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Punctuation saves lives

by Alkanadi, August 21, 2014

Messages: 10

Language: English

Alkanadi (User's profile) August 21, 2014, 1:42:08 PM

I saw this on instagram

Punctuation saves lives:
1 - Let's eat Grandma!
2 - Let's eat, Grandma!

Kuniklo_Blua (User's profile) August 21, 2014, 1:49:27 PM

Ni mangxu avinon
Ni mangxu, avino

Doesn't have the same ring to it =(

michaleo (User's profile) August 21, 2014, 1:58:46 PM

Yes, pronunciation sometimes saves lives: shibboleth

patrik (User's profile) August 21, 2014, 2:16:18 PM

Alkanadi:I saw this on instagram

Punctuation saves lives:
1 - Let's eat Grandma!
2 - Let's eat, Grandma!
It could save you some cash:

A housewife goes shopping and sees a dress she likes.
Wife: "Can I buy this this dress?" (with a photo and the price)
Husband (via text): "No price too high."
Wife comes back home, and the husband sees the dress.
Husband: "Why the heck did you buy that?!"
Wife: "Well, well, you said 'no price too high.'"
Husband: "NO! I meant, 'no, price too high!'"

kaŝperanto (User's profile) August 21, 2014, 2:37:31 PM

My recently late grandmother told me about how when the allied troops were in Germany at the end of WWII they had been given cards with the German phrase for "not shooting" (nicht schießen). They didn't have any idea how to pronounce it, though, so many pronounced it as "nicht scheißen" ("not shitting" ).

Needless to say they got many strange looks and laughs.

(Note: I speak no German and used Google Translate to get the words)

sergejm (User's profile) August 21, 2014, 5:53:26 PM

the classic Russian phrase is:
Казнить нельзя помиловать
Mortpuni ne eblas pardoni
To execute impossible to pardon
They should put comma that can fully change the meaning.

nornen (User's profile) August 21, 2014, 6:24:40 PM

Also bad spelling can be dangerous, as the illustrious Sir Terence David John Pratchett, OBE shows us in "Witches Abroad":

Terry Pratchett:Bad spelling can be lethal. For example, the greedy Seriph of Al-Yabi was cursed by a badly-educated deity and for some days everything he touched turned to Glod, which happened to be the name of a small dwarf from a mountain community hundreds of miles away who found himself magically dragged to the kingdom and relentlessly duplicated. Some two thousand Glods later the spell wore off. These days, the people of Al-Yabi are renowned for being remarkably short and bad-tempered.

nornen (User's profile) August 21, 2014, 6:31:13 PM

Also word order can complicate things. I don't remember the exact wording, but I read a headline in a newspaper that sounded something like this:

"Fue hallado piloto asesinado por la policía".

I had to read it three times. It means literally "Was found driver assessinated by the police". What they wanted to say was "An assessinated driver was found by the police". Quite a different deal.

Inivican (User's profile) August 21, 2014, 7:18:47 PM

kaŝperanto:My recently late grandmother told me about how when the allied troops were in Germany at the end of WWII they had been given cards with the German phrase for "not shooting" (nicht schießen). They didn't have any idea how to pronounce it, though, so many pronounced it as "nicht scheißen" ("not shitting" ).

Needless to say they got many strange looks and laughs.

(Note: I speak no German and used Google Translate to get the words)
Plibona afisxo

SciBerC (User's profile) August 22, 2014, 12:48:40 AM

In this case I believe it is the grammar which saves peoples lives..

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