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Pedants' corner

That’s it, I give up….

(117 Posts)
Kate54 Sun 18-Sep-22 20:03:49

According to the ITV news this evening, during the final part of Her Majesty’s funeral tomorrow the Queen will ‘lay’ next to her husband. I’m pretty sure she won’t. Eggs? The table?
And before anyone points out that we all understand what was meant (‘lie’ by the way) I’ll issue the usual reminder - this is pedants’ corner!

Witzend Wed 21-Sep-22 23:22:36

springishere

I love pedants' corner, and can never resist adding to it. My pet hate is the loss of the present participle, as in "She was sat", "He was stood". "Different from" is logical as one is moving away, so why "different to" which indicates moving towards. Don't get me started on "I'm good" - well I hope you are! I know language changes but why should grammar change? I had to write out "It's means it is" 100 times when I was at school, and have never forgotten it.

It’s also short for ‘it has’ - as in e.g. ‘It’s been raining’.
I used to make worksheets for my classes of largely Arabic speakers - choose its or it’s and expand it’s into it is, or it has.

annodomini Wed 21-Sep-22 23:29:08

The reflexive 'sit yourself down' was common in my youth - at least in Scotland - when the speaker was being hospitable and inviting a visitor to have a seat.

Summerfly Wed 21-Sep-22 23:37:29

Yes SODAPOP! “could of”. It’s so annoying and makes me cringe when I hear it. ?

Merryweather Thu 22-Sep-22 01:17:04

I’m a 1980’s baby and was the first year into the new ‘keystage’ system of education. Sadly the English teaching standards dropped. It was deemed unnecessary to teach grammar past what was a verb, noun, tense, adverb, to name a few of the very basics. Spelling were also deemed less important. It was a case of correct a few mistakes not all in order to not dent confidence. All wrong. English grammas has evolved and yes there are regional variants, but surely in education a set standard ought to be maintained and grammar taught correctly from primary age.
I was fortunate to be awarded A* at GCSE, A at A’ level (when it was discovered I was dyslexic) and a first class BA hons in English literature. I still struggle to decipher which word is which - a noun- adverb etc.
I have two daughters in primary school. From looking at their work and the overview of teaching plan for the year, grammar teaching has made a comeback. At 42 I am now finally learning!
The ‘can I get ….’ , to, too and two, your and your’e, it’s misuse do irk even my uncouth brain.

Claudiaclaws Thu 22-Sep-22 02:49:41

The Girl Guides Association wrote in their statemsnt of the Queens death, that she had "earnt" proficiency badges.
I emailed them asking them to tell the person who wrote the piece that the past tense of earn is earned. They emailed to say
they had corrected it. I checked, and indeed they had.

nanna8 Thu 22-Sep-22 05:18:59

A normal greeting here is
How ya goin?
Good
(reply) Good.
Very economical. I like it.
Another one is ‘Yair,no but’ in answer to a question. The one I am not too keen on is paddick for paddock and Austraya.

MawtheMerrier Thu 22-Sep-22 08:36:15

annodomini

The reflexive 'sit yourself down' was common in my youth - at least in Scotland - when the speaker was being hospitable and inviting a visitor to have a seat.

Also reflexive verb in both French and German of course
Asseyez-vous and Setzen Sie Sich. Possibly also in other languages.

Fridayschild Thu 22-Sep-22 21:51:47

Okay, I’ve read through some (not all) of these and my teeth are now on edge. My grammar is not perfect but good enough to know a lot of rights and wrongs. My big irk just now is how so many seem to think that brought is bought and vice versa. Oh, and of is the same as have. Shudder - I have to leave now. ??

MaizieD Fri 23-Sep-22 00:04:24

I think Merryweather has nailed it. There was a period when spelling and grammar were completely out of fashion in schools. Consequently younger teachers have no idea how to teach either.
I think lack of sustained reading doesn't help either, you can absorb so much 'correct' grammar and sentence construction from reading correctly written literature.

I have lots of pet hates but the use of 'the vast majority' instead of 'most' really grates. Also 'forbidden from'. It's banned or prevented from, but forbidden to.

Leapingminnow Fri 23-Sep-22 11:13:35

No one has mentioned the change of use of Fun yet! It's interesting to see language evolving, don't you think? I am learning from this chat but I am also scared of opening my mouth in case I offend someone! Corrections awaited!

Ilovecats2 Sun 25-Sep-22 17:47:52

Good God is that all you have to worry about. The state the world is in at the moment with the threat of world war 3 and you are worried about something so trivial.

Leapingminnow Sat 01-Oct-22 19:23:27

Ilovecats2 I am well aware of the state of the world in general as well as the dire state of things closer to home. I’m also involved in redoing a set of interpretation boards which will be monstered by some people, as shown above, if there are grammatical mistakes. We’ve worked hard on these boards and this is a much more difficult task than other people realise, so I apologise for seeming trivial to you but I can assure you, I’m not!

HowVeryDareYou Sat 01-Oct-22 19:28:33

I heard someone on the radio say "...do it one or two times" . Why not "once or twice"?

Witzend Sat 01-Oct-22 19:38:27

Ilovecats2

Good God is that all you have to worry about. The state the world is in at the moment with the threat of world war 3 and you are worried about something so trivial.

Ilovecats2, this is Pedants’ Corner. For, er, pedants.
I dare say you can find plenty of state-of-the-world angst on the News and Politics threads.
We pedants like angst-ing about pedantic little things.

Germanshepherdsmum Sat 01-Oct-22 20:09:31

Ilovecats2

Good God is that all you have to worry about. The state the world is in at the moment with the threat of world war 3 and you are worried about something so trivial.

FFS can’t you understand that this is a bit of fun, light relief from the troubles of the world? Nobody is worried about these things.

sodapop Sat 01-Oct-22 21:24:56

grin Witzend