Author Topic: Grammar that makes you cringe  (Read 834935 times)

Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #5250 on: 27 March, 2019, 11:12:19 am »
An actor, or a witness in court, might give a credible performance.  A footballer might give a creditable performance.  Sportsball pundits, get your shit outsorted.

But if a footballer can give an incredible performance, surely they must be able to give a credible one.

Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #5251 on: 27 March, 2019, 11:15:19 am »
Today I have "non-US dollar based partners," which I've rendered as written. Seems quite simple in comparison (and sadly devoid of chemical pun potential).

But is that partners who use non-US dollars, or partners who use US dollars although they're not based in the USA, or something entirely different?

Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #5252 on: 27 March, 2019, 11:19:40 am »
Is a complicated psychological condition associated with intricate arrangements of buildings a complex complex complex complex?

Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #5253 on: 27 March, 2019, 11:38:49 am »
An actor, or a witness in court, might give a credible performance.  A footballer might give a creditable performance.  Sportsball pundits, get your shit outsorted.

But if a footballer can give an incredible performance, surely they must be able to give a credible one.

That is only a reasonable assumption if the use of the word "incredible" is correct in that context, which it isn't, however frequently we say it.

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #5254 on: 27 March, 2019, 11:39:24 am »
An actor, or a witness in court, might give a credible performance.  A footballer might give a creditable performance.  Sportsball pundits, get your shit outsorted.

But if a footballer can give an incredible performance, surely they must be able to give a credible one.
Reminds me of when I first came across the Polish word for incredible. "The bloke who organises these charity events is niesamowity." So what does that mean? Nie, obviously, is a negative prefix, so I looked up samowity in a Polish-English dictionary. Not there. No such word. Turns out Polish, quite sensibly, uses different words for "credible=believable" and "incredible=amazing."

Today I have "non-US dollar based partners," which I've rendered as written. Seems quite simple in comparison (and sadly devoid of chemical pun potential).

But is that partners who use non-US dollars, or partners who use US dollars although they're not based in the USA, or something entirely different?
Partners who use any currency other the US dollar. As opposed to non-US dollar-based partners, I suppose. You'd think lawyers would speak more clearly.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #5255 on: 27 March, 2019, 11:40:25 am »
Does getting your shit outsorted mean getting it sorted by a third party contracted for the specific task?
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #5256 on: 27 March, 2019, 12:03:58 pm »
I just didn't want to end a sentence with a preposition.  It seems that this is the type of thread up with which people will not put that.  :facepalm:

mattc

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Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #5257 on: 27 March, 2019, 12:23:20 pm »
Does getting your shit outsorted mean getting it sorted by a third party contracted for the specific task?
That's quite a useful term!

I have a lot of stuff that I need outsorting ...

(NO, IE spellchecker, do NOT underline "outsorting" - BAD IE!)
Has never ridden RAAM
---------
No.11  Because of the great host of those who dislike the least appearance of "swank " when they travel the roads and lanes. - From Kuklos' 39 Articles

Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #5258 on: 27 March, 2019, 12:26:55 pm »
Yay, I've helped to coin a new phrase.

I'm never sure whether people who use 'to coin a phrase' to introduce a time-worn cliché are using it ironically, or are just ignorant of what it really means...

hellymedic

  • Just do it!
Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #5259 on: 27 March, 2019, 12:45:41 pm »
I just didn't want to end a sentence with a preposition.  It seems that this is the type of thread up with which people will not put that.  :facepalm:

That would be the kind of thing up with which I would not put...

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #5260 on: 27 March, 2019, 01:57:44 pm »
Isn't the preposition "rule" one of those spurious 19th-century dictates? I'd look it up in Fowler but it's two feet out of reach.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #5261 on: 27 March, 2019, 02:10:41 pm »
I just didn't want to end a sentence with a preposition.  It seems that this is the type of thread up with which people will not put that.  :facepalm:

What are you talking about? ;)

Isn't the preposition "rule" one of those spurious 19th-century dictates? I'd look it up in Fowler but it's two feet out of reach.

Yes - belongs in the bin along with split infinitives, another pseudo-Latin affectation.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

rr

Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #5262 on: 27 March, 2019, 10:52:38 pm »
Job advert for principle engineer.
Government chief whip?

Sent from my moto x4 using Tapatalk


Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #5263 on: 28 March, 2019, 12:18:16 am »
I just didn't want to end a sentence with a preposition.  It seems that this is the type of thread up with which people will not put that.  :facepalm:

What are you talking about? ;)

Isn't the preposition "rule" one of those spurious 19th-century dictates? I'd look it up in Fowler but it's two feet out of reach.

Yes - belongs in the bin along with split infinitives, another pseudo-Latin affectation.
I'm slightly puzzled by the Pseudo-latin reference. Split infinitives seem to be popular in the American dialects of our language. UK dialects, particularly the RP varieties (which many in the UK view as an affectation) have a different tradition. I don't know of any split inifinitives in Black Country, though I'm not a native speaker.
In contrast, Latin lacks (lacked, if you prefer, though it seems to be the Lingua Franca  :demon: in the Vatican) splittable infinitives. Are there any European languages that share this oddment of English (with a suspicion that some of the pidgin English dialects may not have it)?

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #5264 on: 28 March, 2019, 08:04:34 am »
German, with zu. I suspect that the anti-splitting edict might have been imported with George rev. 1 or Albert of the hyperconstrictive britches.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #5265 on: 28 March, 2019, 11:38:16 am »
In contrast, Latin lacks (lacked, if you prefer, though it seems to be the Lingua Franca  :demon: in the Vatican) splittable infinitives. Are there any European languages that share this oddment of English (with a suspicion that some of the pidgin English dialects may not have it)?

That's the point - as I understand it, the rule about not splitting infinitives in English was laid down by scholars who felt that English should emulate Latin. And I think the same is true of the rule about not ending sentences with prepositions.

But English, as you rightly say, is not Latin.

German takes precisely the opposite approach - actively encouraging the shunting of prepositions to the end of the sentence, even if they are tacked on to the front of compound verbs in the infinitive.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #5266 on: 29 March, 2019, 03:25:31 pm »
I'm not sure whether to call this grammar or vocabulary (and it's definitely not a cringe), but if you were truing a wheel would you say you were making it "more truthful"? I'd say I was making it "truer" but yesterday someone who was talking to me while I did a rim swap used the "more truthful" phrase.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #5267 on: 29 March, 2019, 04:39:32 pm »
A thing can either be true or not true, so I'd say closer to true rather than either; but if I had to choose I'd say truer, since truthful means honest and I don't see wheels having the capacity to tell lies.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #5268 on: 29 March, 2019, 05:20:10 pm »
I don't see wheels having the capacity to tell lies.

Unless there's diesel about...

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #5269 on: 29 March, 2019, 06:37:18 pm »
Yeah, my thinking also was that truth is not the same as being true.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #5270 on: 29 March, 2019, 07:07:32 pm »
Quote
Bristol’s streets will be safer for cyclists when the government relaxes the laws on electrically-powered e-bikes.
As opposed to, say, steam-powered e-bikes.
https://www.bristol247.com/opinion/your-say/bristol-streets-will-be-safer-for-cyclists-when-government-relaxes-laws-on-e-bikes/
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

mattc

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Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #5271 on: 01 April, 2019, 12:13:01 pm »
What's wrong with
"closer to true" in this context?

Or truer for informal usage.

(as a wheel is never perfectly true, scientifically speaking :)  )

I certainly agree that truthful is the wrong word in this context - I would suggest that the speaker was just making a linguistic joke.
Has never ridden RAAM
---------
No.11  Because of the great host of those who dislike the least appearance of "swank " when they travel the roads and lanes. - From Kuklos' 39 Articles

Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #5272 on: 02 April, 2019, 10:54:53 am »
Spelling, Grammar, whatever, it's wrong-er than a wrong thing in Wrongton.

Quote
I have attached just one very simple ingredients list to give you a very small idea of what is available from ****'s 64 contracted principles ranges.


Kim

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Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #5273 on: 02 April, 2019, 02:47:02 pm »
I reckon that one fails on excessive verbal gymnastics, rather than any specific technical offence.  It really needs a management buzzword early on in the sentence as a warning of what's to come.

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #5274 on: 04 April, 2019, 02:04:45 pm »
I'm giving pun of the day award to whoever it was that wrote this (about Mark Francois) in the Graudnia:
Quote
Last night, after a narrow Commons vote to delay Brexit, he briefly graduated from corporal to deity: “Forgive them father, for they know not what they do”.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.