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Pedants' corner

Is it only me that goes grrr at this phrase?

(116 Posts)
phoenix Mon 30-Dec-19 23:47:23

An email from Waitrose asking about plans for (and I quote) "New Years"

There is New Years Eve, and New Years Day, but there is NOT "New Years"

Nannarose Wed 01-Jan-20 18:03:36

Thank you absent! And JackyB - I picked up 'come round mine' when I lived in Suffolk!
I feel rather like a magpie, picking up all sorts of odd sayings from places I lived and people I have known - funny how some stick and others don't.
I love hearing different expressions and ways of speaking - some I like and some I don't, but they rarely annoy me the way they do some on here.

NotAGran55 Wed 01-Jan-20 17:53:49

As this is pedants’ corner Phoenix smile I think you will find it is New Year’s Eve not New Years Eve .

grannypiper Wed 01-Jan-20 17:33:30

It is Ne'erday

Baggs Wed 01-Jan-20 10:57:27

Some say it was 6AD.

Perhaps it's safest to use CE, Current Era.

Callistemon Wed 01-Jan-20 10:47:17

rubysong if the new Millennium began in 2000 AD then now is the beginning of a new decade - the Tolerant hmm Twenties.

Of course AD is a moot point too, could have been 3 BC (that wouldn't be right either, would it).

Witzend Wed 01-Jan-20 10:35:22

I always thought ‘Kohl’ was German for cabbage, which amused me when they had an eminent politician by that name. Dare say I have mis-remembered my very rusty German, though.,

Whatever they call it, my own ‘cabbage salad’ is a winter staple here - cabbage , carrots, celery, onion and apple, all chopped or shredded small, with just enough mayonnaise to bind it.
Goes v nicely with cold ham and baked potatoes, guess what we’re having tonight....

rubysong Wed 01-Jan-20 10:25:18

Thanks Kryptonite for engaging with my rant about the decade. (It was late and post-sherry). I'm comfortable with ' we are now in the twenties', which to me is a different thing.
I love this thread.

Callistemon Wed 01-Jan-20 10:15:47

grin
If it was Alec's car then perhaps Tess has her own, ie Tess's car

So it would be the Joneses' cars ?

Or, if people prefer the grocer's grammar: the Jones' car's.
Or if more than one grocer...

Oh, Happy New Year

Baggs Wed 01-Jan-20 08:27:33

I expect the Waleses have several.

Baggs Wed 01-Jan-20 08:26:54

I'm getting confused now!

Did I mean, when referring to the car belonging to the Joneses, "the Joneses' car"?

I think I did.

Baggs Wed 01-Jan-20 08:25:27

Or, say, Alec Jones's car.

Baggs Wed 01-Jan-20 08:24:20

I thought it was The Jones’

Joneses is plural

Apostrophes indicate possession or something missing, never plurals, though they are widely used incorrectly.

So you could refer to the Jones' car, meaning the car of (belonging to) the Joneses.

JackyB Wed 01-Jan-20 07:46:12

A propos decades:why do people insist on pronouncing it "decayed".,wirh the emphasis on the 2nd syllable?

absent Wed 01-Jan-20 03:59:24

Nannarose The word coleslaw is derived from Dutch – koolsla, meaning cabbage salad.

absent Wed 01-Jan-20 03:53:44

jacalpad I know just how you feel about gateaux's – a double offence with both an apostrophe and and an s. I feel the same way whenever I see paninis, given that panini is already plural. The use and then misuse of foreign words when there are perfectly adequate English ones is pretentious and unnecessary.

BBbevan Wed 01-Jan-20 03:26:33

Callistemon ??

BoadiceaJones Wed 01-Jan-20 01:26:47

So he text me and then I text him.

Kryptonite Wed 01-Jan-20 01:15:00

rubysong. Decade. Yes I see what you mean I think, though it's getting late. Do you mean we've already done 2020 years and we're going into the 2021st, like when you have a birthday, say your 50th, it means you've done fifty years and you're entering your 51st year? Or like calling the 1900s the twentieth century? So if we're going into 2021 now, it is the start of a new decade. Hope so, because I've been wishing a happy one of those quite freely.

JackyB Wed 01-Jan-20 01:07:35

Phoebes We have always said "Come round mine" and the like. It wasn't till I was in the sixth form that I learnt that it was a dialect thing (Suffolk, probably also Norfolk)

Kryptonite Wed 01-Jan-20 01:03:26

It's not so much the destination that counts but the journey. So say many who've had trying or challenging life experiences. I've noticed that it's become popular lately to disparage the use of this metaphor, but it has always been favoured in literature. Anyone who's ever had a difficult journey (like the time our family tried to find our holiday home in a strange land, up a mountain, in the dark, in an unfamiliar car) can appreciate the comparison to life's unexpected and difficult twists and turns.

rubysong Wed 01-Jan-20 01:02:33

My problem at the moment is people saying we are about to enter a new decade. If a decade is ten years it should go from one to ten (zero) therefore we are entering the final year of the decade. Is it just me? Yes, I think it is.

Kryptonite Wed 01-Jan-20 00:39:44

Meanwhile a lovely cafe in Headington is serving a selection of 'deserts' and the launderette in Spalding will be closed 'untill' 2nd January.

"How are you?"
"I'm good."
"So pleased to hear that, but how are you?"

Yes, it's quite obvious that those leaflets are created by teenagers and edited by - probably no one. The majority of adverts on TV are no better. Gone are the days when they used to be an art form. I follow my 92 year old mum's example of turning the sound down on all the mind-numbing dross.

Solonge Tue 31-Dec-19 23:31:47

Language is for ever changing, if it wasn't we would all be speaking in a very different manner to the way we do now. I have no idea why people become so offended by modern changes. Shakespeare and Dickens both invented words and terms. Is it a sign of age to be offended by new things?

Callistemon Tue 31-Dec-19 22:35:01

Canadians speak properly though, don't they?
The ones I know do, none of yer brash Americanisms

Callistemon Tue 31-Dec-19 22:33:46

W'ere be to, me 'andsum?
Thought you be to the New Year 'op?