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

Flyboy152

Yorkiebargain wrote: »

Aaargh - here's another one. Architec (are you trying to wind us up!) says... "I have taken lumps out of my tongue when sat in front of a very well educated young female client.."

Who sat you there? Or do you mean the continuous process of "sitting?"

You mean the the past tense and past participle of sit? :huh:

HelenREMfan

You borrow money from someone.....not "off" them!

Pet hate of the moment is everyone getting the use of "less" and "fewer" wrong. Please everyone who cares about correct use of English assault ASDA customer service desk as on their self service tills they have large notices saying the till is for "20 items or less" Soooooooooooooooo annoying.

pennypinchUK

I'd like to know whether giving 110% to a task is better than giving 200%, or 1000% or even (snarl, growl, as Simon Cowell says in every programme he's a judge in, one million percent). I can only give 100%. If that's not good enough I'll be grateful if someone will let me know......

pennypinchUK

Martin, you've struck the same nerve that Lynn Truss hit when she wrote "Eats Shoots and Leaves". I never thought I'd read a book on punctuation, but I did, and it was an excellent read.

spandit

Does anyone have any idea why people are spelling "oops" as "opps". They don't even sound the same!

Devout_Miser

trotter09 wrote: »

Similarly, effect and affect are often confused.

Seen today on Birmingham City Council's website "These changes will come into affect this month."

A set of instructions I have says "Do not use in damp conditions as this will effect the performance of the motor." I'd have thought that was a plus point.

DVardysShadow

redglass wrote: »

... 'Attendees.' This is a nonsense word. If you are a fiancee, it means you have been affianced to someone. If you are a divorcee, you've been divorced. That 'ee' ending means that something has been done to you, and in both cases, you also have to be female to get the double 'ee' (if you're a male who's been engaged or divorced, you only get one e). Now, does an attendee mean a woman who's been attended? No, it bl**dy doesn't! The expression that is needed is 'an attender' or 'a person attending'. I've also seen 'standees' meaning 'people standing'. :mad: What next? Learnees for learners? Singees for singers? Give me strength.

Ah! Attendees. I do agree with you and your reasoning.

But Standees? The term was originally used in design of urban transport systems. I think in that particular case, it is entirely correct to count the number of people who are stood on.

DVardysShadow

malinky wrote: »

Sign seen today at Sainbury`s "Fresh Flavoured Milk" You cannot have `Fresh Flavoured Milk` ...you can have `Flavoured Fresh Milk`.:)

Of course you can have Fresh Flavoured Milk. I can see you are thinking it is Fresh Flavoured] Milk], when it is probably [Fresh [Flavoured Milk. But the complementary product of the first could be Sour Flavoured] Milk] and you could ask "Is that Sour Flavoured Milk fresh?" and the second could just go sour, so you have [Sour [Flavoured Milk.

DVardysShadow

AndrewBT wrote: »

... I'm well set into middle-age as I find it infuriating when people use the word 'text' in the past tense. "He text me", surely it should be texted?

I'm well set into middle-age as I find it infuriating when people use the word 'hit' in the past tense. "He hit me", surely it should be hitted?

DVardysShadow

antonia1 wrote: »

I really don't like people who descibe the time 4:30 as 'half four'. It is 'half past four'. You wouldn't say 'quarter four', so why do you say 'half four'?! 'Half four' sounds like an instruction to carry out some mental arithmetic!

That would correctly be 'Halve four'.