Order of words matters! (and I'm feeling grouchy today!)

I agree with you that the two wordings can be taken to mean two different things, but really neither wording is very good.

I would have preferred "You need to register online to be able to vote in the coming election (by-election).

And I hope they remembered to tell the reader what to do if he or she is not able to register online!

So many of these pop up 'the blue lady's jumper ' was the lady cold ?
They always distract me from the real meaning of the text.

I agree grandtanteJE65 and if I was very suspicious I might think it'was part of a policy to make voting more difficult for some people, but that couldn't possibly be true, could it?

Oh I do agree. We are losing the ability to express ourselves clearly. Very sad. I try to laugh about it but it really is not funny. English is a very fine language in which it is possible to have great subtlety of meaning - pearls before swine... It annoys me most on BBC. I (clearly wrongly) expect perfect English from our national broadcaster.

I spotted an odd sign in a branch of Next. It says Children available at the rear of the shop. Just imagine, no need to be pregnant for nine months or give birth, you could simply go and select a child straight off the shelf!

The sign advising of a 'Giant Children's Clothing Sale' amused me. It's nice that there are places catering for enormous children.

In America, the clothing size for the more generously-built child is called ‘Husky’.

Speaking of which, I’ve just looked at the size label on my winter coat. It says
UK/US/Germany - Medium.
France - Large.

RUDE! 😂

Laundry “blobs” -“keep away from children”
Absolutely, noisy, snivelling little ankle biters!

Our head teacher once sent a letter out asking for ‘black women’s tights’ and ‘ white men’s shirts’, for some project we were doing.

Thanks for all ofthese they've given me a laugh so not feeling quite so grouchy.
I'm imagining choosing a designer child SueDonim and wondering if you could return one and get a refund!

MawtheMerrier

Laundry “blobs” -“keep away from children”
Absolutely, noisy, snivelling little ankle biters!

I comment on that advert every single time it's shown. It's up to me, not the advertisers, whether or not I keep away from children!

My DH still doesn't 'get' my interpretation of it, though.

Glorianny

Through my letter box drops an envelope with the words
Register to vote online inscribed on it. "Ooh." I thought "have we. progresses to on-line voting and I missed it?"
But we haven't!
What it should say is
Register online to vote
So I thought it deserved a moan!

Did Grouchy enjoy it?

🤣🤣🤣

. It says
UK/US/Germany - Medium.
France - Large.

And China .. extra extra large

sodapop

So many of these pop up 'the blue lady's jumper ' was the lady cold ?
They always distract me from the real meaning of the text.

Oh. I thought that was a casual reference to her rabbit.

MrsKen33

Our head teacher once sent a letter out asking for ‘black women’s tights’ and ‘ white men’s shirts’, for some project we were doing.

Actually, until we all became so concious of not fueling racism anyone could have been forgiven for asking for black women's tights or white men's shirts!

That was how we described these items in my childhood, along with phrases such as flesh-coloured stockings (which usually meant light tan, unless it was ballet tights that were meant) in a shade that no so-called "white woman's" legs are naturally) a black gentleman's umbrella, and so on.

I am not saying that they are grammatically perfect phrases, but no-one would have found them offensive in the 1950s.