Author Topic: Grammar that makes you cringe (Read 843467 times)

T42 · « **Reply #4925 on:** 21 March, 2018, 04:31:41 pm »

Quote from: Cudzoziemiec on 15 March, 2018, 06:12:05 pm

Back to adjectives as adverbs and the origins or at least age of the usage:
Quote
'I'll go on,' Hypolita said. 'Life's too short to walk so slow.'
That's 1915 and British. Clearly not such a recent phenomenon.

Chambers gives both slow and slowly as adverbs.

Cudzoziemiec · « **Reply #4926 on:** 21 March, 2018, 05:58:33 pm »

Quote from: T42 on 21 March, 2018, 04:31:41 pm

Quote from: Cudzoziemiec on 15 March, 2018, 06:12:05 pm
Back to adjectives as adverbs and the origins or at least age of the usage:
Quote
'I'll go on,' Hypolita said. 'Life's too short to walk so slow.'
That's 1915 and British. Clearly not such a recent phenomenon.

Chambers gives both slow and slowly as adverbs.

How absolutely with it!

T42 · « **Reply #4927 on:** 22 March, 2018, 08:05:39 am »

Mr. Fowler agrees:

Quote

Slow(ly) advv: In spite of the encroachments of -ly, slow maintains itself as at least an idiomatic possibility...

Mind you, that's from the first edition. Those who wish to stickle may claim obsolescence.

Cudzoziemiec · « **Reply #4928 on:** 24 April, 2018, 08:36:03 am »

Equatorial zits?

Quote

The fatberg autopsy also uncovered evidence of Britons’ contact with street and pharmaceutical drugs, including small plastic “baggies”, a needle and syringe, as well as a high proportion of chemicals found in tropical creams for acne and paracetamol.

T42 · « **Reply #4929 on:** 24 April, 2018, 10:45:04 am »

Campbell's Cream of Paracetamol?

hellymedic · « **Reply #4930 on:** 24 April, 2018, 12:33:47 pm »

Needs an Oxford comma...

T42 · « **Reply #4931 on:** 24 April, 2018, 12:44:12 pm »

I wonder if they didn't mean topical. If acne is limited to the tropics, Belfast was a lot further south when I was a spotty youff.

Cudzoziemiec · « **Reply #4932 on:** 24 April, 2018, 02:43:06 pm »

Quote from: T42 on 24 April, 2018, 12:44:12 pm

I wonder if they didn't mean topical. If acne is limited to the tropics, Belfast was a lot further south when I was a spotty youff.

This is explained by the growth of monarchical unionism. It's king kongtinental drift.

hellymedic · « **Reply #4933 on:** 24 April, 2018, 04:54:53 pm »

I am sure they did mean topical but sub-literacy is rife...

T42 · « **Reply #4934 on:** 11 May, 2018, 07:51:19 am »

On eBay (unless it was Amazon): ramassage avec mines for pickup with leads.

Automatic translation is here to corset.

T42 · « **Reply #4935 on:** 28 June, 2018, 03:37:14 pm »

It's organic all right.

Not sure whether to post this in the random food-things thread, the politically-incorrect foods or here. Here won.

hellymedic · « **Reply #4936 on:** 28 June, 2018, 03:50:15 pm »

Not the 'badly-named business' then?

Cudzoziemiec · « **Reply #4937 on:** 06 July, 2018, 08:58:58 am »

This isn't exactly grammar, but I can't tell whether it's a proper vocabulary mix-up or just a typo. I ordered something through webby magic and received a reply which finished:

Quote

This is an automated message. No rights can be deducted from this message.

pcolbeck · « **Reply #4938 on:** 06 July, 2018, 09:16:14 am »

The American treatment of collective nouns. To use a Wold Cup example:

US: England is playing Sweden on Saturday.
UK: England are playing Sweden on Saturday.

Any yes I know that the British English usage is somewhat inconsistent but the American usage still grates.

Andrij · « **Reply #4939 on:** 06 July, 2018, 10:45:15 am »

Quote from: pcolbeck on 06 July, 2018, 09:16:14 am

The ~~American~~ British treatment of collective nouns. To use a Wold Cup example:

US: England is playing Sweden on Saturday.
UK: England are playing Sweden on Saturday.

~~Any yes I know that the~~ British English usage is ~~somewhat inconsistent~~ wrong ~~but~~ and the American usage ~~still grates~~ is correct.

FTFY.

citoyen · « **Reply #4940 on:** 06 July, 2018, 11:50:40 am »

Neither is incorrect.

Or should that be 'neither are incorrect?'

T42 · « **Reply #4941 on:** 06 July, 2018, 01:42:01 pm »

Quote from: pcolbeck on 06 July, 2018, 09:16:14 am

The American treatment of collective nouns. To use a Wold Cup example:

US: England is playing Sweden on Saturday.
UK: England are playing Sweden on Saturday.

Any yes I know that the British English usage is somewhat inconsistent but the American usage still grates.

The first refers to England the country, the second to England the team. Team is a collective, so may be treated as singular or plural, but preferably not as both in the same piece. The Graun, of course, will treat it as both three words apart in the same sentence, and probably spell it as meat into the bargain.

England, of course, is singular, hence Brexit. See also Green Grow the Rushes-O.

andyoxon · « **Reply #4942 on:** 13 July, 2018, 02:34:29 pm »

Is this a front page typo on BBC? Indispensible rather than indispensable...

"Donald Trump: US-UK relationship indispensible"
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news

T42 · « **Reply #4943 on:** 13 July, 2018, 02:47:30 pm »

Why not? The Beeb is hardly an authority these days.

One that pissed me off, but I can't remember whether it was Beeb or Graun, was a comment about a player giving away a free kick in the WC* for nearly hitting something with "their" boot. If it's an all-male team, why not use "his"? Twats.

* splosh

mattc · « **Reply #4944 on:** 13 July, 2018, 03:00:35 pm »

Talking of boots ...

On some Radio4 serious prog (about motivating workers IIRC); interviewer says to expert:

"So when did we take our foot off the ball? And who took their foot off the ball."

Expert interviewee was clearly used to bullshit jargon, as he answered without missing a beat!

andyoxon · « **Reply #4945 on:** 13 July, 2018, 03:15:27 pm »

Quote from: T42 on 13 July, 2018, 02:47:30 pm

Why not? The Beeb is hardly an authority these days.

...

Reckon it's a typo, since indispensible is not in the main dictionaries.

T42 · « **Reply #4946 on:** 13 July, 2018, 03:30:04 pm »

I wouldn't quabble.

Jakob W · « **Reply #4947 on:** 13 July, 2018, 04:00:37 pm »

Quote from: T42 on 13 July, 2018, 02:47:30 pm

Why not? The Beeb is hardly an authority these days.

One that pissed me off, but I can't remember whether it was Beeb or Graun, was a comment about a player giving away a free kick in the WC* for nearly hitting something with "their" boot. If it's an all-male team, why not use "his"? Twats.

* splosh

Seems a little harsh; singular they has been in use for 400 years or so, and it's not like it adds ambiguity.

T42 · « **Reply #4948 on:** 17 July, 2018, 08:33:50 am »

"Their" as a singular has been in use since whenever but only when the sex of whoever it referred to was indeterminate, and even then only in colloquial use.

Anyway, the trigger of my grammatical rant today stems is a NOTP chum's abuse of adjectival nouns. Adjectives in English don't take plurals so neither do they. Ditto adverbs. End of, and you can shove your "teeth-whitening products" up your illiterate arse.

Of course, I'm too chicken to say it to his face.

Cudzoziemiec · « **Reply #4949 on:** 17 July, 2018, 08:36:36 am »

The only plural in your example is "products" and that's definitely a noun.