Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2006 December 18

=December 18=

"Queen-size" in French
Can anyone tell me the term used to describe what is known in the United States as a "queen-size" mattress in European French? Looking at this source, I get the feeling that the closest equivalent to a U.S. queen-size (60" x 80" or 150 cm x 200 cm) mattress would be a European king-size mattress (60" x 78" or 150 cm x 195 cm). What is the term for this size in the French spoken in France? Thank you. Marco polo 02:07, 18 December 2006 (UTC)
 * Are you looking to buy? I looked around on some online French sites, and looks like the just call them matelas adulte or grand matelas.  It also looks like they have more size options then the list you posted, and mostly they use the dimensions to identify them.  But I'm not sure as it's not something I've ever looked to buy while in France. Hope that helps. --Cody.Pope 04:18, 18 December 2006 (UTC)
 * There's also the grand lit, and it could be the size you look for... but I must admit that I don't remember the exact size... --Ibn Battuta 07:56, 18 December 2006 (UTC)
 * Thanks. I think "grand lit" will work.  Marco polo 13:47, 18 December 2006 (UTC)
 * From my experience buying mattresses in France, they go by widths: 80cm, 90cm, 140cm, and 160cm (all with a length of 200cm) seem to be usual sizes. My suggestion would be to specify the actual dimensions you're looking for and see what the nearest size is that they have. &mdash; QuantumEleven 14:04, 18 December 2006 (UTC)

Punjabi and Hindi fonts
I want to contact author of the page "guru gobind singh ji". I want to know how to use punjabi and hindi fonts in the page if I want to contribute some in punjabi or hindi. Please help me. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by TheSingh (talk • contribs).


 * For most articles on Wikipedia, many people contributed to the article, and Guru Gobind Singh is no exception. If you go to the page and click the "history" tab at the top, you see a list of "edits" or "revisions", including the author. So you can see that at 12:23, December 16, 2006, TheSingh made a spelling correction. By clicking Talk you can go to their talk pages and leave a message. But perhaps you should first read Help:Multilingual support (Indic). --Lambiam Talk  09:42, 18 December 2006 (UTC)

Many Thanks Lambiam

English Language tests
Please I would like to know if agencies in the UK snd Canada rate the TOEFL (test of English as Foreign langusge) examination as an equivalent to the IELTS examination(International English language Testing system)

Thank you Borlie —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 163.166.150.22 (talk) 09:39, 18 December 2006 (UTC).


 * From our IELTS page, it looks like most UK universities accept this test and all of them except the TOEFL. In the US the TOEFL is almost always needed.  Some US universities with a lot of international applications accept the IELTS, but it is definitely not the norm.  If your applying to a university, you need to check their website for their exact requirements.  It is usually listed under international applications information or something to that extent.  Good luck! --Cody.Pope 19:32, 18 December 2006 (UTC)

Commmunication skills
How do we improve communication skills? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 220.227.186.21 (talk) 09:43, 18 December 2006 (UTC).


 * Practice helps. Can you be more specific? For example, do you mean writing? Public speaking? Telesales? Have you read up on communication skills?--Shantavira 13:05, 18 December 2006 (UTC)


 * Don't be ashamed of talking to yourself. Though, you should be ashamed if anyone catches you. :)


 * Also, when talking to oneself, it is good to to resolve to clean up your train of thought, until what you're saying is sensible enough to go straight down into an encyclopedia. :) Vranak 17:04, 18 December 2006 (UTC)


 * There's no shame in talking to yourself - I do it ALL the time - and if someone notices me doing it, so what, still no shame. JackofOz 04:19, 19 December 2006 (UTC)


 * Practice, practice and more practice. Read as much as you possibly can: it introduces you to new vocabulary and alternative grammatical constructions. (Make sure you're reading something written in the right century!) If you're learning a foreign language, nothing beats conversation with native speakers of that language. Write for yourself, too. Keep a journal of some sort... preferably not the "Dear diary, today I..." kind: indulge your creativity instead, since that uses a broader vocabulary and calls for stylistic experiments well beyond the borders of taking notes for yourself. Vyasa Ozsvar 08:39, 27 December 2006 (UTC)

Uniform spelling of a Rebekah
I have noticed that there are a number of different spellings for the name of the biblical Isaac's first wife, sometimes even within the same article. All the English translations, from KJV to Modern American, spell the name "Rebekah". The spellings Rebecca, Rebekka, Rebeccah I found in Romantic language (Vulgate, French, Italian, Portuguese) texts, as well as in German and Dutch, i.e. the continental European languages. Should I change all the occurrences of the biblical name to Rebekah (after all, this is an English encyclopedia)? Or should I leave it the way the author of the article wrote it? I suspect that many of the authors err because they have family going by the continental European spelling of Rebecca, unaware that it is spelled differently in the English scripture translations. --Seejyb 14:46, 18 December 2006 (UTC)
 * I think you shouls bring it up on the talk pages for each respective article. 惑乱 分からん 16:29, 18 December 2006 (UTC)
 * Thanks, I think that is likely best. Those early Hebrew history pages are tend to become battlegrounds for holy wars, what with having 3 religions all claiming intellectual interpretative rights. And for the "all spellings in one article" cases one can correct as for the oldest version. Interestingly, the "Rebekah" article itself was renamed/moved by an editor whose mom is called Rebekah, and is one of only two edits he really made; this name change was correct and survived, the other was to put her name on the April 30 birthday list, which did not last. --Seejyb 23:21, 18 December 2006 (UTC)
 * World ORT's translation spells it "Rebecca": . In Hebrew, it's "Reevka" (usually transliterated as "Rivka" ) .-- Mwalcoff 00:03, 19 December 2006 (UTC)
 * As far as I know, the Hebrew language name as it's pronounced in contemporary Israel is [riv'kə]. The "short i" is consistent with the CVC pattern (vowel between two consonants), and the transliteration "Rivka" is just fine. Isn't "Rebecca" (the spelling I've found most common in US English) and its variants basically the form of that name as its entered the English-speaking world? -- Deborahjay 20:13, 19 December 2006 (UTC)

Thanks all. I thought Rebecca was right, and was about to change it, when I reminded myself to "check before change." Then reading through nine English bibles (Genesis 24:15,30 - I know those off by heart now) showed that my assumption was wrong, it is spelled Rebekah in all but the Torah translation that Mwalcoff referred me to. Could the "Rebecca" there reflect Euro-American influence on Jewish English translation / spelling? This gets complicated:-). --Seejyb 00:01, 20 December 2006 (UTC)
 * Curious. The only two English translations I have to hand - Knox and Good News - both spell it as "Rebecca", just as I would have expected. As does World Book encyclopedia. Thylacoleo 00:50, 20 December 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for those. It fits in: Knox is Vulgate, and Good News is All American. I shall copy this to the article talk page, for reference of those editing there in future, and add the list of Bibles consulted, with spelling. We have here potentially a small fox that can ruin the vineyard :-) --Seejyb 04:17, 20 December 2006 (UTC)

punctuation
Where does the period go? the sentence ends as follows:

the only nearby town with serious nightlife (think "casino")

Does it go after the "o" of casino after the second quotation mark or after the closing parenthesis ?

Thank you. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 64.164.230.42 (talk) 22:32, 18 December 2006 (UTC).


 * It goes after the parenthesis like: the only nearby town with a serious nightlife (think "casino"). If you changed the sentence a bit, it would be like this: the only nearby town with a serious nightlife -- think "casino."  Also, I hope this isn't the whole sentence, cause presently it is only a sentence fragment.  Notice also that I added an a. --Cody.Pope 22:42, 18 December 2006 (UTC)
 * Now that I re-read it, I think you can drop out that a. --Cody.Pope 22:45, 18 December 2006 (UTC)


 * This is not a sentence. There is no verb.  User:Zoe|(talk) 00:35, 19 December 2006 (UTC)


 * First, we were told "the sentence ends as follows", so it's all right for it to be a fragment. Second, it's correct that the period goes after the closing parenthesis. However, in the version given by Cody where there is no parenthesis, there is disagreement. --Anonymous, December 19, 02:22 (UTC).


 * "Anonymous" is correct: not all style guides want the period inside the quotation marks. I'd put it inside, but that's the style I'm most familiar with (MLA). If you are expected to follow a particular style, use whatever that style tells you to. (The period still goes outside the parentheses in your example, regardless of what style you're using. Note, however, that if the entire sentence is parenthetical, it goes inside the parentheses... as in this case.) [User:Vyasa Ozsvar|Vyasa Ozsvar]] 08:42, 27 December 2006 (UTC)