Why do South Africans say "Foot"?
 

I have noticed that most South African pilots i share the skies with say "foot" instead of "feet" with reference to altitude. Is this a standard procrdure in South Africa?

Capt Manuvar

It's the Boere
 

Maybe it has something to do with the Afrikaans-speaking pilots' influence. The Afrikaans for, say, 10 000 feet is 10 000 "voet". This word is pronounced phonetically exactly like "foot". Hope it helps..

Because we can!!!!

:cool:

Many South Africans are grammatically challenged in that they do not know the difference between singular and plural. You also should have noted that instead of reporting that they are on FINAL many South Africans advise that they are on FINALS, as if they are trying to land on more than one runway at once!

...and "woman" instead of "women" etc. etc.

I can like to be wearing a jean pant

Oh, interesting

The hyphen is silent!
 

I have an 8-inch ... No, never mind that one now, but we do that in the States too, in some of the regions where they still use English from 250 years ago. In standard speech you would have a 50-fathom anchor line, not a 50-fathoms one, for instance, and some people still use the singular instead of the plural for some things.

I think it comes from an old form of English that has been preserved in some regions. Country folk in the States still call "braces" (American:"suspenders") "galluses", a useage still found in Scotland, I believe.

I noticed that just this morning, when Zulu Sierra something or other called level at three thousand five hundred "foot."

How about the Brits saying "short finals" instead of "short final"? Where does that one come from, given that most people only do one approach at a time? I know they are confused, but that confused?

But for me the more funny thing is the mixture of female and male grammatics in some african countries. "His" for a "she", "her" for a "he" and so on. Confused me lot of times until i've got used to it.

Dear Boy....
 

The simple reason is that one only finds feet attached to the lower region of one's ankles. Height (or altitude) as measured by the terminally earthbound, such as air traffic controllers, may refer to one's height (or altitude) in feet, but one would never refer to a boat for instance as 45 feet long. Feet are exclusively attached to ankles, foot is a mearsurement of length (as in some appendages) or height, so in my humble "olde english" experience, feet in aviation terms should be incorrect.

Some things are aesthetic though. For example.

I say short final and I'm British. Never noticed that one but, now you come to mention it.

Many languages don't have plural nouns as it's obvious from the context. Native English speakers seem less intuitive and obviously need a different noun to tell them that 5 is greater than one:rolleyes:

How about x obstacle. I would say "a fifty foot obstacle". Just sounds better to me.

Interesting ...
 

We used to spend some time sharing the roads with the Appalachian rustics when we would shake our heads and say, "Drove inter town 20 mile an hour; Don't keer if Ah do get kilt!"

Well, you could come around a curve in your Volvo doing 60 on State Road 622, say, to find an ancient Chevy pickup with a load of chickens in the back doing a steady 20 down the middle of the road while making rough track corrections every now and then. As you squeezed past you caught a glimpse of Granpaw in there gripping the wheel with hands white with stress at this high-speed trip to town to rub elbows with strange folks who wore shoes even in summer.

With the hillbillies it was "mile" and "foot" and that must have been correct a long time ago.

Even today you might have a 20-foot trailer that is 20 feet long. That is standard English. Granpaw would say it is 20 foot long.

England
 

We speech england very deliciously!

Groente

Probably more polite than saying "Hoof" or "Paw".

As an ex Brit Mil Pilot (from many years ago) It was always:
"Finals -three greens".
(And yes , it was once after calling it ,that I realised that I was a couple of greens out)

Overhead Virginia Durban I called 1500 foot and controller gave me big English leason saying, one foot 2 feet. You are at 1500 FEET !! So I replyed OK if you know why ask?

Im with Jangys.....it because we can !!!!

it just the same as why do some people fly at FL 540 ????? because they can !!!

but at they end of the day if you don't like the way we South Africans do it.......... cry me a river !!!!

and i still say "short finals" :}

777

It's a mixing of the English language. Appendages at the end of legs, one is a foot two or more are feet. Measurements are different one foot, two foot, Three foot etc. So 6,ooo foot would be correct. People just mixed the two up. However like many things in the English language it has been accepted and now both are right.
Having said that, I have no idea why South African pilots say foot. Perhaps it is just because they can..:)
:hmm:

Decipher this and your blood is truly South African