I have quite a few friends who use the word 'brought' when I'm sure they mean to say 'bought', as in "I brought my house in 1995"What's going on ? A lot of people do this, it seems.
I think we all have blind spots with certain words / phrases / symbols that no matter how many times we're told we still get them wrong.
I'm forever getting apostrophes wrong when saying it's and its. I know the rule but I still mistype it sometimes - much to other folks' annoyance. And right there - in folks' - should it have been folk's or folks'? Even worse is I never know what to do when writing about Chris's guitar? Or is it Chris' guitar?
Speech-wise, the thing that really annoys me is the use of Baby as a proper noun (if that is indeed the right description) - as in Baby's First Tattoo or Baby's First Amphetamine. It should by "Your baby's first selfie." Always annoys me, that, but it appears to be part of the language these days.
On an vaguely related language note I was reading a very interesting article about all the words that have been taken out of the Oxford Children's Dictionary in recent years. Pretty much think of anything to do with the countryside like blackberry (Blackberry is still there though, along with iPhone), horse chestnut, magpie, and so on, and it's likely to have gone. Apparently kids don't play in the woods any more and as space is limited in their dictionary they've all gone.
Re "aluminum" - I believe that is the original name for that element, and it was later altered to "aluminium" on this side of the pond, so we can't really argue with the Yanks on that one, sorry Dave.
I don't know about any other wrong spellings/mis-uses that annoy me, but I do hate that modern management-speak habit of inventing naff words. "Incentivise" would be a good example - or "incentivize" as the Yanks would have it - either way, it's verbal garbage. And companies that sell "solutions" - "we provide catering solutions" for example - which &^%$ing moron started that one? And when did they decide to call computer programs "apps" for *&^%s sake? Really bugs me somehow. And...
Something bought/brought for less! Refret your guitar with Milliput epoxy resin and have a tight truss rod with no buzzing and a great sound. Can be filed after a while. i pulled all the frets off and replaced them with Milliput saving £200 on a refret.You can hear the result on clowdy!
I think there must be something in the old body clock there, Reg. It just shows how much it PEES ME OFF !
I think it's mainly because wifey's best friend's hubby is always pulling me up about things and putting me down on others and 'brought' is one of his annoying things but which I let go. He's really football mad, you see. 63 years of age and still comes out with this young lad's talk - and all the ribbing and riling that I could really do without. (I think 'brought' comes from the terraces.)
I don't point it out to him. I just moan about it here.
Contrary to impressions I've given here I'm a very quiet chap in real life and don't argue with anyone about anything at all.
The annual airing is my way of getting back at the twunt.
Management speak?! Don't get me started on that. since when did we need to add prepositions to everything, as in, "Dirk, can you cover that off?" NOOOO!! You mean, "Dirk, can you cover that?" The word, "off" is totally redundant and means nothing!
OK, so now to management expressions:
Let's run it up the flagpole and see who salutes.
We've got it on the table, but we don't know if it's soup or jelly.
Let's put it on a plate and see who puts Mayonnaise on it.
We need to get all our ducks on a row.
Who can come up with the most cringeworthy management speak impression?
When I worked for Lexmark, we had regular "lunch" meetings (they supplied the lunch, you gave up the time). Our department manager was a great one for "management talk", and acronyms, so we prepared "Bingo" cards which we dished out before these meetings. The place would fall about, coffee and half chewed sandwiches everywhere, when someone called out "House".
And finally - missing apostrophes. Particularly a local pub called Smugglers Inn.
I've a feeling they meant to impart that the pub was prefered/owned by the Smugglers but that's not how it comes across.
And is it The Smugglers' Inn, implying it was either owned by a consortium of smugglers or frequented by a gang of them, or is it The Smuggler's Inn, meaning it was owned by an individual smuggler who was the sole proprietor?
(I was going to say, " ... owned by a single smuggler ...," but I thought I'd get comments about whether he was married or not.)
And finally - missing apostrophes. Particularly a local pub called Smugglers Inn.
I've a feeling they meant to impart that the pub was prefered/owned by the Smugglers but that's not how it comes across.
And is it The Smugglers' Inn, implying it was either owned by a consortium of smugglers or frequented by a gang of them, or is it The Smuggler's Inn, meaning it was owned by an individual smuggler who was the sole proprietor?
(I was going to say, " ... owned by a single smuggler ...," but I thought I'd get comments about whether he was married or not.)
Now here I have a different take. I would read that "The Smugglers Inn" would be a place a bunch of smugglers would frequent. With my limited ('O' Level) knowledge of English, no apostrophe is required in that usage. The Smugglers do not own the place, nor is it appropriate in that phrase to indicate an 's replacing "is". Therefore I think "The Smugglers Inn" is perfectly valid as referencing an inn where Smugglers once did, or do, gather. Although advertising the fact might well suggest that Her Maj's Customs and Excise are particularly thick if they haven't rounded them up. Of course if you want a contemporary pub sign it would have to be a White Van Man with a load of counterfeit fags (of course in the US a counterfeit fag is a man only pretending to be homosexual).
The misuse of the word "unique" is something that bugs me; there are a few examples on this forum. "Unique" can't be relative: something is either unique or not unique, it can't be quite unique or very unique; it's just unique (I.e. Only one of them), or not unique.
Comments
I know. Drives me mad!! Along with the misuse of apostrophe's!
Yep, there's a lot of it about.
I think we all have blind spots with certain words / phrases / symbols that no matter how many times we're told we still get them wrong.
I'm forever getting apostrophes wrong when saying it's and its. I know the rule but I still mistype it sometimes - much to other folks' annoyance. And right there - in folks' - should it have been folk's or folks'? Even worse is I never know what to do when writing about Chris's guitar? Or is it Chris' guitar?
Speech-wise, the thing that really annoys me is the use of Baby as a proper noun (if that is indeed the right description) - as in Baby's First Tattoo or Baby's First Amphetamine. It should by "Your baby's first selfie." Always annoys me, that, but it appears to be part of the language these days.
On an vaguely related language note I was reading a very interesting article about all the words that have been taken out of the Oxford Children's Dictionary in recent years. Pretty much think of anything to do with the countryside like blackberry (Blackberry is still there though, along with iPhone), horse chestnut, magpie, and so on, and it's likely to have gone. Apparently kids don't play in the woods any more and as space is limited in their dictionary they've all gone.
Hey ho.
Mummy won't let baby play in the woods anymore Derek.
Kevin, do you have a note in your diary to post this annually?
http://forum.rguitars.co.uk/topic/bought-or-brought
What grinds my gears is when people use the word Pacific instead of Specific.
Others that drive me mad:
Nucular when they mean nuclear
Skellington when they mean skeleton
Trianglia when they mean triangular
Aluminum (Yanks take note!) when the mean aluminium
Prerformance when they mean performance (take note, Gary Barlow on X-Factor)
Profeshnial when they mean professional
Aaaaaaarrgghhhhh!
We should do like the Germans do and just pretend we don't understand bad grammar or pronunciation
Re "aluminum" - I believe that is the original name for that element, and it was later altered to "aluminium" on this side of the pond, so we can't really argue with the Yanks on that one, sorry Dave.
I don't know about any other wrong spellings/mis-uses that annoy me, but I do hate that modern management-speak habit of inventing naff words. "Incentivise" would be a good example - or "incentivize" as the Yanks would have it - either way, it's verbal garbage. And companies that sell "solutions" - "we provide catering solutions" for example - which &^%$ing moron started that one? And when did they decide to call computer programs "apps" for *&^%s sake? Really bugs me somehow. And...
Something bought/brought for less! Refret your guitar with Milliput epoxy resin and have a tight truss rod with no buzzing and a great sound. Can be filed after a while. i pulled all the frets off and replaced them with Milliput saving £200 on a refret.You can hear the result on clowdy!
I think there must be something in the old body clock there, Reg. It just shows how much it PEES ME OFF !
I think it's mainly because wifey's best friend's hubby is always pulling me up about things and putting me down on others and 'brought' is one of his annoying things but which I let go. He's really football mad, you see. 63 years of age and still comes out with this young lad's talk - and all the ribbing and riling that I could really do without. (I think 'brought' comes from the terraces.)
I don't point it out to him. I just moan about it here.
Contrary to impressions I've given here I'm a very quiet chap in real life and don't argue with anyone about anything at all.
The annual airing is my way of getting back at the twunt.
Management speak?! Don't get me started on that. since when did we need to add prepositions to everything, as in, "Dirk, can you cover that off?" NOOOO!! You mean, "Dirk, can you cover that?" The word, "off" is totally redundant and means nothing!
OK, so now to management expressions:
Let's run it up the flagpole and see who salutes.
We've got it on the table, but we don't know if it's soup or jelly.
Let's put it on a plate and see who puts Mayonnaise on it.
We need to get all our ducks on a row.
Who can come up with the most cringeworthy management speak impression?
When I worked for Lexmark, we had regular "lunch" meetings (they supplied the lunch, you gave up the time). Our department manager was a great one for "management talk", and acronyms, so we prepared "Bingo" cards which we dished out before these meetings. The place would fall about, coffee and half chewed sandwiches everywhere, when someone called out "House".
So... at the start of every answer is starting to get a bit old.
So I'm like so with you on that one Kevin...
Why do people turn around before they say things?
"So, 'e turns round an' sez 'e won't do it! Well, I turns round an' says, 'Ya bluddy will'"
It's wonder anyone can say anything when they're that dizzy
We had a boss who's favourite word was "paradigm", only he insisted on pronouncing it "paradijum".
Management speak in my office is "Give it to Derek," and "Derek, why haven't you done that yet? It's a priority."
Goes. Where did she go? Do you mean she felt so strongly about it she had to leave rather than merely making a remark?
Like. Really? Why bother talking about it if it wasn't actually a good time, but only like a good time?
Well I looked at 'im - an' 'e looked at me...
Somethink, nothink..
Well I was, like, talking about this, like, when we were there, like... (rising inflection with inappropriate question mark)
Meme - people rarely use it properly. They often get it confused with theme.
"Well there was this rumour and it sort of grew legs, an' then it grew arms... an more legs..."
I was on another forum the other day and this chap said "The problem with young people is that they can't think out of the box."
I replied that one so dependent on cliche's probably ought not criticise.
And finally - missing apostrophes. Particularly a local pub called Smugglers Inn.
I've a feeling they meant to impart that the pub was prefered/owned by the Smugglers but that's not how it comes across.
I agree. A conversation with my lad goes like this:
Theo: Yeah, it was, like, really cool
Me: So it was only "like" really cool, but not actually really cool? What's like really cool but not actually really cool?
Theo: I'm not talking to you any more ...
And is it The Smugglers' Inn, implying it was either owned by a consortium of smugglers or frequented by a gang of them, or is it The Smuggler's Inn, meaning it was owned by an individual smuggler who was the sole proprietor?
(I was going to say, " ... owned by a single smuggler ...," but I thought I'd get comments about whether he was married or not.)
As well as missing them out, theres nothing worse than using aspostrophes' when they shouldnt be...
And is it The Smugglers' Inn, implying it was either owned by a consortium of smugglers or frequented by a gang of them, or is it The Smuggler's Inn, meaning it was owned by an individual smuggler who was the sole proprietor?
(I was going to say, " ... owned by a single smuggler ...," but I thought I'd get comments about whether he was married or not.)
Now here I have a different take. I would read that "The Smugglers Inn" would be a place a bunch of smugglers would frequent. With my limited ('O' Level) knowledge of English, no apostrophe is required in that usage. The Smugglers do not own the place, nor is it appropriate in that phrase to indicate an 's replacing "is". Therefore I think "The Smugglers Inn" is perfectly valid as referencing an inn where Smugglers once did, or do, gather. Although advertising the fact might well suggest that Her Maj's Customs and Excise are particularly thick if they haven't rounded them up. Of course if you want a contemporary pub sign it would have to be a White Van Man with a load of counterfeit fags (of course in the US a counterfeit fag is a man only pretending to be homosexual).
Cheers, Reg.
No brainer... Aaaargh !
The misuse of the word "unique" is something that bugs me; there are a few examples on this forum. "Unique" can't be relative: something is either unique or not unique, it can't be quite unique or very unique; it's just unique (I.e. Only one of them), or not unique.
Derek. I think you're right but it still grates on me.
Why would The Smuggler Inn (singular) not get my goat ? However, I think that proves your point better than it does mine !