Author Topic: Grammar that makes you cringe  (Read 834908 times)

Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #4625 on: 20 July, 2017, 10:10:44 am »
Quote
Good Morning fboab,

Following on from our conversation on the 19/07/17 regarding the above subjects  , I would like to be considered a supplier of such products ,I know you mentioned it’s not something you’d be interested in at present , but by all means have a perusal of our services in the attached brochure’s.

I was already irritated by extra spaces before commas, but throwing that grocer's apopstrophe in there, especially after 'perusal' consigns you straight to The Bin.

Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #4626 on: 20 July, 2017, 12:59:42 pm »
Am I the only one to cringe at the increasing use of "rooves" as the plural of roof? The BBC newsreader used it last night.

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #4627 on: 20 July, 2017, 01:56:33 pm »
Not grammar and not really a cringe, more of a grumble about the appropriation of language to further consumerist ends: Save 25p by having your coffee in a reusable cup. That's simply a cup, made of pottery or some other durable material, as opposed to a disposable cup, made of plastic and paper. So Costa and similar shops have managed to make a cup mean a disposable cup and a non-disposable cup need a special descriptor. (Yes, I know this is late, about 1,000 years late.)
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #4628 on: 20 July, 2017, 02:03:33 pm »
Am I the only one to cringe at the increasing use of "rooves" as the plural of roof?

What else would it be?  I'm fairly sure that's what I was taught.  'Roofs' just sounds wrong.

Urbandictionary would appear to have the best answer...

Tim Hall

  • Victoria is my queen
Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #4629 on: 20 July, 2017, 02:17:39 pm »
The misuse of the question mark vexes me greatly.

For example, in an email from my boss:
"Chris will print a hard copy for each of you to look at. I hope you like it?"

"I hope you like it" is not a question, so doesn't require a question mark.

There are two ways you can get exercise out of a bicycle: you can
"overhaul" it, or you can ride it.  (Jerome K Jerome)

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #4630 on: 20 July, 2017, 02:23:03 pm »
Am I the only one to cringe at the increasing use of "rooves" as the plural of roof?

What else would it be?  I'm fairly sure that's what I was taught.  'Roofs' just sounds wrong.

Urbandictionary would appear to have the best answer...
Roof, hoof, proof
Roofs, hooves, proofs.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #4631 on: 20 July, 2017, 02:23:29 pm »
The misuse of the question mark vexes me greatly.

For example, in an email from my boss:
"Chris will print a hard copy for each of you to look at. I hope you like it?"

"I hope you like it" is not a question, so doesn't require a question mark.

Is he Australian?
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Tim Hall

  • Victoria is my queen
Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #4632 on: 20 July, 2017, 02:27:32 pm »
The misuse of the question mark vexes me greatly.

For example, in an email from my boss:
"Chris will print a hard copy for each of you to look at. I hope you like it?"

"I hope you like it" is not a question, so doesn't require a question mark.

Is he Australian?

Boss. Noun, decorative knob.
There are two ways you can get exercise out of a bicycle: you can
"overhaul" it, or you can ride it.  (Jerome K Jerome)

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #4633 on: 24 July, 2017, 10:53:26 am »
Quote
Kamila Gasiuk-Pihowicz, a leading member of the opposition party Modern, called it a step in the right direction and an “act of courage.” She said Duda’s decision also shows the power of civic protests.

Katarzyna Lubnauer, head of the parliamentary caucus of the opposition party Nowoczesna, said: “What we had was not a reform, but appropriation of the courts. I congratulate all Poles, this is a great success”.
Poor journalism rather than bad grammar. Nowoczesna and "Modern" are the same party. Either translate consistently or don't translate at all.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #4634 on: 26 July, 2017, 05:23:38 pm »
More poor journalism:
Quote
When asked whether the Queen, who is his godmother, said anything to him about the eulogy, he said a friend had told him she said he had a right to say whatever he felt.
Reminds me of "But am I in the pension scheme?"  ;D

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #4635 on: 27 July, 2017, 09:31:48 am »
Not cringeworthy but curious: the word dint, as in by dint of. I looked it up just now: it comes from the Anglo-Saxon dynt, meaning a blow. The A.S. chappies must have done everything by hitting it.

Hence the connection with the dint in a car door. Aethelfrith dun it.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #4636 on: 27 July, 2017, 09:54:54 am »
As did 'fuck' (or at least, the verb meant 'to strike') before its meaning was superseded following an importation from Dutch, Fresian or Low German, if this is to be believed.

Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #4637 on: 27 July, 2017, 12:40:52 pm »
There are notices on tube trains which advise passengers who feel unwell to get off at the next station "and speak to a member of staff who will be able to help you".

I find the lack of a comma after staff rather ominous, especially as finding any member of staff these days is difficult.

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #4638 on: 27 July, 2017, 01:18:11 pm »
As did 'fuck' (or at least, the verb meant 'to strike') before its meaning was superseded following an importation from Dutch, Fresian or Low German, if this is to be believed.

So get tae fck means go on strike. That'll save the Graun a few ems in the headline: Rail Unions get tae fck again.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Monty

  • Buffoon
Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #4639 on: 27 July, 2017, 02:29:21 pm »
an as in Jack an Jill.

There's a (fucking) d in there! It's just one letter. Yoof Twatter...Jesus!
Steady at 15

Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #4640 on: 27 July, 2017, 04:34:20 pm »
Some friends and I had an interesting conversation yesterday leading on from a comment I made relating to them that I had been gifted some rhubarb by a generous neighbour.  Two of them in particular were adamant that I gift or gifted could not be used as a verb.   

Websters dictionary, which was on the shelf in the pub and is regularly used by crossworders, supported my use of gifted used as a transitive verb though my own OED is silent on the matter.   I'd be interested in the opinions of the learned folk herein.

Dodgy one, that.  I have a feeling that to gift is an archaic usage revived not so long ago (10 - 20 years, maybe) in the US as an aid to pomposity, and smuggled into normal English via the Internet.  I avoid it.

I can't think of any others just now, but in the past I have looked up other strange usages only to find that they date from the 16th century.

Irrelevantly, our bank manager once turned up on our doorstep with a big parcel of rhubarb after he nearly knocked me off my bike while driving a cultivator.
My 1960s Concise Oxford lists gift as a verb, but as its least important meaning.
"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

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #4641 on: 10 August, 2017, 08:09:12 am »
^^^That's (partly) the point. Archaic usage survives in the OED as an escape hatch for morons.

Anyway, I stumbled in here because I'm fed up seeing such abortions as "singers damaging their voice".  Voices, you egregious dimwits. This time it was only the the Graun and nobody expects the Graun to use decent English, but the habit is common to all the papers these days.  The same article, apparently written by a singer, went on to talk about singers such as Adele damaging their vocal "cords".

Meanwhile, an English FB friend of Mrs T42 asked her the other day what an adverb was, because she had to learn Spanish and had never been taught any grammar at school.  :o WTF do they learn at school these days? Zen defecation?*

* My soul prompts me to put an æ in that but my Chambers** insists not. The entry ends with the helpful suggestion "See faeces." Not just now, thanks. Seen enough.
** best place for defecation, if you ask me.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #4642 on: 10 August, 2017, 12:35:35 pm »
When people say "to coin a phrase", when they mean "to use a well-known phrase".  :demon:

I know that the lines are blurred here, because various reference sources suggest that this use arose from people who were fully aware of its real meaning, using it ironically.

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #4643 on: 10 August, 2017, 12:56:15 pm »
Yup. "Hold down the fort" has the same origin.
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 #4644 on: 20 August, 2017, 07:55:42 pm »
Anyway, I stumbled in here because I'm fed up seeing such abortions as "singers damaging their voice".  Voices, you egregious dimwits. 

We've discussed this one before...

What I was taught is that since each singer has only one voice, the singular is correct.

It's arguable either way.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

ian

Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #4645 on: 21 August, 2017, 09:41:19 am »
The singular sounds better to my ears. Otherwise it sounds like each of the singers has their own little box of voices which they're working through one by one.

Of course, for my crimes against grammar I will be getting an all-expenses-paid post-mortem trip to Tartarus. Euphony trumps grammar every time.

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #4646 on: 21 August, 2017, 10:19:38 am »
Yet constructions such as "their voice was damaged" are distinctly queer.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

ian

Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #4647 on: 21 August, 2017, 10:45:12 am »
Writing it that way around suggests that they were sharing the same voice like a dubious Costa del Sol timeshare.

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: Grammar that makes you cringe
« Reply #4648 on: 21 August, 2017, 10:59:07 am »
Yup. Yet "people worried about their weights" makes them sound like a bunch of perplexed iron-pumpers.
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 #4649 on: 21 August, 2017, 01:05:12 pm »
Goes to show that grammar should be decided case by case, rather than by pedantic adherence to a rule.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."