to only realise now that a W (a double U) is actually a UU. Say 'W' out loud

[Snooks1971]

Shoot me now.
How the hell have I never noticed that a double u is W when said out aloud?

'Whoever invented the www'.

Tim Berners-Lee. Englishman. You might remember him from the opening of the London Olympics.
Imprint his name on your brain after thinking about how massively important an invention the web is.

Interesting (IMO!) video about numbers in different languages.

And about colours in different languages.

I'm such a geek

Danish numbers make French look halfway sensible

9 and 2.5 Times 20!

SabineUndine

My email address has an underscore in it. You should try explaining THAT one over the phone to someone in a call centre!

Huh? When I'm asked for my email address I just say "newt underscore scamander at webhost dot com" never ever been an issue.

Or do you mean it has the words "an underscore" rather than an actual underscore?

I can completely understand why some pp are flummoxed as to how on earth I got to 45 before realising that a W is a double u. I know, I know... now it is so obvious! But I'm happy to be in good company with other pp for whom the penny has dropped. Glad to have been of service

Also there are some fascinating literary and numerical nuggets on this thread - it just goes to show how interesting the evolution of language/vocabulary is.

Lightbulb moment. OP you're not alone.

AllMyBestFriendsAreMetalheads I've just viewed the colours link. I never, ever knew that other countries differentiate with specific names for dark blue and light blue. It's all blue to us. There are 50 shades of blue and I work with Pantones but we all say blue is blue!
But we say red is red and "light red" is pink! True! Closing my door and slapping my forehead (again)

Queue errol

Queue = bizarre nonsensical word that we all use. Too many vowels but so important in the Post Office

in french its is "double V"

Yes sorry, I was wrong about the Welsh W - I was thinking about "ambuwlans" and how the u + w goes together to make a non vowel sound but I was overthinking it.

I knew about double-u and 1st but something I didn't realise until a year or two ago. That extra beep your microwave makes once it's finished cooking isn't just reminding you that it's finished or even berating you for being slow to get the food out. It sounds exactly one minute after the end of the cooking time so that you know your food has been left to stand for one minute. It's genius!

That extra beep your microwave makes once it's finished cooking isn't just reminding you that it's finished or even berating you for being slow to get the food out. It sounds exactly one minute after the end of the cooking time so that you know your food has been left to stand for one minute. It's genius!

Whaaaaat?

Well I'll be!

Op - you don't pronounce H with a H', and X is the symbol for a kiss due to the sound it makes - pop into any yr 1 phonics and they'll put you right, but please don't ask people in the street because guess what...we know!

38cody I disagree that people in the street know that you don't pronounce H with a H sound!

Snooks I'm glad you found it interesting. I really like the pink thing, especially as I find it easier to differentiate between red and pink light red than I do between red and orange, which to me seem like much more alike colours.

As an English speaker learning other European languages, it always seemed backwards to me, but the similarities between those other languages, including the double-vee thing makes me think that it is us that speaks backwards.

Another thing that I learnt from one of those videos is that in English we have a specific order in which we describe things. The big bouncy blue ball sounds right, but the blue bouncy big ball sounds wrong. It's something we know how to do yet I think many of us don't know we know it.

That extra beep your microwave makes once it's finished cooking isn't just reminding you that it's finished or even berating you for being slow to get the food out. It sounds exactly one minute after the end of the cooking time so that you know your food has been left to stand for one minute. It's genius!

Mine doesn't.

That extra beep your microwave makes once it's finished cooking........

Well that depends on the make and model does it.

Someone will be along in a minute to tell us that the numbers on a toaster indicate minutes.......they don't.

The big bouncy blue ball sounds right

Hmmm... I would say big blue bouncy ball.

I am glad I didn't have to learn English as a foreign language!

soupdragon I teach English as a foreign language and so many times I have to say "Yes, this doesn't make sense. Remember English is crazy and you're all screwed." as an explanation for so many things.
Latest bizarre finding was a Portuguese student who asked why we say square in English. He explained that there are similar words in Portuguese for circle (circulo) rectangle (retangulo) triangle (triangulo), cube (cubo) etc but not square. Why? We asked Google, which told us the words similar to Portuguese were of Latin origin, no surprise there. And square was from old French/Middle English. But why did we stick with square rather than quadrant, when we used the Latin forms for everything else? Any ideas? I did wonder if it could be farming related, with square being the peasants word of choice to describe the shape of their fields, rather than the "posher" latin words but I don't think that's right.

The big bouncy blue ball sounds right, but the blue bouncy big ball sounds wrong.

They are both wrong - it should be big blue bouncy ball.

YY sorry, I said it to myself both ways and then tried to think of another example but my head was too full of bouncing balls to do so

If I get time later I'll find the video that explains it much better than me because I'm currently hiding in the kitchen pretending I'm making a brew and they'll figure out my plan soon

As for toaster minutes...

Thanks for that Bertie.
I'm glad someone took the time and toasters to prove people wrong.

I would say big blue bouncy ball

Me too.