Look what you lot have done to my language :mad:

[mosiddiqi]

OH DEAR LORD...... that traffic circle has stop lights to enter and stop lights around the circle?!?!?!? The whole point of traffic circles is to ELIMINATE stop lights.

That's how they used to be..no lights. Then, when they realised what a shit way it was of controlling traffic, as drivers didn't seem to understand the concept of "right of way" they put lights up at all major roundabouts here now I think. (All the ones I've seen anyway).

 

[the_huge]

Every time I go back to Florida and see giant yellow road signs reading "HUMP", I have to facepalm.

 

[baimun]

That's how they used to be..no lights. Then, when they realised what a shit way it was of controlling traffic, as drivers didn't seem to understand the concept of "right of way" they put lights up at all major roundabouts here now I think. (All the ones I've seen anyway).

On the bright side, at least all traffic is flowing in the same directions. We have some weird 5 road intersections where people will get out into the intersection and stop, then the light changes for a different direction, but then people won't let the stranded guy move and the whole thing locks up and horns start blaring instead of just letting the guy get out of the intersection.... and then someone from the other direction forces their way through the next red light because "they've waited long enough and were close enough to the intersection while it was green" and pandemonium breaks out.

 

[BlackCat]

Stoops.

 

[Jbird]

I thought a Stoop was a football coach?

 

[Dogsinplastic]

Stoops.

Classic nice ones at that.

 

[Denverdave]

That's how they used to be..no lights. Then, when they realised what a shit way it was of controlling traffic, as drivers didn't seem to understand the concept of "right of way" they put lights up at all major roundabouts here now I think. (All the ones I've seen anyway).

Seriously? Wow. When I lived near Madrid they had a few doozies in the middle of the city there...five lanes across.

 

[Gary Blanchard]

Anyone here watch the show, America's Secret Slang? It is interesting to learn where much of what we say comes from.

 

[Kerouac]

we had a lot of them in Colorado, which is probably why i refer to them as roundabouts.

 

[Poparad]

This is how everyone here says it.

Also the map has most of Ohio saying "traffic circle" which I have never heard in my life. Every time I have heard the term used it has been roundabout.

I live up in Akron and we call all of them "traffic circles."

What's wrong with "the lawn needs mowed," anyway? How else would you say it?

 

[micwalt]

I love how Prages says "the lawn needs mowed", too

Man, that one freaks me out. In that sentence, "mowed" would be the object--but a past participle can't be a noun. You have to either use the gerund form ("mowing") or the infinitive ("to be mowed").
Pardon the grammar geek out.

 

[Alex W]

I live up in Akron and we call all of them "traffic circles."

What's wrong with "the lawn needs mowed," anyway? How else would you say it?

Lots of Ohio peeps on these forums! You are about an hour away from me.

 

[Alex W]

Man, that one freaks me out. In that sentence, "mowed" would be the object--but a past participle can't be a noun. You have to either use the gerund form ("mowing") or the infinitive ("to be mowed").
Pardon the grammar geek out.

Wouldn't "mowed" be past tense, and "mown" be past participle?

 

[BoomBoomBigelow]

Conjugating basic verbs such as "to be" and "to do" seems not to have been taught in school in these parts.
Hurt my ears when I first moved here.

"We was thinking the door needs fixed."
"He done that."
"Well that's not what I would have did."

 

[goodusername]

BTW -- goodusername; your avatar is frightening...

Why, thank you good Sir. *preens*

Anyways, you lazy fuckers didn't investigate the link supplied did you. You're still going on about roundabouts (That's what they're called, we invented them, we get to name them. piss about with alternatives if you want) when there's other burning issues to be discussed:

 

[bsman]

This is for the OP:

 

[micwalt]

Wouldn't "mowed" be past tense, and "mown" be past participle?

Past participle can be either ending. I was referring, rather, to how it acts in the sentence. It can be part of a passive construction (e.g., "The lawn was mowed by Prages."), or it can act as an adjective (e.g., "The mowed lawn looked nice."). It cannot, however, act as a noun.

 

[BoomBoomBigelow]

What is your generic term for a sweetened carbonated beverage?

Budlight.

 

[goodusername]

This is for the OP:

*slides glasses down nose*

*peers over*

I'm watching you.

 

[BoomBoomBigelow]

Past participle can be either ending. I was referring, rather, to how it acts in the sentence. It can be part of a passive construction (e.g., "The lawn was mowed by Prages."), or it can act as an adjective (e.g., "The mowed lawn looked nice."). It cannot, however, act as a noun.

Just in an effort to assuage your brain pain, my theory is this:
I think one or both of two things is taking place; either the "to be" part of that structure is "understood," and is being left out as a vernacular shorthand, unknowingly, and/or instinctively, for the most part, and/or, the fucking grass needs cut, and if it's not cut by the time I get home from work tonight, you're fucking grounded.

Uh, wait where was I? Oh yeah. In the aforesaid example, "mowed" may act as a noun, if it, as intended, represents "a condition" (which is a noun)--the condition of being mowed.

Clear as mud?