Thursday, September 4, 2008

20 examples of grammar misuse

BBC website gives 20 examples of grammar misuse. It is excellent and must be highly recommended.

Nut not a word about upper casing the first letter of word when it should be lower case!

If it's plumber or doctor why should it be Priest or Cardinal?

While it does laugh at 12pm no mention of the silliness of 12 noon.

Nor a word about the misuse of the word 'presently'

And you don't have to be a pedant to open the link below.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7595509.stm

5 comments:

Thomas G McCarthy said...

Nut not a word.
Michael, what do you mean?

Besides, do you not mean in a later sentence 'If it's plumber or doctor why should it not be priest or cardinal?'
Or, alternatively, 'If it's plumber or doctor why should it be Priest or Cardinal?'

What is silly about 12noon?

Thomas.

Michael said...

#19 is incorrect. "19. A classic confusing rule is the one that states that one is supposed never to end a sentence with a preposition. While this is easy and appropriate to follow in most cases, for example by saying "Yesterday I visited the town to which she has just moved" instead of "...the town she has just moved to", it becomes troublesome when the verb structure includes a preposition that cannot be removed from it, as in "At work I am using a new computer with which my manager recently set me up", which cannot correctly be changed to "...I am using a new computer up with which my manager recently set me"."

The writer has failed to recognised that 'up' in this case is part of the verb, to set up and it is perfectly acceptable to end the sentence with up in this context. Churchill famously wrote to an aide who corrected his grammar: this is the kind of nonsense up with which I will not put, using the same faulty reasoning deliberately to make the point.

Michael Commane said...

Apologies, 'It should have read 'Priest' and 'Cardinal'.

Michael Commane said...

Apologies, and thank you. 'Nut' should have read 'But'.

The deeds of anonymous people can cause great stress and confusion to mere mortals.

We promise to soldier on, even more focused and convinced of the importance of openness and transparency.

Noon can only be at 12.00. Either 12.00 today or midday.

Standard comment in style books of most newspapers.

Michael Commane said...

Okay, Michael, point taken.
Unfortunately, unlike say German, where there is a State Commission overseeing the German usage, English seems to be amazingly fluid.
These days split infinitives appear in broadsheet headlines, particplies of words seem to change with the prevailing fashion.
And who said we could use 'kids' for children? Answer: sub editors who are short of space in headlines.

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