Author Topic: Grammar that makes you cringe (Read 856774 times)

SandyV · « **Reply #3550 on:** 09 May, 2015, 10:31:58 pm »

Quote from: Steph on 09 May, 2015, 04:08:32 pm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-32672094

105mm 'canons'.

FFS.

Perhaps they use unexploded ordinance

ian · « **Reply #3551 on:** 11 May, 2015, 09:44:34 am »

Quote from: Ian H on 03 May, 2015, 05:30:30 pm

Quote from: citoyen on 02 May, 2015, 11:30:09 am
Just realised I repeated Ian H's post. For some reason I didn't notice it before writing mine.

Mine was just quoting
Quote from: citoyen on 02 May, 2015, 11:30:09 am
Anyway, yes, discovering the alt keys on the iPhone was a revelation for me. It's worth experimenting to discover what else they've hidden away…

I do think direct keyboard access as with Apple is more civilised than Windows unintuitive system.

Hold down any key on a iPad, iPhone, or Mac, and you get all the accented variants rather than having to remember cryptic codes. Makes more sense than auto-repeat to my mind. Who needs auto-repeat unless you type aaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh a lot.

There's a switch somewhere between the two behaviours.

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #3552 on:** 11 May, 2015, 10:14:07 am »

Åłł thèšé âčçęñtēd ćhãräčtėrš årë jûßt â śïłłŷ FOREIGN æffēçtātįøń

Steph · « **Reply #3553 on:** 12 May, 2015, 05:51:26 pm »

From today's Metro

"A wild boar caused mayhem.... The 55lb female intruder..."

Tim Hall · « **Reply #3554 on:** 12 May, 2015, 11:56:18 pm »

Quote from: Steph on 12 May, 2015, 05:51:26 pm

From today's Metro

"A wild boar caused mayhem.... The 55lb female intruder..."

Annoyingly, AIUI, wild boar covers both the male and female of the species. I don't know which is the more deadly.

nicknack · « **Reply #3555 on:** 13 May, 2015, 12:06:44 am »

Quote from: SandyV on 09 May, 2015, 10:31:58 pm

Quote from: Steph on 09 May, 2015, 04:08:32 pm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-32672094

105mm 'canons'.

FFS.

Perhaps they use unexploded ordinance

Wowbagger · « **Reply #3556 on:** 13 May, 2015, 12:16:02 am »

Quote from: Tim Hall on 12 May, 2015, 11:56:18 pm

Quote from: Steph on 12 May, 2015, 05:51:26 pm
From today's Metro

"A wild boar caused mayhem.... The 55lb female intruder..."
Annoyingly, AIUI, wild boar covers both the male and female of the species. I don't know which is the more deadly.

55lb seems to me to be only a piglet. Now a 30 stone wold boar, that would be like a bull in a china shop.

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #3557 on:** 13 May, 2015, 02:21:12 am »

Quote from: Tim Hall on 12 May, 2015, 11:56:18 pm

Quote from: Steph on 12 May, 2015, 05:51:26 pm
From today's Metro

"A wild boar caused mayhem.... The 55lb female intruder..."
Annoyingly, AIUI, wild boar covers both the male and female of the species. I don't know which is the more deadly.

We know a song about that...

https://youtu.be/N-wIvsZBFhQ

L CC · « **Reply #3558 on:** 13 May, 2015, 08:05:39 am »

Quote from: Wowbagger on 13 May, 2015, 12:16:02 am

Quote from: Tim Hall on 12 May, 2015, 11:56:18 pm
Quote from: Steph on 12 May, 2015, 05:51:26 pm
From today's Metro

"A wild boar caused mayhem.... The 55lb female intruder..."
Annoyingly, AIUI, wild boar covers both the male and female of the species. I don't know which is the more deadly.
55lb seems to me to be only a piglet. Now a 30 stone wold boar, that would be like a bull in a china shop.

Indeed. Even 55kg isn't fully grown in domesticated pigs, baconers are slaughtered at about 100kg liveweight and breeding sows get much bigger than that.

T42 · « **Reply #3559 on:** 13 May, 2015, 08:20:41 am »

Quote from: Tim Hall on 12 May, 2015, 11:56:18 pm

Quote from: Steph on 12 May, 2015, 05:51:26 pm
From today's Metro

"A wild boar caused mayhem.... The 55lb female intruder..."
Annoyingly, AIUI, wild boar covers both the male and female of the species. I don't know which is the more deadly.

As usual it's the female, when she has young. Either sex will go rooting for food wherever they like - in the forest we often see stretches of trailside grass ripped up by them. I could imagine that if one wandered into a camp and people started panicking life would get interesting.

Years ago the missus was up in the forest here with Gus, our 65-kilo Leonberger, when a boar with a string of piglets crossed the trail up ahead. They don't see you if you don't move so she stood stock still: the big, courageous dog moved slowly in behind her and did likewise. Leonbergers are wimps.

Cudzoziemiec · « **Reply #3560 on:** 13 May, 2015, 10:35:02 am »

I came across a family of them in the forest one evening. We all stopped and stared at each other until they decided I was neither edible nor hungry. They love to dig up potatoes from the fields and are fond of maize too.

T42 · « **Reply #3561 on:** 13 May, 2015, 11:01:43 am »

They've thriven so much on maize over the last 20 years that they've achieved pest status and can now be hunted all year round. I was once on an organized walk with a control in the forest: some hunter or other had considerately gutted a boar about five yards away, and the pong was heroic. Went down very well with the cake.

Wowbagger · « **Reply #3562 on:** 13 May, 2015, 10:47:47 pm »

Quote

Will you please ensure that you let either Malcolm or I know of any chess achievements of children who you tutor.

Have I won?

citoyen · « **Reply #3563 on:** 14 May, 2015, 03:52:25 pm »

Quote from: Wowbagger on 13 May, 2015, 10:47:47 pm

Quote
Will you please ensure that you let either Malcolm or I know of any chess achievements of children who you tutor.

Have I won?

Nah, there can't be more than four grammatical errors in that sentence, and there's definitely scope for more.

Ian H · « **Reply #3564 on:** 14 May, 2015, 04:50:46 pm »

Aren't there points for sheer inelegance?

Cudzoziemiec · « **Reply #3565 on:** 19 May, 2015, 10:52:33 am »

It's bad form indeed to quote forumites here, especially if their cringe-inducing posts are probably no more than careless slips, but this one's Wow, who not only knows I love him to the tip of his fluffy white beard, but is a fairly regular poster in this thread:

Quote from: Wowbagger on 19 May, 2015, 09:48:24 am

"The Young Ones" with the incomparable Cliff Richard. This could explain the fact that I doubt that my lifelong cinema attendance has probably not exceeded an average of one attendance every four years.

Now I be like, probably not doubt that he will no doubt in all probability not fail to miss the opportunity for some revenge.

Wowbagger · « **Reply #3566 on:** 19 May, 2015, 10:57:16 am »

It was on an Ipad, and therefore mostly invisible to me. Also, I was in bed.

TBH utter befuddlement at present is causing my total failure to comprehend that wot I just rote.

Edit: actually looking at the time of that post, I wasn't in bed, but I certainly hadn't had my medication.

Wowbagger · « **Reply #3567 on:** 07 June, 2015, 09:42:24 pm »

A crap photo taken from my phone. "TOUR DE' ESSEX"

Ian H · « **Reply #3568 on:** 07 June, 2015, 10:30:19 pm »

Seems about right...for Essex.

citoyen · « **Reply #3569 on:** 16 June, 2015, 10:33:43 am »

You need a newer dictionary - it's in the latest OED.

Still not in Collins, though, and that's the one I use at work, but I would accept it if a contributor used it in their copy - few readers would have trouble understanding the term in the appropriate context, and the alternative would be to render your sentence clunky and inelegant, which to my mind would be a far more grievous solecism (the kind of thing up with which I will not put).

Peter · « **Reply #3570 on:** 16 June, 2015, 10:37:18 am »

In my view, a sentence using "favorite" as a verb is already clunky and inelegant - and American. However, I can see you are in a difficult editorial position if you are going to use articles which contain internet-speak.

Vince · « **Reply #3571 on:** 16 June, 2015, 10:42:32 am »

Wouldn't 'bookmark' be a more appropriate verb for the context?

citoyen · « **Reply #3572 on:** 16 June, 2015, 11:12:15 am »

Quote from: Peter on 16 June, 2015, 10:37:18 am

In my view, a sentence using "favorite" as a verb is already clunky and inelegant - and American. However, I can see you are in a difficult editorial position if you are going to use articles which contain internet-speak.

I don't see it as a difficulty. Many nouns become verbs through common use and eventually take hold in more formal language despite resistance.

Ask yourself this: are you resisting the usage on strong grammatical grounds, or simply because it's a neologism?

Quote from: Vince on 16 June, 2015, 10:42:32 am

Wouldn't 'bookmark' be a more appropriate verb for the context?

QED. Once upon a time, using bookmark as a verb would have been similarly reviled.

(And the answer is no anyway: bookmarking applies to web pages, while favouriting applies to individual posts on social media sites.)

Wowbagger · « **Reply #3573 on:** 16 June, 2015, 01:23:58 pm »

I've said it before and I am sure I will say it again...

I can verb any noun.

Andrij · « **Reply #3574 on:** 16 June, 2015, 01:39:27 pm »

Verbings weirds nouns.