Grammar that makes you cringe

[mattc]

It's not nothing to do with correctness. 

No, it probably isn't.

[hubner]

Or:

"Blackburn to give away free bike lights to London commuters on Monday"

which would make it absolutely clear.

I think "gift" is not quite right coz a gift is like a present, it's something you give to people you know. And Blackburn are not giving out presents, they are doing it to promote themselves.

[mattc]

There is a new thread up today with the title:
"Apple gift catalogue"

What does that mean? 

[drossall]

What about leaving out "against" as in eg "they are protesting the government spending cuts", it just sounds wrong to my ears.

+1. Absolutely horrible.

[Andrij]

Verbing weirds nouns.

[Cudzoziemiec]

And look what it does to adjectives!

[Manotea]

Well, suppose for example you found yourself in the ladies' changing room when it was empty, or on a different occasion when it was full of naked women. One of those could be considered the wrong place at the right time, the other the wrong place at the wrong time.

Is this an example of Male Privilege?

[iakobski]

What about leaving out "against" as in eg "they are protesting the government spending cuts", it just sounds wrong to my ears.

+1. Absolutely horrible.

This is the USAnian usage, and it's a bit of a surprise to see it in the Guardian.

Totally confusing - in British English protest means forcefully affirming and US English it means the opposite. So in Britain you can protest your innocence, or protest (that) capitalism is shite, so you would protest against something. In the US you would protest capitalism - so much for common language.

[Cudzoziemiec]

What about leaving out "against" as in eg "they are protesting the government spending cuts", it just sounds wrong to my ears.

+1. Absolutely horrible.

This is the USAnian usage, and it's a bit of a surprise to see it in the Guardian.

Totally confusing - in British English protest means forcefully affirming and US English it means the opposite. So in Britain you can protest your innocence, or protest (that) capitalism is shite, so you would protest against something. In the US you would protest capitalism - so much for common language.

I don't entirely agree. In British English nowadays, I would say protest meaning forcefully affirm survives only in stock phrases such as protest your innocence or good intentions. Apart from that, we have protest against and where we might once have used protest, we would either use a different verb such as claim, or we would use "protest that you are innocent". We are exposed to so much USAnian English in movies and TV that the traditional use of protest in other contexts has become ambiguous. I agree it's a surprise, and rather jarring, to see the US usage in a UK paper though.

[citoyen]

Ha!  You've managed to come up with an interesting, possibly correct (depending on your proclivities) context) but it was hard work, wasn't it?!  Mostly, the phrase isn't used like that, I think.

Well, it didn't take me long to come up with that example, but I would struggle to come up with another as good. It is a good one, though, isn't it? 

And I do take your point that it's not what people usually mean when they use the phrase.

d.

[why1040]

Technically not grammar as such, but as this does seem to have gone OT in this direction before...

It seems to be becoming more and more common to say "it is persisting" when it's raining.  I believe they mean "precipitating", as they have made no mention of rain prior to this.  I have yet to correct anyone, but it's driving me just slightly insane 

[rower40]

Technically not grammar as such, but as this does seem to have gone OT in this direction before...

It seems to be becoming more and more common to say "it is persisting" when it's raining.  I believe they mean "precipitating", as they have made no mention of rain prior to this.  I have yet to correct anyone, but it's driving me just slightly insane 

I use "persisting" as a (an?) euphemism for the participle in "It's P*ssing it down".  And it's still doing it.

[hellymedic]

I also thought 'persisting' was used by those too coy to say 'pissing'.

[Ian H]

I also thought 'persisting' was used by those too coy to say 'pissing'.

Exactly, or at least, originally. I bet there are people using it now who don't realise that.

[why1040]

Ahhhh...

That makes sense and I shall stop getting quite so irate about it...lol!   

[hellymedic]

If I have a Rare Coy Moment, I say it's 'hissing with rain'.

[Biggsy]

"An euphemism"?  Is one having a giraffe?

[rower40]

"An euphemism"?  Is one having a giraffe?

Well, there was I thinking that words what begun wiv a vowel took "an" as their indefinite article, so I hedged my bets with both 'a' and 'an', with the second in brackets and a question mark!

I suppose it depends on whether "euph" is pronounced "oof" or "yoof". 

[Biggsy]

Ah, yes, an hotel.  I don't like. 

[Cudzoziemiec]

In this way new words are created - a new-for-me-ism!

[Biggsy]

It does amuse me when posh peeps drop their aitches and claim when they do it it is right and when cockneys do it it is wrong.

Historical and hysterical nonsense.

[Ian H]

It does amuse me when posh peeps drop their aitches and claim when they do it it is right and when cockneys do it it is wrong.

Historical and hysterical nonsense.

As in hour or honour?

The pronounced H in hotel and similar words derived from French is quite new in that there are probably still speakers alive who, correctly, wouldn't pronounce it.

[citoyen]

In this way new words are created - a new-for-me-ism!

Funny you should say that - oranges were originally noranges, doncha know (from the Spanish "naranja").

I wonder if "new phemism" counts as an eggcorn? Hmm, maybe not.

d.

[nicknack]

The pronounced H in hotel and similar words derived from French is quite new in that there are probably still speakers alive who, correctly, wouldn't pronounce it.

It's only correct if you're speaking French. We'd be in a right old pickle if we decided we had to pronounce all the English words that are derived from a foreign language (all of them?) in the manner of that language. Hotel, when spoken in English is not French, it is English, and to not pronounce the aitch is just poncy.

[Rhys W]

I can never keep a straight face when I hear an American pronounce "herbs" like the French herbes.