Grammar slam

[Thunder Bolt]

That was a typo as opposed to a grammatical error.

 

[Ned]

abbereviations

That was a typo as opposed to a grammatical error.

I thought it was a new word created from aberration & abbreviation to denote when someone shortens a word incorrectly

OK I'll get my coat.

 

[BN9 BHA]

These amused me, and maybe they will educate people.

Does he do a punktuation youtube video?

 

[Lincoln Imp]

Another one creeping in is the joining of two words to make one which doesn't really exist.

'A lot' seems to be morphing into 'alot', or worse 'allot'. The latter does exist, but not in the form to mean 'an unspecified amount'. I've no idea how or why that is happening.

I'm on your side here but we can agree that it probably happens because for centuries words have been spontaneously coming together. Altogether, albeit and a hundred more. Into was created a long time ago and now, in front of our very eyes, onto is joining it. All right is still all right but some people are jumping the gun with alright. It's quite exciting really.

(My pet dislike is the incorrect positioning of the word 'only'. When people say "I only drink beer on Sundays" they probably don't mean that drinking beer is the only thing they do on the Sabbath. They mean that they drink beer only on Sundays. I wish they would say so.)

 

[Brightonfan1983]

(My pet dislike is the incorrect positioning of the word 'only'. When people say "I only drink beer on Sundays" they probably don't mean that drinking beer is the only thing they do on the Sabbath. They mean that they drink beer only on Sundays. I wish they would say so.)

I like those little differences that make a big difference.

 

[Buzzer]

Mispronunciation of harass and when people use hung instead of hanged. I had a very pedantic English teacher (Mrs Maddock, Durrington High) who almost beat those two into us.

 

[Acker79]

http://toys.usvsth3m.com/write/index.html?trackingcode=twitterenglish

 

[KingKev]

Hate the "could of" thing. My other particular pieces of pedantry include:-

Use of the plural form of verbs with singular nouns - "Brighton are...." "My team were".

Decline of the subjunctive...Use it or lose it, people.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

Another one creeping in is the joining of two words to make one which doesn't really exist.

'A lot' seems to be morphing into 'alot', or worse 'allot'. The latter does exist, but not in the form to mean 'an unspecified amount'. I've no idea how or why that is happening.

It started with "onto". It was drummed into me at school that there is no such word. It now seems that there is.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

And don't get me started on the expression "seven times less" (often about some new wonderful green advancement for instance this car produces seven times less carbon dioxide than its equivalent model). How can some thing be a magnitude less? Do they mean one seventh (which they should state) or do they mean that it actively consumes six times the amount of carbon dioxide that the equivalent model produces?

I once heard a radio announcer give out a weather forecast with the promise that "tomorrow's temperature will rise to 10 degrees celsius, twice as hot as today's 5 degrees".

 

[fat old seagull]

Superb

(I make that 7 mistakes?)

Looks fine to me.

 

[fat old seagull]

Mispronunciation of harass and when people use hung instead of hanged. I had a very pedantic English teacher (Mrs Maddock, Durrington High) who almost beat those two into us.

I'm well hanged, doesn't sound right to me. So it's incorrect on both counts

 

[Trufflehound]

I like those little differences that make a big difference. View attachment 45601

Except that, more often than not, people who don't know their shit, don't know they're shit.

 

[Brovion]

Hate the "could of" thing. My other particular pieces of pedantry include:-

Use of the plural form of verbs with singular nouns - "Brighton are...." "My team were".

Decline of the subjunctive...Use it or lose it, people.

But in British/English when applied to a football team 'Brighton' IS a collective noun. For example we say "Brighton have the ball on the edge of their own penalty area", not "Brighton has the ball on the edge of its own penalty area" (which is the American way).

It is singular though when applied to the place: "Brighton is a seaside resort"

Totally agree with your other points though!

 

[GT49er]

For example we say "Brighton have the ball on the edge of their own penalty area".

Should this not be, "Brighton lose the ball on the edge of their own penalty area"? Your version does seem to be more commonly used now, and maybe it'll eventually become accepted, but historically 'lose' has been the correct form.

 

[Lincoln Imp]

It started with "onto". It was drummed into me at school that there is no such word. It now seems that there is.

As I implied, 'onto' is now accepted by most media. To us of a certain age, it looks ugly but the trend is probably irreversible and not, in the grand scheme of things, harmful - the merging of words has been going on for yonks.

 

[Nottseagull]

I saw this in Sainsbury's a few weeks ago. Annoyed me so much that I took a photo and twittered at them. Their reply? "What seems to be the problem?"

View attachment 45588

Imagine if all possessives were indicated by 's and 'whose' hadn't evolved. Then somebody put whose on an internet forum. Wouldn't that then annoy you just as much? Probably, it would annoy you even more as it would be much less logical.

 

[Brovion]

Should this not be, "Brighton lose the ball on the edge of their own penalty area"? Your version does seem to be more commonly used now, and maybe it'll eventually become accepted, but historically 'lose' has been the correct form.

Er, yes. I'm not quite with quite with you, that's exactly what I was saying. As 'Brighton' is a collective noun it conjugates as 'They lose'. If we go down King Kev's American route of it being a singular noun it would be 'It loses', so it would be 'Brighton loses the ball on the edge of its own penalty area'

 

[Dandyman]

As I posted last year

View attachment 45572

Quality.

 

[Shropshire Seagull]

lovin' this thread.

Brighton used above in the commentary context is a single entity [club / team] - the same as the town. If you're referring to the players, it would be plural.

The use of the apostrophe was made simple to me at school, use it when ever you remove letter(s) from a word. They are [they're], we were [we're], fish and chips [fish 'n' chips] etc.

One last one for you A* grammar peeps - how would you address a memo to two people of the same name, eg. John
Dear Johns
Dear John's
Dear Johns'
Dear John(s)
Dear John & John
or some way else?