The Terminator

fluffyhamster · Post by **fluffyhamster** » Sun Mar 13, 2005 10:11 am

From languagehat:

Great blog!! This kind of un-English exists because the Dutch think that they (That is, we) know English. We don't. We just speak Dutch with English words, and sometimes just English-sounding will do...Just an example (and I stop there because Dunglish is a very popular small-talk subject an any party and any Dutch person could go on & on about it),a howler very frequently heard in trains approaching their terminal: "In a few minutes we will arrive at The Hague Central Station...This train will terminate here." It is amazing that The Hague Central Station stil stands with all those trains apparently all exploding there.

http://www.languagehat.com/archives/001781.php

Nothing wrong with that use of 'terminate', is there? Kind of ironic that a Dutch person is saying the Dutch don't know English by criticizing what seems to actually be very much a correct use of a word.

lolwhites · Post by **lolwhites** » Sun Mar 13, 2005 12:29 pm

It's interesting that in the UK you are more likely to hear This train terminates here as you pull into the final station. Of course both are correct for reasons we've discussed about a zillion times on this forum.

fluffyhamster · Post by **fluffyhamster** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 2:34 am

And what reasons would those be, lol?

fluffyhamster · Post by **fluffyhamster** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 2:34 am

fluffyhamster · Post by **fluffyhamster** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 2:35 am

fluffyhamster · Post by **fluffyhamster** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 2:35 am

lolwhites · Post by **lolwhites** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 8:22 am

Ask Larry Latham or Stephen Jones