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

jools0001

northerner60 wrote: »

Thank you for mentioning one of my pet irritations, as my Maths teacher 30 years ago used to say " A p is a vegetable. "The replacement of the "th" sound with the letter f really irritates me. I have noticed this recently on "The Chase" by the chaser Mark who asks if the contestants would like to win "Firty Fousand pounds" :mad:. Sadly if people in the media are unable to use our language correctly what hope do our children have. There are numerous complaints about poor standards in education. We need to start with television presenters especially on Children's tv.

It's a regional variation. It's no more incorrect than someone from Sunderland sounding their vowels differently to someone from Swansea.

If anything I think it's sad that regional accents are less pronounced than they used to be. It's a natural consequence of increased communication and travel, but I still enjoy being able to spot subtle differences in speech from adjacent towns.

KimYeovil

BOBVICK wrote: »

Seems to be a regional thing, but I hate it when people pronounce Millions with a y sound like Millyions.

This is tied in with how to adopt foreign words (and, worse, how to pronounce unadopted foreign words). In essence, it is always wrong to 'respect' by mangling your own language. Just because you know how to pronounce 'Paris' with an 'ee' it does not follow you have enough exposure to catch how to pronounce 'Havana' with a 'b' or 'Peking'.

If you want to pronounce 'million' 'mil-ee-on' why not go the whole way and pronounce it 'mil-ee-on-e'. The elided version seems more natural (and is just an elided version of the way you want it pronounced rather than a distinct and different version.)

eurovision_fan

I used to find on many handwritten signs the following:
'We (do not) Except Credit Cards, Debit Cards and Checks"
It niggles me something chronic, not just because of using except instead of accept, but also using the American English spelling of Cheques.

I'm also annoyed with the use of the 'greengrocers apostrophe' - I have noticed my brain has been trying to get me to use it in some plurals but I just don't like the sloppiness of language and punctuation this causes.
:mad:

Gillsx

Is it just me or are people who say 'we was going' instead of 'we were going' a bit thick? It sounds awful and i'm sure it's not right.... is it?

KimYeovil

Paul_Brown wrote: »

It irritates me that quantum leap is used to suggest significant progress where as it is an near infamtesimally small increment.

But... but... but... surely 'infinitesimal' is just as opposite and different from 'quantal' as an enormous leap is from a quantum one.

I think we need adjudication from Quasar on this one but surely one thing a quantum jump is not is infinitesimal - it is discrete and measurable.

pgd_2

I believe I am correct in stating that some of these errors are misunderstood. I haven't read the whole thread, and these may have already been explained

In the North East there are some words and phrases in use that come from Danish/Anglo Saxon

Which technically makes them proper English, and not the mangled version of French that southerners use (Alexandre Dumas said that not me!)

to larn, comes from the verb, to teach (Danish/Anglo Saxon)

and I also believe that arks or aks/axe is Anglo Saxon again.

I have read this on a website about the orgins of the Geordie accent, but this forum will not let me post links.....

Saying all this though, I do get annoyed by some people's clumsy approach to their speech and writing, but people should also check the origins of these "mistakes" before ridiculing people

GeorgeHerts

Tupperware_Queen wrote: »

it is how the Roman legionnaire instilled discipline, they would kill 10% of soldiers - hence decimate

I vividly remember this from a Latin lesson at school

That may be one meaning, but I remember a different one from my Latin lessons.

"Decimation" also means "to reduce to one tenth", i.e. to lose 90%. Note, not *by* one tenth, which is a common mistake! In other words, a catastrophic loss.

jools0001

KimYeovil wrote: »

But... but... but... surely 'infinitesimal' is just as opposite and different from 'quantal' as an enormous leap is from a quantum one.

I think we need adjudication from Quasar on this one but surely one thing a quantum jump is not is infinitesimal - it is discrete and measurable.

Good point. I think 'quantum' refers to indivisibility, not smallness. So quantum leap could be perfectly logical if it's used to mean something going from one state to another in one step rather than by increments.

This is why I love language. You can hear or use a phrase for years without thinking about the meaning of the individual words, then one day you pick it apart and open up a whole new layer of understanding.
:T

RachelD

I notice one of Martin's examples was 'borrowing off ' someone - he was talking about the lend/borrow issue. I'd say it should be 'borrowing from..' Even worse is 'I borrowed it off of..' I blame this 'off of' usage on 'Hey you, get off of my cloud..'
My pet hate though is 'she fell pregnant..' It always makes it sound like there was an elementof chance/bad luck.
Currently my office is running a fundraising thing for 'Help for Heroes'. I want to tear down or correct the posters 'Help for Hero's'

GeorgeHerts

emcwill wrote: »

I agree with all your points Martin, but for goodness sake! This from the man who still refuses to put the correct 's' in 'Martin Lewis' MoneySavingExpert'. (And no, moving your name a bit closer to the 's' in 'Saving' is NOT good enough!) Come on Martin, do it properly and lead by example!

But Martin is correct! My very pedantic English teacher taught us that the possessive of a word ending in any of the following letters -- s, x, z --- is formed by adding only an apostrophe. I grit my teeth when I see "St James's" (Even more when I see "St. James's"!).