Plain speaking, please!

Don't watch them Bridgeit, there's so much rubbish on these days I find myself watching the TV less and less.
Feel free to be a grumpy old woman though, we have earned the right!

Good advice Esspee, ? ?

I'd be happy if the announcers would stop the ridiculous exaggerations when promoting TV shows . Just today I've been assured by an hysterical announcer that "You'll NEVER forget this episode !" and " It's the MOST POPULAR programme on TV !!". I do wish I could make up my own mind to watch a TV show without this overkill.

What is 'normal'?! I always worry about people using this term. One person's 'normal' is another's bete noir.
It's the same when people start using the phrase 'right thinking people'.

Who wants to be normal ? My almost 16 year old GS started calling me his Daft Granny as soon as he could talk ,when we asked him what he called his other granny he said well she's just my normal granny .Normal granny wasn't happy at being normal,its a bit bland, she said

Perhaps they've been taking lessons from Robert Peston. I find him difficult to listen to.

How about going for a walk or reading a book or knitting a scarf instead?

I must be even grumpier then because I get so irritated by the poor diction, lack of grammar and slang used by TV presenters that I have to switch off. To add to your list Bridgeit, I loathe the continual misuse of the words:-
literally; really; so; basically... and I could go on.
Many presenters seem incapable of saying the word 'here' correctly. They say 'he' instead. Many people can't seem to pronounce the g on the ends of words ending in ing, so they say postin', huntin', fishin', and it isn't to do with their accent. It's just laziness. Today I heard a presenter mis pronounce the word 'communal'. Grrrrrrrrrr!!!

Congradulations is one I hear quite a lot.

How about ‘very unique’. Makes me incandescent!

I think social media has lot to do with exaggerated pronunciation because elongated words are spelled out to emphasise them – sooooo fun (hateful expression) – and hyperbole is rife – X has broken the internet with her/his post.

Robert Peston talks good sense if you can get past his way of speaking. It’s not so much the pronounciation that riles me as the actual garbage so many spout.

Unbelievable!! I'm ashamed of you Grans. I thought you'd all understand that language and how it is used verbally mutates over time and to reflect changing mores. Otherwise we'd all still be grunting along like stone age people!! Mind you I expect even stone age Grans complained about young people and how they spoke!!

I sat here this morning reading all your posts, thank you for a humorous half hour, I agreed with all, especially Jane10. It made me realise I have turned into my mum which happens to us all at some point. I'm still smiling. As mum used to say "speak the Queens English" are we asking to much?

'The Queens English' is technically called 'received pronunciation' or RP. It used to be the BBC standard. Long dismissed luckily. Just listen to the strange strangled vowels of old films to remind yourselves of what it sounded like. Even the Queen has changed the way she speaks to move with the times.

Sorry Bridgeit, have nothing to add. Just wanted you to know your post makes me smile each time I read it. So true!

Thanks all you cooool Dudes,I’m off to get down with my Besties ?
Ohh dear I’ve just remembered the 60s, cool man , hey dude, peace, chill out

Bridgeit, I had a word with myself when I realised the effect that my merciless corrections of, for example, people who don't understand countable nouns and who say "amount" instead of " number"; "comprises of" instead of just " comprises" etc had on them. I realised that it was because my talents are so few I felt had to parade my superior knowledge of English grammar. Once I heard someone in the next garden teaching his kids to play the recorder. One kid said, " Dad, Johnnie says he's playing an A when it isn't, it's a C. " Let him call it an A if he wants to." was the reply. It taught me a lot.

Brilliant Jaxie?

Yes to all of that - I am not claiming that my grasp of language is superior in any way, but we all seem to be pandering to the mediocre when we allow these corruptions into our everyday speech. We 'Grans' Jane 10, should be setting an example and using the education we were given. It is much easier to run with the pack than stand up for clarity and purity in our communication. As for 'grunting stone age people' - isn't that what we are in danger of becoming?

It's the odd emphasis in the weather forecasts that irritate me - '... and more rain In the south on Thursday', when that's the last word we need stressed. Happens all the time/

Grankind. sigh. Well just you go on 'setting a good example' as you call it or 'speaking your own version of speech' as I call it!
Maybe we'd be better conducting conversations in Latin?! Or would you've complaining about 'correct' pronunciation in that too?!
Grunt grunt!

I think you need to check your last sentence Jane 10.

Robert Peston talks good sense if you can get past his way of speaking.
Yes, he does, but I do find myself gritting my teeth.

Re speaking Latin - I have often wondered (well, once or twice ) if the Romans spoke their language with a kind of flourishing dramatic Italian accent, and if British schoolchildren reciting amo amas amat, mensa, mensa, mensam etc in their dull way would be the ones regarded as having a strong accent.

Thought for today, wanders off reciting Latin declensions