Wikipedia:Reference desk/Language

OP

In the French film Rust and Bone Ali takes FWB Stephanie to a nightclub then races off with another woman and she is miffed. When they meet the following day she upbraids him for his tactlessness and he replies "Je suis OP". My knowledge of colloquial French begins and ends with "d'ac" so I'm curious. Doug butler (talk) 12:28, 4 March 2026 (UTC)

Hmm, I found the word "opé" (operational, ready), but wouldn't know if that would fit in context. , . There's also the similar sounding "au pied" (to heel), but that might fit even worse. How do the subtitles translate the sentence? 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 12:39, 4 March 2026 (UTC)

The sentence from the film is indeed "Je suis OP". See the meaning above (OP=opé. same pronunciation). If you can read French see the explanations/the context here []. - AldoSyrt (talk) 12:57, 4 March 2026 (UTC)

Hmm, I might need to add some spoilers here, but the text mentions Stephanie having a wheelchair, and being "sexuellement opérationnelle" (sexually operational), so it might be related to her being "operational, functional", and having been 'surgically operated'. There's apparently a similar expression 'OP' / 'opé' in the French trans community for gender-affirming surgery, that might be related in context. 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 13:08, 4 March 2026 (UTC)

"Je suis OP" is said by Ali who is not disabled, but he might make a reference (I did not see this movie). - AldoSyrt (talk) 14:25, 4 March 2026 (UTC)

You know, like Stephanie getting angry and jealous for beeing stood up for a walking/ non-disabled person (what's the terminology?), shouting out something like "I might have a wheelchair, but I can still have sex! Wanna try me?" which at least makes sense in a French dramatic film... 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 13:14, 4 March 2026 (UTC)

So Ali is open ["opé" (operational, ready)] to deepen their FWB relationship. She's in love and he hasn't a clue, so it's significant that in the Sam crisis, she's the first person he rings. Thanks AldoSyrt, for the French language link — what a lovely resource. Doug butler (talk) 22:00, 4 March 2026 (UTC)

Ah, oh yeah, sorry, I misinterpreted it, it's a more colloquial synonym for "Je suis prêt", basically. From what I can see, it's usually spelled opé unless in cellphone texting and similar. 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 23:35, 4 March 2026 (UTC)

Minimax/A+

Good afternoon. Can anyone translate the text in this video? https:(two haypens)youtu.be/_Pm7KoYfoac?t=152&si=K8Ej3b9wXwlDwFAv at 2:31. ~2026-24671-3 (talk) 16:49, 4 March 2026 (UTC)

For convenience, text reads:

Az A+ tévécsatornán most következő animációs filmek nem ajánlottak gyermekek számára, ezért a filmeket korhatár jelzéssel láttuk el. Kérjük, figyeljen a jelzésekre!

GalacticShoe (talk) 21:43, 4 March 2026 (UTC)

Google Translate turns this into:

The following animated films on the A+ TV channel are not recommended for children, so the films have been marked with an age restriction. Please pay attention to the signs!

 ​‑‑Lambiam 22:27, 4 March 2026 (UTC)

Thanks! ~2026-24671-3 (talk) 18:20, 6 March 2026 (UTC)

A few questions

1. Can English suffixes -ic, -al, -ous and -ation be added to native Germanic English words, for example bookic, bookous, bookal and bookation? For example, can the suffix -ous pertaining to elements such as in words chlorous and sulfurous be added to element names such as gold, silver, copper, iron and tin?
2. Does English have equivalent of German Zustandspassiv (sein + past participle)? This form is used differently from normal Vorgangspassiv (werden + past participle in simple tenses, sein + past participle + worden in compound tenses).
3. Is There is he correct?
4. Which is the closest equivalent to Finnish kevättalvi? Late winter and early spring?
5. Can object pronouns be used in passive sentences in English? In Finnish, subject pronouns (usually) cannot.

--40bus (talk) 06:27, 5 March 2026 (UTC)

1. Lackadaisic(al), Icelandic, helleboric, murderous, groundation. Adding -ous to vernacular names of what are now known to be elemental substances is not conventionally done, but it is not an unlawful activity.  ​‑‑Lambiam 09:08, 5 March 2026 (UTC)

Filmic, also vampiric (Slavic) and ergotic (Gallic?); withdrawal, wintrous, and beration. And wikt:copperous ... from Latin cuprum, from Cyprus (that's where copper comes from). I'm not allowing your helleboric, it's pretty much Ancient Greek.  Card Zero  (talk) 09:33, 5 March 2026 (UTC)

I'm not sure if the -ic suffix pertaining to language groups is related to the -ic suffix that OP was asking about, though. And "Icelandic" may be a unique case from all the other "-ic" languages: most countries with "-land" have the formula for the name of their language Country name minus '-land' plus 'ish'. English "-ish" is most definitely of Germanic origin, deriving from proto Germanic -sk. But in Englisb that would mean for Iceland their language would. be called "Iceish" which would sound really stupid. So perhaps -ic - which can just as easily derive from -sk as -ish could - came about in English for that reason. ~2026-15971-79 (talk) 21:23, 13 March 2026 (UTC)

2. You can say, this plate is broken and the author is known, but this is usually analyzed as a past participle having turned into an adjective. While not that usual, you can find phrases though like the bottle was opened  with a stative sense where the bottle was open is more common.  ​‑‑Lambiam 09:44, 5 March 2026 (UTC)

3. You could say "There is he", but it would sound weird. Normally you would say "There he is." ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 10:39, 5 March 2026 (UTC)

"Werewolf?" "There, wolf. There castle." {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} ~2026-76101-8 (talk) 23:04, 5 March 2026 (UTC)

"Walk this way..." (A visual joke that goes back a lot farther than 1974.) ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 02:32, 6 March 2026 (UTC)

Blucher! MinorProphet (talk) 17:19, 10 March 2026 (UTC)

4. As it approaches the vernal equinox, it is "late winter". Shortly after the vernal equinox, it is "early spring". ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 10:42, 5 March 2026 (UTC)

There is no standard term in English for the period comprising both late winter and early spring, but "late winter/early spring" (or some typographical variant such as "late winter–early spring") is fairly common. However, unlike the Finnish approach, this can be used for the transition between any two subsequent seasons – or months, for that matter.  ​‑‑Lambiam 23:11, 5 March 2026 (UTC)

This reminds me that I need to book my Yasujiro Ozu tickets at the local film club. 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 12:28, 6 March 2026 (UTC)

Though having religious connotations, the terms Eastertide and Lententide also roughly correspond to this period. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} ~2026-76101-8 (talk) 16:04, 6 March 2026 (UTC)

I think I've seen "thaw" used as a name for the intermediate season between winter and spring. — Kpalion^(talk) 01:16, 7 March 2026 (UTC)

Note that there are two definitions of the seasons in use; meteorological seasons (which use calendar months) and astronomical seasons (which work from the equinoxes and solstices). See The difference between meteorological and astronomical seasons. Alansplodge (talk) 18:02, 8 March 2026 (UTC)

1. We have bookish but none of your suggestions are English words. We also have golden, silvery, coppery and tinny. For resembling iron, probably "iron-like" as irony is something completely different. Alansplodge (talk) 22:19, 6 March 2026 (UTC)

'Ferrous' would be used for iron. 'Ironous' would be erroneous. ~2026-15582-65 (talk) 16:02, 11 March 2026 (UTC)

If I recall correctly, 'irony' meaning 'something like iron' was used as a joke in the 'Uxbridge English Dictionary' segment of an episode of I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} ~2026-76101-8 (talk) 22:01, 11 March 2026 (UTC)

Megg Rayara Gomes de Oliveira's last name

What is Megg Rayara Gomes de Oliveira's last name? Some websites that sell books by her (Amazon) use "Gomes de Oliveira, Megg Rayara", some websites (Black Women Radicals) use "Oliveira, Megg Rayara Gomes de", some (Race and Equality dot org) use "de Oliveira, Megg Rayara Gomes". Is one of these more standard or common? Olivevert (talk) 02:04, 10 March 2026 (UTC)

Here's an old Portuguese book that treats Gomes de Oliveira as a surname. In the index it lists

Gomes de Oliveira António.
Gomes de Oliveira Manoel.

 Card Zero  (talk) 09:58, 10 March 2026 (UTC)

Presentations of the form "last name, preceding names", commonly used for collation purposes, are suitable for English names and commonly used in the Anglosphere, but may be less suitable for other naming customs.

The typical pattern of a complete Portuguese name is:

personal name(s) + mother's surname + father's surname,

in which only the last of each of the parent's two surnames is copied. However, this is not always strictly followed, and name bearers do often not use (and are not knoen by) their full names. Miguel Arraes de Alencar was the son of Maria Benigna Arraes and José Almino de Alencar e Silva; the part "e Silva" of his father's surname was dropped; he was known as Miguel Arraes, with only his mother's surname. And the full name of his daughter Ana Lúcia Arraes de Alencar does not include part of her mother's name, Célia de Sousa Leão, but copies both of her father's parental surnames. In any case, Rayara seems to be a personal (given) name, and by far the most likely is that Gomes is Megg Rayara's mother's surname and de Oliveira her father's.

Different systems of collation in the Anglosphere may have different rules for what they consider to be the "last" name of Portuguese names in presentations of the form "last name, preceding names". Perhaps the most common is to use the father's surname, which would give "de Oliveira, Megg Rayara Gomes", with the variation "Oliveira, Megg Rayara Gomes de" if the rule is used that particles like "de" are disregarded in collation. So there is no one correct answer; it depends on rules that lack a common standard. One issue in formulating such rules is that one needs to be able to distinguish surnames from given names and that one needs to know the parents' names – for the full name of Ana Arraes it should be "Arraes de Alencar, Ana Lúcia" and definitely not "Alencar, Ana Lúcia Arraes de". (For Megg Rayara, a further complicating factor is that this is commonly used as her name, also by herself, as if Rayara is a surname.) Also, one needs to know that the name is Portuguese; for Spanish names the rules are very different.  ​‑‑Lambiam 11:57, 10 March 2026 (UTC)

Looking for a non-English word

Resolved

 – Umweltkomplexitätsreduktion it is. Viriditas (talk) 01:13, 17 March 2026 (UTC)

The weather is very chaotic in the US right now. This got me studying Ventusky models. In the process of doing this, I experienced something that I can't find an English word to describe. The best way I can describe it is as follows: when I was younger, the world, the planet, seemed very large, almost too big to comprehend. But now the planet feels very small, very much like a spaceship Earth. The feeling I'm describing is somewhat the opposite of sublime, but existing antonyms don't really describe it. Surely, there's a word out there for this? I suppose what I am talking about is very similar to the overview effect, but that's not what I'm getting at. I'm talking about the feeling of the world shrinking, whereas before, it was larger. Viriditas (talk) 22:38, 13 March 2026 (UTC)

Jadedness? 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 02:09, 14 March 2026 (UTC)

They are here all night, folks. Try the veal. Viriditas (talk) 02:50, 14 March 2026 (UTC)

Should it describe how you feel, or how the planet feels to you? In the latter case, might insignificant cover it?  ​‑‑Lambiam 09:25, 14 March 2026 (UTC)

No, but you are closer than others. See below. I'm talking about a word that expresses a feeling of compression in size. Viriditas (talk) 20:42, 14 March 2026 (UTC)

Oh dear. We have an article on Weltschmerz.  Card Zero  (talk) 10:07, 14 March 2026 (UTC)

It seems that you have become part of the System. -- ~2026-16176-44 (talk) 10:15, 14 March 2026 (UTC)

Can you explain a bit more? I've given the idea some more thought based on the strange replies up above (I assumed y'all could read my mind and was disappointed). The closest I can come to describing the word is a scene from Asimov's "The Last Question", where one of the disembodied, transhuman minds zooms in and out of the original Earth, lost somewhere in the universe. Viriditas (talk) 20:46, 14 March 2026 (UTC)

It was just that your feeling that the world has become much smaller reminds me of Niklas Luhman's famous point that the main function of social systems seems to be the reduction of environmental complexity. When you're on your own you have to interface with all the elements around you - when you're embedded into a group others will take over some of that interfacing for you and thus reduce the complexity of the world around you. (That may not quite reflect your situation I'm aware)-- ~2026-16176-44 (talk) 21:18, 14 March 2026 (UTC)

Okay. So what word best describes the perception of the world getting and feeling smaller? Viriditas (talk) 21:37, 14 March 2026 (UTC)

Umweltkomplexitätsreduktion? -- ~2026-16507-03 (talk) 08:20, 16 March 2026 (UTC)

Darn tootin'. Viriditas (talk) 01:10, 17 March 2026 (UTC)

My strange reply is because you required a non-English word, implying that you wanted to be reminded of a loanword that you'd forgotten.  Card Zero  (talk) 21:39, 14 March 2026 (UTC)

I appreciate your response, but I was not referring to weltschmerz, but I see that I led you astray by pointing to sublime as the opposite. I was only using that word to capture the emotional flavor of that which was unbounded, which it appears others have mistaken for other meanings. My mistake. Viriditas (talk) 21:53, 14 March 2026 (UTC)

I still don't know why you're ruling out English words. Are you confident that you've tried them all? If you like we can coin a word and say that you have a *weltgepresst feeling, though the resonance with depressed may annoy you. People sometimes say the world is getting smaller, though this is more often said about advancements in transport and communication than in the context of weather forecasting.  Card Zero  (talk) 10:04, 15 March 2026 (UTC)

I'm ruling out English words because I don't think we should think or rely on the limitations of any one language to describe an idea. Viriditas (talk) 10:39, 15 March 2026 (UTC)

Thereby limiting the total vocabulary available. Sometimes English does have a term that is virtually untranslatable, such as smarmy. If the context is that of feeling, one can use puny, as in, "we feel puny in comparison to the size of the universe".  ​‑‑Lambiam 11:14, 15 March 2026 (UTC)

Cute, but the problem here is English itself, which is why I am looking at other languages. For whatever reason, the English language attaches negativity to ideas such as the one I described, which pollutes any idea that tries to describe it. Viriditas (talk) 15:31, 15 March 2026 (UTC)

I'd call it the Galaxy Song feeling. — Kpalion^(talk) 09:27, 17 March 2026 (UTC)

Two questions

1. Why many languages have directly adopted English term weekend instead of calquing it, such as Danish, French and Polish?
2. Is this sentence correct: This I never do. This sentence would emphasize this. --40bus (talk) 20:54, 14 March 2026 (UTC)

   @40bus:

   1. What do you suggest the Danish, French and Polish for "weekend" might be otherwise? Bazza 7 (talk) 21:18, 14 March 2026 (UTC)

   Danish: helg. French: fin de semaine. Polish: koniec tygodnia (or something similar). --40bus (talk) 21:33, 14 March 2026 (UTC)

   They do use fin de semaine in Quebec, Canada because they wanted to reduce the usage of loanwords. JuniperChill (talk) 21:48, 14 March 2026 (UTC)

   Similarly the Spanish fin de semana. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 00:14, 15 March 2026 (UTC)

   Polish uses the unadapted loanword weekend /ˈwikɛnt/ a lot. Koniec tygodnia can be more ambiguous and in some contexts it could be even understood as the end of the working week. — Kpalion^(talk) 09:17, 17 March 2026 (UTC)

   2. More likely to be "I never do this.", with this emphasized. English prefers SVO word order, which you have been informed about several times previously. Bazza 7 (talk) 21:18, 14 March 2026 (UTC)

   Are there any other of six possible orders of subject, verb and object that are commonly used in English without adding any additional words? --40bus (talk) 21:33, 14 March 2026 (UTC)

   Not replying to your follow-up, but This I never do most emphasises the 'never'. It is grammatically correct but somewhat old-fashioned; and would more usually be spoken as "I never do this." As previously mentioned, English emphasises meanings less (than some other languages) by varying word order and more by vocal emphasis. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} ~2026-76101-8 (talk) 00:06, 15 March 2026 (UTC)

   I don't think it's as simple as emphasis. This is a quote about Marienbad: Fat and thin people come here — the fat get thin, and the thin get fat. The correct thing is to walk up and down hill for hours each day. This I never do. Why the choice of word order? Elsewhere, I found the phrase used in various theological texts. It sounds calm and final, with a sagacious tone, played for comic effect in the quote.  Card Zero  (talk) 09:13, 15 March 2026 (UTC)

2. I don't think it's formally incorrect, but it comes across a bit forced. I am not a native speaker, though. 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 21:35, 14 March 2026 (UTC)

"This I never do" could be used poetically, but seldom in normal conversation except maybe to be somewhat funny. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 00:14, 15 March 2026 (UTC)

It occurs in the lyrics of Ariana Grande's "Twilight Zone". GBS also finds prose occurrences of this phrase as well as of the grammatically similar "This I rarely/often/always do".  ​‑‑Lambiam 10:41, 15 March 2026 (UTC)

2. This I disagree with (the replies by Wakuran and Baseball Bugs, not the original question). It's uncommon, but it shouldn't/wouldn't raise an eyebrow (at least my eyebrow). Clarityfiend (talk) 10:43, 15 March 2026 (UTC)

Do you disagree with the claim it occurs in the lyrics of Ariana Grande's "Twilight Zone", or that GBS finds prose occurrences of this and grammatically similar phrases? Or do you disagree with my replying at all?  ​‑‑Lambiam 11:35, 15 March 2026 (UTC)

Wrong indentation. Clarityfiend (talk) 11:37, 15 March 2026 (UTC)

The phrase/sentence "This I find shocking" is used with some frequency, such as by The Sunday Times (behind a paywall but visible in a search), etc. Clarityfiend (talk) 11:34, 15 March 2026 (UTC)

1. In the Abrahamic tradition, the first day of the week is Sunday, and in many cultures it still is (or until fairly recently was) considered so. Calquing weekend in the locally dominant language for a period comprised of the end of one week plus the start of the next week may have felt strange. In some cases, the language already had a term for Saturday + Sunday long before English, like Greek, inheriting its term from Byzantine Greek σαββατοκυριακόν.  ​‑‑Lambiam 11:29, 15 March 2026 (UTC)

1. Although a six day week was a standard in most industrial nations until the late 19th century. The idea of not working on Saturday (initially only Saturday afternoon) emerged in the 1890s in the north of England, partly because football matches were played then. Hence the reason that the English term was loaned into several other languages. Alansplodge (talk) 15:55, 15 March 2026 (UTC)

Dutch borrowed the word weekend in the first quarter of the 20th century (source: Van Dale etymological dictionary) and uses it alongside the calque weekeind(e). The form weekend (Dutch pronunciation /'ʋik.ɛnt/) has the slight disadvantage of forming a homophone with limited confusion risk with wiekend, the tip of the sail of a windmill or the tip of a rotor blade of a wind turbine or helicopter. That, and keeping the Dutch /e/ vowel of week, may have been reason to prefer the calque. PiusImpavidus (talk) 17:07, 15 March 2026 (UTC)

Monday morning conversation in a Dutch workplace. "Where is Jan? He is never late for work, not even after the /'ʋik.ɛnt/. – Didn't you hear? The poor sod got hit by a /'ʋik.ɛnt/."  ​‑‑Lambiam 11:38, 16 March 2026 (UTC)

Tibetan Buddhist debating

I am editing a transcript of a discussion about Tibetan Buddhist debating. I haven't been able to track down a spelling for the word heard by the transcriber as "tarksay" (or "tarkshay"). I assume it's a Tibetan term. "They have sort of stylized debates just to perfect their knowledge of the teaching and sharpen their wits. This is called (?)tarksay and it is also included in their examinations for their Geshe’s degree when they pass out from one of the big monastic colleges. The Gelugpas attach very great importance to this ?tarksay." Any suggestion would be appreciated. Shantavira|^{feed me} 09:12, 15 March 2026 (UTC)

Probably rtags gsal. Based on what I read at Lhasa Tibetan § Phonology, I think this may well be heard like "tarksay". Here the "phonetics" are given as taksel, while the Wikipedia article says that syllable-final /l/ is often realized as a lengthening of the preceding vowel.  ​‑‑Lambiam 10:17, 15 March 2026 (UTC)

I hope nobody uses its resemblance to "talk-say" to posit a link or loaning between English and Tibetan, or something. I've seen worse in pseudo-linguistics. {The poster formerly knwn as 87.81.230.195} ~2026-76101-8 (talk) 22:59, 16 March 2026 (UTC)

It would provide an example of "hear-say".  ​‑‑Lambiam 10:24, 17 March 2026 (UTC)

Mongolian

What are the two forms of Mongolian used in the translations of the UDHR preamble here ("Хүмүн бүри төрүжү…", "Хүн бүр төрж…")? ~2026-16491-33 (talk) 05:33, 16 March 2026 (UTC)

Wiktionary has a Mongolian entry for just one of the words in the first Cyrillic text, бар, but with a meaning ("tiger") that does not fit. On the other hand, Wiktionary has entries for many of the words in the second Cyrillic text. For the first of these words, хүн, Wiktionary states that it is inherited from Classical Mongolian kümün, which fits the first word of the first Cyrillic text. A similar situation holds for the later word нэр, said to be inherited from Classical Mongolian ner-e. So a reasonable guess is that the first text is Classical Mongolian. The text in the traditional Mongolian script corresponds with this Classical Mongolian version, whereas the two audio recordings are of the second version, in contemporary Mongolian.  ​‑‑Lambiam 11:29, 16 March 2026 (UTC)

Questions

1. How common is it to use 24-hour clock in weather forecasts in the US?
2. Do English speakers associate some times in 24-hour clock with year numbers? For example, would 20:26 bring year 2026 to mind? Would they e.g. hold a minute of silence at 19:45 on the anniversary of VE Day?
3. Is the phrase o'clock ever used with 24-hour clock, such as nineteen o'clock?
4. Is 0:01 spoken as oh oh one?
5. If rake is pronounced as [reɪ̯k], race as [reɪ̯s] and rage as [reɪ̯d͡ʒ], then how would [reɪ̯g] be spelled?
6. Why word phrase is not spelled frase?
7. Is there any language where letter combination ⟨oe⟩ is pronounced /ø/?
8. Are there any words in English that end in /h/ sound? In Finnish, most such words are interjections, and for a pattern hVh exists a word from every vowel: hah, heh, hih, hoh, huh, hyh, häh and höh.
9. Is there any language where ⟨ya⟩ is pronounced as a diphthong [y̯a]?
10. Is there a name in English for a period comprising both the last days of a month that ends and the first days of a month that starts, like Finnish e.g. maalis-huhtikuun vaihde?
11. Is it possible to say already yesterday, such as I did already yesterday? In this sentence, already forms a constituent with yesterday, rather than the verb.

--40bus (talk) 05:12, 17 March 2026 (UTC)

1. Not very.

2. Only as a joke.

3. Seldom.

4. It could be.

5. Probably rague.

6. It's from Greek.

11. "Are you going to the store?" "I did already, yesterday." ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 06:43, 17 March 2026 (UTC)

7: German. It's normally spelled ö, but oe is acceptable and commonly used in some proper nouns or when there's a technical reason not to use the Umlaut. PiusImpavidus (talk) 09:36, 17 March 2026 (UTC)

5. The -gue ending implies that the word passed through French, as in vague and rogue. I'm amused that you'd reach for silent letters instead of spelling the word *raig, as in raid, rail, and rain.  Card Zero  (talk) 17:34, 17 March 2026 (UTC)

4. The usual format for times on the 24-hour clock is dd:dd, so one minute past midnight would normally be written as 00:01, most likely pronounced like zero-oh-one.  ​‑‑Lambiam 10:16, 17 March 2026 (UTC)

In Finnish, leading zeros are rarely used and 0:01 is pronounced nolla nollayksi. --40bus (talk) 13:01, 17 March 2026 (UTC)

7. Also in French when the digraph œ cannot be used for technical reasons, as in "oeuf". --KnightMove (talk) 15:19, 17 March 2026 (UTC)

It is not entirely accurate. In standard French (France) bœuf (or boeuf) is pronounced \bœf\. But the plural form bœufs (or boeufs) is prononced \bø\. The same for œuf/œufs, but you could also say œufs (plural): \œf\. In fact, letter "o" is not pronounced, it's an etymological letter. bœuf from latin bŏvem (<- bos) and œuf from latin ovum. - AldoSyrt (talk) 18:17, 17 March 2 026 (UTC)

I guess you meant another letter than "o"? "s"? 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 21:58, 17 March 2026 (UTC)

I don't get your question. In French the letter "s" as a mark of plural (at the end of a word) is almost never pronounced. If œuf(s) were spelled euf(s) it would be pronounced in the same way and the French language would be simpler to spell and to learn. - AldoSyrt (talk) 07:57, 18 March 2026 (UTC)

but euf could also be pronounced like French "uf", German "üff", couldn't it? -- ~2026-17002-63 (talk) 09:59, 18 March 2026 (UTC)

No French word with the trigram "euf" pronounced \yf\ comes into my mind. There are very few words with the digram "eu" pronounced \y\. Eu, eue, eus, eues, eut and eût from the verb avoir are all pronounced \y\. - AldoSyrt (talk) 13:01, 18 March 2026 (UTC)

Ah, now I get you. The digraph 'eu' and the trigraph 'oeu' would be pronounced the same. 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 22:18, 18 March 2026 (UTC)

Is bœufs ever pronounced /bœf/? --40bus (talk) 21:10, 17 March 2026 (UTC)

No, not by Francophone speakers.  ​‑‑Lambiam 21:42, 17 March 2026 (UTC)

Plural forms that are shorter than their singular forms (in speech, although not in text) are apparently very rare, cross-linguistically. 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 21:58, 17 March 2026 (UTC)

7 Addendum: Cf. Goethe, in Fraktur there often were no Umlauts for majuscules until the 20th century, cf. Karl May's "Der Oelprinz". Even in written language <Oe> was used. The Duden explicitly admonished this practise: "Über die Trennpunkte. - Ä, Ö, Ü, nicht Ae, Oe, Ue" (Ä, Ö, Ü, not Ae, Oe, Ue, Duden 1926, p. XXV)--~2026-16889-29 (talk) 16:07, 17 March 2026 (UTC)

10 - How about the turn of the month? Of course that leaves it somewhat open how narrow or wide a time interval is meant. -- ~2026-17002-63 (talk) 16:29, 18 March 2026 (UTC)

Quarry quarry quarry

Fuente de Petróleos, a current Did You Know, says that the monument features a "quarry pillar", linking the word to our quarry article which is about quarries, the main source of building stone. In the sidebar it list "quarry" as the medium, again linking to the article, and later on it speaks of another part being made out from "quarry stone", linking for a third time so that we can again check what a quarry is and reassure ourselves that the stone wasn't found in a forest or the sea.

Would it be wrong of me to change all these to say stone, or is quarry a technical term in monumental sculpture?  Card Zero  (talk) 14:55, 18 March 2026 (UTC)

My suggestion is to describe the pillar as "a pillar of quarried stone". This article on the fountains of Mexico City states for almost everything it describes that it is (de) cantera, so this aspect is, apparently, of some significance to Mexican culture. But there is no point in overlinking.  ​‑‑Lambiam 16:14, 18 March 2026 (UTC)

Thank you, cantera led me to es:Cantera#En_México where it says (translated) "In Mexico, a specific type of volcanic rock (volcanic tuff) characteristic of several regions of the country is also known as quarry." I edited the article accordingly, but couldn't steal the es wiki's references, because it has none.  Card Zero  (talk) 18:22, 18 March 2026 (UTC)

Why does “the” imply totality here?

Consider the following two sentences.

”Four inner planets are Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars.”

“The four inner planets are Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars.”

Including the word “the” in the second sentence implies that the listed examples are the entirety of the set being discussed in a way that the first sentence does not. Why is this? Primal Groudon (talk) 19:36, 18 March 2026 (UTC)

See definite article and Definiteness for a start. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 20:01, 18 March 2026 (UTC)