How do you spell USA again?

[Zdrak]

My wife needed a document sent to her from overseas. An original, fax isn't good enough. So she gets on the phone and makes a long distance call to whatever office that has the document, and makes her request. And I'm sitting there and doing stuff on the computer and listening with half-ear while she's talking to them. Whoever's on the other end of the line seems to speak reasonable English.

Everything goes smooth, no problem, we'll send you the document for a small nominal fee, we just need your address. She starts giving the address. She has to spell the street name, twice. Which is ok, because, hey, you want to be sure, right? I slightly raised an eyebrow when she had to spell the name of the city. Which is a rather well-known city, but oh well, I guess some people aren't that well versed in geography.

When she had to spell "California", I could hardly hold back my laughter. When she had to spell "United States", I fell off my chair.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

America is spelled "أمريكة", I do believe.

[/way too much Arabic homework]

[Razanir]

America is spelled "أمريكة", I do believe.

[/way too much Arabic homework]

^Actually it's either 美国 or Měigǔo, depending on if you want hanzi or pinyin

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

Or c'est les États Unis d'Amérique.

[snoopy13a]

To be fair, San Francisco and Los Angeles aren't the easiest names to spell (assuming you live in one of those cites). California isn't simplisitic either, especially for a non-American. For all they know, it is something like Kaliphornia.

[Zdrak]

To be fair, San Francisco and Los Angeles aren't the easiest names to spell (assuming you live in one of those cites). California isn't simplisitic either, especially for a non-American. For all they know, it is something like Kaliphornia.

I guess I should have added that it's a country where English is a compulsory subject in elementary and highschool, and most of the TV content is american.

[Manga Shoggoth]

Alas, nothing new.

When I came back from my stint in Atlanta those many years ago, I carefully spelled out my address to the girl in the call centre so the phone company could send my final bill. Not a difficult address, either.

6 months later the debt collection agency got in touch with me. The address they were given was so badly mangled that I am amazed they found me in the first place. Not one part of the address was correct. Including the "UK" bit.

[TSGames]

^Actually it's either 美国 or Měigǔo, depending on if you want hanzi or pinyin

You're both wrong. It's spelled "**** Yea! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhnUgAaea4M)" God bless America!

[Mauve Shirt]

Die Vereinigten Staaten?


You're both wrong. It's spelled "[
**** Yea! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhnUgAaea4M)" God bless America!

False. It's spelled "cracked out pacman and spiny flower."

Sorry, I'm just entertained that I can put a face to an internet name.

[Eldan]

Kellyforniuh?

[nedz]

Well there was that indie band who released an album called Kalifornication or something ?

[Asta Kask]

Zdrak, I would like to perform an experiment.

I live at Träringen, Göteborg, Västra Götaland. How would you pronounce that?

[Aedilred]

Well there was that indie band who released an album called Kalifornication or something ?
The Red Hot Chilli Peppers (who aren't really an indie band; moreover they're unnecessarily successful) have an album called Californication. There's also a TV show by the same name.

The rather less-well-known hip-hop outfit Above the Law had a single called Kalifornia a few years before that.

[Zdrak]

Zdrak, I would like to perform an experiment.

... How would you pronounce that?
"Obvious strawman is obviously made of obvious straw". Say that five times fast for extra credit.

[Marnath]

Well there was that indie band who released an album called Californication or something ?

Red Hot Chili Peppers, although I wouldn't describe them as indie. They're pretty popular, from what I understand.

[Eldan]

"Obvious strawman is obviously made of obvious straw". Say that five times fast for extra credit.

Hey, that's pretty fair. His one is pronounced as written. Yours is in English :smalltongue:

Now for extra fun, Zuzwil, where I grew up. No, it's not prounced as written, even though it's German. Not even remotely.

[Zdrak]

To clarify, I grew up in Zhmerinka, Vinnitskaya Oblast, so I have you all beaten in that regard. But I don't run around asking people to pronounce it with an air of smug superiority. Being able to spell "California, USA" is another matter.

[Morph Bark]

"Obvious strawman is obviously made of obvious straw". Say that five times fast for extra credit.

Except he wasn't offering an argument, but a question. :smallwink:

If it came from another country, I'm not surprised. It's not like sending packages requires a high-end education where you could reasonably expect people to have decent geographical knowledge and thus know how to spell names correctly in the original language.

Except if the country's official language's alphabet used a different one from the one the geographical location uses. Like with a lot of Chinese cities. Dunno jack about their names besides their romanized forms.

[GolemsVoice]

Smörgasbröd, Smörgasbröd, Römpömpömpöm?

И я думаю, ну, Жмеринка, Винницкая област?

[Zdrak]

Very close. область

[GolemsVoice]

Damn that sign! Russian and Ukrainian are both beautiful languages, but that letter get's me every time.

[TSGames]

The Red Hot Chilli Peppers (who aren't really an indie band; moreover they're unnecessarily successful) have an album called Californication. There's also a TV show by the same name.

The rather less-well-known hip-hop outfit Above the Law had a single called Kalifornia a few years before that.

Red Hot Chili Peppers, although I wouldn't describe them as indie. They're pretty popular, from what I understand.


WWWWWHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS SSSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! (http://socalmountains.com/e107_files/public/1345239693_504_FT171692_foghorn-leghorn-thats-a-joke-son-you-missed-it-flew-right-by-ya.jpg)

[Klose_the_Sith]

Die Vereinigten Staaten?

I thought it was 'Vereinigte Staaten von Amerika' but then again, what do I know?

[Thufir]

Actually, I believe USA is spelled T-R-O-G-L-A-N-D.

[GolemsVoice]

By our powers combined, we are Die Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika!

[factotum]

Now for extra fun, Zuzwil, where I grew up. No, it's not prounced as written, even though it's German. Not even remotely.

It's not like that's confined to German. My grandparents had a holiday house in a place called Cogenhoe, which is actually pronounced something like Cug-no--always used to confuse me as a lad, that did.

[Brother Oni]

^Actually it's either 美国 or Měigǔo, depending on if you want hanzi or pinyin

And for everybody else outside of the mainland, it's 美國. :smalltongue:

[Kelb_Panthera]

Curse you all. All this talk of california and foreign language has brought to mind a creature I thought long banished.

His name is Excalibur. He appeared in the anime and manga Soul Eater.

I defy any of you to watch the episode of the show dedicated to him and not come down with a stupidity induced headache. *Takes a tylenol and lies down*

PS: I'm not 100% sure whether I'm being sarcastic or not when I say "Curse you all." It's fairly probable that I am though. :smalltongue:

[Killer Angel]

Actually, I believe USA is spelled T-R-O-G-L-A-N-D.

I know for sure that in Germany it's spelld Amerika (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y4vIzEkd6s). :smallbiggrin:

[Socratov]

Curse you all. All this talk of california and foreign language has brought to mind a creature I thought long banished.

His name is Excalibur. He appeared in the anime and manga Soul Eater.

I defy any of you to watch the episode of the show dedicated to him and not come down with a stupidity induced headache. *Takes a tylenol and lies down*

PS: I'm not 100% sure whether I'm being sarcastic or not when I say "Curse you all." It's fairly probable that I am though. :smalltongue:

seen it, hated him, went on with the anime and manga...

[Kelb_Panthera]

seen it, hated him, went on with the anime and manga...

I can't begin to describe my loathing for that odious creature. He's like a train-wreck though. It's horrible, but you can't look away, thus stupidity induced headache.

[GnomeFighter]

My wife needed a document sent to her from overseas. An original, fax isn't good enough. So she gets on the phone and makes a long distance call to whatever office that has the document, and makes her request. And I'm sitting there and doing stuff on the computer and listening with half-ear while she's talking to them. Whoever's on the other end of the line seems to speak reasonable English.

Everything goes smooth, no problem, we'll send you the document for a small nominal fee, we just need your address. She starts giving the address. She has to spell the street name, twice. Which is ok, because, hey, you want to be sure, right? I slightly raised an eyebrow when she had to spell the name of the city. Which is a rather well-known city, but oh well, I guess some people aren't that well versed in geography.

When she had to spell "California", I could hardly hold back my laughter. When she had to spell "United States", I fell off my chair.

Someone for whom English is not there first language checks they are spelling something properly... Oh what a surprise... And some Americans wonder why the rest of the world has such a low opinion of them... I'm glad I know your not all like this.

[Aedilred]

Someone for whom English is not there first language checks they are spelling something properly... Oh what a surprise... And some Americans wonder why the rest of the world has such a low opinion of them... I'm glad I know your not all like this.
Although this is true, it's generally good practice to do such investigations in your "own time" where possible rather than waste the customer's time. Asking them to spell out their name is one thing. Asking them to spell out the name of the country they live in where it's trivially Google-able is another.

[Brother Oni]

Although this is true, it's generally good practice to do such investigations in your "own time" where possible rather than waste the customer's time. Asking them to spell out their name is one thing. Asking them to spell out the name of the country they live in where it's trivially Google-able is another.

That's assuming they're at a PC and not a lobotomised terminal, or the minimum wage operator has the ability/freedom to use google and won't get fired for 'browsing the internet' while they're trying to improve their customer service skills.

Alternatively, they could just be as thick as two short planks.

[Chen]

Although this is true, it's generally good practice to do such investigations in your "own time" where possible rather than waste the customer's time. Asking them to spell out their name is one thing. Asking them to spell out the name of the country they live in where it's trivially Google-able is another.

How exactly is it trivially Google-able if you don't know how to spell it? Not to mention if English is a foreign language to them there can be pretty big differences in the ability to speak a language and to write it. For example, its pretty trivial for me to know that you generally add an S to something to make it plural. But that's not standard across all languages. Why couldn't States in "United States" not be written as Statez or Stàts or whatever. Seems perfectly reasonable to ask how to spell things if its not your native language and especially if its not the native language in your country.

For an example closer to home, imagine someone speaking french and tells you they live in Montreal, Quebec.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreal
has the french pronunciation for Montreal on it. Would it really be unreasonable to ask someone to clarify how to spell that if french wasn't your native language? Not to mention the fact its Montréal and Québec in french. Odds are the person would not know about those accents either.

[Krazzman]

I can't begin to describe my loathing for that odious creature. He's like a train-wreck though. It's horrible, but you can't look away, thus stupidity induced headache.

I'm not so sure if I should do that but...

I loved it. Couldn't nearly stop laughing at his "exploits".

Jeah we have a neighbouring "town" as part of Aachen that is written Baesweiler. The pronounciation is Bahswaila.... I go on my colleagues nerve by calling it Beehswaila... actually making the ae to ä. Irritates them and brings me fun.

[GnomeFighter]

Although this is true, it's generally good practice to do such investigations in your "own time" where possible rather than waste the customer's time. Asking them to spell out their name is one thing. Asking them to spell out the name of the country they live in where it's trivially Google-able is another.

I guess you have never worked in a call center then... Allot have proprietary systems, net access locked down and you don't have "own time". You put down the call, the next one routes through to you as soon as you hang up, or once the system sees you have closed the call. And the OP was not complaining about time wasting but laughing at someone for not knowing how to spell California...

[shawnhcorey]

Or c'est les États Unis d'Amérique.

Ou ça s'écrit États-Unis d'Amérique.

[Aedilred]

I guess you have never worked in a call center then... Allot have proprietary systems, net access locked down and you don't have "own time". You put down the call, the next one routes through to you as soon as you hang up, or once the system sees you have closed the call. And the OP was not complaining about time wasting but laughing at someone for not knowing how to spell California...
I've never worked in a call centre, but I've worked in telephone remote customer service. If I came across a location I didn't know how to spell, it was a matter of a few seconds to check the spelling online, rather than making the customer waste valuable seconds/minutes of their time spelling something out when it's the sort of thing that should be common knowledge.

Obviously there are things you should check the spelling of. But if you're asking people to spell basic, common knowledge stuff like the name of the country they live in, that doesn't tend to inspire confidence in your abilities or, by extension, those of the company you work for.

[Lentrax]

You will all be wrong soon enough when it become the United States of Zombieland.:smallbiggrin:

[Chen]

I've never worked in a call centre, but I've worked in telephone remote customer service. If I came across a location I didn't know how to spell, it was a matter of a few seconds to check the spelling online, rather than making the customer waste valuable seconds/minutes of their time spelling something out when it's the sort of thing that should be common knowledge.

Why would the spelling of a state name in another country be common knowledge? I can concede the country name should be common knowledge, though even that can be odd depending on language. I would probably have a hard time spelling Kyrgyzstan in Russian. I mean just think about England. Its not spelled phonetically. For someone who say calls is Angleterre (and isn't from continental europe) its spelling may not be obvious. If I tried spelling it like it sounds (Ingland) Google doesnt actually redirect me to England because apparently Ingland is used in other ways.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

Ou ça s'écrit États-Unis d'Amérique.

Ah, I knew there was a little thingy I was forgetting! Darn hyphens.

Yeah, I'm not surprised at all. I wouldn't expect a Russian person to know how to spell Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Especially because I don't pronounce the second T in Toronto, and pronounce it tuh-RAW-noh, or [tə.rɑ.now] with primary accent on the [ɑ] and secondary accent on the [o]. normally it'd be pronounced [tə.rɑn.tow].

Though sometimes I do pronounce it [tə.rɑ.na], tuh-RAW-nah.

I like to jokingly pronounce it [tʃræ.nə] to make fun of my own accent. Chrah-nuh. So if I accidentally slip up and call it that, there's NO WAY they'll now how to spell it.

[Zdrak]

Yeah, I'm not surprised at all. I wouldn't expect a Russian person to know how to spell Toronto, Ontario, Canada.I would, because I am.

[ForzaFiori]

Stati Uniti d'America, duh.

or, if your from where I am, 'Merica! Yes, the exclamation point IS required.

[Klose_the_Sith]

By our powers combined, we are Die Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika!

Now you're just talking crazy :smalltongue:

[GolemsVoice]

's the truth, sir. If you want to be pedantic. Most Germans actually say "USA", or Amerika, sometimes Vereinigte Staaten.

[Klose_the_Sith]

's the truth, sir. If you want to be pedantic. Most Germans actually say "USA", or Amerika, sometimes Vereinigte Staaten.

My dear old Opa called it 'Yankeeland'. I'm actually quite fond of saying Yankeeland because of him ...

[GnomeFighter]

I've never worked in a call centre, but I've worked in telephone remote customer service. If I came across a location I didn't know how to spell, it was a matter of a few seconds to check the spelling online, rather than making the customer waste valuable seconds/minutes of their time spelling something out when it's the sort of thing that should be common knowledge.

Obviously there are things you should check the spelling of. But if you're asking people to spell basic, common knowledge stuff like the name of the country they live in, that doesn't tend to inspire confidence in your abilities or, by extension, those of the company you work for.
I'm sorry, but your back to the "USA USA USA!" again. How to spell the name of a country in English is not necessarily common knowledge, as other people have pointed out. Different country's spell names differently. Checking that you have the address right, and therefor making sure something makes it to the correct place IS good customer service.

For all we know it could have been a bad line, or the OP has a very strong accent.

[Eldan]

English is a relatively simple language to speak and understand, at least simple sentences, but I can tell you, for a foreigner, your spelling is a nightmare. It makes no sense whatsoever, when half hte letters can make five or six different sounds.

[Blue1005]

미곡 is how you spell America

[Maelstrom]

미곡 is how you spell America

Rice??? Um...

[Kelb_Panthera]

English is a relatively simple language to speak and understand, at least simple sentences, but I can tell you, for a foreigner, your spelling is a nightmare. It makes no sense whatsoever, when half hte letters can make five or six different sounds.

I'm a native speaker, and even I can't agree to this. English is one of the most grammatically complex languages in the world, and it's rife with colloquialisms and borrowed words and phrases from other languages. All that applies to the spoken form, nevermind the written.

Unless you have to deal with it on a nearly daily basis for at least a period of months, english will kick your butt if you're not a native speaker.

[Astrella]

It's fairly easy to get up to a level in English where you can make yourself understandable quite easily; easier at least than any other of the foreign languages I know. English has plenty of intricacies, but perfect knowledge of those isn't needed to be able to communicate at a basic level.

[Aedilred]

I'm sorry, but your back to the "USA USA USA!" again.
I'm not American.


How to spell the name of a country in English is not necessarily common knowledge, as other people have pointed out.
If they're answering calls in English, I don't think it's unreasonable to expect them to be able to spell the name of the largest English-speaking state in the world.

Also, when it comes down to it, the name of the country can be written as "USA", which is a pretty good clue as to spelling.

Also also, when posting from a foreign country, normally you'd put the name of the destination state in the native language of origin, not of destination. The person on the phone shouldn't have needed to know the English spelling of "USA" anyway, unless they were in an English-speaking country already. In which case, oh dear.

Note that I'm not trying to argue that the level of service provided was unacceptable or whatever. Everyone has blind spots. Just that the OP can be forgiven for being surprised and amused.

[Eldan]

I'm a native speaker, and even I can't agree to this. English is one of the most grammatically complex languages in the world, and it's rife with colloquialisms and borrowed words and phrases from other languages. All that applies to the spoken form, nevermind the written.

Unless you have to deal with it on a nearly daily basis for at least a period of months, english will kick your butt if you're not a native speaker.

See, I said on a simple level. Basic level English is very simple.

"I go, you go, we go, they go" is simple in English. In German it's "Ich gehe, du gehst/Sie gehen, wir gehen, sie gehen." Or in French "Je vais, tu va/vous allez, nous allons, ils/elles vont".
"The store" translates to "der Laden, den Laden, des Ladens oder dem Laden".

So, "I go to the store" is a simple sentence you can put together from the individual words in English. "Ich gehen zu der Laden" will get you laughed at in Germany. And that's without going into gendered words. I know people who have studied German for years and lived there, and had problems with such simple sentences because of gender and case.

I speak four languages and have a bit of passing knowledge of a few others. English grammar is by far the easiest on the beginner level.

[Blue1005]

See, I said on a simple level. Basic level English is very simple.

"I go, you go, we go, they go" is simple in English. In German it's "Ich gehe, du gehst/Sie gehen, wir gehen, sie gehen." Or in French "Je vais, tu va/vous allez, nous allons, ils/elles vont".
"The store" translates to "der Laden, den Laden, des Ladens oder dem Laden".

So, "I go to the store" is a simple sentence you can put together from the individual words in English. "Ich gehen zu der Laden" will get you laughed at in Germany. And that's without going into gendered words. I know people who have studied German for years and lived there, and had problems with such simple sentences because of gender and case.

I speak four languages and have a bit of passing knowledge of a few others. English grammar is by far the easiest on the beginner level.



If you look to the left you can see my current location. I teach English, grammar and all that (before you nitpick, i don't care much about it while typing) and i can guarantee you that it is NOT easy to learn. Even dedicated students that are at my school day in and out are struggling to understand verb from noun, or today was singular and plural. So to say to the contrary is at best short sighted save you actually being the mythical babel fish and being able to majestically conquer all.

[Kelb_Panthera]

See, I said on a simple level. Basic level English is very simple.

"I go, you go, we go, they go" is simple in English. In German it's "Ich gehe, du gehst/Sie gehen, wir gehen, sie gehen." Or in French "Je vais, tu va/vous allez, nous allons, ils/elles vont".
"The store" translates to "der Laden, den Laden, des Ladens oder dem Laden".

So, "I go to the store" is a simple sentence you can put together from the individual words in English. "Ich gehen zu der Laden" will get you laughed at in Germany. And that's without going into gendered words. I know people who have studied German for years and lived there, and had problems with such simple sentences because of gender and case.

I speak four languages and have a bit of passing knowledge of a few others. English grammar is by far the easiest on the beginner level.

I don't know anything about german, but I'll bet that particular phrasing, while laughable, isn't anymore incorrect than "I go to the store." The lack of tense in that phrasing necessitates a guess based on context. The speaker could equally mean "I'm going to the store," or "I've gone to the store." The presence or absence of grocery bags would probably be the give-away.

Being multilingual is great, but I'll bet you still make little mistakes in all but your native language, and probably not-so-little mistakes in whichever of the 4 you haven't used the longest.

[willpell]

Being multilingual is great, but I'll bet you still make little mistakes in all but your native language.

I would bet most people (outside of a crowd this heavily-intellectual, at least) make occasional little mistakes even in their native tongue. It's not like most people feel compelled to maintain perfect grammatical rigor in casual conversation; most of the time, if you say "I dunno nuttin' aboudit", everyone you're talking to will know exactly what you mean, so the purpose of communication has been achieved, and most people won't sweat the details of whether you did everything absolutely right. It's cool to have a pedant or two laying around in case someone wants to go to the extra effort of getting stuff absolutely right, but the bottom line is that it often isn't necessary, and might well not be worth the investment.

[Astrella]

If you look to the left you can see my current location. I teach English, grammar and all that (before you nitpick, i don't care much about it while typing) and i can guarantee you that it is NOT easy to learn. Even dedicated students that are at my school day in and out are struggling to understand verb from noun, or today was singular and plural. So to say to the contrary is at best short sighted save you actually being the mythical babel fish and being able to majestically conquer all.

Them having problems with grammar is not a problem with English, but a general language problem. Nouns and verbs are not concepts that only appear in English after all.

[Asta Kask]

Them having problems with grammar is not a problem with English, but a general language problem. Nouns and verbs are not concepts that only appear in English after all.

However, from what I can see from Wikipedia, English and Korean inflect verbs and nouns very differently. English is a weakly flectating language, almost analytic, where word order is fairly tyrannical. Korean is an agglutinative language with a boatload of modifiers - prefixes and suffixes that changes the meaning of the word. There are no adjectives - their role is taken by a special class of verbs. Going from one to the other is not as easy as it might seem.

[Astrella]

However, from what I can see from Wikipedia, English and Korean inflect verbs and nouns very differently. English is a weakly flectating language, almost analytic, where word order is fairly tyrannical. Korean is an agglutinative language with a boatload of modifiers - prefixes and suffixes that changes the meaning of the word. There are no adjectives - their role is taken by a special class of verbs. Going from one to the other is not as easy as it might seem.

Wouldn't they have a problem with most western languages then though? Like, my point was that those things aren't English specific. (I guess I should've added "English is easier to get to a level where you're understandable than other Western languages in my experience".)

[Eldan]

Yeah. All those problems would be in German as well. Or French. Or, I'd imagine, any European language. They just add new problems on top of that.

[Razanir]

See, I said on a simple level. Basic level English is very simple.

"I go, you go, we go, they go" is simple in English. In German it's "Ich gehe, du gehst/Sie gehen, wir gehen, sie gehen." Or in French "Je vais, tu va/vous allez, nous allons, ils/elles vont".
"The store" translates to "der Laden, den Laden, des Ladens oder dem Laden".

So, "I go to the store" is a simple sentence you can put together from the individual words in English. "Ich gehen zu der Laden" will get you laughed at in Germany. And that's without going into gendered words. I know people who have studied German for years and lived there, and had problems with such simple sentences because of gender and case.

I speak four languages and have a bit of passing knowledge of a few others. English grammar is by far the easiest on the beginner level.

Out of question, which four? I speak English and a decent amount of German and Chinese. Then I know bits of Greek, French and Spanish. Next on my list to learn, though, are Latin and Quenya

[Eldan]

Oh, just what we had in school. I should say 3.5, probably. German and Swiss German doesn't really count, even if you learn them separately. French, English and some Italian, too. A few simple sentences of Spanish.

[Goosefeather]

Them having problems with grammar is not a problem with English, but a general language problem. Nouns and verbs are not concepts that only appear in English after all.

It is, however, a quirk of English that the two are often visually identical. Take the example sentence from earlier in this thread - 'store' is both a verb and a noun, and context is required to know which it is acting as in this instance. I don't have a huge number of languages to compare with, but can confirm that this ambiguity could not arise in the mainstream Romance languages, thanks to the clearly marked verb endings.

[TuggyNE]

Oh, just what we had in school. I should say 3.5, probably. German and Swiss German doesn't really count, even if you learn them separately. French, English and some Italian, too. A few simple sentences of Spanish.

This reminds me awkwardly of the old joke: What do you call someone who speaks three languages? Why, tri-lingual. How about two languages? Bi-lingual, of course. One language? They must be American.


Note that I live in California and know a smattering of Spanish.

[Maelstrom]

It is, however, a quirk of English that the two are often visually identical. Take the example sentence from earlier in this thread - 'store' is both a verb and a noun, and context is required to know which it is acting as in this instance. I don't have a huge number of languages to compare with, but can confirm that this ambiguity could not arise in the mainstream Romance languages, thanks to the clearly marked verb endings.

Sorry, but does not work that way. Yes, the infinitive of the verb may be structured, but conjugated it looses that, just as in the English example used above:

'to store' is the verb, in it's infinitive form. 'Store' is the conjugated form of said verb...so a conjugated form of the verb 'to store' and a noun are the exact same.

In French (certainly a "mainstream Romance language"), a quick and easy example is 'porter' - the infinitive form of 'carry'
Conjugate it to 'porte' (1st/3rd person present, 1st/3rd person subjunctive, imperative, take your pick) and you now have a verb the same as the noun 'porte' meaning 'door'...

But yes...going with just the title of the post, having to tell any English speaker with any modicum of the language how to spell 'USA', well that is rather odd. Having to spell out the entire 'United States of America' is a bit more understandable, though for someone fielding calls from English speaking clients I'd have to say...


This reminds me awkwardly of the old joke: What do you call someone who speaks three languages? Why, tri-lingual. How about two languages? Bi-lingual, of course. One language?

Was going to answer 'monolingual?'... and then I saw the punchline :smallamused:

[dps]

I guess you have never worked in a call center then... Allot have proprietary systems, net access locked down and you don't have "own time". You put down the call, the next one routes through to you as soon as you hang up, or once the system sees you have closed the call. And the OP was not complaining about time wasting but laughing at someone for not knowing how to spell California...

I didn't get from the OP that the person on the phone was working in a call center. I took it that they were in an office of a company that actually does business in California, but on re-reading, it's not clear. If it is the office of a company that does business in California, it's reasonble to expect that a person involved in mailing things to the state would know how to spell it. If not, if this was just a one-time thing that they would have to mail a document to California, then not so much.

Heck, I'd say it's a safe guess that many people born in the US can't correctly spell California. Though when it comes to putting things in the mail, I'd say that 99% of the time, mis-spellings in the address won't matter, at least when it comes to the city and state. It's not like you're going to mis-spell "San Fransisco" as "San Diego", and besides, the post office doesn't really even look at the city and state names unless the ZIP code isn't on the address. It would be more likely to make a difference if the street name was mis-spelled, because it might be mistaken for a different street. For example, "Main St" is a very common street name, but a city with a "Main St" might also have a "Maine St", a "Mann St" and a "Mane St".

[Eldan]

Sorry, but does not work that way. Yes, the infinitive of the verb may be structured, but conjugated it looses that, just as in the English example used above:

'to store' is the verb, in it's infinitive form. 'Store' is the conjugated form of said verb...so a conjugated form of the verb 'to store' and a noun are the exact same.

In French (certainly a "mainstream Romance language"), a quick and easy example is 'porter' - the infinitive form of 'carry'
Conjugate it to 'porte' (1st/3rd person present, 1st/3rd person subjunctive, imperative, take your pick) and you now have a verb the same as the noun 'porte' meaning 'door'...

But yes...going with just the title of the post, having to tell any English speaker with any modicum of the language how to spell 'USA', well that is rather odd. Having to spell out the entire 'United States of America' is a bit more understandable, though for someone fielding calls from English speaking clients I'd have to say...:

In German it's more often the Infinitive, those can almost always be made into nouns. Sometimes, they just mean the activity the verb describes, sometimes it meas something entirely different.