"Thee" or "Thuh"? (Page 2): Or instead of just saying something like Mike's, they'll change it to Mikes's.

SteveR Loc: Michigan

kymarto wrote:

My pet peeve is the incorrect use of apostrophe's...

Or instead of just saying something like Mike's, they'll change it to Mikes's.

SteveR Loc: Michigan

jerryc41 wrote:

I was referring to pronunciation, not spelling.

When you're going down to NYC, do you say that you're going to "thee city?"

DickC Loc: NE Washington state

jerryc41 wrote:

I was referring to pronunciation, not spelling.

Growing up in the South I remember it was, 'Them Thar'!

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

DickC wrote:

Growing up in the South I remember it was, 'Them Thar'!

Yeah, "them thar thangs ovuh yahwnduh."

DRam11 Loc: Polson, MT

jerryc41 wrote:

I have always said "Thee apple" and "Thee ocean." Lately, more and more people are saying "Thuh apple" and "Thuh ocean." That's incorrect, but it seems like it's becoming a trend. I don't hear people say, "A apple" or "A ocean," so why can't they get "the" right?

Comments?

Growing up in Montana I never heard anyone say "thee apple". As mentioned above, it would seem regional dialect makes the differece.

SteveR Loc: Michigan

In Ohio, it's known as THEE Ohio State University. In Michigan, it's just Thuh Ohio State University.

therwol Loc: USA

jerryc41 wrote:

I have always said "Thee apple" and "Thee ocean." Lately, more and more people are saying "Thuh apple" and "Thuh ocean." That's incorrect, but it seems like it's becoming a trend. I don't hear people say, "A apple" or "A ocean," so why can't they get "the" right?

Comments?

There can be differences in pronunciation without being incorrect. The word is "the", and so long as that is understood, pronunciation makes no difference. "A" versus "an" is a grammar issue. There is no law that we use proper grammar, but when someone doesn't, for example in formal communication, school papers, contracts, treaties etc. it can cause confusion or make the author appear to be ignorant. That's why we have agreed on rules of grammar, mainly to maintain clarity in written communication. It is especially important to follow these rules when communicating to non-English speakers who learned our language and its grammar rules. They become confused when there is any deviation from the rules. (And also important to avoid regional colloquialisms in such communication for the same reason.)

therwol Loc: USA

burkphoto wrote:

Yeah, "them thar thangs ovuh yahwnduh."

Y'all having pickled pawpaws tonight?

therwol Loc: USA

kpmac wrote:

My pet peeve is the incorrect usage of "then" and "than". For example: I am older then you. WRONG!

Loose for lose (written). Nucular for nuclear. Drives me crazy.

therwol Loc: USA

SteveR wrote:

When you're going down to NYC, do you say that you're going to "thee city?"

No.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

burkphoto wrote:

...THEE is a bit Old English, don't you think? It's one of those archaic words from the King James Bible...

My maternal grandfather grew up in a Quaker community. Thee and Thou were their pronouns within the family but by my mother's time You was pretty consistently used outside the family. (My grandfather married a Presbyterian).

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

lamiaceae wrote:

.... Elizabethan English is nearly un readable today. The pronunciations are confusing too. English is an evolving language.

One of my favorite poetic passages that we learned in High School is

It is a refrain from an English poem (predating Queen Bess) known as 'The Lament of Deor' (author unknown but presumed to be Deor) and dates from around 850 (no, I'm not THAT old). Translated (very roughly) it says 'Thes oferrode, thisses swa maeg', which means (again very roughly) 'That passed, may this also'.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deor (this site has links to text and translation and even a guy singing the poem so you get an idea of the pronunciation).

It's also interesting that the first character of that refrain is the thorn, þ. That character is pronounced 'th' and evolved in shape into something resembling 'y' (which kind of looks like a thorn coming out of a stem). When you see a shop named 'Ye olde shoppe', that is pronounced 'the old shop'. The first character is that thorn in a later form.

I was a geek and English was not my major interest but we had a REALLY good teacher and some things stuck and can be more or less reproduced 70 years later.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

SteveR wrote:

In Ohio, it's known as THEE Ohio State University. In Michigan, it's just Thuh Ohio State University.

In the rest of the country, it's just Ohio State. No one cares about the THEE.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

DirtFarmer wrote:

One of my favorite poetic passages that we learned... (show quote)

Great trivia! Who knew?

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

jerryc41 wrote:

I have always said "Thee apple" and "Thee ocean." Lately, more and more people are saying "Thuh apple" and "Thuh ocean." That's incorrect, but it seems like it's becoming a trend. I don't hear people say, "A apple" or "A ocean," so why can't they get "the" right?

Comments?

Unfortunately for us stuck in a rut old foggy types English is a living developing language with many forms all over the world and constantly changing in some way.

If you want a language that doesn't change use Latin.

Of course, if enough people do that it will become a living language again and start changing again.

I grew up using both "thee" and "thuh" dependent on usage and circumstances and also who you were talking to. The old folks used words in different ways than younger people.
What's thuh problem?
Where is thee newspaper?