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Apropo


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I'm no grammar/spelling nazi as you could tell if you chose to peruse my posts here. But I am an editor of novels and magazines and felt is was my duty to post this because I've never come across a forum that is so littered with the word 'apropo'.

There is no such word as 'apropo'.

There is however a word derived from ancient French 'apropos'; but it means 'incidentally' not appropriately.

:p

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I always thought it meant appropriate... but the first time I heard it like 20 years ago, I thought it just sounded snobby... maybe it was the speaker.

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I myself am also a grammatical freak. As a teach of english as a foreign Language, i'm constantly on the prowl for incrrectness. Although I have to say that I don't recall seeing this word often on the forum.

I've always used the words apropos as a substitute for "with regards to"

ex. Apropos the scheduled class tomorrow, it will have to be canceled.

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In german "apropo" is very common used... meaning is like usage of "by the way/btw" in english

you have to be careful though in greece "apropo" means "finger in the b_utt" lol :nea:

George

Haha, I'll be careful not to say it in Greece then (though I never say it anyway). But I have it on good authority by my German native friend, that it’s also "apropos' in German; meaning incidentally or 'by the way' if you like.

Though she did mention that there were sweeping language changes to the German language a few years ago and perhaps zee Germans dropped the silent 's'.

We use a lot of German derivations in English - kindergarten, hinterland, angst , strafe etc.

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Haha, I'll be careful not to say it in Greece then (though I never say it anyway). But I have it on good authority by my German native friend, that it’s also "apropos' in German; meaning incidentally or 'by the way' if you like.

Though she did mention that there were sweeping language changes to the German language a few years ago and perhaps zee Germans dropped the silent 's'.

We use a lot of German derivations in English - kindergarten, hinterland, angst , strafe etc.

this is true.. english is roughly 40% english and 60% franco-latin :).. if you heard a clip of old english you wouldn't even recognize it! (old english is english before the introduction of latin to the language..)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y13cES7MMd8

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