Greetings whilst riding

Commuting, Day rides, Audax, Incidents, etc.
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Mick F
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Re: Greetings whilst riding

Post by Mick F »

Syd wrote: 22 Sep 2021, 8:30pm Some weird folk on here with a predilection to talk to, or at least acknowledge, total strangers.
Weird?

It was you who first used that word.

Not arguing in the slightest, and being friendly and happy.
I cannot- for the life of me - understand people not passing others and saying Hello. If one does, the other may reply and feel better about it.

Ignore, and you get ignored.
That can't be good for anybody.
Mick F. Cornwall
Syd
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Re: Greetings whilst riding

Post by Syd »

Mick F wrote:
Syd wrote: 22 Sep 2021, 8:30pm Some weird folk on here with a predilection to talk to, or at least acknowledge, total strangers.
Weird?

It was you who first used that word.
In a general term. Please state where I called any one individual weird.
Ignore, and you get ignored.
That can't be good for anybody.
It’s good for me.
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Mick F
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Re: Greetings whilst riding

Post by Mick F »

You, is a plural word, not always a singular.

I aimed my comment at "people like you (plural)", not you personally.
I ain't got a vindictive or angry or argumentative bone in my body.

Sorry if I offended.
Mick F. Cornwall
Syd
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Re: Greetings whilst riding

Post by Syd »

Mick F wrote:You, is a plural word, not always a singular.

I aimed my comment at "people like you (plural)", not you personally.
The word you can be both singular and plural as you say.

“Will you lot go away?”, for example is plural.
“Will you come over here.” implying singular.

You are mixing plural and singular in your statement “people {plural} like you {singular}

Don’t you just love the complexities of the English language
Sorry if I offended.
Thanks.
DaveReading
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Re: Greetings whilst riding

Post by DaveReading »

Syd wrote: 24 Sep 2021, 6:18am The word you can be both singular and plural as you say.

“Will you lot go away?”, for example is plural.
“Will you come over here.” implying singular.

You are mixing plural and singular in your statement “people {plural} like you {singular}

Don’t you just love the complexities of the English language
We Scots have a more elegant solution - a plural version of you.

Very handy in families - "Will youse all shut up!".
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Mick F
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Re: Greetings whilst riding

Post by Mick F »

:lol: :lol:
Very apt!


Walking the dog along the river or the lanes, I often meet walkers and always swap a word or two. Some of them, are strangers round here, but we always say something. It would be rude to ignore people - here at least.
Mick F. Cornwall
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Re: Greetings whilst riding

Post by Bmblbzzz »

Mick F wrote: 23 Sep 2021, 5:14pm A few days ago, there was a cyclist at the bottom of the hill on the Cornwall side of the River Tamar at Newbridge.
Just here by the parked cars.
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@50.52856 ... 312!8i6656

He had a puncture and was (hopefully fixing it) and I asked him if he was ok.
He had no idea that I was a cyclist, as I was walking the dog!
I still asked him, and he replied he was ok ......... but I would have had to walk back home - 2 miles? ............. to get the tools to sort him out.

I still spoke to him, and still asked if he was ok.
I didn't know him from Adam, and he didn't know me or the dog, but we still spoke and we didn't ignore each other.
He was a person in (mild) distress, potentially in need of help. He wouldn't have known it, but you happened to have the knowledge and skills to help, so you offered. This is normal. It is merely incidental that he was a cyclist – he could have been, say, an equestrian whose horse had lost a shoe and you happened to have horsey knowledge – and is only tenuously linked to a greeting.
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Mick F
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Re: Greetings whilst riding

Post by Mick F »

Yes, true I suppose. Likeminded people?
He wasn't to know I was a cyclist, yet still chatted.

I'm not "horsey" in the slightest, but I would still ask how they were. Can't stand horses - and I've often thought of starting a thread on the subject of horses and why they exist (not counting racing etc) :wink:
Mick F. Cornwall
jb
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Re: Greetings whilst riding

Post by jb »

Mick F wrote: 24 Sep 2021, 10:09am - and I've often thought of starting a thread on the subject of horses and why they exist (not counting racing etc) :wink:
Something to do with evolution I think. :wink:
Cheers
J Bro
thirdcrank
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Re: Greetings whilst riding

Post by thirdcrank »

'm not "horsey" in the slightest,
Time to trot out the "neigh" jokes.
drossall
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Re: Greetings whilst riding

Post by drossall »

DaveReading wrote: 24 Sep 2021, 7:54amWe Scots have a more elegant solution - a plural version of you.
English used to have an elegant solution as well of course, in that you was plural and thou was singular (rather like tu/vous in French, where tu is a familiar form and only used with friends and relatives, vous being also used as a singular in formal situations). But thou fell out of use, except in older writing such as traditional hymns, leaving us with probably the reverse to French, so that thou suddenly sounded very formal.
thirdcrank
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Re: Greetings whilst riding

Post by thirdcrank »

When we lived in Castleford in the 1950s, the second person singular, or at least a version of it, was still in normal use. The next thing to go may well be the third person singular and everybody will be "they."

Incidentally, there seems to be currently a lot of contrived controversy about the cricket authorities replacing "batsman" with "batter." Fifty years ago, batter was certainly standard usage at Headingley. It's consistent with bowler and fielder.
Jdsk
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Re: Greetings whilst riding

Post by Jdsk »

drossall wrote: 24 Sep 2021, 11:09am English used to have an elegant solution as well of course, in that you was plural and thou was singular (rather like tu/vous in French, where tu is a familiar form and only used with friends and relatives, vous being also used as a singular in formal situations). But thou fell out of use, except in older writing such as traditional hymns, leaving us with probably the reverse to French, so that thou suddenly sounded very formal.
thirdcrank wrote: 24 Sep 2021, 11:22am When we lived in Castleford in the 1950s, the second person singular, or at least a version of it, was still in normal use. The next thing to go may well be the third person singular and everybody will be "they."
My uncle was born in Huddersfield in something like 1910. His friends switched in and out, but they knew that it was amusing.

Jonathan
Mike Sales
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Re: Greetings whilst riding

Post by Mike Sales »

thirdcrank wrote: 24 Sep 2021, 11:22am When we lived in Castleford in the 1950s, the second person singular, or at least a version of it, was still in normal use. The next thing to go may well be the third person singular and everybody will be "they."
We were newly arrived in Derbyshire, about 1960.
A great uncle flustered me asking, "Art Aussie, lad?"
It's the same the whole world over
It's the poor what gets the blame
It's the rich what gets the pleasure
Isn't it a blooming shame?
Syd
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Re: Greetings whilst riding

Post by Syd »

DaveReading wrote:
Syd wrote: 24 Sep 2021, 6:18am The word you can be both singular and plural as you say.

“Will you lot go away?”, for example is plural.
“Will you come over here.” implying singular.

You are mixing plural and singular in your statement “people {plural} like you {singular}

Don’t you just love the complexities of the English language
We Scots have a more elegant solution - a plural version of you.

Very handy in families - "Will youse all shut up!".
I didn’t want to include that and confuse things further Image
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