Grammar that makes you cringe

[TheLurker]

At some point, "get go" and "get-go" will be.

Doesn't make it any less ugly and cringe inducing so NickNack is quite entitled to his express his ire, but, given the way language works, there is every reason to hope that it, like many other fashionable, slang even "formal" words and phrases before, will wither and die. 
 

[Slave To The Viking]

At some point, "get go" and "get-go" will be.

Doesn't make it any less ugly and cringe inducing so NickNack is quite entitled to his express his ire, but, given the way language works, there is every reason to hope that it, like many other fashionable, slang even "formal" words and phrases before, will wither and die.

Doesn't make it any more ugly and cringe inducing either. Only NickNack's unqualified opinion does that.

NickNack's misplaced assertion that some phrasings are objectively less valid than others - with no reason quoted - does not entitle him to express his ire. Saying what the problem actually is - rather than simply stating that there is a problem - is required for that.

My ire, on the other hand, comes from witnessing empty snobbery that masquerades as taste. From the impugning of a richer pool from which to draw a variety of expression, for the supposed reason that it is, supposedly, wrong.

Heaven forfend we should have a choice of phrases! Let's all speak using only the words which are arbitrarily determined to be the pinnacle of correctness, despite the non-existence of that concept! There was an exact point in history when we got it right, and it's a travesty to use any coinages dating from after that sacred moment! Burn the thesaurus, for only the pure core of meaning (which is somehow inherent within the words I like but not the ones I don't) shall be allowed to exist! Slay the poets, for expression must be limited and formalised!

Cobblers. Say "get-go" if you like. Or "outset". Or "off". Or "inception". Or so many more things.

And don't try to be a snob about semantics on a grammar forum.

[Nuncio]

NickNack is the best judge of what makes him cringe - they don't need a qualification.

How come you've got this far and only just noticed it's all 'empty snobbery masquerading as taste'? I thought that was the point.

[Cudzoziemiec]

For some reason, I woke up this morning thinking about jumperons. Or jumper-ons. Maybe jumper ons. The origin of this word, phrase or expression, is that one toddler said "I've got a jumper on" to which a second toddler replied "I've got two jumper ons." This not only gives us a fascinating insight into language learning and creating processes, and indeed into infantile competitiveness, it is breakthrough in physics which will revolutionise our world, not least in cycling. A jumperon is a particle of athletic prowess about to be discovered at CERN, soon thereafter to be banned by WADA.

[Legs]

No matter where I roam
I will return to my English rose
For no bonds can ever tempt me from she.

Grates every time.

[citoyen]

How come you've got this far and only just noticed it's all 'empty snobbery masquerading as taste'? I thought that was the point.

I mostly stopped contributing to this thread when I had a brief moment of self-awareness... and cringed at myself.

(Mostly. Sometimes I still can't help myself.)

[ian]

My rule for this thread, as stated somewhere above, is that every complaint in this thread is proved wrong within a few follow-ups. Plus the original poster will be judged to have made a grammatical error of their own in their complaint about someone else's grammar and thus be besoiled in their own incongruent filth.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Meh and bah. There is cringing in this thread but there is even more laughter, and just plain curiosity. Why do we say that? What does this mean? And why do some people dislike it? And why do others dislike that some dislike it? Etc and moreover ect.

[TheLurker]

NickNack is the best judge of what makes him cringe - they don't need a qualification.

How come you've got this far and only just noticed it's all 'empty snobbery masquerading as taste'? I thought that was the point.

Thank you. I had considered a far less polite response, but I think you've dealt with it quite nicely. 

[nicknack]

NickNack is the best judge of what makes him cringe - they don't need a qualification.

Indeed.
Thank you. 

[Cudzoziemiec]

Surly riders (it was a Cross Check) get nominatively determinate when "less" is used in place of "fewer".

[Kim]

For want of a better thread, I'm in a Zoom conference with a bandwidth-impaired presenter and someone just reported it as "sound is pixelating"

It's technically wrong, but also pleasingly succinct.

[TheLurker]

Kim> ....sound is pixelating...

Russ Conway & his Penguin got there first... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gPrvoN4c7g

[Cudzoziemiec]

It’s like those signs that say “advance warning” to differentiate from a warning after the event.

There's warning, advance warning and now pre-warning:

Programme Yarrow prepares for a situation where power is unavailable, without any pre-warning, to all premises without backup generators during winter.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/nov/01/government-tests-energy-blackout-emergency-plans-as-supply-fears-grow

Whereas a can see a use for "advance warning", "pre-warning" is just wrong. Do they mean "prior warning" (in which case, we're back to "advance warning")? "Pre-warning" sounds like something that comes before a warning. But what would that be?

[Giraffe]

It's a result of global warning.

[Kim]

Whereas a can see a use for "advance warning", "pre-warning" is just wrong. Do they mean "prior warning" (in which case, we're back to "advance warning")? "Pre-warning" sounds like something that comes before a warning. But what would that be?

Fire alarms have the concept of 'pre-alarm', which implies an elevated level of whatever-the-sensor-is-measuring but not (with a strongly implied 'yet') high enough to justify sounding the alarm.  It's reasonable jargon in that context, where you might use that condition to start releasing fire doors or set something beeping at the security desk or whatever.

It's clearly useful to have different confidence-level warnings, which might or might not progressively increase as the probability of and/or proximity to the event increases.  But that sort of thing is best expressed quantitatively in a way that makes sense in the given context - different colours of weather warnings for example.  Otherwise you get into pre-pre-warnings, which is clearly silly.

It also suggests the existence of post-warnings, which are more correctly described as "I told you so"s.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Post warnings: tomorrow the DPD driver will pause briefly outside your gate, take a photo of your front door without leaving his van and say 'We tried to deliver but you were out.'

[TheLurker]

Not grammar, but this seems the best home for this piece of nonsense.

Independent's web site, today.

[T42]

Not grammar, but this seems the best home for this piece of nonsense.

Independent's web site, today.

"Coronated" doesn't make you cringe? It does me.  Back in 1953 Lizzie was crowned.

[TheLurker]

> "Coronated" doesn't make you cringe?"
That's exactly why it I posted it, but I can't nail it as grammatically incorrect, merely ugly and stupid.

[Tim Hall]

> "Coronated" doesn't make you cringe?"
That's exactly why it I posted it, but I can't nail it as grammatically incorrect, merely ugly and stupid.

That's no way to speak of your King.

[hatler]

"... is due be coronated ..."

Where's the 'to' ?

[Cudzoziemiec]

The relevance of the witness can only be assessed, against what you pre-announce that potentially could be heard.

Perhaps the relevance could be post-announced after the witness has been heard?

[TheLurker]

> "Coronated" doesn't make you cringe?"
That's exactly why it I posted it, but I can't nail it as grammatically incorrect, merely ugly and stupid.

That's no way to speak of your King.

Waves Tim in the general direction of the, "Monty Python Quotes for all Occasions" thread. 

"... is due be coronated ..."
Where's the 'to' ?

Bristol?

[Cudzoziemiec]

"... is due be coronated ..."
Where's the 'to' ?

Bristol?