It's DISCREET, people.

[letsblowthistacostand]

Discreet. Discreet. Discreeeeeeeeeet.

Don't know why this bothers me so much, but it does.

Well, if you're talking about a discrete issue, it's not discreet, is it?

Very true Tiger, but they never are.

True indeed.

I like words like discrete though. As opposed to discreet, which has shades of the panty liner.

At DD's primary school they learn maths as a discreet topic, according to most of the termly info. sheets (a couple of teachers have spotted it on the pro forma and changed it). I love to think of them all discussing subtraction in polite undertones.

Complimentary and complementary is a bugbear of mine.

Love it pyro (is it ok to call you pyro, I can't be bothered to type your whole name).

(I can hear it now. "Don't tell: we're doing tables next week".)

stationary and stationery are also good. As you can only get stationery from a stationer, there shouldn't be any problem, but crikey,it does cause problems

Pyro is absolutely fine, Tiger (if I may).

A friend once told me about a memo he got while working in a bank:

"The stationary cupboard has moved."

UQD

I love "if I may", and indeed use it in business letters and emails rather too freely. If I say so myself, that is.

Principle/principal very annoying as well.

Hate all of these- lose/loose is the worst on here though.

I was about to say that sometimes it is discrete.

Just like both affect and effect can be a verb and a noun, but they are hardly ever the unexpected one.

just discovered this week that yanks only have the word practise, not practice.
now that has done my head in.

We don't have practise at all actually It's all about practice!

sorry, wrong way round. see, i got confused, my friends started winding me up & saying it was practize!!

i used to teach english & was adament about the difference between practice & practise, particularly when some members of the english staff got it wrong!

What is the difference? We just have the one, so I'm honestly curious.

practice as a noun, so you would go to the doctor's practice, as that is a place.

practise is a verb. so you would practise your spellings for school.

so you can't change practice (apart from adding an s for plural)
but you can used practised, practising etc

there's loads of other spellings i've learnt about since moving here, more than i ever imagined. every so often i have a moment as someone says something that just doesn't quite work, and i have to sit & think what they meant!

ok, off to bed now. tis after 11 pm here, and after a little drinkie i'm feeling very dopey.

Happy dreams, neighbor

yy to practice/practise

'stationery' has an 'e' for envelope in it which helps me remember that's the one for pens and pencils etc...

It's easier to think of it like advice/advise, if that helps.

I didn't know about stationery/stationary until a couple of years ago - I don't think we were taught it in school.

You buy your stationery from a stationer - that's how I remember: once you've got it, fine.

Bit of a sidetrack, but you know if you say "he pored over every detail" - it is "pore/pored" isn't it - not "pour/poured". I've just stuck this in a letter to a client and now I am wondering (thanks to this thread, tbh) if I've used completely the wrong word.