The English Language

[Lord Fellatio Nelson 6,220]

On 10/08/2006 at 09:03, The Pooka said:

 

Nuff said? Not on this subject. There being no formal grammatical rules in English, much is determined by style, convention and whether a line sounds 'right' or elegant. Balancing these elements ensures that it is difficult to argue for a fixed view of what is good and bad form. So......

 

1. Its fine to start a sentence with 'And...'. It places additional emphasis upon what you have said in the previous sentence.

2. The same applies to the use of: 'however', 'nevertheless' and 'notwithstanding'. Starting a sentence with each allows a greater emphasis on the fact that what follows may contradict what went before.

3. As notapotato correctly asserts, 'none' is technically singular. So that message should read 'Not one of us is....'. However, there are many examples of this rule being ignored for the sake of convention and style. 'Not one of are..' just sounds wrong, whereas 'none of us is....' doesn't. Sources going back over half a century allow either usage and so I would take issue with the singular use being 'completely wrong'..

4. Similarly, 'more than one person have died' sounds wrong, though it is correct in strict grammatical terms. Nevertheless, (there's that emphasis again) 'more than one person has died' sounds correct, though grammatically wrong. Stylistically, it is the latter form that we tend to use because it sounds 'right'.

5. notapotato is right about commas.

6. The person who placed that trite message should certainly be lashed until he or she drops. But that has nothing to do with their grammar.

 

PS It is perfectly acceptable to use 'their' in the context of 6 above as, while grammatically wrong, it avoids the clumsy repetition of 'his or her'.

I've just had a look back on this thread.

I fucking LOVED The Pooka, the greatest of the great.

That is apart from Mary and CA, obviously.

 

[harrymcnallysblueandwhitearmy 1,689]

I was thinking about what neologisms might arise from the covidian ashes.

 

This one has probably already been coined: lockstalgia, - when you're stuck on a sweltering tube to work in a year's time, fondly reminiscing about mornings on the couch watching  the half-witted politicians and doom-mongering scientists on Breakfast Time.

 

But how about one for the guilty twinges some of us currently inexplicably feel for actually kind of enjoying lockdown (notwithstanding the pain, suffering and plain old death of others of course). Schadendown or lockdownfreude don't quite cut the mustard, though.

[Bentrovato 1,090]

3 hours ago, harrymcnallysblueandwhitearmy said:

I was thinking about what neologisms might arise from the covidian ashes.

 

This one has probably already been coined: lockstalgia, - when you're stuck on a sweltering tube to work in a year's time, fondly reminiscing about mornings on the couch watching  the half-witted politicians and doom-mongering scientists on Breakfast Time.

 

But how about one for the guilty twinges some of us currently inexplicably feel for actually kind of enjoying lockdown (notwithstanding the pain, suffering and plain old death of others of course). Schadendown or lockdownfreude don't quite cut the mustard, though.

There is a lot of potential in there. But I have just had six pints of cider and am carrying on I cannot help you. But huge potential. Yes. 

[TQR 14,408]

Saw this on Twitter, it’s a list of 23 words for things people feel but have difficulty explaining. I only knew a couple of these, and most of the rest I’ve been searching for for years.

 

[Toast 16,156]

So far I've only inwardly cringed at "I'll inbox you" and "Inbox me", but I've just seen "I've sent you an inbox". 

People, the word you are looking for is message.

[TQR 14,408]

1 minute ago, Toast said:

So far I've only inwardly cringed at "I'll inbox you" and "Inbox me", but I've just seen "I've sent you an inbox". 

People, the word you are looking for is message.

 

Yes.
 

To ‘inbox’ someone is to make an appearance in their inbox, so, personally, I think that’s acceptable.
 

To ‘send an inbox’, though, would be to send an entire collection of messages from various people, so it’s both stupid-sounding and incorrect. You hear it a lot, and it grinds the fuck out of my gears, too.

[Lard Bazaar 3,800]

21 minutes ago, The Quim Reaper said:

 

Yes.
 

To ‘inbox’ someone is to make an appearance in their inbox, so, personally, I think that’s acceptable.
 

To ‘send an inbox’, though, would be to send an entire collection of messages from various people, so it’s both stupid-sounding and incorrect. You hear it a lot, and it grinds the fuck out of my gears, too.

More than happy for most people to appear in my inbox. 

[Toast 16,156]

Just now, Lard Bazaar said:

More than happy for most people to appear in my inbox. 

 

Isn't that a bit of a rash statement, Lardy?

[Lard Bazaar 3,800]

Just now, Toast said:

 

Isn't that a bit of a rash statement, Lardy?

Rash being the operative word 

[Toast 16,156]

9 minutes ago, Lard Bazaar said:

Rash being the operative word 

 

I'll line them up, you knock 'em in

[TQR 14,408]

To ‘isolate’ is, by definition, to be by yourself.

 

To ‘self-quarantine’ is to keep yourself shielded from society.

 

To ‘self-isolate’ is what stupid fuckers say because they fail to recognise that definition no.1 clearly makes the ‘self-‘ redundant.

[Toast 16,156]

41 minutes ago, The Quim Reaper said:

To ‘isolate’ is, by definition, to be by yourself.

To ‘self-quarantine’ is to keep yourself shielded from society.

To ‘self-isolate’ is what stupid fuckers say because they fail to recognise that definition no.1 clearly makes the ‘self-‘ redundant.

 

That's an interesting one, because I thought 'isolate' was a transitive verb, and that people have been using it as a reflexive verb by adding "self".

But the OED has picked this up and drafted it as an intransitive verb.

 

 

As for "self-isolate", they've got it already:

 

[TQR 14,408]

43 minutes ago, Toast said:

 

Interesting.

 

My god though, this goes even further...”self-isolate themselves”? That’s wound me up fucking royally. 

[Toast 16,156]

Love the OED.  It's so thorough, and so interesting to see the recorded uses of words and phrases, and how far back some go.

Fortunately my library subscribes to the OED and gives me access to it at home.  I can just log in with my library number.

 

[harrymcnallysblueandwhitearmy 1,689]

The one that annoys me most, I think, is the your/you're mistake. Jealousy/envy confusion gets my goat too.

 

I should whinge on this thread more often.

[Grim Up North 3,727]

27 minutes ago, harrymcnallysblueandwhitearmy said:

The one that annoys me most, I think, is the your/you're mistake. Jealousy/envy confusion gets my goat too.

 

I should whinge on this thread more often.

 

If your bothered about that you need you're head examined. 

[harrymcnallysblueandwhitearmy 1,689]

2 minutes ago, Grim Up North said:

 

If your bothered about that you need you're head examined. 

 

[time 8,626]

1 hour ago, harrymcnallysblueandwhitearmy said:

The one that annoys me most, I think, is the your/you're mistake. Jealousy/envy confusion gets my goat too.

 

I should whinge on this thread more often.

My biggest bugbear (and I have a few) is the "could of/should of/would of" usage. I internally scream every time I see it.

 

I have quite possibly mentioned it before.

[Toast 16,156]

And the there/their/they're muddles.

Predictive texting and basic spellcheck functions have had a hand in making all this worse.

[Toast 16,156]

And another thing.   Stating, saying, telling, issuing a statement, writing something in a blog, etc is not "sharing".

 

From the same news report:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-9057225/Googles-Gmail-experiencing-outage-hitting-thousands-users-worldwide.html

 

RIGHT

 

WRONG

[time 8,626]

I've just seen the phrase "pre-booked appointment" and I'm internally screaming again.

[TQR 14,408]

32 minutes ago, time said:

I've just seen the phrase "pre-booked appointment" and I'm internally screaming again.

Do you have to pre-book the ability to book?

[time 8,626]

2 hours ago, The Quim Reaper said:

Do you have to pre-book the ability to book?

AAAAgh <more internal screaming>

[time 8,626]

Reading about the Hawk crash on the BBC website, found the following. To my  mind, that means exactly the opposite of what they intend it to mean.

[Toast 16,156]

I'm not happy with the way "cancelled" is being used these days.  If something is cancelled, it means it will not take place - it never happened. Never existed.

 

People talk about a TV series being "cancelled" when what they mean is that it won't be continued.  You could say it has been "dropped", but for some inexplicable reason the term "dropped" has been appropriated to mean broadcast, aired,  or made available for the first time.

 

As for the other new meaning of "cancelled", pretending or wishing that something never happened or existed, there are several perfectly good words for that, eg erased, expunged, deleted etc.