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

Flyboy152

etruscanshades wrote: »

And the plural?

Countesses'. But you knew that anyway, why did you ask?

KimYeovil

abby1234519 wrote: »

Well I cannot be bothered to work out which one I am supposed to use on an internet forum, at university I proofread with my "assistant" so I would hope I submit perfectly corrected work!

I am trying very hard not to abbreviate everything right now, eg I'm, don't etc. It is a struggle

According to the entry in the OED, cannot is

the ordinary modern way of writing can not

I see writing 'for example' was too much of a struggle. Or even just 'e.g.'!

Again, you start off with a mistake. It is "I can not be bothered". If you meant "I cannot be bothered" that would mean you were typing from an impregnable hideaway. And, again, I wasn't crticising the use of abbreviations. But just because the OED has permitted a breach and a muddying...

etruscanshades

Flyboy152 wrote: »

Countesses'. But you knew that anyway, why did you ask?

As the young would say "You're doing my head in!". We actually seem to agree on something. Hurrah!

In future I will only refer to countesses in the plural. If there's only one countess I won't mention her. That way I will know that I'm not making a mistake.

quoia

Paul_Varjak wrote: »

If you try 100% harder you would be doubling your efforts, if you try 200% harder you would be tripling your efforts!

I wondered how long it would be before someone (and who that person might be) uncovered this little bugbear of mine - the misuse/misunderstanding of percentages.
(Not to mention other mathematical inconsistencies)

Thought it might just go unnoticed but trust a winner of The Times Tournament of the Mind to come along and immediately see through my little subterfuge

Well done PV

KimYeovil

etruscanshades wrote: »

"I like fish and chips, I also like peas and beans."

Strictly grammatically, those are two sentences. There should either be a full stop, semi colon, an "and" or a "but" where the comma has been placed.

How's that for pedantry? :-)

It is poor pedantry due to the number of petards.

I think the quotes around 'and' and 'but' should be single ones.

"Strictly grammatically" is very clunky - you should just be using one of those as it is tautological. Either (ironically) separate them with a comma or remove your own comma. That is, one from:

Strictly those are two sentences
Gramatically those are two sentences
Strictly, gramatically, those are two sentences
Strictly gramatically those are two sentences <- yuck

And you have omitted the 'a' before 'semi colon'. Not that those two words mean anything - 'semicolon' is one word not two .)

Paul_Varjak

The spaces between Marks and and and and and Spencer are too large. Can someone punctuate that for me?

quoia

Paul_Varjak wrote: »

The spaces between Marks and and and and and Spencer are too large. Can someone punctuate that for me?

Surely that's ....

The spaces between Marks and & and & and Spencer are too large.

I'd have picked something less contentious like describing the pub sign hanging outside the Coach and Horses personally

Paul_Varjak

quoia wrote: »

I wondered how long it would be before someone (and who that person might be) uncovered this little bugbear of mine - the misuse/misunderstanding of percentages.
(Not to mention other mathematical inconsistencies)

Mistakes can also be made in calculating the percentage savings on those sticky things you put on envelopes!

quoia wrote: »

Thought it might just go unnoticed but trust a winner of The Times Tournament of the Mind to come along and immediately see through my little subterfuge

Veni Vidi Vici.

Paul_Varjak

quoia wrote: »

Surely that's ....

The spaces between Marks and & and & and Spencer are too large.

It is M&S (no spaces) or Marks and Spencer (with spaces).

TightgitJon

One of my big pedantic niggles is British people pronouncing the noun "research" in the American way. If you want to do some "REsearch", you'd be best off starting by checking the dictionary for the correct British pronunciation. It's reSEARCH, with the stress on the second syllable, not the first.
My other biggie is the fact that newsreaders these days always seem to insist on referring to the old bill as "the pleece", swallowing the "o" which should be pronounced "uh", as in "puhlice". If they can't get it right, what hope is there for the rest of us?

I share Martin's (and others') frustration, and agree it may be my age, though the fact that I'm an English teacher makes me get more pathetically uptight about this stuff, I suppose. Although I can see I am losing these and many other battles, I can't help bemoaning them anyway. (Predictably, I agree about "should of").

Should I try to get out more, do you think?