General Chat

While we are about it let’s not forget the use and misuse of the quotation mark. I saw a sign on a shop window in Birmingham which said: “BARGAINS” FOR SALE To me this means exactly the opposite of what I assume the shopkeeper was trying to say. (Should misuse have a hyphen?) Bob

Slightly off subject. But my pet hate is the misuse of words like should, shall, could, can etc. The number of times should is used when shall is intended! Bob

Bob, don't know if you have been in to Morrisons lately, but Bob saw a sign CD's and DVD's he even pointed it out to them. Ros

The one that really gets to me is 'could of'! AAAAAAAAAGGHH!

The word thay annoys me is'WUR'-is that how you spell it. Rosalyn

Christine My dictionary (quite a big un) gives both 'auntie' and 'aunty' as permissible familiar alternatives for 'aunt'. Your preference for the former does not render use of the latter to be erroneous. I agree with you about the ever-increasing lack of the letter 't' in the middle of words and its replacement by the letter 'd' is somewhat annoying. As an American politician said last year as he saluted, 'I'm John Kerry and I'm repording for doody'. Another poitician from that country often speaks of 'noo killer missles' of course.

How can we expect to understand one another if we use variations of our common lanquage ? Len

G Bush talks about Nukelar missals.

The only reason grammar exists is so that we can make ourselves clear. I'm not bothered about 'I was sat' instead of 'I was sitting' as the meaning is quite clear. I AM bothered about Bridget Jones Diary/Bridget Jone's Diary/Bridget Jones' Diary/Bridget Jones's Diary because it does matter. Similarly if someone pronounces duty as 'doody' I don't care as long as they write 'duty'. Then again, it was an American vice-president who thought the correct spelling of potato was potatoe. nell

I know about Grammar, she's married to Grandad!!!LOL In defence of Steve, I remember hearing the joke where the punchline is eats, shoots and leaves. Sarah x

I heard it,and had the tee-shirt I'm afraid ,with eats, roots,shoots and leaves.It doesn't fit anymore. Once ,on a pub menu,I saw profiteroles with cream,ice-cream and dripping with chocolate sauce.Mmm,extra dripping for me please! Sharron

I saw a real cracker (Allowed to say that?) at a garden centre recently. There was a pile of cardboard boxes beside the checkout, so that customers could use them to carry smaller items to their cars. We were encouraged to take one but didn't want to take it home with us, so I tried to take it back into the store, but the automatic doors had shut. On the wall beside the door was a large a notice. This read - 'Please do not leave unwanted boxes here, take them home and dispose of yourself.' Whatever happened to 'Have a nice day!' ? CB >|<

'Alight Here' on the railway platform was always a bit of a worry!

So refreshing to find people as potty as I am when it comes to bad grammar, punctuation, and pronunciation. My pet hates: 'Different to...' (and its ilk); misplacement of commas (almost as if the, writer feels, that they have a, 'comma quota' to, fill); erroneous use of apostrophes (apostrophe's?); and the BBC hatred of the letter 'T' ('Yeah. Righ'. An' on Sa'urday, we will go innernashnul wiv duh innerne'...' You get my drift - and that could be the news!). The defence I have heard for such lazy speaking is that 'it is regional.' No, it is LAZY. You watch a programme on the TV featuring 'real' (i.e. not actors) members of the older generation, and they may have accents, but they generally have good diction and grammar. Yet another pet hate is the term 'strong language' referring to swearing. No, swearing is not 'strong,' it is weak, used to fill time while the speaker / script writer desperately searches for anuvver wurd. Strong language can be found in Shakespeare: 'Cry havoc, and let loose the dogs of war!' The power in that sentence is awesome! Rob

a classic I saw in Febuary outside a pub Vegetarian meals Sweet and sour chicken Chilli con-carne...with fresh mince !!!!!!!!!!!

People don't seem to know whether to use I or me anymore.'Why don't you try to do well in English son and make your mother and I proud.'

Hi Guinevere, I have noticed that you bought up the Aitch Haitch thing before, i wonder and i am not trying to be funny, so is a hat pronounced at, hollow ollow,heaven eaven etc, my English is not at your level or the other people answering this thread, but i really would like to know.Regards Theresa

Hi Theresa. The word for the letter M is em, the word for N is en (as any scrabble player will tell you) and the word for H is Aitch not Haitch. So those playing Countdown shouldn't ask for a Haitch but an Aitch. The irony is that I live in an area where house is often pronounced 'ouse, hand 'and but aitch is nearly always pronounced Haitch. Without going into the history of the language it used to be correct to write an hotel but pronouce it an 'otel. Likewise with other words derived from the French. This custom seems to be dwindling but some on the good old BBC maintain the tradition. Gwynne

I find this thread fascinating! I love the English language with all its idiosyncracies (if that's the right word!). :-) Joy

My pet hate is the word 'of' instead of 'have'. Working in a Secondary school as a (an) LSA a few years back, I walked into a classroom, looked up, and there, covering the whole board was a list of things the children should have finished by the next week. Every sentence started: 'You should of........................' I pointed this out to the teacher (of the old school) who promptly wiped it off, cursing the educational standards of student teachers!! These same people will be teaching our children/grandchildren.... maggie