Pressure relief ball

[Steve kay]

"Amant" is not the name of an East German two stroke. No editing of punctuation marks will be carried out on this comment.

[Chris KC]

Nick, I always thought that the ablative case was a matter of declension rather than conjugation.

I'm no cunning linguist, however I do have a very vivid memory of a giant of a man swinging his arm in a massive circle whilst bellowing out "nominative, vocative, accusative, generative, dative, ablative..." and us all chanting back "amo, amas, amat..." beyond that is lost in the mists of time.

I'm fairly certain conjugation is the term for varying the endings of a verb according to person (I, you (singular), they (singular) we, you (plural) they (plural), where as declension is what one does when one finally arrives at one's destination and can finally take relief in the conveniences.

To steal a line form another forumnist, "I'll get my hat"

That sounds uncannily like the late Aubrey Scrace - or were they all taught that approach at teacher college?

[Robert Leigh]

To continue the pedantry I thought that 'they' is plural whereas 'he, she or it' is singular.

[Chris KC]

To continue the pedantry I thought that 'they' is plural whereas 'he, she or it' is singular.

Robert, not if the 'PC' brigade have their way...

[Nick Lettington]

To continue the pedantry I thought that 'they' is plural whereas 'he, she or it' is singular.

Thanks Robert. I stand corrected, hence my nervousness over punctuation! 

I  will write it out 100 times after class.

It's been a very long time.

Chris KC, I suspect it is an ageless tradition. I don't remember the master's name any more than he, she, it... but when I moved from Reading to Colchester,  my physics teacher set me the same piece of work that I'd done the term before in Reading. The new teacher had been a pupil of my former teacher Vic Payne some years previously and had kept the worksheet. It's a very small world!

[Chris Garner]

" Genitive " Nick, not generative.
My Latin master was our school's headmaster. When Nottingham Forest won the FA Cup playing Luton Town he taught us to say " Up the Reds and down the Hatters " in Latin. As Hatters was untranslateable into Latin, he used the word " Helmeters. " I've always found my grounding in Latin very useful in later life.

[Charles P]

I've always found my grounding in Latin very useful in later life.

Conversely I gave up Latin after 7 years, the year before my O Levels so that I could take Design and Technology.

I've never found my 7 years of Latin of any practical use, whereas being taught to use a lathe and weld of great utility and satisfaction.

[Chris KC]

I feel we may be taking "thread drift" off the map... However I must remark that language skills in general are chronically undervalued in the profession of engineering in the UK. As a new graduate working for a vehicle manufacturer in the 80's I quickly found myself dispatched to monthly management-level meetings in France because none of the UK-based management team could muster schoolboy French; and yet I was denied the opportunity to continue French at A-Level and forced to study chemistry instead (which is no use to anybody...) Over the years I witnessed several appalling engineering "howlers" resulting from careless use of language or shoddy translation. Today's engineering teams are truly international in character (albeit not many ancient Romans) and the ability to communicate clearly across linguistic and cultural barriers is the No.1 job skill.

[jpsmit]

I feel we may be taking "thread drift" off the map... However I must remark that language skills in general are chronically undervalued in the profession of engineering in the UK. As a new graduate working for a vehicle manufacturer in the 80's I quickly found myself dispatched to monthly management-level meetings in France because none of the UK-based management team could muster schoolboy French; and yet I was denied the opportunity to continue French at A-Level and forced to study chemistry instead (which is no use to anybody...) Over the years I witnessed several appalling engineering "howlers" resulting from careless use of language or shoddy translation. Today's engineering teams are truly international in character (albeit not many ancient Romans) and the ability to communicate clearly across linguistic and cultural barriers is the No.1 job skill.

You just reminded me of my uncle, born and raised in Holland but spent his entire career as a professor of mechanical engineering in Canada. He also consulted on some significant projects (think the vibrations on the CN tower). He was a schemer and would typically combine trips back to the home country with a few lectures so that he could write off the trip. One of these times he did a lecture on valves, but being unable to remember the dutch word used the english 'valve' for the entire lecture. First question at the end: 'what's a valve?' 

[Alan]

It’s easy for other language speakers, but if you are British, which language do you learn as a second one? In the course of my career I’ve had to be proficient in three other tongues. French I learned at school. Italian and German I picked up along the way. However, I’m ashamed to say that most of the French German and Italian professionals I came across spoke better English than I do.