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

Nij_P

My top three are:

1. "I'm good", in response to, "how are you?" "I'm" is short for "I am", "am" is the first person singular of the verb, "to be" and thus requires an adverb. "Good" is an adjective. "Duh", as one says nowadays - how hard can it be?

2. "Fewer" is losing out to "less" when referring to amounts of things. "Less" should be used when referring to quantity. Those not comprehending may wish to ascertain the difference from a book called a "dictionary". Double "duh"! How hard can it be?

3. I never cease to chuckle at the incompetents who struggle to realise there is a differecne between "personal" and "personnel". Treble "duh"! How hard can it be?

I feel better now. I'm off to slap my local pub's landlord for using the apostrophe incorrectly on his notice board. I shall feel even better before night's out!

Barter

jenblackrod wrote: »

... My father, (whose a retired English teacher), always corrected me when I was a child, and we turn into our parents do we not?

I've just come back to this thread and can't believe that no-one has picked up on this mis-use: who's = who is; whose - the possessive form of who.

What have you all been doing in my 3 hours' absence?

mositt

Martin, I agree with you 110% on all of your top 10!!

rapido

angelatgraceland wrote: »

Ideal for idea

But then your give your location as near "Bristol".

Surely if you have a problem with the Bristol "L", you should call the place by the name "Bristow"?

Or maybe you should just move.

kai666

Does anyone know why a certain section of London call Westminster by the name Westminister?

One person even told me I was pronouncing it wrongly despite the fact that it was him who was putting in an extra i into the word that doesn't exist

Find it really annoying

molemag

It's NUCLEAR not NUCULAR (George W Bush please note).

Jackiekaren

I haven't read all of the posts, so apologies if these have already been raised.

My cause of frustration is the mispronunciation of "th" and using "f" instead eg three is pronounced free, or bath is baff. It drives me crazy. I also want to slap anyone saying "you was, wasn't you"

Arghhh!!!

Many intelligent people in my company get their "theres" wrong and my boss can not, no matter how much I try, get his head around affect and effect.

Of course, one of the perils of threads like these, are the pointing out of your own mistakes!

I shall blame any errors, in advance, on my late night at work

molemag

Also, it's LONG-I-TUDE, not LONG-TI-TUDE

molemag

Xmas. Where did that come from?

molemag

My colleague who refers to people doing things "in their intimate wisdom".