The 10,000 Post Thread v2

[Muck308 55]

271

Welcome to page 10. I just went for a walk.

[Lilchptrk 0]

272

Originally posted by: astronelson

265.

I'm writing about the solar system for my sister. It's 657 words long already and I'm only up to Jupiter. I should cut it down a bit, but I'll see what she thinks first.

Now: Partly cloudy and 22C.

EDIT: My parents say that's too long. I'll have to get it down to a two minute speech, which is probably in the vicinity of 200 words.

quote>

Your sister is 9 years old and she has to write that long of an essay?! What grade is that, 5th, I think? We were doing nothing, mostly because our teacher sucked.

EDIT: You know I just realized now how that isn't that many words...

[Duke87 1,070]

(273)

This post is five words.

[nathanthemayor 1,261]

274

This post is six words long.

[Vahr 341]

275

Most of my lab reports and essays are over 600 words long.

[Duke87 1,070]

(276)

I can't say I ever measured the length of my lab reports. It never explicitly mattered. And any essays/papers I wrote had length requirements of pages or paragraphs, never words.

[nathanthemayor 1,261]

277

My longest report ever had to be 1500 words, in history class last year.

[astronelson 339]

278.

I haven't ever written anything much above 1,000 words, except for my CJ, which is now somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000 words.

[Muck308 55]

279

I have a six word vocabulary.

[Duke87 1,070]

(280)

The longest thing I ever wrote was a horrible story that I started writing early in high school and never finished because it's horrible.

What I did write takes up maybe about 50 pages handwritten in a notebook. I guestimate it would probably equate to about 15-20 pages typed on standard 8½" × 11" paper, but I never typed any of it up so it's tough to say.

The longest thing I ever finished writing was my Senior Paper in high school: about 10.3 pages single spaced.

[citiesxlfan42 27]

281.

My longest paper, being a middle schooler, was a 21 and a half page story singe spaced? Maybe double spaced. I'm not sure, because it's collecting dust in my teacher's classroom.

BTW, for an earlier post, 9 years old is 3rd grade. Usually...

[Larks2242 251]

282.

21 paged? wow

[Duke87 1,070]

(283)

That is pretty long for a school assignment...

[Chptrk 86]

284.

I'm not sure what the longest thing I've every written was, but (more related to a topic higher up on the page) I remember hearing that the average English speaking college student knows more words then are in the entire French language. I believe it was something like that...

[astronelson 339]

285.

My marks have come in - for the four subjects I took in second semester, I got one pass, one credit, and two distinctions.

And I'm a bit cross with that, because I got two distinctions and two high distinctions last semester. Oh well, at least I didn't fail anything. Guess I'll try to be less distracted next year.

And Chptrk: I think I told you that.

[Larks2242 251]

286.

The french language is that small?

[nathanthemayor 1,261]

289

What do you mean by small?

[Duke87 1,070]

(288)

The English dictionary is unusually thick because of all of our synonyms. Are you "sick" or "ill"? Are you "happy", "glad", "mirthful", or "merry"? Is something "big", "large", "huge", "gigantic", "mammoth", "gargantuan", or...? Are all these extra words "redundant", "superfluous", "unnecessary", "extraneous", "unneeded", or...?

Most languages usually only have one word to describe any given concept.

[Larks2242 251]

289.

We are just special

[Vahr 341]

290

At least our words look like how they sound, unlike Chinese and other Asian languages

[Lilchptrk 0]

291

We usually have to write over... uhm...uh... a lot of words for essays.

[nathanthemayor 1,261]

292

In my classes i don't really. However, I have done some long reports before, did a 2000+ one last year about Goddard(History day).

[Duke87 1,070]

(293)

Since when do words in English look how they sound?

[Chptrk 86]

294. Gah, double sniped.

Well, the French influences from the Norman conquest of basically German speaking England is probably a large part of why there's so many words. One of my teachers told us it's the basis for our swears too.

@Vince, words don't necassarily look like how they sound, we put the sound on top of the words and imagine that they look like they sound. Perhaps if your first language was Chinese you'd see it differently? 

[Larks2242 251]

295.

Originally posted by: Blue Lightning

At least our words look like how they sound, unlike Chinese and other Asian languages quote>

Well not all, for example  the word "audacity" looks like it should sound differently.

[Vahr 341]

296

Well, yes there are a few 'bent" (more like completely borrowed from other languages) pronunciations, but for the most part, you can voice it out bit by bit.

Perhaps if your first language was Chinese you'd see it differently?quote>

Technically, both Chinese and English are my first languages, I learned them in parallel. In Chinese, you get hints every now and then in complex characters (ie if a character contains another character in the left dominant position, the basis is the same with a different intonation), but for the most part, you have to just learn it and memorize it. Though to help with pronounciation, they developed a system of western pronounciation "alphabets" and the like, called hanyupinyin (that's sorta cyclic, the name is indeed in hanyupinyin   ). It usually does a good job.

[Duke87 1,070]

(297)

Check your numbers, guys.

[Larks2242 251]

298.

Hope we are back on track.

[Muck308 55]

299

I spent two hours today trying to install a wall mounted microwave for my sister. Once I had the wall brace mounted, I discovered that some jerk must have dropped the microwave because it was dented and therefore bulged on the side...

Ah forget it. This doesn't follow the current topic at all. The darn microwave didn't fit in the hole, and I think English is weird, but it's my primary language and the only one I speak fluently.

[astronelson 339]

300.

Another reason English is so large is the fact that a lot of our words come from other languages, and we just take whatever we think is useful.