Author Topic: Grammar that makes you cringe  (Read 834945 times)

Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #875 on: 25 June, 2010, 11:04:22 am »
I do wish people would learn "loose/lose". It's amazing how many clever folks get it wrong.

Some people know the difference, and yet still can't get it right.  Something wrong in the head.
 :-[
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mattc

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Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #876 on: 26 June, 2010, 12:55:26 pm »
I do wish people would learn "loose/lose". It's amazing how many clever folks get it wrong.

Some people know the difference, and yet still can't get it right.  Something wrong in the head.
 :-[

That would be me (okayzunally)! I call it:
making a mistake or a typo.

I make others, too - best not to let them get to you :)
Has never ridden RAAM
---------
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hellymedic

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Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #877 on: 26 June, 2010, 01:24:09 pm »
Yebbut if I were to pay £7.50 (which is the price I believe will be charged) for the publication I am reading at present, I would SCREAM at all these howlers.

Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #878 on: 26 June, 2010, 10:07:11 pm »
Yebbut if I were to pay £7.50 (which is the price I believe will be charged) for the publication I am reading at present, I would SCREAM at all these howlers.

Which is why they have asked you to proof read it.

I am currently translating a couple of documents from Danish English to English English.
This is mostly because despite having no qualifications for such an activity, my colleagues are used to the groans/ moans/ tirades induced from reading Other Peoples' Typos/Mistakes.

My own are obviously forgivable, but Other Peoples' are not.

hellymedic

  • Just do it!
Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #879 on: 26 June, 2010, 10:18:27 pm »
Actually, they have not asked me; I'm doing it as a favour for my partner who is cringing in desperation. His frequent cringes have all but frozen him into inaction. I doubt the author of this work has much insight into his quality.

Pingu

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Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #880 on: 30 June, 2010, 04:49:56 pm »
BBC News - Scottish workplace death figures drop

Quote
The number of people killed at work in Scotland last year has fallen, according to figures from the Health and Safety Executive


iakobski

Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #881 on: 01 July, 2010, 09:31:07 am »
This is a long thread but the one generic phraseology that drives me mad at the moment is the advertising speak:
"up to 50% saving"
"up to 20% off"
which of course is a completely meaningless statement. 0% falls within that catchment.
It all started with a toothpaste manufacturer in the late 70's
"Up to 30% fewer fillings"
I complained to the ASA at the time and it was upheld, but the phrase is endemic now.

Buy 1 - Get 1 Half Price

Surely "buy two, get one half price" or even "buy one, get a second one half price"?

Andrij

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Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #882 on: 01 July, 2010, 09:54:51 am »
FIFA (not Fifa) is ...

England is ...

The players are ...

The Government is ...

Ministers are ...

A collective entity is still AN ENTITY, as in ONE, singular.  A body can have 50 milliard members, but that doesn't make the 'body' plural!

Americans can handle this concept quite easily.  Does such a concept not exist in British English?  ???
 
;D  Andrij.  I pronounce you Complete and Utter GIT   :thumbsup:

HTFB

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Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #883 on: 01 July, 2010, 10:33:41 am »
England is ...

The players are ...

A collective entity is still AN ENTITY, as in ONE, singular.  A body can have 50 milliard members, but that doesn't make the 'body' plural!

Americans can handle this concept quite easily.  Does such a concept not exist in British English?  ???
 
No, the idea that eleven individual players could meld into one team is quite unknown to England.
Not especially helpful or mature

Mr Larrington

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Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #884 on: 01 July, 2010, 11:18:51 am »
Anatole Economist on the Toady prog this morning.  There is a big difference between simulation and stimulation.  Simulating the economy is unlikely to be a viable way of getting BRITAIN out of the recession.
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

citoyen

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Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #885 on: 01 July, 2010, 11:33:10 am »
Andrij, you're telling us how to speak our language, eh? And some people wonder why Americans have a reputation for arrogance... ;)

Serious answer: it's not Fifa itself that's a disgrace, it's the people who run Fifa who are a disgrace.

And it's not England that's failing to show unity (that would be illogical - how can an entity not be unified?), it's the England players. When you say "England are..." you're using a sort of rhetorical shorthand. It's not quite metonymy but I'm not sure what the correct term for it is.

Anyway, this is one of those occasions where strict grammatical correctness is WRONG. ;)

d.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #886 on: 10 July, 2010, 01:17:45 pm »
"met with". Recently seen on this very forum.

Please, please! What's wrong with 'met'? Why add an unnecessary word? It's bad enough that Leftpondians perpetuate this solecism, but it's now spreading over here.

I'm dreading the random 'of' spreading outside the USA. So far, I've seen a few examples, all perpetrated by less than perfectly literate individuals who have been exposed to transatlantic-speak, but it doesn't seem to have caught on generally. Yet. :(
"A woman on a bicycle has all the world before her where to choose; she can go where she will, no man hindering." The Type-Writer Girl, 1897

Gandalf

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Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #887 on: 11 July, 2010, 08:25:54 am »
The thing that is really getting to me at the moment is 'should of'.

I don't have a problem with the written 'should've' but where did this abomination come from?

Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #888 on: 11 July, 2010, 11:35:43 am »
The thing that is really getting to me at the moment is 'should of'.

I don't have a problem with the written 'should've' but where did this abomination come from?
People writing the way they speak.  Since they cannot pronounce or enunciate correctly they write incorrectly as well.  I too hate all the would of, could of, should of etc.

We will soon be writing about "anuvah exampoo of bad spellun".  The poo ending amuses me.  People cannot seem to pronounce words ending in le these days, and so people becomes peepoo.  Makes me  :sick:

eck

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Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #889 on: 11 July, 2010, 11:43:10 am »
The poo ending amuses me.  People cannot seem to pronounce words ending in le these days, and so people becomes peepoo.  Makes me  :sick:

Come back Michael Howard - a real man of the peepilll.  :thumbsup:  ;)
It's a bit weird, but actually quite wonderful.

Gandalf

  • Each snowflake in an avalanche pleads not guilty
Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #890 on: 11 July, 2010, 02:46:01 pm »
The poo ending amuses me.  People cannot seem to pronounce words ending in le these days, and so people becomes peepoo.  Makes me  :sick:

Come back Michael Howard - a real man of the peepilll.  :thumbsup:  ;)

I always thought of it as 'pipple'.

nicknack

  • Hornblower
Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #891 on: 12 July, 2010, 02:54:23 pm »
Listen BBC - when it means the end of the day it's eve-ning, it's only even-ing when it means flattening.
There's no vibrations, but wait.

Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #892 on: 15 July, 2010, 08:37:04 am »
Listen BBC - when it means the end of the day it's eve-ning, it's only even-ing when it means flattening.

Even Led Zeppelin got that right. "In the eeeeeev-ninggggg"
I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that.

Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #893 on: 15 July, 2010, 08:39:31 am »
Did anyone else see the new series of "That Mitchell and Webb Look" last night ? They had a brilliant sketch where a boss in an office lost it and shot anyone who made a grammatical or pronunciation error. 
I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that.

Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #894 on: 15 July, 2010, 09:30:13 am »
The thing that is really getting to me at the moment is 'should of'.

I don't have a problem with the written 'should've' but where did this abomination come from?

Pronunciation spelling.

Mr Larrington

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Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #895 on: 15 July, 2010, 10:08:39 am »
Did anyone else see the new series of "That Mitchell and Webb Look" last night ? They had a brilliant sketch where a boss in an office lost it and shot anyone who made a grammatical or pronunciation error. 

+1
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #896 on: 15 July, 2010, 10:38:36 am »
The ignoramuses / ignorami end was genius.
I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that.

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #897 on: 15 July, 2010, 11:08:39 am »
The ignoramuses / ignorami end was genius.

Oh yes, that was great.

As was: "It's whomever!"

d.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #898 on: 15 July, 2010, 11:29:07 am »
'Haitch haitch haitch'.  ;D
"A woman on a bicycle has all the world before her where to choose; she can go where she will, no man hindering." The Type-Writer Girl, 1897

Steve Kish

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Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #899 on: 16 July, 2010, 10:33:14 pm »
My big cringers:-

'haitch', of course.  Seems to be standard with every sales / service agent these days.  When asked my surname ... Kay-eye-ess-aych and they repeat it back as kay-eye-ess-haitch, must bite lip to avoid shouting NO, AITCH!

'revert back'

'best' (or similar) rather than 'better' when comparing two .... a great favourite on 'Top Gear'.

Quote
The Jaguar or the Aston ... both great, but which is fastest?

 :sick:

Double negatives in pop lyrics - one's even a triple:-


'Ain't gonna bump no more with no big fat woman!' ???
Old enough to know better!