|
ESL Forum:
Techniques and methods
in Language Teaching
Games, activities
and teaching ideas
Grammar and
Linguistics
Teaching material
Concerning
worksheets
Concerning
powerpoints
Concerning online
exercises
Make suggestions,
report errors
Ask for help
Message board
|
ESL forum >
Make suggestions, report errors > No. NOT Nr.
No. NOT Nr.
|
veraviana
|
No. NOT Nr.
|
|
Hi everyone!
I �ve come across a very serious mistake several times on printables (and for me it �s serious because this is what people have been teaching their students - and I was taught the wrong way too) and I think it �s important that someone clears this confusion.
In English the abbreviation of number is not Nr. but No. Check it in your English-English dictionary and you �ll see I �m right. Don �t take it personally, please. After all, I made that mistake for a long time until I got into college and started studying to become an English teacher. One of my professors corrected me and told me that, for some reason, secondary teachers usually taught that way and he didn �t know why. I, myself, have already had sort of a �problem � with one of the teachers I �ve already worked with because she insisted on telling my students that she was the one that was right (but never confronted me). Well, I just told them to show her the dictionary page where that information was and the outcome was that she never spoke to me again. I can �t understand this atittude really. If I were her, I �d admit my mistake (after all we �re all human, right?) and thank the other teacher for the correction. But she was offended. Go figure!
Well, anyway, I hope this information is useful! It was to me. ^__^
Hugs,
Vera |
29 Aug 2009
|
|
|
|
cauffeypot
|
|
I �ve always known the abbreviation was no. I �ve never written it as nr. Maybe Nr. is a European thing. But when I was a student teacher, I had a supervising teacher tell me the correct way to write a lowercase k. The first time she told me to go fix my k, I looked at her like she had a cabbage for a head. I had no idea I �d been writing it wrong for twenty-some years. Now, I bark at my students if they don �t write the small k properly lol. That and use colored chalk was the only useful advice that woman gave me. |
29 Aug 2009
|
|
|
Jayho
|
|
This is an interesting issue.
Apparently nr is the acceptable abbreviation of number in germanic languages. It makes sense given that number begins in n and ends in r.
However, in English, according to, my faithful etymology reference, number comes from the French word noumbre / nombre hence the abbreviation no.
So, given that English is a germanic language, why do we in English widely use no and not nr?
Can anyone enlighten us?
Do you use nr or no. In Australia we use no.
Cheers
Jayho
|
29 Aug 2009
|
|
|
libertybelle
|
Well, to be honest - I have always used # for number!
L
|
29 Aug 2009
|
|
|
goodnesses
|
|
Can someone tell me what Nbr. stands for?
|
29 Aug 2009
|
|
|
arlissa
|
|
Jayho .... You �re not entirely correct in stating that English is a Germanic language. While it does have a great deal of influence from German, English has several other roots and influences. You �ll find in any English-English dictionary that many words actually came from other languages, never having stemmed from German. This seems to be the case with the word "number" and many other words. Don �t worry yourself too much about it, just accept what it is and go on. English is such a funny language, isn �t it?! :)
|
29 Aug 2009
|
|
|
goodnesses
|
|
@Artissa
Jayho is not wrong as far as the abbreviation "No." and the word "number" are concerned.
Here is what many dictionaries say:
American Heritage Dictionary
no.
no. or No.
abbreviation for
north northern.
number.
--------------------
SOED
No. abbreviation.
Latin numero ablative of numerus number.
North. US.
But you are right about the multiple origins of English.
@Vera
You are right too. however, as you can see the abbreviation "No." is not for "number" only.
Hence the purpose of my question above.
Which is to tell you that it is not as serious as you put and that very often it is the context that make the meaning of abbreviations clear.
Though I have never used "Nr." (not because I knew it from anywhere), I always used two abbreviations especially in table or charts; "No." or "N�" for ordinal numbers and "Nbr." for quantity numbers. Even if this "Nbr." does not exist really I don �t worry so much about it as Artissa says.
regards
|
29 Aug 2009
|
|
|
mariamit
|
|
Actually, "no.". for number comes from the Italian numero not from the French nombre or noumbre. Although you are right Jayho- English is a Germanic family- a great deal of the language has latin origins. To be exact this is where number comes from. It is from the Anglo-Fr. noumbre, from O.Fr. nombre, from L. numerus "a number, quantity. " According to PIE (Proto-Indo-European language s) the base form is *nem- "to divide, distribute, allot" (related to Gk. nemein "to deal out;). Unfortunately many people use nbr as an abbreviation for number and it has become somewhat acceptable, although it is not corect. English is a living language spoken by millions of people so it is continuously changing. I hope that I didn �t take up too much space but I have studied and love linguistics. It �s fascinating to see how all languages are related.
|
29 Aug 2009
|
|
|
wilwarin32
|
Hi! when at college, we had a subject, "History of the English Language", and we learnt that English is a Germanic language. Of course it was later influenced by other languages, such as latin and, especially French, but I think we are right to say that it is of Germanic origin.
As regards the abbreviations, many of them are used in their latin form. Take e.g. for instance, it �s a Latin abbreviation, coming from the words exempli gratia. I always have to explain that to my Ss, since they think I �ve mispelled the word! (In Spanish "ejemplo" takes a "j" !).
Well... just wanted to be part of this interesting thread!!!! Hugs from Argentina!
|
29 Aug 2009
|
|
|
Jayho
|
|
Wow- look how this thread has developed!
It is interesting to explore the origins of a language and those of the same family. The germanic group apparently has (had) something like 40-50 languages inlcuding Dutch, Frisian (these both are my heritage), German, Yiddish, Afrikaans, Swedish, Norwegian and English.
Yes indeed much of the vocab is from other languages but I always thought that a language family was based on linguistic features and not the actual vocab.
However, I think I read somewhere that something like 80% of the vocab in English is borrowed from other languages! Incredible. |
29 Aug 2009
|
|
|
|
|
