Grammar that makes you cringe

[Steph]

I remember a café in Les Saintes Maries de la Mer where there are two breakfasts available, a simple breakfast and a suit breakfast.

[T42]

Giosuè Carducci, Italian poet:

Quiete, poesia, effluvio, incanto fra l'azzurro del cielo e del mare, ecco Cattolica

Englished in the brochure of the Hotel Globus of that parish as

Quiet, poetry, effluvium...

[Guy]

From an advert on both the front and back covers of the latest Campton Parish Magazine

ROCKIN 'IN THE AISLES

[Nuncio]

That's straight outta Campton.

[eck]

Tesco have just sent me an email to tell me that some blinky bike lights I ordered through their click and collect system will be here soon. But I'd better be careful, looks like they might give me a hard time:

"We have just recently been assured that all orders will be delivered by the 9th November so this should defiantly be there by Monday for you." 

[Wowbagger]

And the confusing German habit of saying "half seven" when they mean six-thirty.

Working in Germany, I got so used to this that the English meaning now seems strange; so I no longer use it.

When I was quite young, and heard people saying the time was "half-six" I always thought how illogical it was. Afterwards, when I did a bit of German, I thought their wording was much more sensible.

[Peter]

Not strictly-speaking a grammar fault but I hate weather presenters being cuddly in their pronouncements.  We've just got a new one on BBC NorthWest who managed to get "morning-time" and evening-time" into the same sentence which, since she was referring to it hoying it down, was both too cuddly and wholly inappropriate.

[Mr Larrington]

Opinionated weather forecasters telling me it’s going to be a miserable day
Miserable to who? I quite like a bit of drizzle, so stick to the facts

[T42]

And the confusing German habit of saying "half seven" when they mean six-thirty.

Working in Germany, I got so used to this that the English meaning now seems strange; so I no longer use it.

When I was quite young, and heard people saying the time was "half-six" I always thought how illogical it was. Afterwards, when I did a bit of German, I thought their wording was much more sensible.

I once overheard a phone-call between an English chum & an American

E: I'll meet you at half seven then, Clay

A: whaaaa?

E: Half seven, Clay

A: whaaaa?

E: A half after seven, Clayton.

A. Aaaaoh.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Time to do "quarter of"?

[jsabine]

I wouldn't regard a quarter of, say, Stilton, as being remotely cringeworthy.

Possibly insufficient, mind.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Whereas I know someone who would run out of the room if confronted with even an eighth of Stilton. Odd. So, a quarter of Stilton at a quarter of eight.

[Aunt Maud]

Time to do "quarter of"?

No, not just yet, we haven't finished half to.

The Danes.......

Halvtreds = fifty

Three twenties minus a half of twenty or "halvtredsindstyve af halvtredje" two and a half times twenty.

Fem og halvtreds = fifty five

five plus three twenties less a half of twenty.   

fem og halvtreds og en halv = fifty five and a half

[T42]

And in Cologne a halber Hahn is a slice of industrial cheese on a slice of bread & butter.

[Cudzoziemiec]

So what does 'tres' mean on its own, if anything?

[Aunt Maud]

Sixty.

[T42]

On another forum:

"We gonna take a 2 group + separate hot water boiler yeah."

I crunge.

[hellymedic]

So what does 'tres' mean on its own, if anything?

Threescore = sixty

The French also partially count in scores (quatre-vignts = 80); who else?

[Aunt Maud]

Færøene and old Norsk.

[Cudzoziemiec]

So what does 'tres' mean on its own, if anything?

Threescore = sixty

The French also partially count in scores (quatre-vignts = 80); who else?

I couldn't see where the 'score' came in till AM expanded his post.

I see the Danish also say the units before the tens, like the Germans. Is this a common Scandinavian thing?

[Bledlow]

So what does 'tres' mean on its own, if anything?

Threescore = sixty

The French also partially count in scores (quatre-vignts = 80); who else?

Yep. As AM says, it's the first syllable of the archaic word 'tresindstyve',  i.e. 'three times twenty', 'sinds' being an obsolete word for 'times'. Same with 'firs', for 80, & 'halvfems', for 90 - half from five times twenty, although the Danish for hundred is hundred.

I just noticed that my Danish dictionary has gone into hiding.

[Aunt Maud]

To muddy things further they also count in snes and halvsnes, but that's old Dansk although it's still used sometimes.

[Mr Larrington]

Time to do "quarter of"?

Nowt wrong with for e.g. a quarter of wine gums in the days when sweet shops sold sweets from big jars on shelves behind the brown-coated proprietor, in paper bags

(Exit, muttering about jumpers for goalposts)

[Cudzoziemiec]

I understand the time right now is a quarter of three, for some Americans.

[Mr Larrington]

I have not come across that particular foul idiom but should I do so in future I shall not so much cringe as shoot the perpetrator in the face with square bullets.  "Different than" is bad enough.