Author Topic: Grammar that makes you cringe (Read 856917 times)

Ian H · « **Reply #4275 on:** 29 July, 2016, 09:25:40 am »

Quote from: Pickled Onion on 29 July, 2016, 08:12:25 am

John Lewis are asking me to "Buy a new refrigerated appliance".
$:-\$

Was that a cold call?

Kim · « **Reply #4276 on:** 29 July, 2016, 06:40:28 pm »

"Shed's Gate's Fencing"

Double-apostrofail is small fry by the standards of this thread, but it annoys me all over again every time I ride past it.

Kim · « **Reply #4277 on:** 29 July, 2016, 06:41:06 pm »

Quote from: T42 on 19 July, 2016, 04:56:12 pm

A USAnian-type chum of the missus's on FB:

"Do you live in a village type setting?"

No, dear, it's just a village.

Might be a reference to The Prisoner, I suppose...

hellymedic · « **Reply #4278 on:** 30 July, 2016, 02:12:05 pm »

Auntie, REALLY!

Quote

They wore breathing apparatuses and used high powered water jets to put out the blaze.

from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-36932297

Bledlow · « **Reply #4279 on:** 15 August, 2016, 02:44:56 pm »

Perhaps not grammar, strictly speaking, but -

Man flu
Man hug.

What's wrong with flu, or hug? Are men supposed to have some special kind of flu, perhaps imaginary, or hug in a special way, perhaps tentatively & looking uncomfortable?

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #4280 on:** 15 August, 2016, 02:57:33 pm »

The whole point of the phrase or saying "man flu" is that it doesn't mean "influenza".

Bledlow · « **Reply #4281 on:** 15 August, 2016, 03:45:30 pm »

Which makes it bloody stupid to claim to have it. To me, it sounds as if they're saying "I choose to invite contempt by using illness as an excuse when all I really have is a trivial sniffle or a slight hangover, but doing it half-heartedly by calling it 'man flu' so that everybody knows what I'm doing". Hence it making me cringe.

T42 · « **Reply #4282 on:** 15 August, 2016, 04:16:54 pm »

As I understand it, it's not a term a man would apply to himself, more something a woman would say disparagingly of a man who is too ill to oblige her.

ian · « **Reply #4283 on:** 15 August, 2016, 05:46:09 pm »

Precisely, young man. 'Man-flu' is attributed to the males of the species solely by their female counterparts, who look down upon our pathetic mewling over a teensy sniffle with an experienced contempt. Although my wife attributes anything north of my actual death as psychosomatic.

A 'man-hug' is a special symptom of the ursine companionship of – generally drunken – males.

Bledlow · « **Reply #4284 on:** 15 August, 2016, 06:33:59 pm »

Quote from: T42 on 15 August, 2016, 04:16:54 pm

As I understand it, it's not a term a man would apply to himself, more something a woman would say disparagingly of a man who is too ill to oblige her.

I have no objections to that (the original, AFAIK) usage. What I'm complaining about is the use of both terms by men about themselves. I've heard (& seen in writing) both used by men about themselves - & it grates, horribly, like fingernails on a blackboard.

T42 · « **Reply #4285 on:** 16 August, 2016, 07:57:37 am »

It happens. After all, "Yankee Doodle" was originally intended to lampoon the Americans.

Or is self-application a form of Stockholm Syndrome?

mattc · « **Reply #4286 on:** 16 August, 2016, 10:11:04 am »

Just a bit of simple self-mockery, Shirley?

(or if you are really properly ill, it MIGHT be false modesty. Or something ... )

Now can we get us back to some proper bad grammar please?!

Paul · « **Reply #4287 on:** 16 August, 2016, 10:15:02 am »

I once 'phoned in sick with 'man flu'. It was meant ironically (I had a cold, not the flu), and in an attempt to undermine the cruelty of its usual implications. I'm not sure I succeeded: the person taking my call said that there was no category for 'man flu' in the sickness reporting drop down menu.

Btw, research suggests that males are more affected by some infections than females. In mice, anyway.

Legs · « **Reply #4288 on:** 16 August, 2016, 01:43:10 pm »

Christ, Auntie, I thought you'd be the last bastion against the insidious spread of "off of"...

hellymedic · « **Reply #4289 on:** 16 August, 2016, 05:22:50 pm »

You might expect Royal Academy to pluralise 'medium' differently...

Quote

Famous as the world’s largest open submission show, there are certain things the Summer Exhibition delivers on every single year: a panorama of art in all mediums, a remarkable mixture of emerging artists and household names, and more to see and explore than any other exhibition you’re likely to visit this year.

...but you would be wrong!

hellymedic · « **Reply #4290 on:** 16 August, 2016, 05:34:00 pm »

'Most unhappiest'...

Quote

But this year’s survey comes as a boost for Londoners who last year saw nine of the city's boroughs feature in the UK's ten most unhappiest places to live.

from today's Evening Standard.

Standard's slipping...

Guy · « **Reply #4291 on:** 17 August, 2016, 12:53:47 pm »

I have just been sent an email to be "forwarded round the bizarres" (sic)

Wrong, but somehow appropriate.

Bledlow · « **Reply #4292 on:** 18 August, 2016, 12:00:22 pm »

Snuck.

Dove (for dived).

I hate it when idiots invent irregular forms for regular verbs. 'Snuck' seems to have come from late C19 US fiction in which it was put into the mouths of mid-western hicks, presumably to show their hickness.

Cudzoziemiec · « **Reply #4293 on:** 18 August, 2016, 12:13:28 pm »

Can worn-out sneakers be called snuckers?

T42 · « **Reply #4294 on:** 18 August, 2016, 01:04:29 pm »

What's a feaker, then?

Kim · « **Reply #4295 on:** 26 August, 2016, 01:30:08 pm »

Kitten sized lion named for David Attenborough

Because he couldn't be arsed presumably?

Dear The BBC: We are not USAnians.

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #4296 on:** 26 August, 2016, 04:12:06 pm »

The headline now reads "after". Someone at the BBC must be lurking in here

Pickled Onion · « **Reply #4297 on:** 27 August, 2016, 08:18:05 pm »

Quote from: Mr Larrington on 15 August, 2016, 02:57:33 pm

The whole point of the phrase or saying "man flu" is that it doesn't mean "influenza".

GPWM, but what about "Man Bag" or "Man Bun"?

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #4298 on:** 28 August, 2016, 02:22:04 am »

Quote from: Pickled Onion on 27 August, 2016, 08:18:05 pm

Quote from: Mr Larrington on 15 August, 2016, 02:57:33 pm
The whole point of the phrase or saying "man flu" is that it doesn't mean "influenza".

GPWM, but what about "Man Bag" or "Man Bun"?

If there isn't a thread for "Things which shouldn't exist but unfortunately do" you could always start one

Guy · « **Reply #4299 on:** 31 August, 2016, 10:42:56 am »

It's not just the grammar in this one:

Quote from: Daily Media round-up email

The One Show (1900): Aired a short segment that looked at how during World War two Royal Engineers helped diffuse a 1000 ton bomb that fell near St Pauls Cathedral. This story was then juxtaposed by the equipment and training current bomb disposal units receive within the Royal Engineers and RLC.