A shocker from our MP! (NB, for pedants only!)

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Saving the best until last!

Curb' is the American spelling of kerb. I cannot be the only one who is heartly sick of Americanisms creeping in!

But it isn’t a case of ‘Americanisms’ creeping in.

Witzend’s MP used ‘kerb’ (which in English means the edge of the pavement) when she meant ‘curb’ (to stop the anti-social behaviour).

The Americans are perfectly at liberty to spell ‘kerb’ as ‘curb’ if they so wish.

I do wish there wasn’t so much knee-jerk anti-USA reaction on Gransnet.

People complain about ‘Americanisms ’ which are often old English retained after they threw the British out. I find their usage interesting rather than annoying. Australian misuse of the English language is far more vexing in my opinion.

Quizzer, I’m sure when I was at school, we were taught that, while ‘into’ was a word, ‘onto’ was not!

I have seen estate agents write about the importance of "curb" attraction."

Minerva yes it’s fascinating, I think. I have been to Tangier Island in Chesapeake Bay, where the pronunciation is thought to be very similar to that of the first British settlers, ie Shakespearean pronunciation.

Standardised spelling is a comparitively recent introduction into the English language, and possibly something which won't last. I used to be really annoyed by the mistakes made by even some highly educated people but I've mellowed. As long as it's readable and understandable I'm willing to accept most things. The big exception being of course spelling lists-if you can't get it right there we might as well give it all up.

We had a box of books in our school resource room labelled
"Grammer" and a classroom tray labelled "stationary" for paper, envelopes etc!

My father, who was a graduate of Cardiff University, once had a letter addressed to him as Mr. MA Wales!
My daughter's teacher wrote a comment in her English book: "You could of said....." I was straight down to the headmistress after that one!

A regular mis-use of words in my area is of instead of have ie she should of used something else.

According to Google the collective noun for teachers is "faculty", which surprised me.

I understand university professors when I hear of a faculty.

I just found another shocker on Gransnet almost straight away.
...I meant to of wrote...

Lidl had, and still have, a price ticket above the celery saying “celery storks” !

‘Lay’ when they mean ’lie’
‘Laid’ For ‘lay’.

I have heard MPs who have had the benefit of the most expensive education available get these confused. I want to throw a grammar primer at them.

Sorry! Left the commas out ?

Wow, Chewbacca - not just spelling mistakes but also "try to help YOU child..."

GinJeannie The celery storks are part of Lidl’s attempt to make veggies fun for children. They have cute names for the packs designed to go into lunch kits (such as cauliflower clouds - I may have made that up just so you get the idea). Apparently they sell well.

One that has me grinding my teeth is the use of sat as a verb.
“I was sat there for 15 minutes”

Ooh, MadeInYorkshire - I shall have to pay more attention in future to the advertisements on Facebook’s Market Place. ?

I was watching afternoon TV last week (I know - such decadence ?) when an advertisment for mattresses came on. A bright young thing chirruped that 'The first time I lay on my (name) mattress, it enveloped me!' - pronounced as though she was glued down and had a stamp stuck on her, rather than being enfolded... ?
I thought that lots of people must have been involved in producing that advert - did NONE of them notice the incorrect pronunciation..?? Then I felt very, very old...?

This thread is a bit of a damp squid...

When I was teaching, I received letter from a very high profile person in the education (assessment!) department. She wrote, " Thank you for coming to see Jane Smith and I today." If Jane Smith had been ill that day, would her letter have read, " Thank you for coming to see I."?

The other shocker was on a literacy training course, where the county's literacy consultant started her PowerPoint presentation with the question, 'Who's job is it, anyway?'

I always corrected spelling mistakes in red pen when my children were at school. One teacher called me into school to have a word. She asked why I always used red pen for corrections of spelling mistakes. I told her, you have marked this work and never corrected spelling mistakes so how are they going to learn if there spelling is correct. She wasn't very pleased with me. I still carried on doing it for all four of my children until they all left school.

And then there's "snuck", as in sneaked. Any why, oh why do we call a railway station a train station - well maybe you'd expect me to have snuck that one in

When my daughter was at Secondary School in the 00s she was told not to worry about the spelling in her exams as the markers will take no notice of it as long as the answers were correct .. but why should this be ? Luckily my daughter was good at spelling and English anyway.