"must have" "at all" and "yeh - no"

As a poor male, I am beginning to feel neglected at all the attention you lovely Grans are getting in these columns .

I would like to ask one question, are our own children to blame for the epidemic of rudeness in society today, and their failure to teach our grandchildren good manners?

Alternatively, is it the like of you and me who have really failed to pass on good manners to our own kids?

Who ever is responsible should be really ashamed.

I gather innit is v popular with young London asians. i have heard it sent up by Meera Syal et al
I think yeh-no can be heard on any branch of the media if you listen out for it.
First person to catch a politician at it...?
Yes thanks i am feeling less grumpy today. (tempted to start that sentence with a yeah-no. .) Went to a party last night (even though i didn't want to) and saw some nice people i used to work with.
The company perked me up and I am chugging through my TODO list this morning.

I agree with you all but I did find it very amusing when marching in London to protest against the invasion of Iraq in February 2003 to hear two young chaps – probably 17–18 years old– chanting "Don't attack Iraq. Innit?"

Here's a couple more:

- bored of instead of bored with
- he was sat on a chair, when it should be sitting

What a load of fusspots we are!!

I never use these modern idioms - they are usually horrible. We don't seem to have the yeah/no thing here in Australia, but we do have 'like' to denote something that was said, such as 'When I saw that, I was like: "oh no, that's so gross". ' When did that start? When did 'said' become 'was like'?

I also see 'innit' used in English programs, where it is used more like 'n'est-ce pas' or 'nicht wahr' rather than a short form of 'isn't it'. It is a very ugly usage. Another one that hasn't reached this part of the world, I'm glad to say.

Mind you, we have plenty of annoying ways of speaking here, but it is generally the way things sound rather than the words themselves, such as the rising intonation at the end of a sentence, and the mangled diphthongs. I've lived here 33 years and still can't tell whether an Aussie is saying 'pint' or 'paint'.

My pet grump is 'at this particular moment in time' what's wrong with now!

OK - here's my gripe.

"On a daily basis" - grrr!! Why not just say "every day"?

I have no idea why this should irritate me so much but it definitely does.

Does your TV off switch work, shysal?

House hunters on TV programmes like Escape to the Country and Location x 3 always seem to say "yes-no I like it" when asked if they like a particular feature. It drives me mad!

Yeah, no! They haven't reached my small corner of Cheshire and I haven't heard them in the vocabulary of my student GD.

Must be where you live, jess. I don't hear those expressions. Hope you've managed to ungrump today .

Not friendly to my purse carol I've never seen such drab clothing.

You know what REALLY irritates me? That blinkin' Claire Sweeny advertising some clothing catalogue which has fashions that are 'trend aware, purse friendly, shape sure.' Yuk!