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

etruscanshades

flimsier wrote: »

I haven't read the whole thread, but I agree with the whole post, except for 110%. You can, of course, give 110% of something, including effort. It just depends what you're measuring. I might now in writing this post be giving 200% of the effort I gave last night into writing some other post (though I'm not sure how you accurately quantify effort). Martin may have earned 750% of my salary in the last month.

Absolutely right! I once got 25 marks out of 20 for a physics essay at school. Its my best result ever and I still have the essay 50 years later.

I think "giving 110%" (of one's maximum) is legitimate hyperbole in special circumstances, but not for every day usage.

etruscanshades

Flyboy152 wrote: »

If "goodness' " was to be used, it would refer to the possessive of several items called "goodnes." Seeing as there is only one "goodness," for which the author is calling for the sake of, the singular possessive apostrophe should be used.

Nope! goodness' = belonging to goodness. As countess' = belonging to countess, and James' = belonging to James, and hostess' = belonging to hostess.

If you are saying that usage has changed since I was taught this at school, then there you go! All the pedantic complaints in the last 25 pages may also be ignored.

etruscanshades

Anyway. Time for bed. I will go and lie down (not lay down) or possibly lay my body down and go to sleep.

quoia

angelatgraceland wrote: »

Ah well-Drown dead makes sense. It is now unfortunately distorted.
Assurance and Insurance is another one that trips people up.
"Well, it's goodnight from myself and ****" might make a little more sense.
Thinked and thought
Me thinks instead of I think.
It's paining for it is hurting
Bargin for bargain. I saw this on a big poster in Iceland.
Oh it is FUN in Brizzle!

ASSURANCE - ASSURED event - guaranteed to happen

Life Assurance - payable on death - and a guaranteed amount WHEN (and it will) occurs.
(fixed term of payments into the scheme)

INSURANCE - IN case of - IF it happens - NO RETURN UNLESS ..... it does

... and if it doesn't - NO PAYOUT

Life Insurance - payable on death - IF it happens WHILST the policy is active
(often taken out for the period of a loan to cover the repayment if the worst happens)

quoia

etruscanshades wrote: »

Absolutely right! I once got 25 marks out of 20 for a physics essay at school. Its my best result ever and I still have the essay 50 years later.

I think "giving 110%" (of one's maximum) is legitimate hyperbole in special circumstances, but not for every day usage.

All that shows is that whoever marked it was an IDIOT !

As for more than 100% - it has to be qualified

UNQUALIFIED - "I'm going to go out tomorrow and give it 200%" What? Meaningless!

QUALIFIED - "Tomorrow I'm going to try 200% harder than yesterday" - so you're going to double your previous efforts ...

However, if your previous was only 20% of the absolute maximum that is humanly possible then tomorrow you are still only giving it 40%

firstinflight

Sorry, but a sentence such as "I literally killed myself giving 110%" is perfectly valid usage if it's employed as hyperbole.

ViolaLass

quoia wrote: »

All that shows is that whoever marked it was an IDIOT !

It really doesn't, you know. The teacher had probably allowed for bonus marks to be earned which, in this case, pushed the poster over 20 marks.

flimsier

etruscanshades wrote: »

Absolutely right! I once got 25 marks out of 20 for a physics essay at school. Its my best result ever and I still have the essay 50 years later.

I think "giving 110%" (of one's maximum) is legitimate hyperbole in special circumstances, but not for every day usage.

I think you missed my point. I was saying that it can be used in a non-hyperbolic manner.

AHAR

Just want to get "Low and behold" off my chest.

juno

Flyboy152 wrote: »

Mizzle is an Old English word, derived from high German, meaning, "to drizzle."

Starting words with "and" has been acceptable in the informal, conversation style of writing, for a long time, but generally at the start of a paragraph, to join the subjects together; a bit like the way a semi-colon does in a sentence. But, what does push my button, is placing a comma after "and."

Do you mean that? Usually people get annoyed about one before. But it's called an oxford comma and is perfectly acceptable - and I maintain it's useful!

"I like fish and chips, and peas and beans" makes much more sense that the other.