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MVS posting standards:Sentences, Paragraphs, Punctuation, No text talk Please

Help, Advice and DIY Tutorials on Volvo's P80 platform cars -- Volvo's 1990s "bread and butter" cars -- powered by the ubiquitous and durable Volvo inline 5-cylinder engine.

1992 - 1997 850, including 850 R, 850 T-5R, 850 T-5, 850 GLT
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Offshoregrass
Posts: 18
Joined: 22 August 2012
Year and Model: V70 2004
Location: Quebec

Re: Use proper English, please

Post by Offshoregrass »

matthew1 wrote:I'm so glad to know I'm not the only one who feels this way. English is a great language - artistic and articulate. We better everyone when we use it well.

Doesn't sound as good as French or Spanish to my ear, but better than Flemish!

.

Oh good sir, may I ask you what is wrong with flemish? Nie goe genoeg voe joe? (not good enough for you?)

This only proves one thing. No matter what you do or don`t do, no matter what you say or don`t say. You can be sure that you will always leave someone offended somewhere. (demonstrated already earlier in this thread)

That being said I agree 100% on the post. Writing properly and clearly helps everybody visiting this site. It makes it easier to search the site to see if a problem has been posted and solved already. It makes understanding the posted issue so much easier resulting in more and faster answers and if it doesn`t solve their car related problems then at least it gives a boost to their language skills. Something we can all use one from time to time, including me.

A semi-disgruntled flemish speaker in Quebec.

Laird_Scooby
Posts: 15
Joined: 18 June 2012
Year and Model: 740 GLE estate, 1989
Location: Cambs, UK

Post by Laird_Scooby »

Offshoregrass wrote:
matthew1 wrote: Doesn't sound as good as French or Spanish to my ear, but better than Flemish!
A semi-disgruntled flemish speaker in Quebec.

Therein lies the rub!
Cheers,

Dave

1989 Volvo 740 GLE auto estate
1994 Rover Sterling 827 auto saloon (that's a Sterling 827 to members the "wrong" side of the pond! ;) )

mathieu_p
Posts: 9
Joined: 14 January 2013
Year and Model: 1997 S70R
Location: Home of Heineken

Post by mathieu_p »

matthew1 wrote:Non-English speakers are not held to this standard.

Please use proper English. That means starting sentences with Capital letters, using "one" instead of "1", ending sentences with periods, breaking thoughts into paragraphs, etc. This requirement is in the forum rules which you were required to read and agree to when you registered for your account at MVS.

This is a highly technical board with highly skilled people reading and contributing to it, so we need to keep the level of the only means of transfer of information to one another at a reasonably understandable level.

Writing is all we have (plus the occasional photo).


Thanks,
Matt
Owner/Admin
I fully agree with this, but I apologise in advance for making a mistake. I am from the beautiful country of Holland and sometimes we speak (and write) netherlish or angtherlands. That is bad english, I know, but I try to write in the best english I can.
Volvo for Life 340/440/480/S40/S70R/XC90 V8 next?
Born and raised in Holland, lives where Heineken is brewed.

Laird_Scooby
Posts: 15
Joined: 18 June 2012
Year and Model: 740 GLE estate, 1989
Location: Cambs, UK

Post by Laird_Scooby »

I might have this wrong but i think the original post was aimed at people who were being deliberately lazy with punctuation etc, not people such as yourself where English isn't your first language.

In the experience i've had on this and other fora, very often it's people such as you that write English as it should be written. We have a saying in England - "Familiarity breeds contempt". In other words because we use the language day after day, we become lazy and as such don't always use correct English.
Cheers,

Dave

1989 Volvo 740 GLE auto estate
1994 Rover Sterling 827 auto saloon (that's a Sterling 827 to members the "wrong" side of the pond! ;) )

boxerr
Posts: 2
Joined: 4 February 2013
Year and Model: v70 2002
Location: Chatham, Kent, GB

Post by boxerr »

Hand brake, somtimes refered to as the screem leaver. GB
Parking brake USA
Paul (tho) boxerr

Laird_Scooby
Posts: 15
Joined: 18 June 2012
Year and Model: 740 GLE estate, 1989
Location: Cambs, UK

Post by Laird_Scooby »

boxerr wrote:Hand brake, somtimes refered to as the screem leaver. GB
Parking brake USA
Paul (tho) boxerr
Often also referred to as the Emergency Brake in the USA too. Usually in most Haynes Owners Workshop Manuals there is a translation chart with a good few GB/USA translations e.g.

Sill = Rocker Panel
Bulkhead = Firewall
Transmission = Whole Drive Line

Just a couple i (think i can) remember as i'm too lazy to lift my nearest Haynes manual up from the floor and search for the page!
Cheers,

Dave

1989 Volvo 740 GLE auto estate
1994 Rover Sterling 827 auto saloon (that's a Sterling 827 to members the "wrong" side of the pond! ;) )

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850 LPT
Posts: 1961
Joined: 27 May 2011
Year and Model: 96' 850
Location: CT
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Post by 850 LPT »

This has been a sensitive issue for me as well, because English (or American English) is not my first language. I grew up in Germany and learned English (British Oxford English as they called it) in school). Then after coming to the US that got all mixed up quite a bit, and although I feel quite comfortable now, it is sometimes not easy expressing things in a sensible manner. Especially in forums (fora?) such as this one, I'm very conscious about not trying to be funny or try to express things in ways I would have used in my old country. It would often likely be seen as plain weird :oops:

Greetings, Dirk
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Laird_Scooby
Posts: 15
Joined: 18 June 2012
Year and Model: 740 GLE estate, 1989
Location: Cambs, UK

Post by Laird_Scooby »

Dirk - fora is one of the strange quirks of the English language we Brits have to live with. As far as i'm aware, American English uses forums as the plural of forum (someone please correct me if that's wrong) so on a multi-national forum such as this, i would say that within reason anything goes as long as it is correct in some part of the world.

I think the person who started the thread was more interested in getting people to use correct capital letters at the start of sentences, full stops (periods in USA - periods in the UK refers to part of a womans fertility cycle!), paragraphs etc rather than writing in an un-structured manner with no punctuation, capitals etc.

Something i've found is that humour very rarely "travels" - living near to 2 well known US Air Force bases in the UK and as such having met quite a few Americans, i can honestly say that for the most part they don't really get our humour and we don't get theirs - obviously there are exceptions but not many!
Cheers,

Dave

1989 Volvo 740 GLE auto estate
1994 Rover Sterling 827 auto saloon (that's a Sterling 827 to members the "wrong" side of the pond! ;) )

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regent
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Post by regent »

Something i've found is that humour very rarely "travels" - living near to 2 well known US Air Force bases in the UK and as such having met quite a few Americans, i can honestly say that for the most part they don't really get our humour and we don't get theirs - obviously there are exceptions but not many!
No wonder why I didn't get any of that either... :lol:
Example of Precision: Measure with a Micrometer, mark it with Chalk, and then cut it with an Axe.
Disclaimer: We (very) seldom do that

2015 BMW 335i
2015 XC60 T5 Premier Plus
2002 S60 2.4 n/a - retired :(
1987 340 DL - retired :(

Laird_Scooby
Posts: 15
Joined: 18 June 2012
Year and Model: 740 GLE estate, 1989
Location: Cambs, UK

Post by Laird_Scooby »

regent wrote:
Something i've found is that humour very rarely "travels" - living near to 2 well known US Air Force bases in the UK and as such having met quite a few Americans, i can honestly say that for the most part they don't really get our humour and we don't get theirs - obviously there are exceptions but not many!
No wonder why I didn't get any of that either... :lol:

Classic example! That wasn't a joke!
Cheers,

Dave

1989 Volvo 740 GLE auto estate
1994 Rover Sterling 827 auto saloon (that's a Sterling 827 to members the "wrong" side of the pond! ;) )

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