English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

[DaveReading]

I used to enjoy the sound of smashing glass as the bottles went in (whereas with the current system, if the bottles smash, they won't be collected).

Cathartic.

Well certainly therapeutic. Cathartic, possibly not.

[mattheus]

There are different styles of English. And good usage differs between them.

's funny; I used to find these sentence fragments - usually starting with awkward words like "and" - grating.
But at some point I started using them myself. It's a plague!!

[Mick F]

R4 Today programme.

"Let's get some sport."

Get?

[Jdsk]

Radio Four news ...........

"Morning"
"Afternoon"
"Let's get some weather"

Instead?

Good morning.
Good afternoon.
Here is the weather forecast.

Simple.

R4 Today programme.

"Let's get some sport."

Get?

Why does it annoy you?

Thanks

Jonathan

[thirdcrank]

I'll put this here to avoid derailing another thread which seems to have hit the buffers.

viewtopic.php?p=1679340#p1679340

There's in link in there to a pdf file where the word "landscape" is used thirty times. FWIW, it's not a biography of Capability Brown by Alan Titchmarsh but a review of policing. I've had a go at reading it - which is how I discovered the horticulture - but it needs editing by a successor of Ernest Gowers if it's not to do my head in.

[Bmblbzzz]

Give us a few example sentences and show us what word you'd use instead of landscape, or how you'd rewrite them to avoid using the word. I'm curious about this.

[Jdsk]

Give us a few example sentences and show us what word you'd use instead of landscape, or how you'd rewrite them to avoid using the word. I'm curious about this.

Always a helpful exercise when discussing usage.

Jonathan

[Jdsk]

There's in link in there to a pdf file where the word "landscape" is used thirty times. FWIW, it's not a biography of Capability Brown by Alan Titchmarsh but a review of policing. I've had a go at reading it - which is how I discovered the horticulture - but it needs editing by a successor of Ernest Gowers if it's not to do my head in.

Fascinating word, both in its etymology (the meaning of -scape) and in how it's redeployed as technology changes (... painting, photography, paper, 'phones... )

Jonathan

[thirdcrank]

"Landscape" may have its place but its repeated use figuratively is a turn off for me and not in the sense of a detour.

[thirdcrank]

Dr Sewell, who is an alumni (sic) of the university, said he had a "real PhD" from there and other honorary degrees so was "not interested in being a victim".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-n ... e-60758038

It looks as though Sandish Shoker may be an ignorami

[Bmblbzzz]

It reads to me as if the "real PhD" is in addition to the honorary award. As for "an alumni" it is a "shoker" but I suppose it's the beginning of the process undergone by data and media.

[kylecycler]

Dr Sewell, who is an alumni (sic) of the university, said he had a "real PhD" from there and other honorary degrees so was "not interested in being a victim".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-n ... e-60758038

It looks as though Sandish Shoker may be an ignorami

There's never been a consensus as to whether the plural of Lotus, as in Lotus cars - like back in 1978 when Mario Andretti and Ronnie Peterson were running 1-2 in a Grand Prix, as they frequently did that year - is Lotuses or Loti (then again, the plural of consensus is definitely consensuses!).



As for errors like Sandish Shoker's, you can kinda sorta lay a little of the blame on the over-reliance on automatic spell-checking, meaning, if you don't see the red squiggly line under a word then it must be ok except it isn't always. But I know that would be a bit of a lame excuse.

[Bmblbzzz]

There would be no red squiggly line under 'alumni' because it's a correct word, although it's not the correct word.

[Jdsk]

There's never been a consensus as to whether the plural of Lotus, as in Lotus cars - like back in 1978 when Mario Andretti and Ronnie Peterson were running 1-2 in a Grand Prix, as they frequently did that year - is Lotuses or Loti (then again, the plural of consensus is definitely consensuses!).

There was a statement from the factory... the plural is Lotus.

But the origin of the name remains in dispute...

Jonathan

[Cowsham]

Dr Sewell, who is an alumni (sic) of the university, said he had a "real PhD" from there and other honorary degrees so was "not interested in being a victim".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-n ... e-60758038

It looks as though Sandish Shoker may be an ignorami

There's never been a consensus as to whether the plural of Lotus, as in Lotus cars - like back in 1978 when Mario Andretti and Ronnie Peterson were running 1-2 in a Grand Prix, as they frequently did that year - is Lotuses or Loti (then again, the plural of consensus is definitely consensuses!).



As for errors like Sandish Shoker's, you can kinda sorta lay a little of the blame on the over-reliance on automatic spell-checking, meaning, if you don't see the red squiggly line under a word then it must be ok except it isn't always. But I know that would be a bit of a lame excuse.

The difference is, if I heard Murry Walker coming out with loti I'd know it was a joke. 'Sandwich' not so sure.