Friday, December 9, 2016

Presently is not now

One of the legacies RTÉ's 'Morning Ireland' has retained from its early days in the early 1980s under presenter David Hanly is the correct usage of the word 'presently'

Only this morning  did its current presenter use the word correctly.

'Presently' means  in the immediate future/in a short while, and it does not mean 'now' or 'currently'.

Looks and sounds horrible when used incorrectly.  It's in the same league as "... From Joe and I". 

Ouch.

Another give-away or 'never-do' is using upper-case with common nouns. Why spell cardinal, priest, minister, doctor, provincial with first letter upper-cased?

Peope giving importance to themselves? 

And again, it looks horrible.

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