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My pet hate is of instead of have. As in "I could of". I have now broken my one and only New Year ( unnecessary capitals? ) resolution- I promised myself not to grumble , moan or criticise.

'Off of' seems to be Standard English in the USA...

anno is the use of the superfluous 'of' you mention purely a Manchester thing? I've lived all over the country, but only heard this from Mancunians.

I didn't know where else to put this, I think its funny

Subject: English - crazy language

We'll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,
But the plural of ox becomes oxen, not oxes.
One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.
You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,
Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.

If the plural of man is always called men,
Why shouldn't the plural of pan be called pen?
If I speak of my foot and show you my feet,
And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
Why shouldn't the plural of booth be called beeth?

Then one may be that, and there would be those,
Yet hat in the plural would never be hose,
And the plural of cat is cats, not cose.
We speak of a brother and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren.
Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
But imagine the feminine: she, shis and shim!

Let's face it - English is a crazy language.
There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger;
Neither apple nor pine in pineapple.
English muffins weren't invented in England.

We take English for granted, but if we explore its paradoxes,
We find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square,
And a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.
And why is it that writers write, but fingers don't fing,
Grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham?

Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend?
If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them,
What do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught?
If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?

Sometimes I think all the folks who grew up speaking English
Should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane.
In what other language do people recite at a play and play at a recital?

We ship by truck but send cargo by ship...
We have noses that run and feet that smell.
We park in a driveway and drive in a parkway.
And how can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same,
While a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language
In which your house can burn up as it burns down,
In which you fill in a form by filling it out,
And in which an alarm goes off by going on.
And in closing..........

If Father is Pop, how come Mother's not Mop.???
------------

I've been called worse Mama

Hadn't really thought about it before now but I suppose it is just, in my head anyway, here goes. It is a form of respect to write them in as Mum and Dad, where that stands out in a sentence as opposed to just mum and dad where I read that as of no real significance.

This is just my view and probably, as is my want, to make up my own rules sometimes.

Sorry - I mean "Agus"

Angus: I am curious now - do you think of everyone's parents in that way? Do you also use capitals if referring to mums and dads in general?
As I said, this is just curiosity, not my trying to score points, because I have already agreed to disagree.

Even though I know all that bit Mama, I think of my parents as capital people in every sense of the word and correctness doesn't apply. As I said up thread, I can live with that

I was pretty sure it should of arriven by now bags. I'll let you know as soon as its hear.

Mum and Dad are proper nouns when you use them as names - "Hello, Mum", but ordinary nouns most of the time - "My mum phoned earlier". In other words, the vast majority of the time they should not have capitals.

Ok, I agree to disagree!

Hey, agus, did that book arrive yet? I posted it FC so it should of arriven by now.

Bags takes running dive behind sofa

I would write Mum/Dad but then would refer to my parents, lower case 'p'!

I'm confusing myself now

I suppose because 'Dad' is an affectionate or familiar term. Same with 'Mum'. I think we'll just have to disagree on this one!

It's wrong to me because in that sentence, 'dads' is surely a straightforward noun, not a proper noun. I wouldn't put a capital on words like 'sons' or 'daughters' in similar sentences (ie. Bring your Sons and Daughters to the play session), so why on dad?

Oh, yes of course, it's the capital D! I still don't find that 'wrong' though...

OK I'll admit it - I can only see one error in that sentence! Unless you mean the use of capitals, MamaCaz?

I spotted this yesterday on the website of our local Sure Start Children's Centre:

Monthly Stay and Play sessions just for Dad’s and their child/children

Two errors for the price of one. Grrr!

A few teachers here me thinks ! I thought this was pedants' corner , SOME GET MORE FORGIVENESS THAN OTHERS. The greengrocer with his fresh sprout's is an ignoramus but perhaps it is the chalk and the blackboard that makes him do it!

I was just thinking that...
Ah well...

Others were too polite to mention it?

You're right jingl! How come nobody else saw that???

Unless, of course, someone picked you all up and stood you there.

nuttynana, you weren't "stood" in front of the board. You were "standing" there.

Glasshouses and stones?

Nothing looks right 'writ large' ...that reminds me of the ROMANUS EUNT DOMUS scene from life of Brian.

My pet hate is 'your' instead of 'you're' as a contraction of 'you are'. And yes, the 'of' instead of 'have'. I could scream.