23 March 2009

Stuff I Don't Know

1. I used the word askance in staff meeting on Saturday and my co-worker commented that she'd never known how to pronounce that word before. I didn't either, but it didn't keep me from using it. I looked it up later and I totally pronounce it wrong.

2. It was more recently that I'd like to admit that I put it together that dachshunds are those little dogs. I assumed the name of those little dogs was spelled with an x (doxon?) and that it was just a strange thing that I never saw the name written anywhere. They are not a dog that appear frequently in literature.

3. I recently asked Marmot Dad to explain when it's appropriate to use a while and when it's appropriate to use awhile. Apparently, I didn't REALLY want to learn, though, because now all I can remember is parts of speech, something, something, didn't you learn this stuff when you studied Russian, something, something. My instruction didn't take. And, no, I didn't master parts of speak (although I have strong feelings about certain aspects of grammar) when I studied foreign languages. I was busy inventing ways to toss the word crocodile into my dialogue exercises. It's fun to say. Krokodil.

4. Geography

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I grew up thinking "askance" was related to "ask" and meant something like "askingly." So I pronounced it "ASK-unce." Yeah. Come to find out, that's wrong. Except I still pronounce it like that in my head when I read it, which means I never dare say it out loud for fear of what would come out.

"Dachshund" is a word I never heard pronounced until recently, so when people say "doxon" around me I usually have no idea what they mean, because in my head it's pronounced "DAH-shund."

Marcene Perry said...

There is a whole story in this book about dachshunds. Jonathan quite enjoys it!

http://www.amazon.com/Curious-George-Friends-Favorite-H/dp/0618226109/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1237898006&sr=1-1

MBC said...

Sean--I think that's a common problem for readers--you know all kinds of words that you've never heard pronounced. I thought dachshund was pronounced DATCH-hund and when I saw it in Calvin and Hobbes books all the time, I wondered why Bill Watterson had such a thing for big, German dogs, which is what I imagined such a hund would be.

MP--See, if someone had read this book to me as a child, I wouldn't have lived in ignorance for so long!

Marcene Perry said...

Well you better read it to the Marmots so they do not end up living in ignorance as well!

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