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

cornerstone13

Nobody's mentioned these so maybe I'm another minority pedant with two spoken and two written irritants:

It's not "them things", it's "those things"
and
It's not "cheers", it's not even "thanks" - it's "thank you"

Not knowing the difference between where/were/wear
and
not being able to spell accommodation and tariff correctly

Doblir

Many, many times I have been in a queue at a bank or similar and been asked: "Are you both together?"
No, we're just together...both of us, that is, I think...

When anyone finishes a sentence with "Know what I mean?" I just say no for the hell of it now.

And I still bristle at being called "Mate" by anyone.

Nonetheless, English is a living and evolving language.

But I mean, actually, at the end of the day, basically, as she is spoke now, its like literally knackered, know what I mean, mate?

DerbyPensioner

There is a strong trend, particularly on television, to use the present tense to describe actions in the past. For example, "Napoleon marches into Russia" rather than "Napoleon marched into Russia".
Its very common amongst historical presenters who are well educated and should know better.

Coriander

I'm afraid I shout at the Television when so-called journalists get it wrong. Current chief irritants are:

"Different to" (difference indicates a divergence, therefore it should be "Different from").

"Killommeter" (is this an instrument for measuring kills or what?) Surely they can say "Kilometre" as in kilogramme, kilowatt etc.

Hmph, don't know what the world's coming to.

Lwsi

My biggest pet hate has to be "I was stood" or "I was sat". When did everyone turn into Nellie Pledge? Also, when did the pronunciation of the letter s turn into sh? (as in shtudent, shtreet, shtupid. I could go on and on)

chunkychocky

The BBC News annoys me with their 'X celebrity dies'. Surely it should be 'X celebrity has died'. They aren't usually in the process of doing the deed as the BBC are announcing it, therefore surely it should be past tense.

chunkychocky

esuhl wrote: »

I'm with you all the way on "haitch" (it even pains me to type it!)... but what's wrong with "fewer"?!

I am wondering that too. I think that Waitrose having the '10 items or fewer' queue is far better than Tesco having the '10 items or less' idiot queue.

purpleweasel

I hope you realise what you have done - this one is going to run & run! Pesonally, i find "concerning" pretty clumsy, but i also hate the "i'm loving it" idiom. Always worth a look at the Plain English website, they have plenty of examples of "what not to do"

baby_fuzz

:mad: your/you're is my no. 1

The other thing that winds me up is when people say 'yeah, no'. Do they mean 'yes'? Do they actually want to say 'no'?:rotfl:

baby_fuzz

cornerstone13 wrote: »

and
not being able to spell accommodation and tariff correctly

I can't spell either, but at least I check!

(Although you have to admit that tariff, spelt phonetically, would have a double 'r'!)