Am I getting old and pedantic?

Hooray retrolady2 - you speak my language !!

Nanna Oh yes, that fewer/less than thing! My DH watches Pointless. I'd advise you to steer well away ... or we'll both be screaming at the telly. IT'S FEWER THAN 20 NOT BL***Y LESS, YOU STUPID MAN!!!!

Language is evolving and developing constantly but for me there are still some basic rules that should stay:
1. different from not to or than
2. the correct use of apostrophes
3. (my pet hate)less and fewer even the BBC gets this wrong sometimes - less for volume and fewer for number
4. in similar vein - amount and number - amount for volume and number - well for number
5. and what's happening to the adverb - the trend seems to be for using the adjective instead - eg he went quick instead of quickly.
6. correct use of the past participle - I've heard I rung her and I've rang her - and others!!!!
Yep I'm a real pedant when it comes to the English language - perhaps comes from teaching it to speakers of other languages.

Another word that grates on my nerves is when people don't know the difference between "been" and "being". Its just common sense....isn't it????

Esspee - people who say 'assume' often also say 'tissue' rather than tishue and 'issue' rather than ishue.

Pet peeves:
People who respond to a question by replying yes,no or no,yes - one or the other.

People who say Haitch rather than aitch.

Good point MaizieD. The only argument I would attempt is that spoken English is a different being than written English. The latter should always aim to be correct; the former ... well, as long as people understand the point, then communication is always better in any form, than none.

I have a friend who teaches French and I used to support her in-class, using my schoolgirl French. I was worried about my French grammar (which was ... well, unique to me, would be the most accurate way to describe it) and she said, if you were to speak like that in France, people wouldn't mind as long as you were attempting to speak to them in their own language. A bit like when French people try to speak English I suppose.

I also think there is a big question mark over which is incorrect grammar and which is just a local dialect. (Coming from deepest Somerset, I know that I don't speak the way I write, especially when talking with local people.)

(I think I may have just started a sub-thread!

Thanks for explaining, retrolady2.
I would say that grammatically 'try and' is completely wrong as it makes no sense.

However, the usage is very common in speech and will no doubt soon be accepted as 'correct' by way of the 'language follows usage' argument which prevails.

As are most of the usages we pedants dislike

A 'Does Grammar Matter' thread would be fun, but as we're all pedants on here who think it does, would we find anyone arguing against it?

MaizieD - sorry I was referring to the second post where the discussion was about 'try and' -v- 'try to'. I should've made that clear, but I got incensed and then scrolled through to the end to reply.

This whole thread, which I've now read properly, is very interesting though. I love these kinds of debates. Maybe we should start a supplementary one - "Does Grammar matter?"

Loved that item last night Annsixty! Did you feel you wanted to join him? I did.
After numerous comments from me my local fruit and vegetable stand at the market gradually began replacing all the price labels with apostrophe free ones. Every week the owner asked my approval and the day he got rid of the last apostrophe I stuck a large gold star on his jacket. Sort of miss those apple's though!

A lovely item on our local news last night which would have delighted many of you.
A man has been going around at night, removing or inserting ,as appropriate, apostrophes on local business signs.
He has constucted long handled tools and covers the offending ones with tape or inserts coloured ones.
He remains anonymous but not for long now I suspect.

Please may I get this one off my chest?
When requesting something why oh why is it "Can I get?" Rather than please may I have. This really bothers me and so common nowadays.

appointment with the Doctor should solve that one. None of the others is quite correct now you come to mention it, Doctors, would be several Doctor's would be belonging to the Doctor, & Doctor sounds like you are going to alter him/her in some way ?

A question - if I write an appt. with eg the doctor on my calendar is it right to put "Doctors" or Doctor's", or just "Doctor"?

Ahh Maize, I hadn't realised that at one time those words were separate ,so it's never too late to learn , perhaps I'm too young to remember ,well thats my excuse, Lol or should I make the effort to (and?)type laugh out loud , but then it could be Laugh out aloud!

Which post are you responding to, retrolady2? I don't understand what you are talking about.

A question.

Do those of you who object to 'alright' also object to 'almighty','always' and 'altogether'? Exactly the same process has happened to them; put the two words together and drop one of the 'l's.

Like your dedication Retrolady, but like you I'm none the wiser?

PS Just googled it after I posted the above, and ... I'm no wiser. Don't understand the explanation at all.

'And' is a conjunction meaning also. The infinitive form of make i.e. 'to' make is correct, because the infinitive form is always used after a supplementary verb. No, I didn't try TO google it (but I was tempted!), which probably explains my garbled explanation.

"I got to go swimming" (or whatever the person did)

It's so ugly. 'got' and 'nice' were forbidden in written work at school. Why not say "I was able to go swimming".

"I love that I can go swimming" - ugly expression too.

And I used the wrong too , first one should have been to oohps sorry

Well probably , but not exclusively ?Give us some more clues & we may be able to work it out... ah there is another one .... can or may, can meaning am I able too, & may meaning am I allowed to , or is that too , two or to, lol ?

norose4 Thank you. So "talk with" would be another way of saying "discuss with"

And I'm still not all right with 'alright' although I know it's deemed 'correct' these days.

Not sure which is correct , generally speaking I would say can I 'talk to'you as in an immediate chat. I. And say 'talk with 'you when you are are indicating that its about a subject ..to be discussed later. I think meet you is generally used & only say , meet up with you ,' when you are going to say sometime in the future (as on Saturday for example . )but I guess anything goes these days , example: - 'sound' meaning yes ok or alright