Campaign for 'proper' English

It really has to be....

Look over their!! ARGGGHH!

It's there's..ARGGGHHH

It's their! ARRGGHHH

It's in they're! ARGGGHHH

How many times can folk get these wrong?!

Oh and just for the record...Look over there! It's theirs. They're here. It's in there! Doh....

And anything badly abbreviated. I learnt the hard way about abbreviations. I once wrote in one of my students books 'finish off' an excercise. The trouble being, I abbreviated it. It did not go down too well....I'll let you all work that one out! :lol:
 
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Rustico said:
Well, these are my two:
1. When people put apostrophes where they aren't supposed to. Such as: My photo's; It's fur; and stuff like that.
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technically speaking photo's is correct usage , because it's an abreviation of photographs

to pick some that really get my goat though

a) People who say, or worse write, shouldn't of , couldn't of etc instead of shouldn't have

b) people who write different to , or different than - you can't be different to anything FFS its different from , similar to

c) people who conflate the use of less and the use of fewer
 
big soft moose said:
technically speaking photo's is correct usage , because it's an abreviation of photographs
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Apostrophes aren't supposed to be used for abbreviations though. Apart from ownership, they are for where letters are missing when 2 words are joined (eg didn't where the 'o' is missing). You don't write photo' therefore you are only using it to denote a plural.
 
And don't forget those who write your instead of you're or vice versa. Grrrrr.
 
fabs said:
(eg didn't where the i is missing). plural.
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fair enough - though i didn't realise didnt was an abreviation of did nit :lol:
 
Nowadays, kids (pah!) aren't allowed to be beaten to death over the head with 'First Aid in English' and 'Fowlers' was a residence in Albert Square. BTW (sorry!!) I'm not that old that I was beaten with the green edition, mine was blue :)
 
"off of" is the one that really gets to me. "off" is perfectly adequate.
 
Ploddles said:
People who blame their bad spelling and grammar on dyslexia.

Yes, there are a lot of people who suffer from dyslexia but not as many as whom claim it, most just use it as an excuse. If you believed everyone who claims to have it it would stand at about 90% rather than the more realistic figure of 5%.
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I had someone once tell me that the reason that they said things like "I seen him" instead of "I saw him" was because they were dyslexic :suspect: :lol:
 
fabs said:
Apostrophes aren't supposed to be used for abbreviations though. Apart from ownership, they are for where letters are missing when 2 words are joined (eg didn't where the 'o' is missing). You don't write photo' therefore you are only using it to denote a plural.
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Thank you! Sorry if I confused anyone, it makes perfect sense to me :thinking: Anyways, what a great thread!
 
I`m glad I put my life into perspective from an early age. Are things like this really important enough to people in real life to get them worked up?

Hope you all understood what I was on about :D
 
What get's me upset i's the u'se of the apo'strophe where its not wanted.

That and text s'peak that need's several reading's before any sen'se can be made of the po'st.
 
Tori said:
It really has to be....

Look over their!! ARGGGHH!

It's there's..ARGGGHHH

It's their! ARRGGHHH

It's in they're! ARGGGHHH

How many times can folk get these wrong?!

Oh and just for the record...Look over there! It's theirs. They're here. It's in there! Doh....

And anything badly abbreviated. I learnt the hard way about abbreviations. I once wrote in one of my students books 'finish off' an excercise. The trouble being, I abbreviated it. It did not go down too well....I'll let you all work that one out! :lol:
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There, their, they're Tori!! Calm down dear!! ;) :D
 
Saying "like" every other word, where did that come from? seems to be mainly fairly well spoken young women who use it the most

Now for a really old favourite, its a toilet cistern, not a system
 
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I have to say I do wonder where children these days are meant to learn correct spelling and grammar. When I worked in a school there wasn't a single noticeboard in the school which didn't have on it at least one piece of work with a spelling mistake. Even display pieces of work weren't checked for mistakes. Then again, I doubt some of the teachers (particularly the younger ones) would be able to correct their work given the level of English they used themselves. One of the teachers told me once that they weren't allowed to correct grammar and spelling mistakes in work.

So while I'm as much of a pedant as the next person (apostrophes are my speciality :D ) I do wonder how children are meant to know what's right and what's wrong if no-one is actually teaching them!
 
Jelster said:
Yes I know, but look at the same book of 10 years ago and it won't be there.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_spelling said:
In the last few decades, the suffix -ise has become the more common spelling in the UK. Many incorrectly regard -ize as American English, though it has been in use in English since the 16th century
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:thinking:
 
MartynK said:
"Toe the line" and "bated breath"? I've come across both versions of the latter.
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Sally, having swallowed cheese
Directs down holes the scented breeze
Enticing thus with baited breath
Nice mice to an untimely death.

Geoffrey Taylor, Cruel, Clever Cat

(An ironic use, I hasten to add)
 
robrevens said:
Sally, having swallowed cheese
Directs down holes the scented breeze
Enticing thus with baited breath
Nice mice to an untimely death.

Geoffrey Taylor, Cruel, Clever Cat

(An ironic use, I hasten to add)
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I know the rhyme. "Bated" is a contraction of "abated" - not related to falconry usage as far as I know - but it's pronounced the same way as "baited". I have a feeling this spelling will take over.
 
English is a constantly evolving language and as such its speakers enjoy an immense amount of flexibility in its use. An example of this is how the users of English responded when text messaging first appeared. There were two major obstacles facing the early adopters of text messaging. The first being able to fit what you wanted to say into 160 characters, and the second being speed of input, which was especially critical on the initial phones which lacked any form of predictive text. The solution was to remove redundancy, and to write phonetically. IMO a perfectly valid response given the limitations faced by the users.

Txt spk, due to it's general efficiency in informal communications, continues to this day, and whether you like it or not, it is now very much a valid part of the English language, despite what academics will have you believe. That said, in comparison to other languages, English is already remarkably flexible and efficient, having removed a lot of the redundancies that exist in other languages.

It still has a way to go though. "Their" "They're" and "There" need to be reduced to one word because they are for all intents and purposes phonetically identical, and in spoken English the meaning is taken through the context. This is true of all phonetically identical words. The apostrophe has to go as well as it really has little meaning these days, and it's not used correctly by most people anyway. Remember it's the people that define the language, not a bunch of pedantic crusty academics.

Fact is that English moves on and evolves based on the current requirements of the speakers. The only people who complain about the misuse of English are those who haven't evolved with it.

I think this sums it up nicely.
 
Nobody wants to learn though. I've noticed that, particularly on this forum, if one attempts to correct someone's spelling, you will be given abuse and get told that it's not important on a photography forum. It should be important no matter where one is posting. People just don't care about the English language anymore.

Correct a foreign person's usage of English and you will be met with thanks, by and large. Heaven forbid we should correct a British person's usage of their own language.
 
GrittyShaker said:
Nobody wants to learn though. I've noticed that, particularly on this forum, if one attempts to correct someone's spelling, you will be given abuse and get told that it's not important on a photography forum. It should be important no matter where one is posting. People just don't care about the English language anymore.

Correct a foreign person's usage of English and you will be met with thanks, by and large. Heaven forbid we should correct a British person's usage of their own language.
Click to expand...

:plusone:
 
MartynK said:
I know the rhyme. "Bated" is a contraction of "abated" - not related to falconry usage as far as I know - but it's pronounced the same way as "baited". I have a feeling this spelling will take over.
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I think you may have read my initial post in exactly the wrong way. I meant I hate "tow the line" and "baited breath". They should be "toe the line" and "bated breath"...
 
"At the end of the day" bugs me something silly although not as much as "At the end of the day, riiiiggghhhtttttt" It truly drives me mad.

I like T's to be pronounced too, for example, it's water not wa-er. I'm so obsessed with T's being pronounced that I scored Natalie off the list of possible baby names because i'll get annoyed if it's a girl and gets called Na-alie.
 
Slaphead said:
English is a constantly evolving language and as such its speakers enjoy an immense amount of flexibility in its use. An example of this is how the users of English responded when text messaging first appeared. There were two major obstacles facing the early adopters of text messaging. The first being able to fit what you wanted to say into 160 characters, and the second being speed of input, which was especially critical on the initial phones which lacked any form of predictive text. The solution was to remove redundancy, and to write phonetically. IMO a perfectly valid response given the limitations faced by the users.

Txt spk, due to it's general efficiency in informal communications, continues to this day, and whether you like it or not, it is now very much a valid part of the English language, despite what academics will have you believe. That said, in comparison to other languages, English is already remarkably flexible and efficient, having removed a lot of the redundancies that exist in other languages.

It still has a way to go though. "Their" "They're" and "There" need to be reduced to one word because they are for all intents and purposes phonetically identical, and in spoken English the meaning is taken through the context. This is true of all phonetically identical words. The apostrophe has to go as well as it really has little meaning these days, and it's not used correctly by most people anyway. Remember it's the people that define the language, not a bunch of pedantic crusty academics.

Fact is that English moves on and evolves based on the current requirements of the speakers. The only people who complain about the misuse of English are those who haven't evolved with it.

I think this sums it up nicely.
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Well said slaphead. There's no such thing as incorrect English, only standard or non-standard.
 
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GrittyShaker said:
Nobody wants to learn though. I've noticed that, particularly on this forum, if one attempts to correct someone's spelling, you will be given abuse and get told that it's not important on a photography forum. It should be important no matter where one is posting. People just don't care about the English language anymore.

Correct a foreign person's usage of English and you will be met with thanks, by and large. Heaven forbid we should correct a British person's usage of their own language.
Click to expand...

Does spelling really matter as long as the meaning is clear?
 
Allow the legend who is Steven Fry to explain linguistic elasticity :)

[YOUTUBE]ZFD01r6ersw[/YOUTUBE]
 
'Hold the newsreaders nose squarely waiter, or friendly milk will countermand my trousers'

'Stop it, why should I, help, that hurt, Marjorie is dead.'

:lol:
 
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