There are so many rules that I would never think of looking out for in my speech! I was reading through an old Victorian grammar book one day and I came across a lot of terms in common usage that are wrong. For example: it is ‘convinced him that’ and ‘persuaded him to’- not ‘convinced him to’ or ‘persuaded him that’.
Oh- never use a preposition to end a sentence with.
It is wrong to ever split infinitives.
And don't start a sentence with a conjunction!
Full Version: Would This Be Seen As Interference?
My pet hate is the different between Post Box and Letter Box. The Post Box is that red thing (Yellow on Continental Europe) that one puts mail into to send it. The Letter Box is the slot in the front door that the mail comes through when the postman (and it is a postman rather than lady in our street) delivers it. The number of people who think the Red thing down the street is a Letter Box appauls me.
QUOTE(jod @ Dec 18 2006, 12:12 PM) 
My pet hate is the different between Post Box and Letter Box. The Post Box is that red thing (Yellow on Continental Europe) that one puts mail into to send it. The Letter Box is the slot in the front door that the mail comes through when the postman (and it is a postman rather than lady in our street) delivers it. The number of people who think the Red thing down the street is a Letter Box appauls me.
Or appals you even?
I find that as people's language (written or spoken) becomes more sloppy I tend to react by replying in an increasingly proper manner. The graduate who was trying to persuade me to overlook the fact he didn't meet our entrance requirements at a recruitment fair didn't get very far by ending every sentence with "innit".
Lol! I can't believe I've only just discovered this thread!
My mum is most certainly one of the apostrophe anoraks... she even has a copy of Eats, Shoots and Leaves. And it's rubbed off on me I think
Mind you, I have only just started to get rid of the habit of saying 'like' all the time - my dad used to count them too, but then I would do it deliberately to wind him up
He also ALWAYS corrects me when I say 'and me' instead of 'and I' but I think there is a cultural thing there - you would sound silly saying 'and I' in normal conversation, or at least I would with my friends.
I used to have a German teacher who couldn't stand Americanisms or bad grammar and would always correct us. She used to get teased about it by the class but in a friendly way, we always respected her and got on with her really well. One time while she was telling someone off she used the word 'audacity' and had to explain what it meant - then after that, he would try to get 'audacity' or 'audacious' into every sentence he said to her! She thought it was so funny...
(I'm not even going to try to look for grammatical errors in this post. Sorry in advance
)
My mum is most certainly one of the apostrophe anoraks... she even has a copy of Eats, Shoots and Leaves. And it's rubbed off on me I think
Mind you, I have only just started to get rid of the habit of saying 'like' all the time - my dad used to count them too, but then I would do it deliberately to wind him up
He also ALWAYS corrects me when I say 'and me' instead of 'and I' but I think there is a cultural thing there - you would sound silly saying 'and I' in normal conversation, or at least I would with my friends.I used to have a German teacher who couldn't stand Americanisms or bad grammar and would always correct us. She used to get teased about it by the class but in a friendly way, we always respected her and got on with her really well. One time while she was telling someone off she used the word 'audacity' and had to explain what it meant - then after that, he would try to get 'audacity' or 'audacious' into every sentence he said to her! She thought it was so funny...
(I'm not even going to try to look for grammatical errors in this post. Sorry in advance
)
QUOTE(Ayshah @ Dec 15 2006, 12:11 PM)
I have an enormous list of pet hates when it comes bad grammer and bad english and it takes a huge amount of discipline not to correct someone. The hardest one for me is 'gunnah' for going to. I always correct this by repeating the correct clear pronounciation back to the original speaker, emphasising and rounding my lips around the 'O' in 'go-ing'. However this backfired on me when at my husband's family gathering I automatically corrected him when he said 'gunnah' to a very young cousin. There was absolute horrified silence from the 20 or so family members and I felt awful that I had so publically and tactlessly humilated him in front of his family. His dad laughed hystercially, his mum glared at me and I, I wanted to die! We didnt speak for a week! We now laugh about it ,but it made me very, very careful who, when and where I corrected someone.
To stop our youngest saying 'like' after every word in a sentence, we set up a campaign of counting them loudly. It was very effective and she has extended the campaign to her friends!
Humm,
Should that read poor grammer/poor english?
According to the urban dictionary it's gunna or gunnar i.e. you should drop your h
As for counting likes at the end of sentences just be glad you dont live in Wales unless you do of course in which case I hope the treatment is going well.
On a more serious note I find myself disagreeing with alot of you, which is really unusal.
As a child I was poor at English in fact I still am, (I know it's hard to believe but I am sure you'll find out if you read on), I found and still do find it very annoying when people correct me when my meaning is perfectly obvious and clear. In fact I have cause many people to blush for telling them off for this very reason. This is especially true where spelling is concerned, the English language isn't logical and doesn't follow prescribably rules in fact most of us learn the exceptions to rules to survive. The English language is a real mine field. More importantly it is an evolving language go and see a play put on by the RSC and see what I mean.
I am like many others, dyslexic and do struggle to write my verbal language is a result of external influences, my father, mother, siblings. peers and even environmental factors so trying to change by correction isn't going to work unless everyone corrects.
My advice would be to take it at face value, use language in a way you would want it used and hope they pick up its usage from you and not others...
Having said all that it gets on my goat when people drop/merge Ts as in butter.
As a child I was poor at English in fact I still am, (I know it's hard to believe but I am sure you'll find out if you read on), I found and still do find it very annoying when people correct me when my meaning is perfectly obvious and clear. In fact I have cause many people to blush for telling them off for this very reason. This is especially true where spelling is concerned, the English language isn't logical and doesn't follow prescribably rules in fact most of us learn the exceptions to rules to survive. The English language is a real mine field. More importantly it is an evolving language go and see a play put on by the RSC and see what I mean.
I am like many others, dyslexic and do struggle to write my verbal language is a result of external influences, my father, mother, siblings. peers and even environmental factors so trying to change by correction isn't going to work unless everyone corrects.
My advice would be to take it at face value, use language in a way you would want it used and hope they pick up its usage from you and not others...
Having said all that it gets on my goat when people drop/merge Ts as in butter.
My singing teacher corrects individual words - which is fair enough really
"We are not in South Africa!!" she declared after I'd sang "for so were her fathe rand mother before"...
"We are not in South Africa!!" she declared after I'd sang "for so were her fathe rand mother before"...
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