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Pedants' corner

Pedantic AND Political!

(11 Posts)
phoenix Tue 06-Jun-17 19:29:50

Now, I want to make it very clear that I am showing no political bias here, so I'm going to quote both of the main party leaders!

Jeremy Corbyn used the phrase "different to" shock

Theresa May referred to "me and my friends" confused icon used as I understand that this may be becoming more acceptable.

norose4 Tue 06-Jun-17 19:46:56

Well JC will definitely be 'different from '& TM may well be ' my friends & I'?

MawBroon Tue 06-Jun-17 19:51:31

Take heart.
It could have been "different than " and "myself and my friends"!! ???

Jalima1108 Tue 06-Jun-17 19:57:17

or, as a nice young man said to me on the phone today 'now, let's try and sort this out for yourself'
however, he was not from any political party grin

varian Tue 06-Jun-17 20:30:18

TM uses "me" a lot (sorry if that's a bit political)

Baggs Tue 06-Jun-17 21:25:49

Dianne Abbott: "...less foreign-looking people..."

?

Rigby46 Tue 06-Jun-17 21:49:47

* Baggs* as you often say, context is all so what was the context?

Rigby46 Tue 06-Jun-17 21:51:11

And as its Pedants' Corner, , it's Diane

Baggs Tue 06-Jun-17 22:13:41

Apologies for the misspell.

The context was her "contempt for Brexit voters, constantly implying the Leave vote was driven by prejudice. ‘The people that complain about the freedom of movement will not be satisfied because what they really want is to see less foreign-looking people on their streets’, she said last year."

Quote from Laura Firsht.

However, I don't think context has anything to do with whether grammar is correct. You simply can't say "less people" and be grammatically correct. People are countable so it should be fewer people. It's a very common mistake nowadays. I think a lot of people are simply unaware of the difference between less and fewer. Less is for amounts of things, like sand or paint. Fewer is for things that can be counted.

You can't have an 'amount' of people, not even in a mass grave when they're all piled up. It's still a number of people.

Since you asked smile

Rigby46 Tue 06-Jun-17 22:27:32

Context was everything - I know about less and fewer of course but I'd read your example as someone being less foreign looking - you can see why I don't usually stray into Pedants' Corner grin

Baggs Tue 06-Jun-17 22:38:58

Ah! I see. Yes, you're right, seeing the full phrase does make a difference.