Grammar that makes you cringe

[T42]

Yup.  Anyone who spells login as one word must be a crook.

Marginally better than logon, which always looks to me like it should be pronounced like Logan, as in Logan's Run.

One step from a Vogon.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Actually, Helly, with emails like that I appreciate the lousy grammar as it makes spam even easier to spot. That one makes me laugh more than cringe.

I can't remember whether it was here or elsewhere, but I've read that the poor grammar in some phishing spam is deliberate as it filters out those who might be more sceptical about the content.

Yes, and also the clear identification of the source as being Nigerian. I can't remember where I read it either, though!

[billplumtree]

BBC news just now:

Prisoners are disproportionately black

[citoyen]

BBC news just now:

Prisoners are disproportionately black

That shouldn't be as funny as it is.

[billplumtree]

Pomicide

If it were to mean anything at all, it would mean the opposite of what you'd like it to mean.  Just stop it.  Go and do some cricket practice instead 

[Ian H]

Pomicide

If it were to mean anything at all, it would mean the opposite of what you'd like it to mean.  Just stop it.  Go and do some cricket practice instead 

The killing of apples?

[toontra]

Just been reminded of one of my current pet hates on R4 this morning.  Scientists, mathematicians and IT people, often campus based, who start sentences, and often whole conversations, with the word "so". 

It's as if they are picking up mid-conversation discussing proofs with a colleague, whilst also trying to convince you, in a patronising kind of way, that you have embarked on a level of dialogue of which they are master.

It's just plain irritating when such grammatical absurdities gain widespread use and are thought by the user to signify smartness.  Quite the opposite IMO.

Only a few years later this has become common currency.  It has spread like a virus and can be heard on every other media interview, not restricted to "experts" but almost anyone trying to explain something.  It is now the thinking person's equivalent of the youth "like".

If you find yourself doing this, please try and desist!

[Wowbagger]

Pomicide

If it were to mean anything at all, it would mean the opposite of what you'd like it to mean.  Just stop it.  Go and do some cricket practice instead 

I thought that as well.

I can't say I am familiar with Australian tabloids but I doubt that they aim higher than our own.

[T42]

Just been reminded of one of my current pet hates on R4 this morning.  Scientists, mathematicians and IT people, often campus based, who start sentences, and often whole conversations, with the word "so". 

It's as if they are picking up mid-conversation discussing proofs with a colleague, whilst also trying to convince you, in a patronising kind of way, that you have embarked on a level of dialogue of which they are master.

It's just plain irritating when such grammatical absurdities gain widespread use and are thought by the user to signify smartness.  Quite the opposite IMO.

Only a few years later this has become common currency.  It has spread like a virus and can be heard on every other media interview, not restricted to "experts" but almost anyone trying to explain something.  It is now the thinking person's equivalent of the youth "like".

If you find yourself doing this, please try and desist!

Having lived & worked in Germany for years, I've had the "so" habit since the 80s. Germans arrive somewhere and get out of the car: "So!" Germans sit down to lunch: "So!"  Very like the Edinburgh "now" habit - which might have died out since I lived there.  Nothing patronising about either, though, they're just meaningless sonic interjections, a means of announcing the imminent arrival of a sentence more significant.

What I find much more annoying is when something I have been in the habit of doing for decades suddenly "goes viral" and one is seen as a slavish adopter of everything modish.  E.g. green wellies: I had had a pair in the car for untold years before C&D were seen wearing them. Living in Germany at the time I had no idea that green wellie syndrome was sweeping the UK until a chum & spouse arrived on a visit and chortled merrily at seeing mine. Twat.

[red marley]

Having lived & worked in Germany for years, I've had the "so" habit since the 80s. Germans arrive somewhere and get out of the car: "So!" Germans sit down to lunch: "So!"  Very like the Edinburgh "now" habit - which might have died out since I lived there.  Nothing patronising about either, though, they're just meaningless sonic interjections, a means of announcing the imminent arrival of a sentence more significant.

I know a few people who use 'so' or similar in that fashion. I don't find it patronising, but perhaps mildly irritating. It acts as way of reserving the next few seconds of conversation without actually, at that point, having anything to say. The longer the pause between the 'so' and what follows, the less mild the irritation. It is akin, dare I say it, to leaving a towel on a deckchair at 6am.

[Deano]

"Furthered".

As in "So-and-so furthered that he..." (after a list of things which So-and-so has listed)

OK, repetition of said may not be ideal, but's certainly preferable to fucking furthered.

[citoyen]

Local family butcher...



...every time I pass, I want to yell out, 'No, Alan IS Long!'

[Andrij]

Keeping with the style, shouldn't that read "Alan B Long"?

[clarion]

I R Baboon?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Weasel

[mattc]

"Furthered".

As in "So-and-so furthered that he..." (after a list of things which So-and-so has listed)

OK, repetition of said may not be ideal, but's certainly preferable to fucking furthered.

Truly awful.

I dont care how many other citations anyone comes up with, there's no defence!

[Andrij]

Multiple citations could just be proof of lots of people being WRONG.

[mattc]

Multiple citations could just be proof of lots of people being WRONG.

Amen to that!

But is it too late for a campaign against "cover off"? I fear the ship may have sailed on that one ...

[Wowbagger]

Cover off? What's wrong with that?

"The rain has stopped and they are taking the covers off."

OK, Aggers always uses it in the plural. I don't recall hearing anyone use it as a singular, if that's what you mean.

Or, "Mr. Brearley has moved Extra Cover off to the right and made a gesture that seems to indicate that he would like the sun to move a little squarer... Who is this man?"

[mattc]

 

Oh, if only that was the context I hear it in! The world would be a better place (especially meetings).

[Peter]

parked up

[Tim Hall]

parked up

Yes, what's wrong with the perfectly good "stashed the motor"?

[Andrij]

Sometimes you can't win...

Use, not take.


Take, not use.

[Wowbagger]

Oh, if only that was the context I hear it in! The world would be a better place (especially meetings).

The odd thing is that I have absolutely no idea of the context you have in mind.

[mattc]

Then you are very fortunate.

Google once again saves me some typing: http://bad-pr.blogspot.com/2008/08/bullshit-bingo-5-cover-off.html

[Wowbagger]

I haven't been to a meeting of the sort you have in mind since 1995. Have I missed much?