I've been reading his books since I found out who wrote Fight Club in 1999. My brain does NOT want to remember how to spell his name. It makes me feel like I have a learning disability.
I can never spell "bureaucracy" correctly without assistance. I always have to spell check it. Sometimes I can't even get close enough to spell check. I can't think of any other English words I have such trouble with.
I cannot spell bureau. It trips me up even typing it. Maybe this is the thread that will have finally jammed it into my brain. I'll get back to you in a week or so. :-)
Doesn't apply to bureau, but I'm 100% there with you for the word beautiful. I simply can't hear the word in my heard without hearing Jim Carrey spell it out.
Okay got it, that will help. I’ve just made a mental note between bureau and eau de toilette. Thanks!
Edit: this got me wondering about bureau’s etymology. It’s a strange one:
The story of the word bureau is one of substitutions. In its original French, bureau originally named a “coarse woolen cloth,” particularly baize, the green, felt-like fabric that covers card and pool tables. Historically, bureaus draped desks, desks filled offices, and offices housed the business of governmental agencies ... Etymologically, though, bureau wasn’t green. The term derives from burel, an Old French diminutive of bure, “dark brown cloth.” Bure, in turn, may be from the Latin burrus, a word for “red” and related to the “fiery” Greek root that gives English pyro. Alternatively, the Old French bure may come the Latin burra, “shaggy garment” or “flock of wool.”
Bureau appears in English in French contexts as early as 1664 for an “office” or “business,” natively established by 1720. In the 1690s, bureau harkened back to its earlier sense of “writing desk” and extended to a “chest of drawers” by 1755, which the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) notes as a chiefly American usage.
> I cannot spell bureau. It trips me up even typing it.
If it makes you feel any better, it trips me up reading it; I had to do 3 takes before my brain accepted that those letters were a word, and I still can't tell how to pronounce it. I suspect the problem is "eau"; that is a lot of vowels together for an English speaker.
I have to do bureau-cracy every time. But only after my brain tries to freehand it wrong. Usually twice. Maybe that’s the real reason I hate bureaucracies.
Beurau... no that’s not right what is it again? Buer... fuck.
> I can't think of any other English words I have such trouble with.
Probably because it's more french than english :)
Not an easy one either: English speakers have a lot of trouble with the "u" sound and "eau" pronounced "o" is far from obvious.
Yep, that's one of the main ones I can never spell either!
It sometimes help if I try to remember "bureau". bureaucracy is an organization governed by bureaus. But if I think about it too much, I just lose the ability to spell bureau too.
Is it easier to spell “bureau” itself correctly? If so, you might be able to use that as a mnemonic. You can also take the “-cracy” part from other words like “democracy”.
That's what I love about Spanish. There is this iron-clad rule that everything is spelt exactly as it's pronounced. Compared to English (or French), it's so ridiculously easy that (I sometimes think to myself) it must be a toy, not an actual human language.
And when they borrow words from other (not phonetic) languages, they just say "to hell with that spelling", and spell it in a perfectly logical way themselves.
There is an actual rule from the Real Academia that says that you can spell some imported words either as they are meant to in the original language, or as they are written. Many times they just adapt their writing, eg leader -> líder, but when an actual English word happens in Spain.. good luck at recognizing it!
It took me about one hour to understand which band we were talking about. The Eagles was spelt like 'los egles'
Something that helps me remember how to spell words is to memorize the pronunciation in German (which I studied a bit years ago). Not translating the word, actually pronouncing the English (or whatever) word as if it were German. So bureau would be "burr-eh-ah-oo" (probably not perfect but good enough). This would work in any language with consistent pronunciation.
I've been reading his books since I found out who wrote Fight Club in 1999. My brain does NOT want to remember how to spell his name. It makes me feel like I have a learning disability.