Comments on: The Malta Enterprise envoy to whom potential investors can’t speak https://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2015/04/the-malta-enterprise-envoy-to-whom-potential-investors-cant-speak/ Daphne Caruana Galizia is a journalist working in Malta. Tue, 28 Apr 2015 20:58:00 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 By: Daphne Caruana Galizia https://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2015/04/the-malta-enterprise-envoy-to-whom-potential-investors-cant-speak/#comment-3038141 Tue, 28 Apr 2015 20:58:00 +0000 http://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/?p=62307#comment-3038141 I’ll let you into a little secret. In 1976 I had a smiley face which I wore on a chain round my neck.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/who-really-invented-the-smiley-face-2058483/?no-ist

]]> By: Daphne Caruana Galizia https://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2015/04/the-malta-enterprise-envoy-to-whom-potential-investors-cant-speak/#comment-3038117 Tue, 28 Apr 2015 18:39:00 +0000 http://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/?p=62307#comment-3038117 I’m going to irritate you again, I’m afraid: English, not ‘the English language’. What else would it be if not the language?

Take my advice: say ‘phone’ not ‘mobile’.

]]> By: Daphne Caruana Galizia https://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2015/04/the-malta-enterprise-envoy-to-whom-potential-investors-cant-speak/#comment-3038109 Tue, 28 Apr 2015 13:44:00 +0000 http://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/?p=62307#comment-3038109 Not everything in the OED is in current usage, Chris.

These are the details that separate native speakers from non-native.

Native speakers of British English say ‘phone’ not ‘mobile’.

When the devices first came on the market, they were ‘mobile phones’, occasionally but rarely abbreviated to ‘mobile’, though only in speech and never in writing.

Now they are merely ‘phones’, because it’s taken for granted that when you speak about your phone, you’re not talking about your landline, the one on your desk or the one in your hallway.

]]> By: Daphne Caruana Galizia https://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2015/04/the-malta-enterprise-envoy-to-whom-potential-investors-cant-speak/#comment-3038059 Mon, 27 Apr 2015 21:14:00 +0000 http://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/?p=62307#comment-3038059 She doesn’t have a mobile what?

Oh, a mobile PHONE.

Then say so.

Or just say PHONE. Nowadays, the ‘mobile’ is redundant.

]]> By: Dizzy https://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2015/04/the-malta-enterprise-envoy-to-whom-potential-investors-cant-speak/#comment-3037996 Mon, 27 Apr 2015 15:54:00 +0000 http://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/?p=62307#comment-3037996 She’s probably in tears, missing her hubby and having to work long hours without the help of a telephone in the “consular office”.

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