Dawn

Dawn

Wednesday, July 08, 2015

Spanish percentages; Empathy; Pronunciations; Apostrophes; & Buying abroad.

Are these headlines connected at all?
  • Over 60% of Spaniards have never read Don Quixote.
  • Over 80% of Spaniards say they're 'happy' to 'completely happy'.
Yesterday, while learning of a new Museum of Empathy in the UK, I heard the word 'empathic'. At first, I thought it was a slip of the tongue, for 'empathetic' but the speaker used it again and I had to look it up. Sure enough, it's a synonym for 'empathetic'. And, as it's shorter, it deserves to take over.

Talking of words . . . I've recently heard several mis-pronunciations, by which I mean pronunciations not shared with me:-
  • Tunís, instead of Túnis.
  • Erítrea, instead of Eritréa.
  • Ápostate, instead of apóstate.
  • Pedagoji, instead of pedagogy.
I wonder who's right these days. If anyone.

Talking of standards . . . This mistake appeared in The Daily Telegraph yesterday, by no means for the first time:- The reptile makes it's bid for freedom. It raises the question: Now that the newspapers are farming out their sub-editing to 17 year-olds in their New Zealand bedrooms, isn't it time to forget about the apostrophe and the stress it causes? 

Finally . . . Here are 10 things The Daily Express thinks you should consider before buying a retirement home abroad. And here's The Daily Telegraph's variation on the same theme. For obvious reasons, I haven't read them but I hope they say much the same thing. The 11th. rule to note is: Don't come to Pontevedra. There's too many foreigners here already.

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