On Sat, 8 Oct 2011 19:37:03 +0000 (UTC)
Camaleón<noelamac@gmail.com> wrote:
On Sat, 08 Oct 2011 19:25:03 +0200, Tony van der Hoff wrote:
On 06/10/11 17:33, Camaleón wrote:
OTOH, I dunno how Claws manages this,
Camaleón, I know English isn't your first language, although you
write it extremely well. I hope, therefore, that you won't take
offence at my picking you up on the ghastly contraction "dunno".
The correct usage is "I don't know".
I didn't know using "dunno" was incorrect, I mean, when using a
casual language like the one it happens on a mailing list such
this :-?
When I'm not sure about a word (which happens more times than I'd
like), I query several sources, like "Google translate" or the Oxford
dictionary and in both appears as a proper/valid term:
http://translate.google.com/#en|es|I%20dunno
http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/dunno
But I'm always willing to learn, so may I ask why you find its usage
ofensive or not appropiate? I'm curious.
(feel free to e-mail me directly to avoid people gets angry for
filling up the list with more and more Off-Topic questions...)
I'll probably get mightily flamed for this, but it makes me bristle
every time I see it!
I will try to get used to a more polite speaking, but I will have to
discard from my mind all that "AFAIK, IIRC, AFAICT...", which make me
write a bit faster and do less typos ;-)
I don't think it's a matter of politeness, and I doubt that Tony is
offended, but its usage in Britain is usually by, how can I put this,
lazy people who can't be bothered to speak clearly, who might say 'fink'
rather than 'think', because the 'th' sound is slightly harder to make.
'Dunno' is the vaguely sullen one-word answer that a small boy might
give when asked 'who broke the window?', while looking down and kicking
the ground.
In print, they might splatter their text with 'ur' for 'your', and '4'
and 'm8', the sort of abbreviations we see in Windows forums. A bit
more than just 'casual', but certainly not offensive.
We all build up a sort of picture of each other, and all we have to go
on is the style of writing: your English (and abbreviations) are
generally of a much higher standard, and if someone were speaking to me
face-to-face in your usual writing style, and dropped in 'dunno', it
would sound strange. A bit like the Queen saying it in her Christmas
message.
But it's no big deal, you're not being rude to anyone.