Oh Jenpax I must look that up. I agree with OP these things do matter, but I think it’s only the older generation that really cares.
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SubscribeThis has been annoying me for ages! An area manager for a company that I worked for (for a mercifully short time) would email about meetings saying "I will send the invites soon"
NO! You will send invitations, invite is something you do, not something you send!
I nearly had a fit of the vapours a few months back when I heard Elizabeth Pargeter (of all people) on The Archers saying that Lily had been wonderful sending out all the "invites" Nigel would be turning in his grave!
Oh Jenpax I must look that up. I agree with OP these things do matter, but I think it’s only the older generation that really cares.
Don't usually mind abbreviations at all just find the misuse of words really annoying
I think there are so many other things in life to worry about.
I think you may need to get out more.
I'm just waiting for someone to moan that 'goodbye' is now being used instead of 'God be with you'
Likely instead of probably - as in I’ll likely go to the shops tomorrow.
I don't think people are 'invited' to attend a meeting, there is no choice usually but to go if it's part of the job to attend them. An invitation can be refused.
I hate it too, and don’t even get me started on ‘a big ask’!
I am afraid I hate the use of less than when used with people or things that can be counted. It should be fewer but even the newsreaders talk about less people etc
There seems to be a preponderance of using verbs and nouns and nouns as verbs, especially in adverts, one that particularly irritates is the one where they ask you if 'you pod', another has a child who is asked if she can 'boyfriend'. A tablet advert spoke about summitting a mountain. The list goes on.
RobtheFox - I get quite annoyed about the expats thing too but not in the same way as you. People who move abroad are migrants, surely. Or are the British exempt from that term? I do sometimes wonder!
I don't much like 'invites' either and the one I really hate is 'gift' as a verb, as in "She was gifted a house". I know that it's not (apparently ) strictly wrong - goes back centuries - but it feels it to me.
missdeke - the one of those noun-as-verb things that most confused me was hearing about athletes "medalling". I was wondering what on earth they'd been up to.
I hate "invites" too. And also "impacts on" rather than "has an inpact on" - though I know that this has now become accepted language.
I get annoyed here in Brussels by people calling themselves Xpats, they are in the main economic migrants. People who have moved to another country to work.
Some of them can be very critical of those migrants moving to Europe from outside the EU to find work, they do not seem to realise they have done the same.
Invites are thoroughly annoying but what grates with me at the moment is the use of THAT when they mean WHO As in: The person THAT gave it to me that when of course it should be the person WHO gave it to me.
I was taught objects are that and them but people should be who and whom.
This is Pedant's Corner before anyone dares to object.
I also agree that "I'm good thanks" is not the right answer to "How are you?"
Is it just me who strongly objects to the term 'Brits'? Years ago I believe the term was coined by the IRA as in 'Brits Out'.
There is a point in being a pedant. It is to do with maintaining purity in our language.
Imagine if everyone accepted the bastardisation we see everywhere these days. From the tacky invites to the DVD's, the definAtely, Chester draws, could of, drawering..........I could go on and on.
Personally I consider all these aberrations to be a sign of the plunging standards in our education system.
Don't you hun?
No, it's just progress, often along with the influence of American English (and textspeak) on our evolving language.
Of course, old fuddy-duddies will always assume that standards are falling and things are 'incorrect' (as in different from the way we were taught). Yes, it often grates on us.
Maybe we should check with the Cambridge dictionary before we declare things as wrong, pheonix?
Meaning of invite in English
invite
verb [ T ]
UK /ɪnˈvaɪt/ US /ɪnˈvaɪt/
invite verb [T] (ASK TO AN EVENT)
A1
to ask or request someone to go to an event:
We're invited to Lola's party.
Candidates who are successful in the written test will be invited for an interview.
[ + obj + to infinitive ] Her family invited me to stay with them for a few weeks.
More examples
They've invited 80 guests to the wedding.
They were flattered to be invited to dinner by the mayor.
They've invited us round for dinner on Saturday.
She invited a lot of people to the party but half of them didn't turn up.
All the mums and dads are invited to the school play at the end of the year.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
invite verb [T] (REQUEST FORMALLY)
C1
to request something, especially formally or politely:
Offers in the region of £1,000,000 are invited for the property.
[ + obj + to infinitive ] The newspaper invited readers to write in with their views.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
invite verb [T] (ENCOURAGE)
C2
to act in a way that causes or encourages something to happen or someone to believe or feel something:
Behaving provocatively in class is just inviting trouble.
Such a badly presented exhibition invites criticism.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Phrasal verbs
invite sb ininvite sb over
invite
noun [ C ] informal
UK /ˈɪn.vaɪt/ US /ˈɪn.vaɪt/
an invitation:
I didn't get an invite to their wedding.
(Definition of invite from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press
Meaning of invite in English
invite
verb [ T ]
UK /ɪnˈvaɪt/ US /ɪnˈvaɪt/
invite verb [T] (ASK TO AN EVENT)
A1
to ask or request someone to go to an event:
We're invited to Lola's party.
Candidates who are successful in the written test will be invited for an interview.
[ + obj + to infinitive ] Her family invited me to stay with them for a few weeks.
More examples
They've invited 80 guests to the wedding.
They were flattered to be invited to dinner by the mayor.
They've invited us round for dinner on Saturday.
She invited a lot of people to the party but half of them didn't turn up.
All the mums and dads are invited to the school play at the end of the year.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
invite verb [T] (REQUEST FORMALLY)
C1
to request something, especially formally or politely:
Offers in the region of £1,000,000 are invited for the property.
[ + obj + to infinitive ] The newspaper invited readers to write in with their views.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
invite verb [T] (ENCOURAGE)
C2
to act in a way that causes or encourages something to happen or someone to believe or feel something:
Behaving provocatively in class is just inviting trouble.
Such a badly presented exhibition invites criticism.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Phrasal verbs
invite sb ininvite sb over
invite
noun [ C ] informal
UK /ˈɪn.vaɪt/ US /ˈɪn.vaɪt/
an invitation:
I didn't get an invite to their wedding.
(Definition of invite from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press
Well, I have just posted ‘Sounds an interesting read’ on a friend’s Facebook post, in response to a book recommendation.
I suppose that will be condemned as well.
Shock! Horror!
Watch out for the grammar police! I taught literacy and was always checking the dictionary - having been taught in the 1950s!
My biggest hate at the moment is the ever-increasing use of 'Can I get ...' in restaurants or pubs, instead of 'Can I have ...'
Oooh - drives me mad!!!
I agree that it is annoying to be given an ‘invite’, almost as much as hearing someone say, ‘I’m sat in a traffic jam’, / ‘I was sat next to.....’ There are lots of much more important things to get annoyed over, but there’s no harm in trying to preserve the correct use of our language if we are proud of it.
To me it doesn't really matter whether the word invite used as a noun is in the dictionary or not. I find it annoying as I was brought up believing the invite is a verb and invitation the noun.
But what really annoys me is that the invites has become an expression one hears all the time and these catch phrases, buzz words or whatever you want to call them drive me mad whilst they are in fashion. Happily, one of two things happen, either they go out of fashion again, or I stop hearing them.
I don't mind invites as a noun. Electric as a noun really annoys me. And saying an accident is cleared. Surely you can't clear an abstract noun. Or am I wrong?
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