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english grammer question

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Nifty Lee

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Feb 27, 2002, 5:05:24 PM2/27/02
to
this question is tricky to ask, because the question asks how to write a
certain sentence. what I am about to write is the incorrect way to write
the sentence. what I am asking is the correct way to write the sentence:

"There are three twos in the English language."

what do you do to represent all three twos (or tos or toos)? it boggles my
mind... please help..

~Al


Gary Vellenzer

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Feb 27, 2002, 6:52:46 PM2/27/02
to
In article <DMcf8.5$g84.6...@newnews.cc.stevens-tech.edu>,
nift...@yahoo.com says...

Whenever you come to an impasse like this, recast the sentence. "There
are three words pronounced 'too' in the English language..." not only
avoids the problem but also make the sense clearer.

Gary

Simon R. Hughes

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Feb 27, 2002, 7:04:21 PM2/27/02
to
Thus Spake Nifty Lee:

Easy. There is no one simple sentence that can express the thought
in English.
--
Simon R. Hughes -- http://www.geocities.com/a57998/subconscious/
<!-- Lots to write; nothing to say. -->

John Emery

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Feb 27, 2002, 7:10:56 PM2/27/02
to

----------
In article <DMcf8.5$g84.6...@newnews.cc.stevens-tech.edu>,
"Nifty Lee" <nift...@yahoo.com> wrote:

That's what IPA is for. All three of "to", "too", and "two" are
pronounced /tu/.

BTW this is not grammar, it's phonetics.

Nifty Lee

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Feb 27, 2002, 8:12:36 PM2/27/02
to
thanks for the advice

can i write:
"There are three /tu/s in the English language."

Thanks for your help,
~Al


Brian

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Feb 27, 2002, 8:26:34 PM2/27/02
to
in article DMcf8.5$g84.6...@newnews.cc.stevens-tech.edu, Nifty Lee at
nift...@yahoo.com wrote on 2/27/02 2:05 PM:

You could try: There are three words that sound like 2 in the English
language.

Brian


john smith

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Feb 27, 2002, 8:27:46 PM2/27/02
to

It's simple. "English has three different words pronounced 'two'." The
final word can be spelled any of the three ways. It makes no difference.
The meaning is the same.

Now, don't you feel silly for dragging out this moth-eaten so-called
"riddle" which is actually as easy as pie?

\\P. Schultz

Charles Riggs

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Feb 27, 2002, 11:56:14 PM2/27/02
to

Gary's solution,"There are three words pronounced 'too' in the English
language", contains more information and can be understood by all
instead of the, perhaps, one out of a thousand who have bothered to
learn IPA.

Charles Riggs

Nifty Lee

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Feb 28, 2002, 12:08:29 AM2/28/02
to
my high school junior english teacher assigned this as the ultimate extra
credit project and insists that there is one correct answer that can be
written in the form i had previously provided (without changing the word
order or anything) we tried using the number '2'. nope...

that was three years ago. i'm in college now, but curiousity has gotten the
better of me... your continued input is greatly appreciated

thanks
~Al

Best answer thus far (i think anyway...:) ):

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