Tag: St. Patrick’s Day

Wherever you go and whatever you do, may the luck of the Irish be there with you. —Irish blessing The calendar marks the 17th of March as a day of celebration: Saint Patrick's Day. In preparation for this annual event, we have recently dedicated time to refining our educational resources. During the review of our pre-existing materials, I encountered a couple of intriguing orthographic questions. Firstly, the abbreviation of 'Saint' presented a choice between 'Saint' and 'St.' before 'Patrick's Day.' Secondly, the colloquial name for this holiday warranted investigation into the correct spelling, namely 'Paddy' versus 'Patty.' The findings of this research proved quite illuminating, and I felt compelled to disseminate this knowledge among those who share our passion for the English language. Therefore, let us explore these linguistic nuances together. Shall we use Saint or St.? Regarding the orthographic variance between 'Saint' and 'St.' when preceding 'Patrick's Day,' it is pertinent to acknowledge that both forms are deemed acceptable. However, the prevalence of one form over the other necessitates further investigation. The esteemed Chicago Manual of Style stipulates that while both 'Saint Patrick’s Day' and 'St. Patrick's Day' are permissible, consistency within a given text is paramount. Subsequently, an examination of Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Current English, our established style guide reference, was undertaken. Notably, while Merriam-Webster's included an entry for 'Saint Patrick's Day,' 'St. Patrick's Day' was absent, despite the dictionary's inclusion of other saints under the 'St.' abbreviation, such as 'St. Denis.' Following collaborative discourse with the team, wherein a shared familiarity with 'St. Patrick's Day' was recognized, a quantitative analysis of both terms within published literature was conducted via Google Ngram. The results unequivocally demonstrated the greater frequency of 'St. Patrick's Day' in literary works. Consequently, this form was selected for our instructional materials. A supplementary inquiry using googlebattle.com corroborated the dominance of 'St. Patrick's Day' on the World Wide Web. A critical orthographic consideration pertains to the capitalization of 'Day' within holiday designations; it is invariably rendered in uppercase. Which is correct: Paddy or Patty? Concerning the orthographic distinction between 'Paddy' and 'Patty' as a colloquial designation for Saint Patrick's Day, it is imperative to note the following: 'St. Paddy's Day' represents the accurate form, whereas 'St. Patty's Day' is considered erroneous. Prior to conducting research for this discourse, a presumption existed that 'Patty' constituted the proper spelling, with 'Paddy' being attributed to a common misapplication, potentially stemming from the intervocalic voicing of /t/ to /d/, as exemplified in the pronunciation of 'water.' However, this assumption is demonstrably incorrect. 'Paddy' is the sanctioned spelling, derived from the Irish masculine given name 'Pàdraig,' the Anglophone equivalent of which is 'Patrick.' It has been observed that the Irish populace expresses a marked aversion to the 'Patty' variant, which is, in fact, a diminutive of 'Patricia,' a feminine name. Therefore, the utilization of 'Paddy' and 'St. Paddy's Day' is strongly recommended henceforth. The insights presented herein were inspired by the resources available at ellii.com, and we acknowledge the humorous elucidation of these orthographic conventions provided by paddynotpatty.com. To further solidify your understanding, we invite you to participate in an interactive exercise within our Ellii classroom. Access the materials and engage in practice through the following link: Holidays, Seasons & Events Classroom. To stimulate you even more, try the following activities: [h5p id="16"] Basic Facts [h5p id="11"] General Knowledge [h5p id="15"] Traditions and Customs [h5p id="13"] History and Legends [h5p id="12"] Vocabulary and Language [h5p id="14"] We hope this article has been enlightening.

Tag: St. Patrick’s Day

Saint Patrick’s or St. Patrick’s? Paddy or Patty?

"Knowledge is only a rumor until it lives in the muscle." (O conhecimento é apenas um rumor até que passe a viver no músculo)

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