Is it "sais" or "says"?

Discussion in 'Linguistics' started by Bebelina, Jul 27, 2003.

  1. Bebelina kospla.com Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    5,036
    I'm having a dispute with a friend here, so what is the correct spelling? :bugeye:
     
  2. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  3. sargentlard Save the whales motherfucker Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    6,698
    says...far as i know.
     
  4. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  5. Bebelina kospla.com Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    5,036
    Ok, but I won't take your word for it, I need more evidence...( otherwise it means that I have been writing it wrong my whole life) .

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

     
  6. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  7. Xenu BBS Whore Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    706
    In American-English it's "says", but hard telling with the whole favor/favour thing and all.

    Personally, I've never seen anyone spell it "sais" before. I could imagine using it in a story with some heavy dialect or something.

    Cletus McBride: "I sais, getcha ass ova here!"

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

     
  8. Bebelina kospla.com Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    5,036
    It's "says".This is horrible. I looked it up at an online dictionary, several actually and discovered I was wrong. It can't be, I'm never wrong....I was best in my class at english... !

    But this is what "sais" stands for( except for the french word "sais" as in "je ne sais quoi", maybe I confused that with "says"....) :

    SAIS Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (Johns Hopkins University)
    SAIS School of Advanced International Studies (Johns Hopkins University)
    SAIS Science & Application Information System
    SAIS Secretary of the Army, Information Systems
    SAIS South African Institute of Security
    SAIS South African Intelligence Service
    SAIS Sportscotland Avalanche Information Service


     
  9. Jerrek Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    1,548
    It is "says."
     
  10. airavata portentous Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    1,352
    The spelling is 'says'. I've never seen it spelt 'sais'.
     
  11. Dai1982 Registered Member

    Messages:
    1
    I've been spelling it sais all my life too! Only until I looked it up a few months ago I realised I must of been wrong! I'm sure I learnt sais at school.. I'm from Wales in uk and I see someone from Canada learnt the same. They did say before the 80s though and I wasn't born till 82... Must of picked it up from someone or reading old books I suppose.
     
  12. billvon Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    21,634
    Says is English; sais is a French form of the verb "to be" (i.e. Je sais is "I am.")
     
  13. geordief Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    2,118
  14. gmilam Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    3,522
    I've always spelled it like it sounds, "sez". I've always known that was wrong, but "says" looks wrong too. (Not as wrong as "sais".)
     
  15. geordief Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    2,118
    Some people do actually pronounce it as "says" rather then "sez" . So it would presumably look "right" to them
     
  16. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    18,935
    "sais"?? Really?

    It's "says".

    Though, informally, I tend to go with "sez".
     
  17. iceaura Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    30,994
    There's a continuum of pronunciation of 'ays - in my neighborhood, anyway. To my ear, it runs like this: Ways - days - assays - always - says. Physically, it's moving back down the tongue starting at the hard palate. That's a common pattern of change in a language, iirc. I don't think it's quite reached "sez" yet, in my local Scando flavored lingo. Ymmv.

    It looks like the middle phase of one of those vowel shifts, the kind of hiccup we find when we read older poetry and the guy has rhymed "rain" with "again". Many poems rhyme "say" and "way", very few rhyme "says" and "ways".

    I've never seen or heard of anyone spelling it "sais", until now. That would read as two syllables, in my town - like "dais" compared with "days". Although if that showed up in a French-influenced area, say eastern Canada, it wouldn't be as odd - Calais, palais, etc.
     
  18. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    18,935
    Counterintutively, it's actually pronouced 'callous' (CAHL-uss), according to both Wiki and the locals, who will make no bones about correcting you.

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!



    If I had to guess, I'd say they are a little resentful of living cheek-by-jowl with their French neighbors, and have - some time in the distant past - deliberately chosen a distinctly un-French pronunciation.
     
    Last edited: Nov 22, 2016
  19. iceaura Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    30,994
    Which fits perfectly with "says" - single syllable, blurred schwa-tending noise; unlike the English two syllable, long "a" take, as in "dais".
     
  20. Dywyddyr Penguinaciously duckalicious. Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    19,252
    It's the verb "to know" (savoir, not ĂȘtre).
    I am is Je suis. Je sais is "I know".

    "Sais" is only correct when you're talking about the paired weapons that Elektra (Natchios) uses ...
     
    DaveC426913 likes this.
  21. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    18,935
    And there, it's pronounced 'sighs'.
     
    Dywyddyr likes this.
  22. Sarkus Hippomonstrosesquippedalo phobe Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    10,353
    Given the wide range of accents in the UK alone, you will find people manage to rhyme many words that you personally may not think rhyme.
    "Rain" and "again" do rhyme in many parts of the UK, possibly only in the SE or the official Received Pronunciation would they be different.
    Do you rhyme "scone" with "gone" or "cone"?
    Do you pronounce "pass" with a short "a" (as in 'passage') or with a long "a" as in 'car' etc.

    As for the spelling in question, it is "says".
    And personally I pronounce it "sez", although some of my friends pronounce it "say-z"
     
  23. billvon Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    21,634
    D'oh! You are correct. Teaches me to try to use a language I learned 20 years ago.
     
    Dywyddyr likes this.

Share This Page