Incorrect use of Language

How about an hotel ? What are your views on that?

14rafichagran
Can't get worked up about it. Why be sarcastic when someone says to you see you later. I would find you rude.

Actually it's said to them with a smile and is usually returned with a chuckle by the person it was said to. I'm not a rude person.

Someone trying to explain something, usually a male but not always, saying " And Basically " it sets my teeth on edge.

One word I really hate is 'shortly' as in 'I'll be there shortly,' or when asked to do something the reply is, 'I'll do it shortly.'

What does this word even mean?

It doesn't have any antonyms I am aware of- such as 'I'll be there longly.'

I know a few people who use it often, including my own son, but struggle to know what it really means.

If it is used to mean, 'I'll do it when I'm ready,' then why not just say that??

Grrrr....!

I woke in the middle of the night with the radio still on. It seemed to be a phone-in and, no idea what she was talking about, but some woman kept saying she "couldn't do anythink about it.
I switched off

Or even anyfink😄

It’s a bit of a London thing to say chimley and skellington too.

Academic language is explicit and typically does not include fashionable cliches. Cliched "adornments" ,which cause so much annoyance, are for binding people together in a social bond.

Anyone going to answer my question?

JamesandJon33

How about an hotel ? What are your views on that?

Oh this question 🤔
Well, an hotel is correct but sounds silly.

One criterion, several criteria. The BBC gets that wrong.

No such things as 12 am or 12 pm. Noon or midnight. DM for boring explanation.

The majority of the cloud will disperse??
I thought majority was if you could count whatever you were talking about. What happened to most?

Children and grandchildren all refer to us as "you guys" as do waiters in restaurants. Doesn't bother us at all, it's generational talk. I'm more perplexed by "can I get?"when we're out with our 20/30 somethings. When did that take over from can I have? Everyone seems to say haitch now, even presenters on tv, it was always aitch when I was growing up, sounds wrong, but is it?

See you later, often that's unlikely! but its said in a friendly way so doesn't bother me.

I have to admit I can't stand them people for example instead of those people, I'd have got a clip round the ear if I'd said that, maybe I did, my parents definitely told us off for grammatical transgressions and yes I heard that on the BBC from one of their presenters. Would of instead of would have. Pacifically Why not Atlantically then ? My mid teen granddaughter annoyingly refers to a fringe as bangs, I didn't even know what bangs were until recently, I know it's American but how did they arrive at that, maybe old English

Also anyone notice how "hey" is used as a greeting instead of "hi" in so many shows now, it sounds like an affectation.

I once went out with an American who said I looked like a hay girl, I was a bit affronted as I thought he meant a roll in the hay but turned out it was a hey! Girl, like a hippie as they said things like hey! Man.😂
Two countries divided by a common language.

"Whatever!" 😉

I spent a semester at Munich University in 1965. The Germans called it Uni then, and still do. GS is doing a semester in engineering at a Uni in Berlin right now. I'm getting used to it here now.

Magenta8

I used to cringe when people said Uni and talked about their Proff, or even Proffy at Uni but I am used to it now.

Goodness, we said ‘Prof’ in the early 1960s!

Also in the 60s, a German girl I knew commented that English people (well, students like us anyway) never said ‘yes’, just ‘yeah’.

So you see, these things have been going on for quite a long time,

‘Haitch’ sounds completely illiterate. It makes me cringe

Once these expressions have been around long enough, most cease to irritate me. I even end up using quite a few of them myself, 'uni' being a good example.

When I was a child (born in '61), my grandparents still referred to the radio as the wireless. In recent years I have wondered if they were irritated by younger people calling it a radio. They never said so. I, on the other hand, cringed each time they said 'wireless'!

At the moment, my pet hate is the use of 'merch' instead of 'merchandise'.
However, if I am lucky enough to live long enough, I'm sure I will get used to it.

I find the evolution of language interesting.

Well I'm no expert but the French appear to use prof as an abbreviation for professeur/e and bac for baccalaureat.

JamesandJon33

Anyone going to answer my question?

Hotel, hospital and history (are there any others?)

All came into English from French where the /h/ isn't pronounced. So, English elites continued to pronounce them without the /h/ sound. Which meant that 'an' was required before them. English elites all spoke French, too, of course, so they knew that the /h/ wasn't pronounced.

Once the plebs all learned to read and saw that there was an 'h' at the start of each of those words, not knowing French they pronounced it. Only need 'a' in front of the consonant sound /h/. 'An' precedes a word starting with a vowel sound.

When I was younger people used 'an' far more often than it's used now.

I must confess to thinking that 'an historic occasion...' sounds better than 'a historic etc...' but I'd say 'a history'. 'a hotel', 'a hospital...'

BlueBelle

Don’t mind most of them probably guilty of ‘bye then see ya later’ thing never really thought about it but surely it’s a bit of a positive phrase really presuming you ll still be around to see them later…. I also use Uni sorry Doodlebug
The ‘like’ thing drives me crazy but I really don’t think it’s been around since the 70s or even 80 s I would have said last tenish years only I have one grandaughter who uses it all the time she talks for England and barely takes a breath and it’s littered with likes I never say anything and luckily the other 6 don’t use it
I saw that JudgeJudy programme Georgesgran poor chap had no other words did he ?
The ‘So’ at the start of the sentence mainly used by young professionals drove me mad, but that seems to have died a death now so has the awful guttural voices some women put on in the hope of sounding sexy do you remember that a few years ago.

Now you've got me trying to remember if I've ever heard another woman talking in a guttural voice - real or fake......

Since I've still got being deaf in one ear apres Covid = I've come to hate the voices of women who are SO intent on sounding "breathy/lightweight/I am so FEMALE arent I". I have asked these breathy light female voice people before now (both in person and when they are the narrator on a YouTube video) to speak more clearly - as my deaf ear makes it difficult for me and I point out that I'm far from the only one that will have that issue with their voice.

Yet still they speak in that little girlie voice - grrr!!!! At which point I stop trying to hear them - as if they can't be bothered with me (or other people with hearing problems) = then what does that say about them then? It says they don't give a darn and they are so determined to be "little flighty feminine little me" that I give up on them....as I can hear (or rather - not hear - all I need to know about them) and I don't want to know them.....

Women can modify their voices to be clearer - if they choose to. Margaret Thatcher changed her voice. Me - I changed mine. I went to primary school in the first place all those years back probably speaking what amounted to modern received pronunciation. Cue for a few weeks there and me trying to imitate my fellow pupils and I came back at night speaking in a Devon accent (I am Devonian........). My mother promptly sent me to an elocution teacher to get my own voice back again - which resulted in me promptly learning to speak very "posh" apparently. Cue for I had to change my voice again - as it was "over the top" and it went back to what it was in the first place (ie standard middle-class easy to understand) and that'll do for most people. But it aint "little girly - focused on herself"......

CariadAgain I can't hear you so have no idea about a RP accent, but there are so many deviations from Standard English in your written posts that I have to read everything more than once to understand. I don't mind - we are all different - but complaining about others using different constructions or vocabulary when doing so yourself is a bit odd, surely?

Is the 'gutteral' sound people are talking about 'vocal fry', where people speak with a sort of reverberation in their voice caused by relaxing the vocal cords when they speak? It is usually a female way of speaking, but not exclusively, and it tends to be associated with younger people. It can make them sound hesitant, a bit like the use of 'like' as a modifier, and may simply mean that they are less confident than older people (or men).

Y pet hate is educated American women who sound like corn crakes. It really is unpleasant to listen to . The sound like they have swallowed a load of rusty nails.

I my youth I loved American accent of Marilyn and other famous film stars but find the majority of those from the States I hear on TV and radio unpleasant. ( I rarely go to the cinema these days as cannot cope with the noise).

On the "school" coach in the 70's, two housewives were regulars & one would say to the other "busy in town today, must be the sales" & the other would reply "Well this is it." Then she'd say, My daughter's coming I bought lots of food, the grandchildren eat as if they haven't been fed for weeks" & the other lady would reply "Well, this is it!"
We used to amuse ourselves counting the number of times they said it before we got out of town. It did make us giggle!

Thank you everybody I am genuinely finding this thread very interesting and informative.

As they say, on Gransnet every day is a school day.