The "Things that annoy me" thread

thevictor390 said:
Yeah, I've always pronounced it the same way as it is shown on Top Gear (IIRC). The "ou" sound of "ouch" + dee. Never heard it any other way. Maybe it's pronounced differently in German?
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"Audi" isn't German, though, it's Latin and means "listen".

The predecessor of Audi was German pre-war luxury carmaker Horch, named after founder August Horch. Horch in German also means "listen".

Today's "Audi" brand name therefore is a play of words to get around the law relating to the use of the name "Horch". That was necessary because August Horch left the company after quarrels with his board and no longer possessed the right to build cars under his name.

There have been thoughts in the Volkswagen management to revive the "Horch" brand name for a luxury subsidiary, like what Mercedes does with Maybach. But as far as I know the plan has been cancelled.

So how you spell Audi, is how you spell Latin. And since no one today has the faintest idea, how the ancient Romans spelled Latin, it's merely free for interpretation these days.

OUdie or AWdie... who cares?
 
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Exact change. Just give me the damned 20 and will give you back 3.47 instead of you sitting there holding up my line counting out your nickels. Also fuck checks.... The 1950s called they want their payment method back.
 
I mentioned this in the Haiti Earthquake thread, but it annoys the piss outta me, so I'm posting it here, too:

My veins are dumb.

I'm supposed to go donate blood tomorrow. If it's successful, it'll be the first successful blood donation I've ever made. Why? Because the veins in my arms are so small that they spit needles right out, and no one can ever keep one in there long enough to get more than about 1/10th of a pint out of me. Lame.
 
MacGuffin said:
So how you spell Audi, is how you spell Latin. And since no one today has the faintest idea, how the ancient Romans spelled Latin, it's merely free for interpretation these days.
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Not exactly. While it is true that latin has been pronounced in a thousand different ways throughout the centuries, there are basically two general ways of pronouncing it, with several differences. One is a very late latin that became the official language of the Catholic Church, the other is a quite accurate reconstruction of what latin probably was during the classical period.

However, the good news is that both versions agree on the word "AUDI", which is pronounced [awdi] or [audi], or "aah-ooh-dee" for english speaking people (assuming I have made no mistake here), which is pretty similar to what Clarkson says.

Another optionis to ask "ze germans" what they say and then stick to it since it is a german car company. So... MacGuffin, it's your turn again. Settle this thing once and for all.
 
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Yeah, I didn't mean to imply the origin of the word.... but since it's a German company I figured we should go by the German pronunciation.
 
I'm all for foreign people pronouncing German words right :)

So after we're through with Audi, how about trying to pronounce "Volkswagen" right? :mrgreen:

And when we're through with car brands, let's try city names :D
 
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MacGuffin said:
I'm all for foreign people pronouncing German words right :)

So after we're through with Audi, how about trying to pronounce "Volkswagen" right? :mrgreen:

And when we're through with car brands, let's try city names :D
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Ha, ha! You are late! I already do that! :mrgreen:

The only problem is with "Hannover", which doesn't fit well in the italian word rhythm (the "H" particularly).

I also dream about people pronouncing italian names right, but I think it will remain a dream. English people, for example, can not get them right. :p
 
Topgearfanatic said:
Nice generalization there, care to provide a phonetic example of how Americans pronounce Audi.
I pronounce it how I believe it is supposed to be pronounced, backed up by hearing it pronounced the same way on Top Gear.
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Insideline tests the "owree" S6

[YOUTUBE]tq_JiCFADjc[/YOUTUBE]

The owree...
 
People that think Scotland is in England, or better yet somewhere in mainland Europe. Look at an Atlas for fuck's sake.
 
I would like to gather together everyone who writes "should/would/could of" instead of "should/would/could have" and make them write it out until they get it right, dammit. I understand the confusion--namely, that "should've" does sound like "should of"--but it is WRONG. It doesn't make any sense, FFS.

Dunno about the rest of you, but I learned my contractions in first grade (at age 6, that is, in my first year of regular school) and never had trouble using them correctly. Are there teachers out there not bothering to correct this bit of grammargh? Why are adult people writing like this?
 
^ I would suggest you go to the "When I come to Power...." thread and dream up a more suitable punishment than giving them lines!

Can I suggest a shock collar connected wirelessly to a more sophisticated spelling and grammar checker on their computer? Shocks get stronger with each uncorrected error rising to fatal. The internet would soon be rid of these morons once and for all.
 
The_Finn said:
Exact change. Just give me the damned 20 and will give you back 3.47 instead of you sitting there holding up my line counting out your nickels. Also fuck checks.... The 1950s called they want their payment method back.
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Yeah, I haven't written a check in ages, having people write out checks for 3.50 worth of stuff is maddening.
 
What stores even accept cheques nowadays? o_O AND IT'S CHEQUE FOR GOD'S SAKE, check is a verb. English, stop murdering it.

Kowalski said:
Insideline tests the "owree" S6

The owree...
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Nah, you're just not too familiar with the general American accent by the sounds of it. He says Audi. I know it took me a long time to be able to understand almost everyone in Britain.

Topgearfanatic said:
I've heard the occasional idiot pronounce it ow-dee, but for the most part I've heard it pronounced correctly.
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....that's the phoenetic form of the proper pronounciation. When you stub your toe and go "OW OW OW OW" how do you pronounce that? Surely you pronounce it "a?" as in "now" as in "audi"

SirEdward said:
However, the good news is that both versions agree on the word "AUDI", which is pronounced [awdi] or [audi], or "aah-ooh-dee" for english speaking people (assuming I have made no mistake here), which is pretty similar to what Clarkson says.
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and that's just gibberish. awdi = aww-dee. audi = ambiguous in english. aah-ooh-dee = pure gibberish: audi is two syllables, the A and U are one sound not two distinct sounds. And if you do string those together it's still not right because there's no ? in a?

SirEdward said:
I also dream about people pronouncing italian names right, but I think it will remain a dream. English people, for example, can not get them right. :p
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to be fair, place names are even spelled differently in different languages. That makes no sense whatsoever, but that's just how it is. Things should be anglicized in a way in which english speakers can pronounce them the way they should be pronounced (like Naples... how is that the same thing as Napoli? We can pronounce Napoli just fine, but in English the city is spelled Naples... honestly, wtf?) So, obviously we can't be expected to pronounce things right when we don't even spell them right. 'Tis truly 'tarded.

[edit]Or by names did you mean people's names? Because as far as foreign languages go, Italian is about the easiest to pronounce without even knowing it as long as you know a few pronounciation rules[/edit]
 
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My work computer is annoying as hell. There are several programs that give me a new bug every time I try to use them. Today it's Lotus Notes. I was trying to make a change request, and all of a sudden I get error message "Object variable not set" whenever I click anything. So I save the draft, close the program, and reopen it.

Nothing was saved. Whole last hour of my life gone, just like that.

Thanks, IBM. I hate you. :mad:
 
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