Following the poor photos thread,poor English

Definitely deliberate - that’s why I put one in earlier with the (sic).I hoped that someone would put it in writing too! Thank’s…(hackles rise!)
I’ve felt a lot better since so many people have picked up on the thread and maybe we ought to put on a tutorial about use of apostrophes? Just kidding - who’s not made mistakes?

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How often do you have to “Add to dictionary” too? Gotten is one of my pet hates,yet my very well-educated daughter uses it often and I confess to mental squirming when she does. I must have got old,perhaps?

and…why when someone goes to a shop counter do they ask
"can I get a …"…
…what does it mean ?

My pet hate used to be “should of”.
Grammatically (oops thanks spell check for pointing out my single M there) that cannot be.
I thought at first it was just the way people said it but then someone on the computer help-desk where I worked in IT Support actually wrote it down in a log and I realised …
(and NO (sorry about the capitals but sometimes you need them :slight_smile: ) I am not having a Z there)
… that the rot of the English language really had set in.
.
And I do hope that I have no mis-matched parentheses in there :slight_smile: :slight_smile:

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Oh yes…I hate the ‘should of’, ‘could of’, ‘would of’ that seems to be everywhere now. It’s bad enough hearing it, but seeing it written is just unbearable. My real pet hate is ‘less’ instead of ‘fewer’…makes me scream when I hear/read it, especially on the news reports and TV ads.

Misplaced apostrophes can be quite funny sometimes…I’ve seen some real howlers!

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My pet hate is “more busier”, “more prettier”, etc. I sometimes even hear people such as politicians saying it on the radio! Are we all supposed to speak like babies now!? Also, if you wouldn’t say e.g. " The holiday was a lovely break for I " why would you say “The holiday was a lovely break for my husband and I” ? Sorry, getting a bit off the point now :slight_smile:

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How about “I didn’t do nothing”? or even worse “I never done nothing” that drives me insane and when I try to explain a double negative it doesn’t go down well!

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Had a wonderful moment last week - in the middle of a spate of phone calls trying to sell me solar panals, wind farms, hearing aids and compensation for my accident.
.
Caller : “The reason why I’m calling is because”
.
Me : “Let me stop you right there. The why and the because are absolutely unneccessary. The reason is quite sufficient. Before you call me again please check your use of the English language”

Phone went dead and they haven’t called back :slight_smile:

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Wow, I wish my brain worked that quickly! Bestest- what’s that all about? I correct little B (aged 8) when she says it, but I’ve heard “adults” use it too. ‘Charlie and Lola’ has a lot to answer for!..

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I hate the use of like in every sentence these days …I was like walking along the road…what does that mean? It’s bad enough hearing it spoken but I even saw it written down the other day.

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I can’t stand ‘brought’ for ‘bought’ I don’t know why. It’s fairly common and harmless, but grrr

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Brilliant !
I have several ploys for dealing with cold calls, have to be careful in case if it might be a potential customer, though.

"Before you continue, are you willing to accept the charges of £x per minute to this specific registered number ?.."
Stops 99% dead in their tracks.

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…and what about ‘different to’ instead of ‘different from’? I hear it all the time and from people who should know better, politicians, newsreaders, etc etc.

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How about awesome? I think it’s a wonderful word when used in the right place but has been ruined by the American awsome, which I think is just sad. How many truly wonderful words do we not use any more because they have been usurped by american sitcoms?

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i hate “shuge” - when / why did people start adding an S to the word “huge”??!
eg “there’s been a shuge increase in…”

i get crazy with wrath when i hear it, especially on the bbc news or politics shows.

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I think Fluge is bigger than shuge…

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Does anyone know what has happened to “BBC English” ? Their reporters and even their banner writers commit acts of nastiness to the language. Broadcast News should surely have someone who can speak properly for on-the-spot stories,and a proofreader for scripts! I once investigated what it would take to become an accredited proofreader and was only put off by the cost. My English is far fro perfect but I know it’s better than many who are accredited!
Aren’t we all in agreement that public English should be better than it is? It’s fascinating following this thread because it seems to have reached out to many people here.

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You should hear some of the buzz words/phrase’s my poor DH hears every day in the office.

The one that makes us both laugh and cringe is ‘Upgradation’ He’s forever saying, ‘The word you are trying to find is Upgrade.’

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I am a trained proofreader, but I can tell you that the world does not value well-written, well-punctuated and grammatically correct text on websites. My day job involves working with factual educational data, and I have to say that Universities are often the worst culprits when it comes to poorly-constructed web text.

As for business-speak, “going forwards” is my current pet hate. What’s wrong with “in the future”?

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Another favourite is multiple negatives. I ain’t done nuffink…so what have you done?

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Nah that’s thinking outside the Box :smile:

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