’ve swapped to being left eye dominant I seem to be more strongly right handed, presumably because I learned to use left eye and right hand together.

[Sakkarin Profile]

Ambidexterity...

I used to play in a Gary Numan tribute band in the 80s, which had two keyboard players. One of them was a relatively good musician, but the other was really not much more than a one-finger player, which didn't really matter for the simple lines he was playing. One day he was having difficulty with a line, so I showed him how to play it, but using both hands. He turned round and said to me, "What do you think I am, ambidextrous?" That's stuck with me ever since, still makes me laugh!

[Earthmaiden Profile]

:lol: That reminds me of my mother when I was at school. “Why do you always choose friends that are the lowest of the low”?

sounds so familiar!