Grammar that makes you cringe

[Nuncio]

I don't know that one.  I'll have to up-look it.

[Gareth Rees]

"Fed up" comes from falconry.  If your hunting bird isn't hungry, it'll sit sulking in a tree-top rather than chasing rabbits.

Bluff!

I read it in Last Chance To See by Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine.  And they wouldn't tell porkies in a (comparatively) serious bok

I think Douglas Adams must have had a flashback to The Meaning of Liff* there.

* A "dictionary of things that there aren't any words for yet", co-written by Adams and John Lloyd.

[citoyen]

lolz...

[Wendy]

*snigger*

 

[hellymedic]

From the Harrow Times:

<< The plans of all three options are totally unacceptable – we can only stop this by people power. It seems there are too many decisions in smoke field rooms.” >>

[Carradice bag lady]

lolz...

Well look at that I never expected to see that on here I made that !!!!!

[Carradice bag lady]

Any idea where that photo was taken?

[Arch]

Sawa car pulling a trailer the other day, which I gather is normally used to transport a classic motorbike, because a sign on the back said:

I'ts a 1954 BSA Gold Star.

The bike wasn't there, maybe it was embarrassed by the misplaced apostrophe...

[Carradice bag lady]

I make them prior to printing never knew what they were for I knew they covered a trailer and to exact measurements but that's it how interesting to see one in use . I've only made half a dozen or so  WOW

[hellymedic]

I've just found this English language school http://www.edgwareacademy.co.uk/. There's loads of cringeworthy grammar on their home page. Oh dear!

[Ian H]

I've just found this English language school http://www.edgwareacademy.co.uk/. There's loads of cringeworthy grammar on their home page. Oh dear!

Gosh!

Any English course London based academies offer is certainly matchless with courses offered by their counterparts in other cities. Edgware Academy is the best example for this.

[Gandalf]

T Mobile shop in Croydon (where else?).

Offering discounted 'Blackberry's'

[Cudzoziemiec]

I've just found this English language school http://www.edgwareacademy.co.uk/. There's loads of cringeworthy grammar on their home page. Oh dear!

Gosh!

Any English course London based academies offer is certainly matchless with courses offered by their counterparts in other cities. Edgware Academy is the best example for this.

London and other popular cities are full of these schools, known in the trade as mushroom schools (because they grow like mushrooms in the summer holiday season).

[hellymedic]

I've just found this English language school http://www.edgwareacademy.co.uk/. There's loads of cringeworthy grammar on their home page. Oh dear!

Gosh!

Any English course London based academies offer is certainly matchless with courses offered by their counterparts in other cities. Edgware Academy is the best example for this.

London and other popular cities are full of these schools, known in the trade as mushroom schools (because they grow like mushrooms in the summer holiday season).

Do they thrive on a diet of 5h1t?

[Gandalf]

I just heard some twonk on Radio 4 talking a bout a 'one pence' reduction in fuel duty.

[hellymedic]

I just heard some twonk on Radio 4 talking a bout a 'one pence' reduction in fuel duty.

That has grated with me for 41.05 years now!

[Gareth Rees]

I just heard some twonk on Radio 4 talking a bout a 'one pence' reduction in fuel duty.

This usage ("Frequently regarded as a solecism") is much older than decimalization: the OED's first citation is from 1652.

1652    in A. Lewis & J. R. Newhall Hist. Lynn (1865) ii. 211   Mr Auditer, pay to Joseph Armeteg fouer pound sevene shillings one pence.

The first citation for twonk, on the other hand, is from 1981.

1981    J. Sullivan Only Fools & Horses (1999) I. 1st Ser. Episode 1. 13   You dozy little twonk Rodney

[Mr Larrington]

I have just heard a previously normal chap us the word "webinar"

He's going off the roof...

[HTFB]

Maybe equestrianism gave us "fed up" too?

"Fed up" comes from falconry.  If your hunting bird isn't hungry, it'll sit sulking in a tree-top rather than chasing rabbits.

Most of our vocabulary for country sports comes from the Norman French. But hawking is Phlegmish.

[Wowbagger]

I have just heard a previously normal chap us the word "webinar"

He's going off the roof...

I'm afraid Dez manages such things from the privacy of our front room. They do largely seem to consist of self-congratulatory executives having a smug-in with a wider-than-usual audience.

[Cudzoziemiec]

"having a smug-in" 

[Ian H]

"having a smug-in" 

Which raises the question of how one distinguishes between good and bad neologisms.

[Nuncio]

Euphony.

Not sure I'd go so far as to say this one makes me cringe but it always jars slightly:

"from whence"

I've recently finished reading Pickwick Papers and in that book, Dickens makes this error quite often. Though not consistently, which leads me to wonder if it's really him or the editor.

d.

... or the his characters' error?  Sorry to resurrect this but I'm half-way through Nicholas Nickleby at the moment and forgot to put my copy in the saddlebag to read over lunchtime.   I remembered Project Gutenberg and was reading it on the laptop when I hit a 'whence'. A quick search revealed 12 "whence"s and 2 "from whence"s, one of which is in reported speech.

For The Pickwick Papers it is 11 x "whence" and 2 x "from whence", one in reported speech.

Our Mutual Friend: 12 x "whence", 6 x "from whence" all of the latter in reported speech.

Bleak House: 5 x "whence" and 1 x "from whence", which is in reported speech.

Lunch coming to a close now before I can carry on either with Nicholas Nickleby or further whence-ing.  Or, indeed, whither-ing.

That's all.  Carry on.

[Mr Larrington]

Not long before the 2012 Formula One season kicks off and then we'll be subjected once again to abject cretinism such as "The big question mark now is whether Hamilton can build up enough of a gap to hold the lead after his final pit stop" and "Rosberg is pitting to have his front nose changed".

No, this is the big question mark ?.  What you're referring to is the "big question".  And how many noses has Rosberg's car got?  I think you'll find there's just the one.  At the front.

[citoyen]

... or the characters' error?

You know, the same thought did occur to me while I was reading it, but I discounted it. However, your evidence seems pretty compelling. Good detective work!

d.