Peter, at 19:55 on May 16 1995, you wrote to Bill Grimsley...

PE> Well whenever I speak to someone from Europe, I ask them if they
PE> all learnt English at school, and they say they do. 
PS>     ^^^^^^
PS> Go and get him Bill.

BG> Oi, are you having a sneaky go at Paul's spelling of the past tense of 
BG> learn?  FWIW, both the -t and -ed suffixes are acceptable and correct.  
BG> Same with spelled and spelt (according to the Macquarie).

PS> I had a bad feeling about that. As usual, I put my foot in it :-)

If it makes you feel any better, I have never liked the use of -t, much
preferring the -ed suffix, but how can you argue with common usage?  Our
language IS constantly changing, but not always for the better IMO.

PS> What do you expect from a bloody foreigner anyway !

Deportation would be nice...  |-)

PS> Actually, my spelling-checker in QEdit did not recognize "learnt" 
PS> , but I am learning, after all it is a yankee dictionary :-) (When 
PS> I make a jackass of myself I want to be certain I have a right to!  

That's why I prefer the Macquarie, and Frank, the COD.  I even have the
Macquarie with WFW (supplied by MS too, would you believe!).

PS> At my advancing age, can never be sure.) Now, I shall walk among 
PS> the righteous and say verily....! Anyhow, it achieved the desired 
PS> result. You had to check the dictionary!

True, I wanted to see if was specifically accepted as such.  Simple common
usage does not always make for a legitimate word IMO (and piss off Rod, I
know exactly what you think).  |-)

PS> When I went to school in Hungary, Russian was compulsory, English, German 
PS> and French were optional. I didn't learn Russian because it was compulsory

BG> Bit of a rebel, were you?  Was this before or after 1956, BTW?

PS> Before. I am a coward or opportunist more likely as I left in the 
PS> middle of the revolution.

Don't worry Pete, you weren't the only one.  In fact, one of dad's
long-time musician friends is Hungarian (Tommy Tycho), and he left at
around the same time as you did.

BG> You can speak Hungarian if you like Pete.  I won't mind at all.

PS> The funny thing is that I can't anymore. Whenever I need to write 
PS> I resort to the dictionary.

Yeah, 40 years is a bloody long time, but I bet that if you ever visited
Budapest, you'd find it a bit like riding a bike - you might even end up
speaking like a native within a week or two.  Depends upon how old you were
when you left though, and I suspect you were still only a child then.

PS>> Had I known that I have to watch out for blokes like Bill 
PS>> Grimsley checking my spelling I would have learned Russian. :-)

BG> Da, tovarish!

PS> Da I agree with, but you are a bit behind the times with 
PS> "tovarish" it ceased to exist the same time as Soviet Union.

Doesn't it also mean "friend", not specifically just "comrade" ?

PS>> Bye the way, in Hungary the date format is YYYY-MM-DD.

BG> By the way, I wish you hadn't mentioned that.  |-)

PS> I had to, after all it is the subject of this thread :-)

True, but you're also agreeing with Paul, and I simply won't allow that!  |-)

Regards, Bill
@EOT:

--- Msgedsq/2 3.10 alpha