Grammar that makes you cringe

[Jasmine]

Shew is not the past tense of show. (I ought to let this one pass, as it's dialect, but I'm still cringing).

Local past tense of jump is jamp   

[Mr Larrington]

Shew is an archaic form of show isn't it?

Past is shewn/shown, I thought.

When Lt. Col. Larrington (retd.) was operating an MOD desk in the early seventies a sign by the reception desk of the building in which he toiled in the Service of Her Majesty read:

PASSES MUST BE SHEWN

I don't think they had any of the mucking around with different coloured light bulbs to denote "Threat Level" back in those days since it was automatically assumed that the Russkies and/or the Provos were going to bomb the fuck out of us anyway.

[Bledlow]

Do you mean spelling or pronunciation? Because the old 'shew' didn't represent a different pronunciation, at least not in the last couple of hundred years.

Shew was pronounced like blow or grow, not blew or grew. Shew/shewn sounded like sew/sewn.

Pronounced like shoe.

(With a stalk of grass in the corner of your mouth.)

Aaah. So it's dialect, not the old spelling.

[Wowbagger]

Shew is an archaic form of show isn't it?

Past is shewn/shown, I thought.

When Lt. Col. Larrington (retd.) was operating an MOD desk in the early seventies a sign by the reception desk of the building in which he toiled in the Service of Her Majesty read:

PASSES MUST BE SHEWN

I don't think they had any of the mucking around with different coloured light bulbs to denote "Threat Level" back in those days since it was automatically assumed that the Russkies and/or the Provos were going to bomb the fuck out of us anyway.

When I worked at HMCE in the 1980s there was a permanent notice displaying the "security level". By default it was "Black special". The fact that this was the alert state for probably at least 90% of the time I spent working there, I think the word "special" was a lie. If something is "special" it is out of the ordinary. In those days the colloquial meaning of "special", as in "special needs child" had not, so far as I recall, been coined.

[Mr Larrington]

Some terrifying apostrophe abuse on display in the International UFO Museum & Research Center in Roswell, NM, this morning.  A typical example:

[pcolbeck]

It was correct when they put it up then one foggy night a blue light washed across it and all the punctuation had been changed ...

[pcolbeck]

From the BBC website today:

More explainers, backgrounders and analysis on the referendum debate can be found on our special index.

More explanation, background and analysis for god's sake !

[jsabine]

Shew is an archaic form of show isn't it?

Past is shewn/shown, I thought.

When Lt. Col. Larrington (retd.) was operating an MOD desk in the early seventies a sign by the reception desk of the building in which he toiled in the Service of Her Majesty read:

PASSES MUST BE SHEWN

I don't think they had any of the mucking around with different coloured light bulbs to denote "Threat Level" back in those days since it was automatically assumed that the Russkies and/or the Provos were going to bomb the fuck out of us anyway.

When I worked at HMCE in the 1980s there was a permanent notice displaying the "security level". By default it was "Black special". The fact that this was the alert state for probably at least 90% of the time I spent working there, I think the word "special" was a lie. If something is "special" it is out of the ordinary. In those days the colloquial meaning of "special", as in "special needs child" had not, so far as I recall, been coined.

"Special school" was certainly usual usage then.

On alert states, the Scottish Office building my father worked in had a similar sign: I never saw it display anything other than Black or Black Special, but Black was fairly common.

[The Seldom Killer]

[hellymedic]

'post-dramatic stress disorder'   

[Bledlow]

"That ghastly play!"

[T42]

Just found the glorious word cacographer - one who writes or spells badly.

I was really looking for the visual equivalent of cacophony to describe the Scottish Parliament building. No luck yet.

[The Seldom Killer]

Carbuncle is the usual.

[Ian H]

Speaking of dialect, a locally born and bred friend and I were discussing the declension of to be in East Devon.

I'm
You'm
He'm or she'm - though occasionally 'er is (applied to any gender)
We'm
You'm
They'm

This contrasts interestingly with the use of be a little further north (I've heard older Bristolians say you bist)

[hellymedic]

There's the Black Country
Oi am
yo am
her/him is...

[Peter]

In Lancashire (and other non-devolved Northern areas) there's a tendency to swap the gender* endings in the past tense, so we get, I were, she/he/it were but we/you/they was.

However, in Rochdale at least, there is pretension to refinement at administrational level: Outside the new municipal offices there is a steel sign, rather like the one at New Scotland Yard, which says "Accessible Access".  If you think it is -ist to put "disabled access" - and you'd have a point - why not put "alternative entrance".  I try to stand up for Rochdale in the face of the shocking public image it has.  This doesn't help.  I'll voice my irritation but it won't be removed unless metal thieves help out. 

* sorry, I didn't mean gender, I meant singular/plural

[pcolbeck]

This contrasts interestingly with the use of be a little further north (I've heard older Bristolians say you bist)

That's a great  Anglo Saxson survival.

[Pingu]

Gah, people using i.e. when they mean e.g. 

[ian]

There's the Black Country
Oi am
yo am
her/him is...

You don't want to know what we do with this in the more impenetrable parts of the East Midlands.

[T42]

The NYT calls Africans heading for Italy migrants, as if they're going back & forth every year like swallows.  OK, the word does also apply to bods & beasts moving in one direction only, but it's most commonly used for Arctic Terns, lemmings, etc.  Unless of course the NYT is taking their ultimate deportation into account.

Emigrants or refugees would be much better.

[Wowbagger]

Speaking of dialect, a locally born and bred friend and I were discussing the declension of to be in East Devon.

I'm
You'm
He'm or she'm - though occasionally 'er is (applied to any gender)
We'm
You'm
They'm

This contrasts interestingly with the use of be a little further north (I've heard older Bristolians say you bist)

I've told you a thousand times! Verbs conjugate, nouns decline!

[L CC]

The NYT calls Africans heading for Italy migrants, as if they're going back & forth every year like swallows.  OK, the word does also apply to bods & beasts moving in one direction only, but it's most commonly used for Arctic Terns, lemmings, etc.  Unless of course the NYT is taking their ultimate deportation into account.

Emigrants or refugees would be much better.

I think it's deliberate. They are Economic Migrants and therefore undeserving of our sympathies.

[Ian H]

Speaking of dialect, a locally born and bred friend and I were discussing the declension of to be in East Devon.

I'm
You'm
He'm or she'm - though occasionally 'er is (applied to any gender)
We'm
You'm
They'm

This contrasts interestingly with the use of be a little further north (I've heard older Bristolians say you bist)

I've told you a thousand times! Verbs conjugate, nouns decline!

Oh dear. I am shamed. Declining standards in conjunction with age.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Hmmm. One of the devilishly difficult questions has me a little unsure.

(click to show/hide)

They have Augustus' as correct. Their own advice at http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/words/apostrophe#apostrophes_showing_possession says

With personal names that end in -s: add an apostrophe plus s when you would naturally pronounce an extra s if you said the word out loud:

He joined Charles’s army in 1642.

Dickens's novels provide a wonderful insight into Victorian England.

Thomas's brother was injured in the accident.

Well, I think I'd pronounce the extra syllable on the end of Augustus in the possessive.
But I see the questions vary each time you take it, so you may not have the same question.

[pcolbeck]

Augustus doesn’t care either way, he's been dead for centuries and classical Latin didn’t have apostrophises anyway