My entire life I have known speach to mean the verb that describes the act of speaking in the present tense, while speech to be the verb that is the past tense act of speaking professionally/publicly to a group.
According to google :The correct spelling is speech. “Speach” is an outdated spelling from hundreds of years ago and is now considered a spelling mistake.
English degree and retired schoolmarm typing here.
If you and I were speaking in person, what we were doing could be described as the act of speech. (act and speech are both nouns in that phrase) For the past tense you would say we spoke.
Einstein(shamefaced edit correction: Doc Brown from the Back To The Future movies, duh!) up there looks like he’s giving a speech. Speech is a noun, like a candy, or a damn, which he could also give if he chose to.Sounds like somewhere in elementary school you got corrected on the spelling in the context of “he gave a speech” and decided that spelling was special to that meaning.
Which is reasonable and allowed you to continue thinking
(incorrectly, but also reasonably)
speak–>speach
But the truth is more boring, it’s only the one word for ordinary and special speech. And the correct spelling is not the reasonable one you derived.
As to how it’s been this long…It’s the kind of error people might notice but assume it’s a typo and not bother to mention, because it’s not confusing.
Correct grammar is relative after all
A relative truth: my Grammar is always correct, or so my Grampar tells me.
I can’t let this one go.
That’s not Einstein, that’s Christopher Lloyd as “Doc Brown” in Back To The Future.
His character’s look was likely influenced heavily by Einstein’s appearance, so I guess I see the confusion. But hard to believe you’re old enough to be retired and haven’t seen that movie, or at least references to that character.
Canonically speaking, I think Doc Brown just barely didn’t work with Einstein. He would have worked with Oppenheimer and crew though. He may have even met Einstein.
Where is the canon that explains that? Is there some BTTF official graphic novel or something?
There were some comics, and some cut bits of script and character backstory, that detailed him working for the Manhattan Project, among a lot of other cool bits of Emmet Brown backstory that are probably still around somewhere. A lot of the guys thought Doc Brown was a bit eccentric, because he studied everything he could, refusing to purely specialize.
I guess that explains why the original power source was plutonium.
Thanks for the info! I never knew there was a canon Emmet Brown back story.
This is where my mind went too lmao
He also had a dog called Einstein and said the name quite a few times, which could subliminally add to the confusion when typing about something loosely related.
What’s weird is that I saw the picture and recognised Doc Brown as Doc Brown, but then when I read that response I didn’t notice the wrong name and instead started remembering the picture as Einstein in the same pose and context. Only when I read your response did I realise I’d been tricked. It’s a reminder how easily a person’s mind can be tricked sometimes.
Maybe, “Einstein up there” was sarcastic.
My bad, of course I know and love Doc. I guess I’m so old my eyes failed me late at night on my phone. 🥴
I don’t know what I’m more annoyed at. That you confused Doc from back to the future with Einstein or that as I’ve now seen “speach”, I can’t help but “ew” at “speech” despite first time ever hearing of “speach”. “Speach” is SO much better Dx
Oh God, of course it’s Doc, I was very tired last night. I’m not a huge fan of speach but I kinda like OP’s distinction between public and private speaking. I can even imagine a mnemonic, the ee is the little faces of the audience looking up at Einstein/Doc speechifying, the ea are the two people looking at each other in a conversation.
It seems like maybe you just mixed up the spelling of speech and speak?
Speech isn’t a verb, it’s a noun. The verb would be speak. In English, nouns don’t have their own tenses, they are interpreted from context. Here’s an interesting article about temporal interpretation, if you’re interested: https://blog.oup.com/2023/02/do-nouns-have-tense/
Person with an English degree here.
Welcome to the speech and Berenstain timeline
Now you’re going to tell me the cornucopia emoji never existed.
Why does everyone remember a green seahorse emoji, it’s like at the tip of my tongue but an idea
Thanks, I hate it.
Wait are you serious? Is speach/speech a Mandela Effect, and you remember speach as an English teecher?
Mandela? You mean that guy who died in prison long before he could became internationally famous?
is speech (or speach i guess) ever a verb? its a noun describing the talking. you don’t speech, you speak.
“slow speech” “give a speech” “her speech” “speech writer” “speech class”
vs
“speak with an accent” “speaking of the mandella effect” “i love to listen to you speak”
i feel like youre getting ”speech” and ”speak" confused here…
thx, after reading your post with my inner voice, “speak” and “speech” don’t sound like real words anymore
Semantic satiation
me do speech
Still a noun: me do your mom
that’s unpossible!
He did a speech on it he did!
C’mon, we all know what happened…
welcome to the timeline. we’re sorry you’re here
OP were you taught by a vampire in school?
One of my chemistry professors was most certainly an energy vampire.
It’s always the chem profs…
Okay… fuck… I too was convinced it was speach. As in “to give a speach”. Welp, glad there’s someone else from my original Everett branch.
I would pronounce that like the sound an old man would make when he’s clearing his throat. Perhaps before he gives a speech.
Ye olde speach.
“Speach” must be common usage in whatever universe you came from. It definitely isn’t in this one. People are getting much more dumber, though, so if you starts using it more people might will does it too.
People are getting much more dumber, though, so if you starts using it more people might will does it too.
The irony of the sentiment of this comment against the flickering light of the dumpster fire that is its grammar is not lost on me.
Oooh, a person who considers the possibility someone is making a joke before grabbing the pitchfork and torch? You’re like an internet unicorn.
If I thought it was an intentional joke, it wouldn’t have been ironic.
Also, whoever decided to spend a lot of time running through pages of my comment history down voting everything should seek psychiatric help.
No, you may not have felt it was ironic but intentional irony is definitely a thing, and my comment is an example of that thing. You’re just one of the many people on the internet who adores feeling smug and superior, imagining yourself to be so very wise and brilliant. You’re not, that’s just over-inflated ego.
You actually took the time to advertise your own complete obliviousness and lack of basic common sense. Fantastic. I made you a new user image.
Does your family use it that way? Did you go to public school, home schooled?
I could see overworked teachers not noticing, especially if your hand writing is ‘messy’ or just that it’s good enough.
I’m thinking your family has used it that way since forever and taught you that way as well, which I think would be pretty cool.
Time to dig up your high school yearbook
Yeerbook
do you maybe read a lot of books with old grammar?
Perchance
You can’t just say perchance!
