"die"-rection or "dee"-rection? 1

[Dimandja]

This is perplexing. I have heard the word direction pronounced both ways. Which is it? I prefer the latinized "dee"-rection.

 

[CajunCenturion]

You might find duh-rection to the most common pronunciation.

Good Luck
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[columb]

You say tomato, I say tomato - oops it doesn't work in print. There is also much controversy about the pronuciation of controversy Some americans pronounce route to rhyme with out, I pronouce it like the Unix super user Isn't it a wonderful world with such variety

 

[jrbarnett]

This may just be international differences, I (in the UK) have never heard it pronounced "dee" rection, it is always "die" rection.

John

 

[LTeeple]

I pronounce it de-rection


Cheers!
Laura

 

[Dimandja]

I also hear military pronounced as militree.

 

[Stella740pl]

It appears to differ by country.
The American way is de- or dee, and the British way is die-

These two American dictionaries say it the American way (you can hear the pronunciation):

The American Heritage ® Dictionary of the English Language

http://www.yourdictionary.com/ahd/d/d0244000.html

Encarta® World English Dictionary [North American Edition]

http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/dictionary/DictionaryResults.aspx?refid=1861604893

Now, the same dictionary, Cambridge, give it two ways, for Americans and for Brits:

Cambridge Dictionary of American English

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=direction*1+0&dict=A

Cambridge International Dictionary of English Cambridge [Advanced Learner's Edition]

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=21960&dict=CALD

 

[MakeItSo]

I'm not 100% sure, but I once learnt, that pronunciation is normally determined by emphasis:
Since the first syllable is not emphasized, it should be duh-'rection, as Cajun proposed.
And either way you say "tomato", the first o is always muted, isn't it? ;-)

[blue]The last voice we will hear before the world explodes will be that of an expert saying:
"This is technically impossible!" - Sir Peter Ustinov[/blue]
HP:

http://andygalambos.de

 

[Grenage]

Here at least (in England), it is almost always pronounced die. I can not recall ever hearing it pronounced dee

 

[AnotherHiggins]

Here is the Southern US, I usually here duh -rection. There's the occasional die - rection, but I don't think I've ever heard dee -rection before.

Columb, What happened to periods?!? You post hurt my head.

 

[columb]

Periods, don't you mean full stops. Sorry they got left out.

 

[LTeeple]

The period issue reminds me of a programming class back in college.

We were talking about concatenation operators. The instructor said:

"If you miss your periods, you're in trouble!"

It took the instructor a few minutes to figure out why everyone was giggling.

Good times.


Cheers!
Laura

 

[Dimandja]

<aside> I think Columb could use a change of ribbon; some keystrokes are not coming through.</aside>

Just in case, here is a handy supply of full stops: ................................................

 

[sleipnir214]

Full stop is very much an Oxford English construct. Americans tend to use period.

I have a question about full stop. Is there a punctuation mark called half stop or partial stop or something else from which one would have to disambiguate full stop?


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TANSTAAFL!!

 

[Dimandja]

Actually period is much older than the newer full stop. It's just that norte americanos held onto it when the rest of the world moved on.

Full stop denotes punctuation that delimits a sentence, while a period can appear almost anywhere (abreviations for example).

So, you can have periods appearing willy nilly pamby namby in a sentence, but you will have only one full stop at the end of that sentence.

 

[CajunCenturion]

A full stop doesn't have to be a period. It can be a question mark, an explanation mark, or a period.

Good Luck
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As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein

 

[Stella740pl]

CajunCenturion,

Explanation mark?
Don't you mean exclamation point?

 

[sleipnir214]

An explanation mark is any punctuation mark that separates the phrase "let me explain" from the rest of the sentence, isn't it?


Want the best answers? Ask the best questions!

TANSTAAFL!!

 

[CasperTFG]

I have heard many variations with . One amusing one was while conversing with a user in Jamaica.

He gave me an IP and said One Nine Two Dot two four dot etc.

Then later on was reading out what he had entered in a field to me and read out.

M O T O space I N C Full Stop E A S T

So there he used the word full stop when it wasn't the end of a scentance.

Also I heard that Full Stop came from the days of the Telegram?

Casper

There is room for all of gods creatures, "Right Beside the Mashed Potatoes".

 

[CajunCenturion]

Yes, exclamation point. %-)

Good Luck
--------------
To get the most from your Tek-Tips experience, please read FAQ181-2886
As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein