General Chat

Paul,if you want to be a real pedant you could even correct that further- Can I ,means am I able to, to which your answer is Well Can you ,you tell me. May I ,is correct,asking if one may do so and so. Do you know advice and advise, practice and practise and many more.C verb s noun, but so confusing Rose

In a bill recently sent(and that is a split infinitive) it should be sent recently . The firm included their Complementary Slip.Now this gave me quite a problem as they had been extremely hard working and had found my grandson for me. What should I do? .1) Point out their error and correct it to Complimentary , or 2)leave well alone and risk someone else saying "You would think they would know that one means in addition to(it complements) or is gratious or flattering(complimentary) I left well alone - Was I right to do so- Flumoxed Rose

Every name is called a NOUN, As field and fountain,street and town: In place of the noun the PRONOUN stands, As he and she can clap their hands; The ADJECTIVE describes a thing. As magic wand or bridal ring; The VERB means action something done- To read and write, to jump and run: How things are done the ADVERBS tell, As quickly, slowly, badly, well; The PREPOSITION shows relation. As in the street or at the station; CONJUNCTIONS join, in many ways, Sentences, words, or phrase and phrase; The INTERJECTION cries out, "Hark! I need an exclamation mark!" To often these days you find that some people have forgotten these guide lines Bren

I would like to know why we have lost the word 'GROUND' when speaking of outside? When I was at school the 'ground' was outside the 'floor' was instead but in the past few years its changed and the floor is used for outside and inside, especially noticable when there is a discussion about football these experts say "he spent a lot of time on the floor", Is that correct? So there are no Grounds Men anymore they must be Floor Men??? Where I live it's the opposite they use 'ground' for both inside and outside? Confused Pat x

"5 items or less" signs at checkouts. Official documents where the writer seems unable to use a full stop before the end of a paragraph. Also the sign in the computer shop window that drove me up the wall: "All stock is empty boxe's". Grrrrrrrr. Hannah

wot laffs you all gie me ta eva so

ja get me bruv, naw ot I mean. Love it lol

Answering a phone would surely be reactive. Proactive (no hyphen needed!) would imply picking up the receiver before the phone had rung!

By the way, is there any grammatical difference between 'learned' and 'learnt' or 'spelled' and 'spelt'. I'm sure both can be used, as far as I know.

"Fishes" is quite acceptable as a plural for "fish" and has been for hundreds of years; does not the parable of "the feeding of the five thousand" in the Authorised Version tell of "five loaves and two small fishes"? Both Chambers and Collins dictionaries give both words as acceptable plurals. PS: I thought of apostrophizing "Chambers" and "Collins" but both dictionaries carry the title with no apostrophe. PPS: There is a verb to "apostrophize (or apostrophise)", so I consider my use of "apostrophizing" to be valid.

not really an error in grammar but also people who persist in saying "Do you know what I mean/Do you know what I'm saying?" at the end of every sentence as if you're a bit dumb.

The expression that something is "for free". It is either "free" or "for nothing" Morrisons have a banner up in our local store advertising CD's and DVD's.

One of my pet hates is decade pronounced as decayed. A decade is a period of 10 years - decayed is definitely off!! Kathleen

It's got to be sentences such as "I ain't done nothing". Er, surely means that you HAVE done something. Also, as illustrated on BBC2's Grumpy Old Men, whenever people say things like "This is SOOOOOO not happening". Use of unnecessary words.

Another one that has always really grated on me (although I'm not sure whether it's technically incorrect, or just bad phrasing) is the following : it's used a lot in advertising; the sentence construction that goes something like 'All cars are not the same'. I really hate that. To my ears the correct construction is 'Not all cars are the same'. A couple of high street ones : TSB Bank always used to annoy me as surely that amounts to 'Trustee Savings Bank Bank' ! I also hate it when people say they are off to Boots's (Bootses) - it's just Boots ! (The chemist). Simon

Morning all , i hate it when people say anythink instead of anything........... and fink...people think ,they don't fink. Also [i'm on a roll now] oh look at all the little fishes,when the plural of fish.... is fish. Chers,Carole

Paul You beat me to it! That's the one mistake that makes me really cross! Simon That's another! Mother-in-Law's instead of Mother's-in-Law when there's more than one for example. The wrong use of the apostrophe is guaranteed to send me 'off on one' (as my kids say!). Potatoe's 50p per kg--------which item belonging to the potato costs 50p? Why the 'E'? I know there are worse things in the world to worry about, but I think I'm turning into my Mum - her pet hate was the wrong use of tenses and apostrophes! LOL Sue

Paul you beat me to it. Can I lend your pencil? No but you're quite welcome to borrow it. But only if you say please. Can't abide bad manners either! lol Jeanette x

The one that really annoys me is "Can I have a lend of...". No. You can borrow it, and I can lend it to you. Or most likely not if you can't ask properly :o)

A lot of people seem to "loose" things these days when, in days gone by, they would "lose" them. They've loost the plot.