The academy also has fits over a lot of French Canadian words. But In all fairness to Quebecers and Arcadians they were cut off from France for a couple of centuries so the language developed differently. Unlike in the Anglosphere where most people are generally aware of and understand words other English regions use, the French are generally oblivious (and often have subtitles on French Canadian movies) .
My favourite is always Un Char
English in Canada is just as bad though. We use British spellings for the most part (although some spellings like Tire are used and some American companies don’t change their spellings on products in Canada) but ise/ize endings are a complete tossup (Ise generally preferred in academic settings and ize generally used in the media), sometimes you’ll even get both in one paragraph. Dates are even worse though, half the population uses dd/mm and half use mm/did so you never know what date someone actually meant to write.
I’m slightly surprised that Monzo have not chosen to be accredited by the Plain English Campaign given how much emphasis they put on plain English and their tone of voice as an organisation.
I can’t see frauded making it though their checks…
3 Likes
phildawson
(Sorry, I will have to escalate this.)
48
I think it’s all being blown out of proportion, I think a lay person would be able to understand what is meant by frauded and perhaps more intuitively than if defrauded was used.
To be murdered is to be the victim of murder.
To be frauded is to be the victim of fraud.
Should a bank be leading the charge for bringing about a new word? Who knows, but I think in this case the term is easily understood unless you are wilfully trying to be confused by it.
Sure it might sound awkward to some but I’d wager that’s more down to it being unfamiliar, so did “Try googling it” at first.
Ha no worries, I didn’t see at as confrontational, and it was quite good to know.
phildawson
(Sorry, I will have to escalate this.)
54
Isn’t this setting the bar low?
I would perhaps argue it’s the other way round, most people would have heard of defrauded, but not necessarily frauded, but could take a guess it’s something about being a victim of fraud.
I don’t like when the attempt to dumb down or use fewer words harms the understanding.
The language should be for the majority not just that generation.
Frauded sounds really street. As in.
AHH Mann, I jus got frauded
so what you’re saying is you’ve been a victim of fraud?
Edit: Holy crap it’s not defined! Someone please make an entry and use Monzo as an example.
With “ed” a the the end of a word being a more familiar occurrence in everyday language to denote something having already happened “frauded” would be the term that’s the most easy to understand by someone who isn’t familiar it either frauded or defrauded.
Ah man, I just got murdered
So what you’re saying is you’ve just been a victim of murder?
I don’t think that generation are demanding exclusive rights to the term.
phildawson
(Sorry, I will have to escalate this.)
56
that was my street example.
Everyone would use and understand murdered though that’s my point. The street equivalent wouldn’t use murdered but something else that people could guess meant killed. But you would use murdered if you wanted everyone to know without any ambiguity.
My point is that a new way of saying things always start somewhere though. You can’t gatekeep a language just because it sounds odd to your ear.
Why is murdered OK but frauded isn’t? Time and repetition is why.
But but iced isn’t a proper word, you should say you’ve been the victim of extreme cooling.
For what it’s worth I understand where you’re coming from, I just think the line being drawn is arbitrary.
phildawson
(Sorry, I will have to escalate this.)
58
Yeah but you could say a bank is not the time and place to start pushing new words on people.
Monzos mantra is to keep things as plain speaking as possible. That means using words that everyone can understand regardless of background or education.
So if you had to say murdered you wouldn’t switch it out to iced. Even if 95% of the customer demographics know exactly what is meant by iced.
Saying “defrauded”, or specific writing “a victim of fraud” removes any need to question what is this frauded. I assume it’s a cool way of saying defrauded. That’s the first time I’ve seen that word. Must be what the kids are saying these days.
Using the correct term isn’t “gatekeeping a language” (that would be deliberately using a term which has already fallen out of common usage due to it being considered technically “more correct”).
I was thinking that to use a word like etymology might make me look a bit like I was taking the proverbial, but I honestly couldn’t think of a simplified way to put it!
(If people don’t know it, they will have to look it up and, for what it’s worth, using iOS Lookup to attempt to define frauded gives no results at all - i.e. it’s not a word in the Oxford English Dictionary or the Apple Dictionary).
Isn’t this setting the bar low?
AHH Mann, I jus got frauded
so what you’re saying is you’ve been a victim of fraud?
oh sheet that guy just got iced
what is this frauded. I assume it’s a cool way of saying defrauded. That’s the first time I’ve seen that word. Must be what the kids are saying these days. 
).