Grammar that makes you cringe

[rower40]

In Cornwall things are done 'dreckly.

might be tomorrow
might be next year.

never means now

I heard that one defined as "Like the Spanish 'Mañana', but without the same sense of urgency."

[jogler]

In Cornwall things are done 'dreckly.

might be tomorrow
might be next year.

never means now

I heard that one defined as "Like the Spanish 'Mañana', but without the same sense of urgency."

that's a very good comparison

[Jon P]

At this juncture feel I outpoint must, that in German the finite verb the second element in a sentence is. Only in a subordinate clause does a finite verb to the end of the clause shoved get. You can with the word-order all sorts of aboutbuggering do, but the verb comes second.

Though you'd say something like

"Da ich mich schwul fuehlte, wollte ich in die Stadt gehen, um abzukuehlen"

when it's the first position in the clause.  (Conoisseurs may notice a wry near double-entendre in the example sentence given!)

[LindaG]

Physical Health Nurse
Posted: 03/07/2012
Bradford District Care Trust
The purpose of a Physical Health Nurse is to provide a comprehensive nursing service to substance misusers across the district, working with multi disciplinary teams and services. **Applicants must be a RGN with a degree and must have experiential experience of working with substance misusers**

 

Must be, like, totally chilled, man.

[Marco Stefano]

Pat Cash talking about people camping in Wimbledon Park overnight to get in the queue early tomorrow:

'It doesn't happen at any other grand slam tournament; that makes it a little bit more unique.'

[Ian H]

I'm not sure whether two words quite amount to 'grammar', but "Pedestrian Footpath", even with a helpful arrow, irritates me if it doesn't make me cringe.

[HTFB]

Grammar that turns me stone cold crazy:

ANYMORE. Anymore, cannot take it any more.

I think Freddy Mercury was with me on this one.

(It's not really a justifiable rage: anyone, anything, anybody, anyway, anyhow, anywhere, must all have begun life as two words, and anymore is not distinguishable from these---though I could have a good try. But oof! it is painful to watch new usage being forged.)

[jogler]

The words "look to" or "looking to" grate on my nerves

"Seek to" or "seeking to" would be soother.

[EdinburghFixed]

Pat Cash talking about people camping in Wimbledon Park overnight to get in the queue early tomorrow:

'It doesn't happen at any other grand slam tournament; that makes it a little bit more unique.'

Just to play devil's advocate here: he's really saying "another way in which it is unique".

So... accepting that different things can have a different number of ways in which they are unique (for instance, not unique in that tennis is being played; unique in that whites are worn; not unique in that the same people play, unique in that people camp outside) is it possible to rank or otherwise compare tournaments in terms of their uniqueness? Can one become increasingly unique as it becomes the only one to be unique in an increasing number of ways?

(I mean, one could be trite and say each Open is unique because it's the only open played at that court, but this seems dissatisfying)

[citoyen]

I'm not sure whether two words quite amount to 'grammar', but "Pedestrian Footpath", even with a helpful arrow, irritates me if it doesn't make me cringe.

What if there were two signs, one indicating a "pedestrian footpath", the other a "really exciting footpath"?

(Since you wondered it out loud... tautology is a figure of rhetoric rather than grammar, isn't it? The adjective-noun pairing is grammatically sound.)

d.

[citoyen]

(It's not really a justifiable rage: anyone, anything, anybody, anyway, anyhow, anywhere, must all have begun life as two words, and anymore is not distinguishable from these---though I could have a good try. But oof! it is painful to watch new usage being forged.)

http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.co.uk/2010/04/alot-is-better-than-you-at-everything.html?m=1

[Cudzoziemiec]

Nice link!  I haven't noticed "alot" but I'll be looking out for it now.

Grammar that turns me stone cold crazy:

ANYMORE. Anymore, cannot take it any more.

I think Freddy Mercury was with me on this one.

(It's not really a justifiable rage: anyone, anything, anybody, anyway, anyhow, anywhere, must all have begun life as two words, and anymore is not distinguishable from these---though I could have a good try. But oof! it is painful to watch new usage being forged.)

But all those words exist! And "anymore" is subtly different in meaning from "any more". I don't want any more cake. I don't like it anymore. The first is article (or quantifier or whatever you want to call it) plus adjective, the second is an adverb. I think. However, this thread is "grammar that makes you cringe" rather than "grammar that's wrong" so it's ok to say that you can't take any more "anymore" anymore.

[Ian H]

I'm not sure whether two words quite amount to 'grammar', but "Pedestrian Footpath", even with a helpful arrow, irritates me if it doesn't make me cringe.

What if there were two signs, one indicating a "pedestrian footpath", the other a "really exciting footpath"?

(Since you wondered it out loud... tautology is a figure of rhetoric rather than grammar, isn't it? The adjective-noun pairing is grammatically sound.)

d.

It was a rhetorical wondering, in deference to the thread title. There've been a few really exciting fotpaths down here, with the flooding.

[Mr Larrington]

X has done much better today that what he did yesterday / last week / in the last race etc.

The what is superfluous.  Take it out behind the barn and shoot it, sports commentators

[clarion]

Why are the BBC reporting that Paul Tucker refuted suggestions that he was involved in LIBOR rate fixing?  He may have denied it, he may have said he refutes it (and I think he did), but he has not refuted it at all.

[Mr Larrington]

Welsh news twonk!  You are on the BRITONS' Broadcasting Corporation, and therefore the correct pronunciation of Prince William's rank is LEF-tenant.  Call him LOO-tenant again, in the manner of a Base Colonial, and I shall set fire to your trousers.

[Gareth Rees]

Why are the BBC reporting that Paul Tucker refuted suggestions that he was involved in LIBOR rate fixing?  He may have denied it, he may have said he refutes it (and I think he did), but he has not refuted it at all.

This (refute as a synonym for deny) may well be a lost cause. The OED says,

refute, v. 5. trans. To reject (an allegation, assertion, report, etc.) as without foundation; to repudiate.
Criticized as erroneous in usage guides in the 20th cent.

You might be interested in David Stove's essay "Neutralizing success words", which considers the phenomenon more generally (especially knowledge used as a synonym for belief by philosophers of science).

[Tigerrr]

I got an email reply and this bloke thanked me for 'reaching out' to him.
Reaching out? Thats awful.
I was tempted to reach out and poke him, in the eye. 

[SandyV]

I got an email reply and this bloke thanked me for 'reaching out' to him.
Reaching out? Thats awful.
I was tempted to reach out and poke him, in the eye.

That's the latest one from our HR people too (together with "onboarding" which apparently means making a new staff memb er welcome and part of the team.  At least they've moved on from "touching the business"

[De Sisti]

Temperatures in the early 20s, sunshine and very little wind.

The word early makes me cringe, it sounds time-based. I would prefer: Temperatures in the low 20s.

BBC weatherperson:


"Today's temperature will be 21 to 22 degrees centigrade."


Would "Today's temperature will be between 21 and 22 degrees centigrade" sound better?

[Pickled Onion]

Not sure what the problem with the first one is, possibly missing the implied "from"?
"Today's temperature will be from 21 to 22 degrees centigrade."
The pedant in me says that the use of "between" is imprecise - does it include or exclude the extremities? Is it 21 < T < 22 or 21 ≤T ≤ 22?

Moreover, unless the temperature won't be less than 21 °C all day then what the weatherperson meant was "Today's maximum temperature will be 21 to 22 degrees centigrade." in which case they might as well have said "Today's maximum  temperature will be 22 degrees centigrade."

And more-moreover they should have said "Today's maximum  temperature will be 22 degrees Celcius." as the use of centigrade is deprecated.

There was a piece in the paper at the beginning of the week about how the weather was not going to be hot and summery this week which repeatedly had phrases like "The temperature in Scotland will drop as low as a chilly 12 °C". Chilly? What they meant was the highest temperature would be 12 °C, but they repeated the same "drop as low as..." for various parts of the country.

[mattc]

I know it's not a grammar issue, but that misuse of the Max temp concept really irks me, too. Although the weather people often use much more confused/muddled terminology 

[But I cannot get worked up about the use of "centigrade" ! ]

[Cudzoziemiec]

It was always referred to as centigrade when I was at school so that's how I still think of it now. But I rarely refer to either centigrade or Celsius or even "degrees C" because I would never give a temperature in Fahrenheit (or Reaumur or Kelvin for that matter).

[citoyen]

And more-moreover they should have said "Today's maximum  temperature will be 22 degrees Celcius." as the use of centigrade is deprecated.

"22 Celsius" surely? "Degrees" is redundant.

d.

[Wowbagger]

I quite happily use Fahrenheit and Centigrade. A warm summer's day is 70°F or above. A really hot summer's day is 30°C or above.

However, it really irritates me when words like "warm" and "cold" are used to describe temperatures. The weather is warm or cold. The temperature is how we measure that heat or lack of it, and appropriate adjectives are "high" and "low". I also hate the increasingly popular "top" temperature. What's wrong with "maximum"?