Hare's breath

Try speaking publicly, being recorded and broadcast live. Bet you'd make mistakes too.

Dear Esspee, no it is both correct and more polite to say May I have rather than can I have.

If you say may I, you are asking permission, if you say can I do something, you are strictly speaking asking whether you are capable of doing it.

As Professor Dumbledore said to Harry Potter in the first book (and film) where Harry asks "Can I ask you a question, sir?" "Obviously, you have just done so; you may ask me a question"

All through my childhood, my father made similar remarks to any child unwise enough to use can instead of may.

"Can I get down from the table?" was invariably answered with "I imagine you are physically capable of doing so, but if you are requesting my permission, you mean "May I please leave the table?"

Anyone else out there remember such remarks?

I agree with Shortlegs too.
We went to "A house in the sun" exhibition at the weekend and the compere asked us to make sure our email addresses were eligible! He's a journalist so I would have thought that learning what legible meant would have been one of the first things he learnt.

I dislike all those mentioned, especially 'can I get a coffee?'
and this 'so' nonsense at the beginning of every answer and 'the thing is, is...'
It was lucky I took early retirement last year because 'l'm reaching out to you' started being used by our bank in the UK - it drove me mad enough when it was just American work colleagues saying it ?

what about "find your happy"? what is that about?

How about 'Northern Island' for 'Northern Ireland' and 'Loranorder' for Law and order.... Grr!

Aepgirl: "marled" instead of mild is my bugbear too.

Just don't get me started on the BBC weather woman who says Inglind, Irelind and Scotlind. Aaaagh

'Very unique' 'fairly unique' or 'quite unique' always really irritates me. A thing is either unique or it isn't because unique is a Latin word meaning literally 'one only'. I also feel a desperate need to correct people when they write the word 'of' instead of 'have' eg should of instead of should have.

One of my pet hates (in addition to many of those already mentioned by fellow pedants) is 'she went through it with a fine toothcomb'. No she didn't!!! She went through it with a fine-toothed comb! [grumpy-old-woman emoticon]

The landlord of one of the local pubs would always respond to "Can I get..." with "No you can't, that's my job* "

"Can I leave the table?" - "Well, you can't take it with you". "Please, can I go to the toilet?" "I don't know, depends if you are constipated". I've just heard a discussion on BBC Radio 4's PM programme (Monday). Split infinitives are OK. Before long 'I was sat' will be just as acceptable as the correct 'I was sitting'. It doesn't actually mean the same thing. Yes, I'm a pedant!

Hate "yous" too, where has this come from?

The plural is words such as daughter in law, is daughters in law. Not daughter in laws. A great many people say the later.

PS Generally I conjugate the verb 'to be' and use 'I shall' and 'we shall' not 'I will' and 'we will'.

A nasty one I read in an American book: "She tried on the dress and it fit very well"

Persia when they mean Perthshire.

"fit" used as you describe, slutty, is perfectly good American English.

"yous" is perfectly good Scottish English (and a few other places, I believe).

Vive la différence!

When I saw 'hare's breath' I thought the post was about some trendy new Farrow and Ball paint colour...

There's a TV advertisement at the moment where the presenter says HD - pronouncing it 'haitch' D.

Now, funnily, enough, I had always thought that it was a "hare´s breath", ie. so close that you could hear a hare breathe. Not a hair´s breadth. But they would be about the same. Looking it up on Google didn´t make me much the wiser, apparently it can mean either.

Jack Frost and on The Bill ( burgalry) ? Also stolen joolery.
Lots of sightings or rather hearing of , pacific and pacifically.

All of the above mentioned problems stem from the failure to teach and correct, leaving people on TV today with no basic understanding of our language. Now texting is making it even worse.

And there are more and more people on TV saying smy-ul instead of smile. Grrr......

Crisscross mentioned, up thread, about the increasing use of the word "like". A colleague of mine says "like" constantly, to my (hidden) irritation. So much so, that in a meeting recently I decided to count how many times he said it. In a 30 minute meeting, he said it 18 times! I've decided to amuse myself by continuing to count in future Friday meetings. It will be more interesting than what's usually discussed!

smy-ul is pure Fylde (Lancs). As is skiwel (school).