Grammar that makes you cringe

[tonycollinet]

It's should have people, should HAVE. The shortened form is should've

What it is not, is should of!

I swear the wrong form is more common than the correct - in fact almost universal.

[Greenbank]

"Fewer than 10 per cent of professors in the sciences are female."
     -Times Eureka magazine that came with today's paper.

[red marley]

"Fewer than 10 per cent of professors in the sciences are female."
     -Times Eureka magazine that came with today's paper.

While we all like to get exercised by fewer/less, I don't think it is always very clear cut. Presumably it would be ok to say "fewer than 10 per 100" as you are counting things, even if it is an illustrative ratio. Some measurements are counts as well.

I think there is a stronger argument for "Less than 10 percent of faculty [...] is" as you are treating the academic staff as a singular entity. Because your quoted sentence is simultaneously describing the faculty makeup as a whole and itemising the members that make it up, both 'fewer' and 'less' work for me.

[iakobski]

I like your reasoning, and it works, up to a point. But percentages are not necessarily integers, you couldn't say "fewer than 9.5 % of professors..."

Similarly, metres are things that can be counted, but you wouldn't say something was "fewer than 100 metres away".

[Greenbank]

That was my thinking too.

"Fewer than 10 in 100 professors in the country are female" would be ok (IMO) because the subject is/are indivisible professors.

The subject of the Times' sentence is the per cent, which are divisible.

[Wowbagger]

Doesn't a lot of this depend on whether the numerical expression is an abbreviation of something else? Fewer than ten lbs, less than ten lbs' weight... I seem to remember my physics teacher saying that this was the correct expression.

[Ian H]

I think it's fine to give a lot more leeway in impromptu speech than in written language. However, I then wonder about the instant journalism of the internet, where speed of response might be considered more important than absolute accuracy in grammar.

[Cudzoziemiec]

In photography, for example, a macro lens means a lens that magnifies so much that the image on the film (sensor, now) is bigger than was the original object. It's come to mean any lens with a bit of a close-up function. That's fine and dandy, but now keen photographers need a new term for "macro".

Good example! I don't know much about photography. Mrs Cudzo's camera has what it claims to be a macro function. I'm pretty sure that it's not macro in the original sense, it's simply a close-up. But as I don't know much about the subject, I'm naturally going to take the vocabulary used by the camera manufacture, who I would presume to know what they're talking about. If they've got it wrong, they're misleading me.

[Mr Larrington]

Volunteerily?

No.  Fuck off.  Lord Bragg, do not ever allow this person within a day's march of your wireless show again.

[mattc]

Is that the same as the way that 'accident' has come to be used to mean 'blame-free' when it actually means 'unintended'?

Not by everyone it hasn't, my friend - not while I'm still breathing anyway ...

[drossall]

Mrs Cudzo's camera has what it claims to be a macro function. I'm pretty sure that it's not macro in the original sense... I'm naturally going to take the vocabulary used by the camera manufacture, who I would presume to know what they're talking about. If they've got it wrong, they're misleading me.

Precisely. I think that they are misleading you.

Although I suspect that, in fact, the engineers working for the manufacturer understand it, and most of the marketing team don't. Those that do understand it are under pressure to abuse the term anyway, on the basis that "the competition do, so if we don't it will look as though our product is worse than theirs".

[Cudzoziemiec]

Yet another danger to marketing by functions/gadgets/gizmos rather than overall quality. As if the double-boinger BSO were not enough.

[drossall]

Forks and shorts (probably best to comment in that thread).

OK, probably more idiom than true grammar, but I cringe because I'm used to the idiom...

[mattc]

Perhaps it's the written representation of rising intonation?

[which I'm quite sure we covered at length not very long ago!]

[Cudzoziemiec]

Beatrix Potter used it.

Not that her writing is necessarily an example of good grammar, but it seems to be considered good enough to publish. I like her illustrations best. 

[Jaded]

"Due to adverse weather the 07:00 sailing from Stornoway has been cancelled therefore there will be no 10;25 from Ullapool."

Not sure if I like the semi-colon but:

How great it is to see the proper use of 'weather' with no 'conditions' adulteration.

[hellymedic]

"Due to adverse weather the 07:00 sailing from Stornoway has been cancelled therefore there will be no 10;25 from Ullapool."

Not sure if I like the semi-colon but:

How great it is to see the proper use of 'weather' with no 'conditions' adulteration.

Well, the semi-colon is only due to shift key non-use or non-function; sub-optimal but understandable/forgivable.

Agree that 'weather' without 'conditions' is a rare treat.

[mattc]

Perhaps maritime "conditions" are a special case; i'd guess that a crossing would be abandoned due to big waves, rather than the wind itself.

Are waves weather? I'm no expert on sailing jargon.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Surely waves are an effect of weather, like branches which, er, wave in the wind!

[mattc]

I am trying to deter the habits ... of cyclists all over the world.

Seems harsh 

[citoyen]

Just read this in the Guardian style guide, which made me smile:

Latin
Some people object to, say, the use of "decimate" to mean destroy on the grounds that in ancient Rome it meant to kill every 10th man; some of them are also likely to complain about so-called split infinitives, a prejudice that goes back to 19th-century Latin teachers who argued that as you can't split infinitives in Latin (they are one word) you shouldn't separate "to" from the verb in English. Others might even get upset about our alleged misuse of grammatical "case" (including cases such as dative and genitive that no longer exist in English).

As our publications are written in English, rather than Latin, do not worry about any of this even slightly.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

Health Professions Council, I was going to respond to your consultation document, but the last sentence of this

The majority of standards of proficiency are standards necessary to

produce safe and effective practitioners on entry into the profession. We

also set a small number of standards which are linked to the entitlements

to supply, administer or prescribe medicines outlined in paragraphs 2.11 -

2.13 above. For example, there is a standard of proficiency related to

supplementary prescribing. Registrants demonstrate that they meet this

standard by successfully completing an education programme which we

approve. Approval of the programme allows us to quality assure the

programme and ensure that all registrants meet the standards that we set.

so enraged me that I can't.

[Bledlow]

Hmm. Was it the use of 'quality assure' as a verb that tipped you over the edge? If so, I share your fury.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

That was what did it. And these are the people who deem me competent to practise and register me. I despair.

[citoyen]

That was what did it. And these are the people who deem me competent to practise and register me. I despair.

ITYM they competent-to-practise deem you...

d.