Whats the origin of saying yoo hoo! to get someones attention? The Oxford English Dictionary dates yoo-hoo to 1924, as noted by the American Dialect Society, and compares it to yo-ho, originally a nautical phrase also sometimes used in yo-heave-ho Their first documented use of yo-ho is from 1769 in William Falconer's An universal dictionary of the marine: Hola-ho, a cry which answers to yoe-hoe Yo-ho derives from two interjections Yo: an exclamation of
pronunciation - When to pronounce long u as yoo or ooo - English . . . It usually says yoo when it follows an unvoiced consonant (b, d, p, c, f, h, t) As languages evolve both in pronunciation and dialect, this 'rule' is weakened somewhat, however it does still hold true in the majority of cases Learn a rule and figure out exceptions through exposure is what I always say
Why does the pronunciation of U vary in English? U is "oo" for nearly all American, and a substantial number of British English speakers in most words when it falls in a stressed syllable after one of the following consonants: l s z U is "oo" for most American speakers, but "yoo" for most British speakers when it falls in a stressed syllable after one of the following consonants: t d
What does P. U. (in reference to stinkiness) stand for? "What does {holding nose} P U mean?" my son asked me tonight I told him I didn't know, and he laughed and said "It means stinky, Mommy!" Very funny and well said, but it left me wondering A
pronunciation - Why are Greek letters pronounced incorrectly in . . . The pronunciation of Greek letters by scientists isn't very different from the pronunciation of the Greek letters in the respective countries: American scientists pronounce them pretty much the same way the general American population does, and so on So your question is actually about why the English pronunciation of Greek letters, and the answer is that it is based on (but not always
What about you? versus How about you? - English Language Usage . . . From my point of view, if the difference between what about and how about in general is slight, the difference between what about you and how about you is even slighter They are certainly interchangeable, as you mentioned, but I would go so far as to say that their common usages are semantically indistinguishable In point of usage, Ngrams shows a slight preference for What about you: COCA
Dammit vs. damnit - English Language Usage Stack Exchange What is the correct spelling, dammit or damnit? And what is the difference? Just writing this question brings up a red squiggly underneath damnit and the suggestions include dammit and damn it
Is it “P. U. ” or “pew” (regarding stinky things)? [closed] It’s an interjection, and like many other interjections, it’s spelt in dozens of different ways P U is not one I’ve seen before, and I doubt I’d recognise it; and pew has the disadvantage of being a word with a very different meaning But pyewww, pyuuuuuww, pyeouwwgh and many other varieties are easily recognisable I’m not aware of any particularly established way of spelling it