'The word pedants' top 10 | It's specific, not Pacific...' blog discussion.

mr_fishbulb

I got told off for filling out a form, rather than filling it in. That learnt me

Patsee_2

I like yours Martin but my main ones are: it's -which is short for it is - and its, the possessive; and can - which is about ability - and may which is about what is permitted. These are abused even in responses here! Sorry everyone!

tingly

I do not understand the current vogue for relatively wealthy middle class white youngsters , speaking with a jamaican accent and using language found in the ghetto.

Lilly Allen is a good example of this.

In addition, why do people find everything 'amazing' these days- an amazing dress, an amazing time, an amazing night out?

Barter

tingly wrote: »

...In addition, why do people find everything 'amazing' these days- an amazing dress, an amazing time, an amazing night out?

Wow!

Big wow!!

retiredoap

Speaking on the telephone to a Customer Service rep., I am asked "do you know your postcode?"; I give the postcode and receive the response "fantastic". This has happened many times.
The word 'fantastic' does not mean what these people apparently think (brilliant,amazing...), but if it did have that meaning, what is brilliant about knowing one's postcode?

bobby0109

The one thing that really gets me is the number of people who seem to be in the Royal Artillery, such as 'gunner bee' (weather forecasters) gunner see (tv announcers) gunner score (football commentators). No doubt you will see lots more and report!

Richard019

esuhl wrote: »

Finally, it's probably considered correct usage, but it annoys me when people refer to concepts in terms of specific units - like "mileage" instead of distance, "wattage" instead of power, "acreage" instead of area or "footage" for length. If you're going to mix up the concepts and the units, why not refer to "grammage" for mass or "per secondage" for frequency or "minuteage" for duration or "degreeage" for angle...?

Familiarity? Familiar units being used results in more people receiving the information understanding it?

If you're talking about a car and want to know how economical it is you're not going to ask me what the economy is if you only understand mpg. I could just as easily give you it as km/l, so you'd ask what mileage it did so that I gave you it in the correct format. Equally if I'm trying to sell a car (like TV adverts) I'm going to give the figure in the most commonly understood way so that I don't get lots of people asking the same question.

Chas

One of my bugbear's is when people don't not use adverbs correct.

e.g. Christopher Dean on Dancing on Ice saying 'he done fantastic'.

crimson_snowflake

"Could/should of"

Saying "then" or even "that" instead of "than" also seems to be widespread. :mad:
How can people not see that these can't be correct? Am I just fussier than everyone else?

All the people I work with, even very senior and well-educated people, pronounce et cetera as "ek-cetera".
It got to a point where I had to go and check in the dictionary that I wasn't the one getting it wrong! :eek:

When people on the BBC say "haitch", surely it's the end of civilisation as we know it?

Time to stop thinking about it or I shall become grumpy (ok, grumpier).

jadorevintage

practice/practise
licence/license
then/than

When people say "prolly" or "probly" instead of "probably"!