Author Topic: Grammar that makes you cringe (Read 856956 times)

Pingu · « **Reply #1650 on:** 15 September, 2011, 01:17:42 pm »

Units rather than grammar (from the BBC):

Quote

The spill covered a total area of dozens of kilometres

It still made me cringe, though.

citoyen · « **Reply #1651 on:** 15 September, 2011, 01:39:18 pm »

Quote from: mattc on 14 September, 2011, 05:03:58 pm

So if they'd agree that there was a problem needing fixing, there would be no issue?

If you have a problem with your contraception, there might be issue. In at least two senses of the word.

d.

red marley · « **Reply #1652 on:** 21 September, 2011, 01:07:16 pm »

Stumbled across this yesterday. To be viewed whenever that urge for grammatical pedantry surfaces:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/J7E-aoXLZGY&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/J7E-aoXLZGY&rel=1</a>

My name is Jo and it has been six days since I last corrected someone's rogue apostrophe.

Greenbank · « **Reply #1653 on:** 21 September, 2011, 01:31:47 pm »

Tsk.

At 1:24 it misses out "and all the rest of them" which he clearly says.

1:32 he says "I said there" but it has "I wrote there".

I could go on...

L CC · « **Reply #1654 on:** 21 September, 2011, 02:47:08 pm »

Getting your sharpie out.
Sometimes it's ~~irresistable~~ ~~irresistible~~ something you can't resist.

nicknack · « **Reply #1655 on:** 21 September, 2011, 02:50:17 pm »

Are you sure they didn't mean it?

"You're a very nice moulding."

<blushes> "Get away with you. I do like the way you turn that corner though."

Cudzoziemiec · « **Reply #1656 on:** 21 September, 2011, 07:13:10 pm »

Quote from: fboab on 21 September, 2011, 02:47:08 pm

Getting your sharpie out.
Sometimes it's ~~irresistable~~ ~~irresistible~~ something you can't resist.

And I bet you (if it is you) enjoyed that correction, didn't you? Even if it didn't quite make you froth with joy.

L CC · « **Reply #1657 on:** 21 September, 2011, 08:07:58 pm »

Quote from: Cudzoziemiec on 21 September, 2011, 07:13:10 pm

And I bet you (if it is you) enjoyed that correction, didn't you?

It's my mum.
We all loved it. The joy of that correction has spread internationally- my sisters in the antipodes, me & my children.... even people on this forum are enjoying it.

Cudzoziemiec · « **Reply #1658 on:** 21 September, 2011, 10:26:21 pm »

Welcome to YACF, fboab's mum's arm!

Wowbagger · « **Reply #1659 on:** 22 September, 2011, 09:17:21 am »

Radio 3 have just had a revamp of their programmes so "Breakfast" is no longer the leisurely affair it once was, lasting from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m., but is now curtailed at 9, when a new programme, "Essential Classics", sounding like something straight off the shelves of Waitrose, starts.

Sarah Walker introduces it by saying "This is Essential Classics!" and it grates every time I hear her say it.

red marley · « **Reply #1660 on:** 22 September, 2011, 09:23:09 am »

So are you objecting to the titles "Essential Classics" because they should always be referred to in the plural?

Wowbagger · « **Reply #1661 on:** 22 September, 2011, 09:33:46 am »

I'm not really objecting. I realise that what she's saying is an abbreviation of "This programme is called 'Essential Classics'" but that the words used juxtaposes a singular verb and plural noun which in their own right make a totally ungrammatical sentence. I'm just commenting that my grammar-trained brane shouts "No!" when it detects such a juxtaposition.

In that sense, it makes me cringe even though I think what she says is correct in the context that she says it.

Bledlow · « **Reply #1662 on:** 22 September, 2011, 11:19:07 am »

Quote from: citoyen on 15 September, 2011, 01:39:18 pm

Quote from: mattc on 14 September, 2011, 05:03:58 pm
So if they'd agree that there was a problem needing fixing, there would be no issue?

If you have a problem with your contraception, there might be issue. In at least two senses of the word.

d.

But only if there was an issue.

Biggsy · « **Reply #1663 on:** 22 September, 2011, 11:55:29 am »

Quote from: Wowbagger on 22 September, 2011, 09:33:46 am

In that sense, it makes me cringe even though I think what she says is correct in the context that she says it.

Doesn't her tone of voice and emphasis indicate the quotation marks around "Essential Classics"? If so, it should sound correct, as well as you knowing it's correct. Not that there's any such thing as correct English anyway.

Biggsy · « **Reply #1664 on:** 22 September, 2011, 11:59:28 am »

My Dad cringes every time Rachel Riley on Countdown says "times by" instead of "multiply by". He says there's no such term as "times by". I say there is because a lot of people say it. I also say: who cares when she's so good at maths and so pretty? ...in that order of importance. *cough*

ParrettPedaller · « **Reply #1665 on:** 22 September, 2011, 12:16:28 pm »

The use of plural verbs with singular nouns like government, radio 3 etc

e.g.

Quote from: Wowbagger on 22 September, 2011, 09:17:21 am

Radio 3 have just had a revamp of their programmes so ....

it grates every time I hear ...... it.

PaulR · « **Reply #1666 on:** 22 September, 2011, 12:28:15 pm »

Has this already been referenced out* here?

Windows is shutting down, and grammar are
On their last leg. So what am we to do?
A letter of complaint go just so far,
Proving the only one in step are you.

Better, perhaps, to simply let it goes.
A sentence have to be screwed pretty bad
Before they gets to where you doesnt knows
The meaning what it must of meant to had.

The meteor have hit. Extinction spread,
But evolution do not stop for that.
A mutant languages rise from the dead
And all them rules is suddenly old hat.

Too bad for we, us what has had so long
The best seat from the only game in town.
But there it am, and whom can say its wrong?
Those are the break. Windows is shutting down.

(Clive James, Guardian, 27 April 2005)

* The verb "to reference out" seems to be in common usage by my daughter's English teacher, who also asks the pupils to find suitable quotes.

Cudzoziemiec · « **Reply #1667 on:** 22 September, 2011, 01:53:57 pm »

Quote from: Wowbagger on 22 September, 2011, 09:33:46 am

I'm not really objecting. I realise that what she's saying is an abbreviation of "This programme is called 'Essential Classics'" but that the words used juxtaposes a singular verb and plural noun which in their own right make a totally ungrammatical sentence. I'm just commenting that my grammar-trained brane shouts "No!" when it detects such a juxtaposition.

In that sense, it makes me cringe even though I think what she says is correct in the context that she says it.

Stones, windows?

mattc · « **Reply #1668 on:** 22 September, 2011, 07:04:36 pm »

Here are the News.

border-rider · « **Reply #1669 on:** 22 September, 2011, 08:20:55 pm »

Pronunciation rather than grammar...

Cameron on C4 News tonight repeatedly pronouncing "leverage" as if it involved juvenile hares

rogerzilla · « **Reply #1670 on:** 22 September, 2011, 08:25:23 pm »

Merkin, innit.

Not grammar, but we have a lot of people who say "tenants" instead of "tenets" (as in "our core tenets are..." which is irritating. "Tenets" is a bit of a wankword already.

clarion · « **Reply #1671 on:** 22 September, 2011, 08:26:39 pm »

Have we lost 'enormity' to the meaning of the property of being rather big?

citoyen · « **Reply #1672 on:** 22 September, 2011, 08:38:34 pm »

I was amused recently when someone on the radio was discussing the early career of Michael Jackson in the context of the "enormity" of what he went on to do.

I felt like phoning in to point out that the allegations have never been proved.

d.

clarion · « **Reply #1673 on:** 22 September, 2011, 09:30:30 pm »

I heard that too. I didn't feel it needed correcting.

citoyen · « **Reply #1674 on:** 22 September, 2011, 11:01:54 pm »

Now, now. Innocent until proven guilty.

Although you could probably have convicted him on the basis of some of his later records alone.

d.

Author Topic: Grammar that makes you cringe (Read 856956 times)

red marley

red marley

border-rider