I have to ask this question because every time I see this word for some reason I nearly die laughing.When someone is explaining how he did something in MSFS which actually worked he usually describes it as "and, viola, it worked" only sometimes it's spelt "viola", other times "voila", "viloa" and even "vollia".One of my friend's daughters PLAYS the viola but, before I collapse altogether, can someone tell me what the origin, meaning and correct spelling of this word is.P

Viola is correct.http://mywebpages.comcast.net/geofa/pages/Geofdog2.jpg

I believe the word is voila (VOH-AH-LA), and I'd assume it is French? Not sure really.Cheers,[a href=http://sgair.net" target="_blank]http://sgair.net/mike/banners/daniel_small.jpg [/a]Click the Banner to visit the FFX Website.

Correct - voila is French, meaning 'there'.Cheers,Gosta.http://hifi.avsim.net/activesky/images/wxrebeta.jpg

Voila is a contraction of "vois l

Bonjour Jean-Louis,I have no clue about the origin of voila being from "vois la", but usually in french, voil

hmmmmI always thought it meant "EUREKA"!!!!! or something said when a success happens ... and you are happy!!!!O well coloquial English is awsomely difficult to understand, I guess coloquial French is equally difficult!!!!!laisse bon temps roulais .... mes amis (apologies for my miserable French)Cheers!!

>I have no clue about the origin of voila being from "vois la",>but usually in french, voil

Great post! I love all the little spelling errors that crop up from time to time. I'm as guilty as anyone I hasten to add. One of my recent favourites was the word 'studders' instead of 'stutters'. As someone whose 2K2 occasionally stutters I was trying to imagine what a studder could be. Part of a cow, or is that udders?Funnily enough, the worst errors tend to be made by native English speakers!Gavin

I think Eureka is greek and comes from when Archimedes was in the bath :-) and discover the "Archimeds principle" the meaning is different: Eureka = I discover. Same thing with Newton and the Apple.Jos

Gavin, I've always been amused by the frequent occurrence of 'studders'. Clearly the correct word is 'stutters', but I imagine that someone made a typo or simply mis-spelled it - and other people started to copy it. Now 'studders' are almost as common as 'stutters'! I guess that's how the English language evolves - as much by error as by intent! Best regards, Chris

For the pedants out there, let's not forget the accent on the a. It should be a grave accent, not to be confused with an acute accent which goes the other way -

What really gets me are the frequent hanging or tilting "boogies" (instead of bogies) in aircraft descriptions. :-lolMisha

Yes, English is a constanly evolving language with "new" words appearing literally in hundreds each year.Not wishing to offend users of any other languge but it's a fact that English is the most widely understood language and also I guess,the language whose words are ,nowadays,most often "borrowed" for use within other languages- perhaps because it is often more descriptive than the native alternative(EG; Le Weekend,le parking ).Not that it's a one way thing but the trend seems to favour english rather than French,German etc.All this is relevant as English is the language of Aviation .In spite of this there are places where other languges are used by ATC- often with the result that safety may be compromised.On a lighter note- the following appeared recently as part of a post on the Yahoo Groups(Airfields-UK-Ireland)- I hope nobody minds me passing it on...................O'Hare Approach Control to a 747: "United 329 heavy, your traffic is aFokker, one o'clock, three miles, eastbound."United 239: "Approach, I've always wanted to say this... I've got thelittle Fokker in sight."Anyway what else is there to say but "voila!!"Dave

The word VIOLA also exists, it's the name of a cord musical instrument ;)