What you say drives me crazy.

[jamespowers]

It also drives me crazy when people say "sherbert" instead of "sherbet".

That's not bad but the one I absolutely hate is when axe is replacing ask. :eusa_doh:

Regards,

J

 

[Cobden]

This isn't bad grammar, or bad English, so is going to sound rather odd, but I find it somewhat irritating when people use "two star general" etc when describing British and Commonwealth military officers, because they're not compatable. The most junior general rank in the British Army is a Lt-General, where as it is the second most junior general officer rank in the US, because a Brigadier in the UK is not a General rank (it is a senior colonel). The same goes for equivalents in the other British services (a Commodore is not a flag rank, and Air Commodore is not a Marshal rank).

Rant over.

Back to more sensible rants about the who-whom controversy.

 

[Air Boss]

I find it somewhat irritating when people use "two star general" etc when describing British and Commonwealth military officers, because they're not compatable. The most junior general rank in the British Army is a Lt-General, where as it is the second most junior general officer rank in the US, because a Brigadier in the UK is not a General rank (it is a senior colonel).

I wonder how many British officers I promoted while serving in Europe.

 

[Cobden]

I wonder how many British officers I promoted while serving in Europe.

In many European countries, the connotations are worse, as they have no Brigadier (-General) equivalent, thus implying that colonels are Generals... [huh]

EDIT: There is an exception, and that is that the supposed equivalent of Brigadier in the RAF, Air Commodore, can be considered to be what is considered in the Army as a General rank. Or not. Or sort of inbetween. It's rather complicated as to why, but if you were to class an Air Commodore with Generals and Admirals it wouldn't be wrong.

 

[RadioHead]

Learn something new every day, I does.

I'll agree, 'Whom shall I say...' idiomatically sounds better, but if people want to ditch 'Whom' altogether, then just be done with it and don't bother withe hyper-urbanisms.

"Hyper-urbanism"? I can honestly say that I have never heard that term before.

Consulting Fowler's, legitimate uses of 'who', I find, are listed, many of which I don't cotton to. (ending with a prep - no comments please)

I'm fairly certain that many of the "rules" of English grammar- as with the "rules" of English spelling- are merely arbitrary ways of trying to explain why something is the way it is, rather than serving any real purpose. Well... I know what I mean, anyway. One example is the so-called split infinitive. I see no reason not to blithely split infinitives in English. It can't really be done in many languages because the infinitive is a single word. Regardez "regarder" in French; one word. But in English it is "to look (at)". Heck, you can drive a small truck between parts of this infinitive.

To paraphrase (I do that a lot, don't I?) Captain Kirk, "To boldly split infinitives that no man has split before!"

But anyway, I shouldn't even be discussing this as if I know what I'm talking about... I quit school before I completed grade 9.

"RadioHead"

 

[Senator Jack]

RE: Hyper-urbanism - The misuse of grammar to make oneself appear polished. The most infamous example is probably 'between you and I.' Of course, the presposition warrants the rather mundane object 'me'. Another example: I feel badly. No, you don't. You feel bad. Unless of course there is something wrong with your sense of touch. Again, people believe the use of an adverb instead of an adjective somehow makes them learned.

Split infinitives - I use them all of the time. The flow of a sentence can be disrupted by an adverb coming after the verb. Sometimes it just works best before it.

Regards,

Senator Jack

 

[ClassicIsBetter]

Ha- reminds me of company memos that get handed out at work. I don't know what their motives are as far as trying to look smart, but usually that achieves the opposite effect. A common occurence would be the use of "except" when the proper word is "accept." And they say Georgia is ranked 2nd to last in education. Shows them!

 

[Willi_Goat]

Oh, golly! Never go to Newfoundland, then. "I wants a beer", "I needs to sleep", etc. Drives me nuts! Luckily... I don't have to hear it too often.

"RadioHead"

I was in St. John's on the way back from overseas in July 2004. I did not really notice that much, of course I was only on the ground for about 24 hours and was only in contact with merchants and such. Since I am a train buff, I did visit the railroad museum there.

 

[EL COLORADO]

Do people not know how to speak good no more?

Im not only commenting on proper grammar, or putting yourself before the other in a sentence ("Me and him . . " :rage: ), but there are certain phrases in the English language (slang aside) that just irk me to no end.

Examples:

"They were all the same, except for the blue one."
NO then THEY were not all the same its, "The blue one was different from the others."

Or being redundant when talking of an amount of something. "I have one single ring on this finger." GRRRRRRRRR

Or the need to fill necessary silence with the word "like"
Cant you use "an example would be", or "for instance" or NOTHING AT ALL?!


Or the dreaded "I dont know," which has become the ultimate trail off in any poorly worded or thought out conversation of us twenty somethings.
Heaven help us.

My mother was a teacher, so this sort of schoolin' was ever constant in my home.
*sigh*


LD
see what I think of at 2 in the mornin . . .

You make me want to drop a bunch of toothpicks in front of you.

 

[Lady Day]

You make me want to drop a bunch of toothpicks in front of you.

Oh no, I broke your brain.

LD

 

[Marc Chevalier]

The title of this thread drives me crazy. It should read, "That which you say drives me crazy." So there!

.

 

[Lady Day]

The title of this thread drives me crazy. It should read, "That which you say drives me crazy." So there!

.

Then done is my work. So there.

LD

 

[Marc Chevalier]

That of which you speak, I understand.

.

 

[EL COLORADO]

The title of this thread drives me crazy. It should read, "That which you say drives me crazy." So there!

.

You are both wrong. It should read,..
"That which you express in words, causes me great distress".

What has become of our nation's educational institutions to have allowed this mindless slaughtering of the english language?!!!!!!





Heh heh

 

[Shaul-Ike Cohen]

You are both wrong. It should read,..
"That which you express in words, causes me great distress".

[Are] you [feeling] sure [a]bout the comma?

 

[Strider]

Y'know what gets me? Ending a sentence with the word "so". I wouldn't mind if the sentence were: "She wore her hats just so", or something similar, but the useage I'm talking about is when people do it to be snarky.

Examples would be:

"Well, I'm going to win anyway, so...."

So what? So don't even try? So I might as well just quit right now?

"You don't know what you're talking about, so...."

SO WHAT!? AAAUUUGGGHHH! :rage:

 

[RadioHead]

Indeed.

I very much like to speak colloquially, though. I like to throw in a few 'them things' and 'ain'ts' in once in a while

I do that, too. I'm not sure if I do it because I like to do it, or just because I sometimes feel that if I speak correctly that I will alienate the person to whom I'm speaking. It does happen- at least around here.

I imagine kids growing up with text messenging are going to seem outright retarded (as we used to say in the good o' days before political correctness) in later life.

Say, listen pal, as far as I'm concerned there's absolutely nothing wrong with the word "retarded". It's a perfectly cromulent word ; unambiguous, to the point, etc.

"Retard", however, used as a noun instead of as a verb... well, that's a bit different.

Besides, I'm a fervent "anti-political-correctness" type guy. To my mind "political correctness" is a type of non-violent fascism; "thought police" for the average Joe.

"RadioHead"

 

[Amy Jeanne]

I don't like:

I am useing your computer.
Did you loose your wallet?
She was a beautiful women.
Your welcome.
Luxury Condo's Starting at $190,000 (on a professionally-made sign around the corner from my work!)
I like oranges better then apples.

I see these mistakes all the time. Too many times to be typos.

I once had a boss who sent around a memo that ended with "Thank you for your patients." lol lol lol lol

As for spoken grammar, I don't mind slang as long as the speaker is witty, confident, and knows what he's talking about! I imagine they spoke like this in the 1920s! Slow-witted slang, though, makes me hurt. It's usually accompanied by a monotone, lots of "uhhh"s, and an I-know-better-than-you attitude.

 

[carebear]

New book out...

When You Catch an Adjective, Kill It: The Parts of Speech, for Better And/Or Worse

by Ben Yagoda

http://www.amazon.com/When-You-Catc...4642230?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1173728534&sr=1-1


From Publishers Weekly
Yagoda (The Sound on the Page) isn't trying to reinvent the style guide, just offering his personal tour of some of the English language's idiosyncrasies. Using the parts of speech as signposts, he charts an amiable path between those critics for whom any alterations to established grammar are hateful and those who believe whatever people use in speech is by default acceptable. Where many writing instructors rail against the use of adverbs, for example, he points out that they can be quite useful for conveying subtle relationships ordinary verbs can't describe. Some of this territory is familiar—Yagoda even boils down the debate over "hopefully" to outline form—but every chapter has gems tucked inside, like the section in pronouns on the "third-person athletic," the voice celebrity ballplayers use to refer to themselves in interviews. And he's definitely in love with his one-liners, such as the quip that the only acceptable use of "really" is "in imitations of Katharine Hepburn, Ed Sullivan and Elmer Fudd." Readers won't toss their copies of Strunk & White off the shelf, but Yagoda's witty grammar will rest comfortably next to the masters. (Feb. 13)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

 

[warbird]

My biggest pet peeve is the use of 'whether or not'. Whether is not the affirmative to the question or statement. It is whether this or that; whether true or not true; etc, etc.

Can when may should be used. My children are learning though. "Can I have a drink?" "I don't know, can you?" Do you mean, "May I have a drink?"

'You know'. No I don't know, that's why you are telling me.

"How are you today"?
"I'm good."
"Really? How can you be good at today?"
"It's well. You are doing well."

As for bulletin boards I wil not, with few exceptions, edit myself. I have very little time to go back and reread every post I make, so I usually forgive what appear to be typos from others as well. I don't always capitalize, use apostrophe's etc. But when I hear people use the examples above, I cringe. Or (yes I like to start sentences in 'or' and 'and') when I see them written in newspapers and magazines.