Grammar that makes you cringe

[billplumtree]

'Front forks' is correct. You'll find mentions of 'rear forks' in old writing about bikes.

Nope, or rather only colloquially. 'Forks' is short for fork blades, of which there is a pair at the front. At the rear you do have two pairs of tubes meeting at the dropouts.

Edit: and I'm feeling terribly pedantic pointing this out.

2nd edit: but I still think I'm right.

If your frame has wishbone-type seatstays then they, too, fork.

Oh no they don't.  The single tube that joins on to the seat tube does the forking, to form the pair of seatstays.  If the seatstays do anything, they, er, unfork.

[hubner]

I've just had a quick look at some UK books and mags from the 50s to 80s. They all use "forks" when talking about the forks on one bike. Eg diagrams naming the parts of a bike: top tube, forks, seat stays, front wheel etc. It's the same from reviews of bikes. One chapter title is called "Frame and Forks". When  talking about the parts of a pair of forks, it's fork crown, fork rake etc.

I would say it's similar to "scissors".

[drossall]

I've just had a quick look at some UK books and mags from the 50s to 80s. They all use "forks" when talking about the forks on one bike.

Absolutely my recollection. I can't for the life of me work out where "fork" has come from. Possibly the USA, but I've no evidence for that.

[Wendy]

Forks is correct, I believe.

[Ian H]

Forks is correct, I believe.

As above: no...and yes.

[Efrogwr]

"Juncture" as a substitute for "junction". Subliterate bastards.

[clarion]

Excited about my new advert which is out today for @HolidayInnUKIreland! Hope the Nutritionist see's that I had fruit for breakfast

Oh dear.  And not just about Holiday Inn

[rogerzilla]

I think the greengrocer's apostrophe should be renamed the Facebook Apostrophe, to bring it up to date.

There are archives of FB threads where the grammer nazi's  lay into people who use "your" instead of "you're"; it's a kind of sport.

[Cudzoziemiec]

I think yew're going other the top their.

[clarion]

No, he ha's a point.

[mattc]

So are their roolz for wear we can put apostrophe's now? The internet is turning into the Thurd Rake 

[LEE]

'Front forks' is correct. You'll find mentions of 'rear forks' in old writing about bikes.

Nope, or rather only colloquially. 'Forks' is short for fork blades, of which there is a pair at the front. At the rear you do have two pairs of tubes meeting at the dropouts.

Edit: and I'm feeling terribly pedantic pointing this out.

2nd edit: but I still think I'm right.

Pedantic?  On this thread?  That's unacceptable..GET OUT!

[drossall]

Financial "products". I find this terribly odd.

We've had decades in which manufacturing (of products) was felt to be unimportant, and services were held to be the future. How strange then that the service industries should be, during this period, doing violence to the English language by describing their output as "products", when they clearly offer services.

Come on folks, if services are the future, why are you jumping off the band-wagon?

In any case, give me back my language. If I'll still have it after your company (and any successor) closes down, it's a product. If not, it's a service.

[Cudzoziemiec]

For what you're talking about, it's usually neither a product nor a service but a rip off!

[citoyen]

One I'd forgotten until my iPod reminded me of it yesterday...

The local rock group down the street is trying hard to learn their songs...

This is what happens when you have a pop group made up of both English and American members.

d.

[geoff]

One I'd forgotten until my iPod reminded me of it yesterday...

The local rock group down the street is trying hard to learn their songs...

This is what happens when you have a pop group made up of both English and American members.

d.

Goffin and King, that'll be. (Gerry Goffin and Carole King). Sorry to be super-pedantical

[Auntie Helen]

One I'd forgotten until my iPod reminded me of it yesterday...

The local rock group down the street is trying hard to learn their songs...

This is what happens when you have a pop group made up of both English and American members.

d.

I spend my life fiddling with this kind of sentence as I work for an American record company.

They like to say things like "The Banjo Boys release its fifth album" which I change to "release their third album". Possibly technically incorrect but the original looks bonkers.

[Peter]

Helen, I'm relieved that two banjo albums seem to have gone missing!

[mattc]

The local rock group down the street is trying hard to learn their songs...

The songs could be written by different band-members (i.e. a plural group).

But the band tries to learn them together, as an entity. QED 

[Auntie Helen]

Helen, I'm relieved that two banjo albums seem to have gone missing!

Good point.

Good thing I'm paid big bucks for proofreading, innit!

[citoyen]

One I'd forgotten until my iPod reminded me of it yesterday...

The local rock group down the street is trying hard to learn their songs...

This is what happens when you have a pop group made up of both English and American members.

d.

Goffin and King, that'll be. (Gerry Goffin and Carole King). Sorry to be super-pedantical

Argh! Damn autocorrect!

d.

[citoyen]

The local rock group down the street is trying hard to learn their songs...

The songs could be written by different band-members (i.e. a plural group).

But the band tries to learn them together, as an entity. QED 

Hmm, not convinced. Another possible explanation is that "their" refers to Goffin & King rather than the band, but that's clutching at straws.

d.

[Pingu]

One I'd forgotten until my iPod reminded me of it yesterday...

The local rock group down the street is trying hard to learn their songs...

This is what happens when you have a pop group made up of both English and American members.

d.

Goffin and King, that'll be. (Gerry Goffin and Carole King). Sorry to be super-pedantical

Argh! Damn autocorrect!

d.

I think autocorrect is making a comment about the music.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Hmmm. "The local rock group down the street is trying hard to learn their songs..." sounds ok to me, but "The Banjo Boys release its fifth album" clashes on every neuron I possess. Technically both sentences have the same inconsistency between verb and possessive, so I think this is because we're so used to saying "they" and "their" in cases where we refer to one person of unknown sex. "The child was too small to know their own address" for instance.

[Cudzoziemiec]

You mean using the plural you as formal singular you? No, it's not like that, it's to avoid saying he or she in cases where the person's identity is not know or is irrelevant, or where one person is taken as representing many.