how do I become a mechanic?

He should have said "practise" :-)

dear god you all have far too much time on ur hands....obviously u dont have much else better to do...ive been working in engineering for 7 years no problems...as mo said, do u really think i type like this in documents that matter?

this is a newsgroup, like a chat room, i dont care how my grammer comes across, i will type how the hell i like, if it bothers u then poor u..why dont u find something interesting to do rather than going round newsgroups correcting ppl....sad ppl.

i bet u r one of theseppl that cant understand simple abberviations in txt messaging.

Had he been American, he should have.

Steve

I understood it perfectly. That is not the point.

I suggest that you also learn to accept constructive criticism in the spirit it was offered.

My post was intended to help you, yet you described it as unhelpful, irrelevant and RUDE (your capitalisation).

A little humility would not go amiss.

Steve

well I think you know that your very first remark (whatever the intentions) was going to come across as slightly snidey and untoward and provoke the response it got...i think u r just pretending that it was meant to be constructive and helpful as u can see how out of place it was. like back-paddling.

the topic wasn't about how well one is grammatically to be an engineer of any kind.

i admit and can openly see my grammar is poor here, but thats because i am typing fast, in a "chatty" kind of way and dont feel the need to be perfect. as long as i get my point across thats all that matters.

can i say *sigh* or is that improper use of asterisks?

Well, no actually: the verb is "practise" and the noun is "practice". English as she is spoke. LOL

It's not not being able to understand them, it's the fact that they're just plain irritating. I'm sure I'm not the only one that finds it simply easier to just type the whole words than the stupid "txt msg" style abbreviations. It's just easier to read proper English - language has improved and evolved over generations for a reason, why go backwards?

And anyone who regularly types up documents won't find it any extra effort at all to type properly than like you. It's like with text messaging - I personally find it easier to type "See you later" using predictive text than "c u l8r" - 160 characters is generally plenty enough to get a message across using proper words without having to resort to pointless abbreviations. Even for longer messages most phones these days can link messages together.

abbreviations.

I'm in complete agreement as far as the text messaging style abreviations go. Obviously anyone can read them. As for writing them, by the time I'd thaught of the abbreviation, I could probably have written the full word anyway.:-) Having said that though, I'm not averse to using the phrase abbreviations that occur frequently in newsgroup posts. TBH, IMHO, IIRC, etc, etc. Mike.

maybe the language thing is more of a generation thing now then.

this thread has unfortunately gone way off course....hope neutron got something out of this...

prac·tice v.

1. To do or perform habitually or customarily; make a habit of: practices courtesy in social situations.

It's "grammar" by the way.

I'll give you that one :-))

Steve

Just makes you look like an idiot.

That makes people look like idiots too and if it is an actual text message, confirms it. Anyone who holds a conversation by SMS needs their head testing. For some reason I have yet to work out, they seem to think its cheaper.

BUT YOU DON'T. A post with crap punctuation is hard work to read.

Source? An American internet source? Divided by a common language and all that.

No, he's right, I checked. I thought it was practise for USA and practice for UK, but when he posted that I checked a very old dictionary I've got for archaic words in crosswords etc and he's right.

I admit it through gritted teeth of course.

Steve

I'm an archaic person! ;¬)