General Chat

Gwynneth, I would have thought "Purchased" rather than "Bought".Hal. AAAh,Now we Know.

Hi Harold, I was being ironic and quoting from previous postings. Gwynne

Rosemary - it wasn't a split infinitive. Examples of an infinitive are "to write", "to challenge" etc; "to boldly go" is a split infinite, as is "to needlessly nitpick". The term "bill recently sent" may be ugly, but a split infinitive it ain't.

Hehehehehehe This is gr8. Sorry, great. Jan P

I think I read somewhere that it is generally acknowledged by academics that split infinitives are now acceptable; and that its OK to start a sentence with And or But etc - living language, and all that. Another one I've thought of, which I guess is an example of modern 'dumbing down' - I used to love when Magnus Magnusson, on Mastermind, used to say 'in the event of a tie, the contestant with the fewer or fewest passes . . .' (this is, of course, necessary as there could be two or more who tie); however, John Humphrys now simply says 'with the fewest passes . . '.

Oh Simon, you've really started something here. Afraid I'm still laughing at Geoff's response though. Every time I read it I have to giggle. Next! Jan P

LizLoojay, At least that's what he said he meant!

Hear the one about the chap who complained about the element in his beer? I don't know what the element but that's what he sediment.

"in the draw." Beg pardon? If they mean "the thing that slides out of unit, something for storage" then its drawer, always has been! Used to work in a shop and was forever seeing notes in the staff diary saying "in the draw" "I put it in the draw". Draw is something you do with a pencil or to the curtains! Lisa

Written....England v Wales Pronounced....Vee Abbreviation for...Versus Wish they would say it correctly!!! Annoys me every time I hear it! Viv

Go Geoff!! that's another little cracker. I loike it 'ere arfter all. Whoops, bit too much of that element, or was it sediment. Jan P

Viv,I do wonder if a lot of youngsters even know the word is Versus,against-Rose

Viv,I do wonder if a lot of youngsters even know the word is Versus,against-Rose

That's true. Expression is important, but how can you be understood if you can't communicate correctly!

It makes me cringe when people don't pronounce the letter T in the middle of words. Compu_er instead of computer . . . thir_y, four_y instead of thirty and fourty . . . See Ya la_er etc. You even hear this kind of talk on the television.

Text "language" is awful! A corruption of the language. Children write it in some school work I've seen and some adults use it in emails and message boards. Laziness!!

Will probably open a real can of worms here. Register Office and not Registry Office. OK I'm ducking :-))

I don't mind bad spelling and grammar too much as mine is far from perfect, but what I really hate to see is American English words such as z instead of s etc, and missing out the u. eg specialize and color Oh and I have the way that GR takes out all your paragraphs if yours is the first message of the thread!

'ark at that lot!

Yes, Registry office wants me want to shout no no no it's Register office, divvy!!! And the paragrah business too, that is soooooooo annoying - that's why, if I start a "thread", then I put something in the title, then put the rest in a reply so then I can put paragraphs there. And the weather forecasters so irritate me when they say there wil be more in the way of sun, or more in the way of cloud - for heaven's sake, which do they mean?!!! There, I feel better now! :) Back to grammar - should of instead of should have, and other things mentioned previously. I love writing and reading. I love English grammar. Joy