That’s it, I give up….

Witzend

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.

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.

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

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!

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.

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!

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.

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. ??

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

skate

Has anybody noticed how often people say "you cannot underestimate ..... " (e.g. the importance of The Queen to the nation) - when of course it should be OVERESTIMATE. It happens all the time when presumably well educated presenters are speaking. Drives me mad.

Another case of the opposite to what's intended (I think?): "I could case less" for "|I COULDN'T care less".

I’m sorry to say, Eskay, another of my pet hates is ‘anymore’.

Has anybody noticed how often people say "you cannot underestimate ..... " (e.g. the importance of The Queen to the nation) - when of course it should be OVERESTIMATE. It happens all the time when presumably well educated presenters are speaking. Drives me mad.

Should have made this clearer and separated what Kate54 wrote from my contribution that starts with 'One could say'

Kate54

Not convinced! It’s meant to be present conditional I think. In the same way one would say to
One’s OH ‘ If I lie here long enough, will you bring me a cup of tea?’

One could say 'If I were to lie here long enough . . . .' (subjunctive tense). However in Yorkshire people are inclined to say 'He were a good lad' when 'was' is intended.

BBC please note: The Queen was NOT the Head of the Church of England - she was the Supreme Governor.

My pet hate is that virtually everybody now uses ‘amount of’ for everything when ‘number’ should be used. E.g. the ‘number’ of people BUT the ‘amount’ of rainfall. The ‘amount’ of time should be ‘length’ of time. I could go on…..Perhaps this is not taught in schools anymore.

I know I’m a grumpy old bag but it seems that much incorrect grammar and use of words is down to laziness.

Finally I have found my grammaticality correct soul mates. Pedantic corner! My immediate pet peeve is the old ' to, two and too' usage. I agree lay for eggs, lie is correct

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.