Menage or manege

Since DD brought up the comparison between correct words for colours and menage/manege and I brought up that the way that you are corrected, if wrong can be kind or unkind - I really hope that I haven't upset anyone in any of the colour posts I have commented on. I'm very sorry if I have.
 
FionaM12 said:
No doubt because, like me, she'd heard so many people mispronounce it and quoted them. :redface3:
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But she knew what the 'correct' term was. The difference is that when you are truly dual nationality and tri-lingual (their mother is Hungarian) you don't tend to be so picky about these things because language is a bizarre and wonderful beast.
 
Faracat said:
Since DD brought up the comparison between correct words for colours and menage/manege and I brought up that the way that you are corrected, if wrong can be kind or unkind - I really hope that I haven't upset anyone in any of the colour posts I have commented on. I'm very sorry if I have.
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Don't be daft you are lovely :)
 
Faracat said:
Since DD brought up the comparison between correct words for colours and menage/manege and I brought up that the way that you are corrected, if wrong can be kind or unkind - I really hope that I haven't upset anyone in any of the colour posts I have commented on. I'm very sorry if I have.
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Ahh, but the difference is that there is a scientific principle attached to the terms of colours - purely linguistic principles are far more blurry.

Also, I don't think anyone could be offended by you Faracat :)
 
:redface3: :redface3: :redface3:

Thanks.

It's just that sometimes you write things on here with a tone of voice in your head, but if read with a different tone of voice, the same words can come across differently IYSWIM.
 
FionaM12 said:
I don't understand what's to debate. Surely you just look in the dictionary and that's the end of the debate? :confused3: You can't argue a word's correct just because you and others used it wrongly for years. :D
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You can actually, that's how language changes. 'Nice' for example, used to mean wanton or foolish, so to be a 'nice' person in the 15th century wasn't such a good thing! Punk used to mean prostitute, a brat was a beggar child, gay used to mean happy, well, it still does, I guess but most people would use the term in relation to homosexual people now.

Anyway, I won't bore you further!
 
Well, as an ardent feminist I believe that any word with 'man/men' at the start should immediately be changed to 'person'. So that's personege, whether or not they're riding a dun pony.
 
Of course we all know language evolves. The dictionary reflects that by slight changes/new words each time it's published.

However, their are still correct ways of spelling, grammar and punctuation. Otherwise we'd all make up our own as we write and defend it with saying it's just language evolving! :D

There are some changes to language which don't bother me and some that do. If I hear someone say "I'm such a random person" it really sets my teeth on edge!
 
Just to add a random totally useless fact into this conversation, when a ballet dancer goes around the outside of the stage quickly (usually doing leaps or jumps) it is called the manege because, as a professional ballet dancer once told me, 'it's like what the horses do'.
 
Flame_ said:
Menage. I don't care that in France its manege, in Manchester, if you don't want people to think you're a nob, its menage.
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It's not really about what they say in France. It's now an English word with French origins as is true of a lot of our vocabulary.
 
Me too. It's an old thread from 2009.

This is in response to Nic's post, quoting didn't work for some reason.
 
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Flame_ said:
Well, I'm exaggerating.
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Phew! :biggrin3:

I just think its like the Americans taking our word "Mum" and spelling it and pronouncing it "Mom". Is America wrong?
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I accept your point, but it's not quite the same is it? In this case, we have two different words being used in the same place by different people, one of which is only used (I assume) because it's the same as another French word used in another well-known phrase.

Does it matter?
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Only inasmuch as it's incorrect. :cool3:
 
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