Comments on: Sine Line Optical Illusion

By: Dan

Dan — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 04:13:45 +0000

“Colour” is used by quaint folks of little significance on a little island north east of France. “Color” is used by the crazy people who dominate geopolitics.

By: A Snail

A Snail — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 10:17:10 +0000

Brits?? Seriously?

By: Mrs. Meyer

Mrs. Meyer — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 12:56:43 +0000

The difference between “it’s” and “its” is that “it’s” is the short form of “IT IS”(third person singular of the verb ‘to be’-he is, she is, it is- and “its” is a possessive pronoun like: MINE, YOURS, HIS, HERS, THEIRS.

I would also like to say that I am not a native English speaker but I do teach English as a foreign language. I also do not agree with English being a ‘hard’ language to learn-so not true- there are many other languages that you cannot understand because they have very few grammar rules (take German for example). At least English has rules and exception…

By: Shriya

Shriya — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 01:29:48 +0000

Color- american english

colour- british english

It’s- it is (in short form)

By: BA in English

BA in English — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 17:00:14 +0000

Michael, please see my reply to Blinks. America haters are not cool. It’s sad to see so many people (even Americans) jumping on the blame-America-first bandwagon. Everything American isn’t bad, nor are Americans to blame for all the world’s problems – those problems existed long before my country came into being and will, I suspect, exist long after all of us and you as well are dead and gone. I appreciate the good things that other countries bring to the world, but I also get really tired of seeing my country trashed day in and day out by people who clearly don’t know any typical, average Americans (and most average Americans can’t afford to travel abroad – I know I can’t – so unless you’ve traveled to America, you certainly wouldn’t have met ME). The vast majority of us are good people. We are generous, garrulous, friendly, compassionate and yes, we love our country. We would also love your countries more if you would cut us some slack and realize that NO ONE likes to be bullied and attacked, even subtly. Remember that “for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction” meaning if you are mean to us, how can you expect us to be nice to you? Don’t you know that you “catch more flies with honey than with vinegar”? So please play nice and remember, those early Americans, the ones we Americans call our Founding Fathers, were BRITISH. So, really, please explain how the language we spoke BEFORE we were American is suddenly “different” than the language we speak now??? How is “American” English “wrong”? We didn’t start speaking English after we formed America – we were ALREADY SPEAKING IT. Oh, and even in England, not everyone says “Mum”. Some say “Ma” and “Mama” – and in the South, we call our mothers “Mama” just like our ancestors did when they were still British subjects. My ancestors came from the British isles and it is their language I speak – ENGLISH. The spelling you can blame on media and academia who weren’t ALL Americans. Oh, and the rest of the “WORLD” aren’t native speakers of English. The native speakers are England, America, Canada, Australia, etc – in that order. (Canada officially became The Dominion of Canada on July 1, 1867 and Australia wasn’t officially a nation until 1901 which puts them AFTER America, so really don’t you think America has seniority on the spelling/ grammar issue second only to England and since my ancestors kicked their butts… ? :P LOL). People who don’t speak English as their first language should refrain from telling native speakers which version is “better” or “right” because – well, it’s just rude. It’s okay to have an opinion, but don’t be so adamant about it. Sorry for the rant, but I love my language and my country and somebody has to speak up for them in this increasingly hostile world! I hope you and Blinks and everyone else here have a nice day and I truly hope you meet some of us nice Americans so your view of us will cease to be distorted. I’ve met plenty of nice foreigners (and a fair few not-so-nice ones) so I don’t automatically assume you are “mean” when you insult Americans. Since I can’t hear your tone of voice when you type I will give you the benefit of the doubt and suppose that you may only be teasing, but caution that if you aren’t teasing, please remember that the people you are insulting have hearts and minds and spirits just like you and deserve to be treated with the same respect and dignity you want for yourself. We also have the right to speak and write OUR language the way WE see fit. England may be the birthplace of English, but aren’t the sons heirs of their father? Isn’t the son of a man whose last name is, say, Smith as much a Smith as his father?

By: BA in English

BA in English — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 15:19:43 +0000

Hm. My History of the English Language professor (and all of my English professors, frankly) would disagree with you. The “rules” didn’t exist in ANY English speaking country until the press (newspapers) and schools started to try to standardize the language to make it easier to disseminate news and communicate. Look at manuscripts and correspondence from before the press and schools started standardizing and you will see that there were no hard and fast “rules” for spelling, grammar, punctuation or anything else. Frankly, this let’s-hate-all-things-American kick many of you who live outside America are on is getting old. America isn’t perfect, but NEITHER ARE YOU. Just remember, my country is still relatively young and we are already trying to correct our faults – your countries have had MELLINNIA of faults to our couple of centuries and have only just begun to correct your faults (remember WHY America started in the first place – Europe wasn’t exactly the land of saints – The Inquisition anyone?). Mote and beam, my friend. Our mote, your beam.

By: BA in English

BA in English — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 15:01:39 +0000

English is a BEAUTIFUL language. Being difficult doesn’t make a language “ugly”. Take Chinese for example. The sheer volume of characters possible for writing anything in Chinese is so daunting that virtually no Chinese native knows all of them much less a non-native, but I would NEVER say that Chinese is ugly. In fact, I personally find that complexity is what makes a language MORE beautiful. Sure, English is difficult, but there are millions of ways to say just about anything! You have to admit, English isn’t boring!

By: Jess

Jess — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 12:11:22 +0000

color and coulor mean the same thing, just coulor is british and color in american

By: Michael

Michael — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 02:41:09 +0000

I am totally with you Blinks. Umm don’t worry about how America butchered the English language, go by British/ the way the rest of the WORLD writes it. And oh, Mother is spelt “Mum”, not “Mom”. Well done on learning “it’s” and “its”, it frustrates me when people whose first language is English still get it wrong. And when you want to say there was many of something, it is “a lot” not “alot”.
Glad you are trying to improve because all of us could probably do with getting better at English

By: Binks

Binks — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 18:50:08 +0000

If you want to speak/write English then it’s best to stick to the English rules while learning (there are less exceptions to the rules). American-English is a variant of the English language and therefore means that it gets a LOT of the spelling and pronunciation rules WRONG. Americans tend to disagree with this but the English language and how words are spelled follow certain rules. These rules are ignored when you see an American ‘version’ of those words.
Believe me – it’s just as frustrating to see these varients all over the place when English is your first language. I believe it’s only made harder to learn English because of the American varients. I’m sorry my American friends but there genuinely was a reason colour was spelt with a ‘u’ and it was because of the rules of pronunciation in place at the time spelling was set as a standard. These rules are apparently not taught in schools these days which I think is sad. Then again the rules have changed because of advertising language and ‘nu-speak’ such as text messaging. The language is being garbled. Almost as soon as the spelling rules were set they were garbled again. Very sad. The city I currently live in in England is full of natives who don’t follow the rules of their own mother tongue so don’t worry about getting too much wrong. I speak English pretty well but I had a hell of a time understanding the people born-and-bred here for the first few years that I was here.

By: Vanessa Thian

Vanessa Thian — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 05:52:12 +0000

American English: Color.
British English: Colour.
You can also check the dictionary. AmE is American English, btw.

By: --..--.

--..--. — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 14:28:41 +0000

I know it was a while ago, but Paul Jones tried to tell you that or and our are the same word and they are most definitely not. Our is a possessive word and is in 1st person plural (which means it goes with words like we and us). Or is a conjunction representing a choice, or multiple outcomes. For example when you serving you cake, a waiter might say “Would you like the vanilla cake, or the chocolate?” or he might say “Would you like to try our chocolate cake?” very different words.

I know you’ve already been told a million times about color/colour but I’ll tell you a few of the words that are spelt differently:
gray/grey
traveled/travelled
neighbor/neighbour
flavor/flavour

The spellings on the left are american, but the ones on the right are used by all other english-speaking countries (eg. I’m canadian and I use them)

By: What's My Name?

What's My Name? — Wed, 26 May 2010 12:24:14 +0000

Listen, I don’t mean to be a troll, and I sincerely hope I’m not, but it seems to me that 20 or so people are reapeating eachother,wether they’re correct or not, and even I’m starting to get confused. Bottom line, Vurdlak, you’re English is better than most on this site. What you already know is more than sufficient, as most on the internet speak in made up tongues as it is, as Nathanale said. Keep practicing what you already know, and the rest will come to you. English is a messed up language, as we borrow words and phrases from nearly every other culture, and most of the time, even we Americans mess it up. Ask more as need be, but in the meantime, keep up the good work on the site. And get us more good illusions!

By: enzoferrari2009

enzoferrari2009 — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 21:57:00 +0000

“Color,” is the Canadian version of the American word, “Colour.” Also, “It’s” is used in example, It Is. While “Its” is used in example: They made Its gun barrel. (Facination with guns in progress! Oh no!)

By: nick

nick — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 02:57:01 +0000

Hey th answer to your colour, color question is simple. There is an American way and a Canadian way of spelling it. colour is canadian and color is americam. I’m unaware of how Europeans spell it but thats the reason for two spellings.