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Several days until I attend my next meeting of Pedants Anonymous

Roland Beurre

Tony Parks
It is several days until my next session at Pedants Anonymous and I admit I am struggling to cope.

Reading football message boards only makes it worse.

I know it is rude, petty and trivial of me to correct other people’s grammar, especially when my own grammar is iffy at best, so I try not to do it but on the other hand I do make Dr Sheldon Cooper of “The Big Bang Theory” look well-adjusted sometimes, so I need an outlet.

I mean, I am usually a peaceable man, but when I hear a person pronounce the letter H as “haitch” then I reach for my revolver; if they pronounce it “haitch” while also dropping their aitches on words such as “happy”, “horrible” and “Higgs Boson” (have not made my mind up yet about the Oxford comma), then the revolver is too good for them and I start whetting my machete.

---
aitch

— noun
the letter h or the sound represented by it: “he drops his aitches”

---

Bearing in mind all three of my children and my wife mispronounce the letter H, you can imagine the strain I am under (I have made my mind up about ending a sentence with a preposition), so I would be grateful if all you Glory-Glory types could try to avoid (not “try and avoid”) the following howlers:

Definately: Who is Natalie, and why is she being deafened? If you spell “definitely” as “definately”, do you therefore spell “definition” as “defination”?

should have: Of you stopped to think what this means? Well, of you? Of course you of not. I think you mean “should have” or “should’ve”.

Utilise: Using “utilise” when you mean “use” does not make you sound more intelligent, any more than using “approximately” when you mean “about” does. Some clever clogs on the internet explained the difference between “use” and “utilise” and although his definition (defination?) may be misguided, it makes sense to me. What he said was that “utilise” means to use an object for something other than its intended purpose; thus you can utilise a pogo stick as an impromptu cricket bat, but you can’t utilise a pogo stick as a pogo stick. Likewise, you can’t utilise a midfielder as a midfielder.

Advice/advise, practice/practise, licence/license: If using the noun, spell with a C; if using the verb, spell with an S. Americans and those who use American English are excused on this point except when using the words advice or advise, though I have never seen anyone get the two confused.

Offence/defence, offense/defense: Offence/defence is the British English spelling. We used to call it attack and defence when I was young.

Less/fewer: Less relates to singular items and fewer to two or more. You can eat less cake or fewer cakes. You can’t eat less cakes; well, I can’t…

Can I get a skinny latte?: Only if you work at the coffee shop in question, otherwise you have to rely on someone else to get it for you, unless it is a self-service establishment, in which case why are you asking the question?

I am good: I am not sure if this response to the question “How are you?” is acceptable or not. I always tend to ask what they are good at when I receive this response. They usually demonstrate they are quite good at punching me on the nose.

Bridget Jones’s Diary: Not Bridget Jones’ Diary. If in doubt, ask your boss’s opinion – or would you say “I will ask my boss’ opinion”? When using a possessive apostrophe, add an S after the apostrophe (“When it comes to choosing between Keith Richards and Cliff Richard, I am in Richards’s camp”). If, however, the word is plural, then you do not add an S after the apostrophe (e.g. “The defenders’ positions at corners were shocking”).

I am glad to have got all of that off my chest. I realise I have a sickness. I don’t even mind when people point out errors in my own grammar as it just gives me another itch to scratch when reading other people’s stuff.

I will now get back to whetting my machete.
 
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Definitely: Who is Natalie, and why is she being deafened? If you spell “definitely” as “definitely”, do you therefore spell “definition” as “defination”?
Looks like Word's done a slightly too good job of correcting your spelling there old chap ;)
 
Originally Posted by Roland Beurre
Definitely: Who is Natalie, and why is she being deafened? If you spell “definitely” as “definitely”, do you therefore spell “definition” as “defination”?


Looks like Word's done a slightly too good job of correcting your spelling there old chap ;)

Flipping spillchuckers.

I will go back and edit.


Cheers.
 
Ooh, ooh, ooh... Got another one that bugs me to hell!

Listen out for sports broadcasters and pundits forever using 'has' and 'hasn't' when they should be using 'have' and 'haven't'... Eg, 'there has been so many goals scored this season...' or 'there hasn't been enough goals scored from corners...'

Same applies for 'is' and 'isn't' in place of 'are' and 'aren't'.

Once you notice it, it'll drive you nuts. I've got a theory why people do it but I won't bore you with it.

Instead, I'll leave you with another one... People using 'why' directly after using 'hence', eg, 'the ball came off the defender hence why it's a corner'.

You never use 'why' after 'hence', it's totally incorrect hence it ****es me off.

Oh, 'off' and 'of' and 'to' and 'too' are two more staples.

I could go on... RB, when's that next meeting of PA?
 
I worked with some Italians for a while. I ended up spelling "definitely" as "definately" for years. But if you say it out loud in an Italian accent it sounds way better the "definately" way. And the Italian accent gets all the girls, so... Grammar, or girls? ;)

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Not sure about your definition/use of the word 'utilise'.

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/utilize?q=utilise

"make practical and effective use of"

Example:
vitamin C helps your body utilize the iron present in your diet

A google search, including the google definitions turned out similar definitions. You'll have to present me with a better source to stop me ;)
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As a sidenote, English is my second language. I've learned it in part by making tons of mistakes that people have then corrected. If yourself Roland, or anyone else, spot grammatical mistakes in something I write I will actually appreciate being corrected. So if you're struggling to cope and spot a mistake by me, just lay into me. I won't mind.
 
Such and such has admitted such and such. Drives me potty! They haven't admitted anything, they've simply said something. aaaaarrrrgggghhhh!!
 
I'd definitely deafen Natalie if she were hot, primarily through the tried and trusted method of delicately inserting my below average sized penis in her average sized ear...corrections on a postcard thanks
 
What's the name of the Scandinavian bloke in our team again?

Erickson
Ericksson
Erikshon
Ehrickshone

NO, FOR ****'S SAKE - it's ERIKSEN. Get it, goddamned British knob heads. ;)
 
When people leave off the '-d' or '-ed' from the end of words, like...

This referee is so bias
They were suppose to come at 8pm
I am oppose to that
 
I'd like to add one to the list; your and you're. As in, "Your playing really well today" instead of "You're playing really well today", and "Where's you're car parked?" instead of "Where's your car parked?" It drives me mad, is it really that hard to work out when your or you're is appropriate?
 
Roland, talk me through 'due' and 'owing to'...

Blowed if I know, to be honest.

If in doubt use "because of".

You do know I won't be able to sleep now until I get to the bottom of this, don't you? Is that due to you or owing to your observation?

My brain hurts.


BTW, I concur with billyiddo's view on internet grammar police (did he deliberately misspell grammer? If so, very droll), which is why I came here to get it off my chest.

To prove how sad I am, on the way home I chastised myself for the "can I get a skinny latte" example in my original post. You can get a skinny latte, but you may not do so, because you are not authorised to do so by the owner of the coffee shop.

I also occasionally pass the office of a training company called Learn Direct and never fail to mutter "Learn Directly" under my breath. Football pundits are great ones for failing to use adverbs: the boy done brilliant (the boy did brilliantly)
 
I'll leave you with another one... People using 'why' directly after using 'hence', eg, 'the ball came off the defender hence why it's a corner'.

You never use 'why' after 'hence', it's totally incorrect hence it ****es me off.

Likewise, people say "send it back from whence it came" when "whence" means "from where". In effect, people who use this sentence construction are saying "send it back from from where it came".

From From Where sounds like a French can-can dancer.

How are you on decimate, which means to reduce by one tenth?

"The squad has been decimated by injuries" - i.e. two players in a 20 man squad are currently crocked.

"The squad has been devastated by injuries" - i.e. we're down to the bare bones, Brian.
 
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Not sure about your definition/use of the word 'utilise'.

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/utilize?q=utilise

"make practical and effective use of"

Example:
vitamin C helps your body utilize the iron present in your diet

A google search, including the google definitions turned out similar definitions. You'll have to present me with a better source to stop me ;)
----------------

As a sidenote, English is my second language. I've learned it in part by making tons of mistakes that people have then corrected. If yourself Roland, or anyone else, spot grammatical mistakes in something I write I will actually appreciate being corrected. So if you're struggling to cope and spot a mistake by me, just lay into me. I won't mind.

I learnt what little I know about grammar from French lessons. I don't ever recall it being taught in English lessons. I would not know a past-participle if Tom Huddlestone pinged one at me from 40 yards away. I am sure your grammar is as good as most people's on this site and probably better than mine.

One thing that often catches non-English speakers out is the difference between "lose" (to suffer defeat) and "loose" (what my trousers used to be before I put on a stone in weight). I've not seen you make that mistake, but there was one poster back in the day who used to confuse the two.

It annoys me when I see it written, but when The Cardigans' Nina Persson sings "I'm loosing my favourite game" I find it enchanting. I wonder why?

I am aware that many dictionaries believe "use" and "utilise" are interchangeable, and words do change their meaning over time because of the way they are used. The best example I can think of is "literally" which now has "figuratively" as one of its definitions.

This came about because people wanted to add emphasis to statements by saying things like "The bottles of Peroni were literally flying off the shelves, despite being five quid a throw and indistinguishable in taste from any other ice cold lager".

I digress.

If the two words (use and utilise) are interchangeable, then why not use the shorter one? It is easier to spell, and in this text-speak generation we are supposed to be going for brevity.

I am sure that through judicious use of DuckDuckGo (don't use Google nowadays if I can help it) I could find the web site where the clever clogs explained the difference between "use" and "utilise" but it was just some grammar geek, not a dictionary site. However, I like his definition because it ties in with the concept of a "utility" player in football, which generally means a player who is often deployed in a role other than his favoured position.

Older readers are all conjuring up an image of Paul Madeley now. Younger readers can envisage (not envision!) Phil Jones.

It would be useful, would it not, to have a word that means "use something for a purpose other than the one for which it was intended", so I will continue to promote the use of utilise for this purpose.

Regards,


Roland
 
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