You know your old when

[kay]

It's really irritating. Apparently a lot of US terms like 'fall' 'sidewalk' were English at the time we settled America. They've hung on to them, but we had a phase of trying to turn everything classical, so Latinised them into autumn and pavement. It's annoying to think they may be more authentically English than we are.

Anyone else get irritated by 'warmer temperatures' 'cheaper prices' etc?

 

[graham]

Anyone else get irritated by 'warmer temperatures' 'cheaper prices' etc?

Aye, 'cos that's not idiom but simply poor use of English.

 

[Bob G]

... you think you are the only person who knows the difference between "your" and "you're".

 

[Dep]

I wondered when someone would spot that!
But I'm not old enough to point it out! 

 

[ChrisB]

... you think you are the only person who knows the difference between "your" and "you're".

Not to mention the difference between:

principle and principal
effect and affect
its and it's

and of course

plurals and plural's

There will, no doubt, be many more which I could list if I were older, but since I'm not, I don't know what they are.

 

[emgee]

I know I am sometimes told I am turning into a grumpy old man (aka victor meldrew)
But why has it become the fashion to say the word Random.
If you listen to the assholes on radio one like I am forced to every day you get w**kers like the talentless Chris moyles saying things like " It was totally random"
He wouldn't know the meaning of random if it bit him the un educated tw*t
Maybe I am old


Comments

Random may have been fashionable a few years back but anyone using it now is definitely showing their age.

 

[emgee]

I remember when all this were fields....

Fields I can remember when all that grew here were crinoids.

 

[whitelackington]

I remembeer when The Mendip Hills used to be known as
The Ediacara hills

 

[Elaine]

I thought the Ediacaran Hills were in South Austrailia!

 

[racingsnake]

It's really irritating. Apparently a lot of US terms like 'fall' 'sidewalk' were English at the time we settled America. They've hung on to them, but we had a phase of trying to turn everything classical, so Latinised them into autumn and pavement. It's annoying to think they may be more authentically English than we are.

Anyone else get irritated by 'warmer temperatures' 'cheaper prices' etc?

How very dare you compare us to Americans they are far superior to us with their kwarfey and boygers

 

[AndyF]

Anyone else get irritated by 'warmer temperatures' 'cheaper prices' etc?

Er........ no..........not in the slightest  Does anyone not understand them? 

You see no one can say that isn't proper English since, by definition English is "how people speak".

If the language has evolved to accept this type of phrase then that is now, by definition, correct English QED.

It's the stuffy academics that have to go away and change their definitions and they just hate the extra work so they moan about it.

Language evolves and changes, academics do not.

 

[kay]

Just because I recognise that language usage is changing doesn't mean I can't get irritated by it.

 

[Elaine]

Does the same apply to written English? It seems that having to type in a capital I when refering to oneself is way too much effort so i can just use the little letter i when i type now (like a lot of other people) as it is obviously just an evolving language.
However, although i could get used to the sloppy lack of capitals i am going to find it hard to write in 2days new txt format. Text language is really irritating and spreads into emails and other written communications. It is not 'evolving' language, it is sloppiness.
Also at the risk of getting really slammed it seems to me that there is a real excuse these days not to bother learning to write or spell correctly as you can always claim to have learning difficulties. I am lucky enough to be fine with general spelling and arithmatic so that I don't usually have to get a dictionary to check my spelling (although I always will if I am not sure). However as far as machinery goes I am not so bright and I have to think carefully and check what I am doing as I go along. Why can't the same apply to those who find writing not so easy.
It must be me and my advancing years. I find it the attitude that 'if it doesn't come to me easily I don't have to bother' very irritating.

 

[Peter Burgess]

Does the same apply to written English? It seems that having to type in a capital I when refering to oneself is way too much effort so i can just use the little letter i when i type now (like a lot of other people) as it is obviously just an evolving language.
However, although i could get used to the sloppy lack of capitals i am going to find it hard to write in 2days new txt format. Text language is really irritating and spreads into emails and other written communications. It is not 'evolving' language, it is sloppiness.
Also at the risk of getting really slammed it seems to me that there is a real excuse these days not to bother learning to write or spell correctly as you can always claim to have learning difficulties. I am lucky enough to be fine with general spelling and arithmatic so that I don't usually have to get a dictionary to check my spelling (although I always will if I am not sure). However as far as machinery goes I am not so bright and I have to think carefully and check what I am doing as I go along. Why can't the same apply to those who find writing not so easy.
It must be me and my advancing years. I find it the attitude that 'if it doesn't come to me easily I don't have to bother' very irritating.

I think this is the only country in the world that doesn't give a fig for how its language is abused.

 

[graham]

I find it the attitude that 'if it doesn't come to me easily I don't have to bother' very irritating.

There is a fascinating internet phenomenon that I have come across several times, though not on this forum. I, too, get irritated by sloppy use of English and especially by sloppy use of grammar and punctuation. However, I have found that if one comments on this then one becomes subject to strong personal attacks which inevitably claim that the subject of one's criticism is dyslexic, cannot help it and should not be criticised over something that they cannot control.

Bullshit.

 

[whitelackington]

Does the same apply to written English? It seems that having to type in a capital I when referring to oneself is way too much effort so i can just use the little letter i when i type now (like a lot of other people) as it is obviously just an evolving language.
However, although i could get used to the sloppy lack of capitals i am going to find it hard to write in 2days new text format. Text language is really irritating and spreads into emails and other written communications. It is not 'evolving' language, it is sloppiness.
Also at the risk of getting really slammed it seems to me that there is a real excuse these days not to bother learning to write or spell correctly as you can always claim to have learning difficulties. I am lucky enough to be fine with general spelling and arithmetic so that I don't usually have to get a dictionary to check my spelling (although I always will if I am not sure). However as far as machinery goes I am not so bright and I have to think carefully and check what I am doing as I go along. Why can't the same apply to those who find writing not so easy.
It must be me and my advancing years. I find it the attitude that 'if it doesn't come to me easily I don't have to bother' very irritating.

Anne, have not you heard of "PIDGEON ENGLISH"

By the way, i have spell-checked your diatribe 4U

 

[Peter Burgess]

There is a fascinating internet phenomenon that I have come across several times, though not on this forum. I, too, get irritated by sloppy use of English and especially by sloppy use of grammar and punctuation. However, I have found that if one comments on this then one becomes subject to strong personal attacks which inevitably claim that the subject of one's criticism is dyslexic, cannot help it and should not be criticised over something that they cannot control.

I think this would read better if it was changed to either "one becomes the subject of strong personal attacks" or "one is subjected to strong personal attacks". 

 

[Peter Burgess]

Anne, have not you heard of "PIDGEON ENGLISH"

It's PIDGIN, actually. 

 

[andymorgan]

One may say Shakespeare could not spell.... Maybe teaching his work causes poor spelling!

 

[Peter Burgess]

There is a fascinating internet phenomenon that I have come across several times, though not on this forum. I, too, get irritated by sloppy use of English and especially by sloppy use of grammar and punctuation. However, I have found that if one comments on this then one becomes subject to strong personal attacks which inevitably claim that the subject of one's criticism is dyslexic, cannot help it and should not be criticised over something that they cannot control.

Bullshit.

Witness this mild rebuke I got last year....

Perhaps their brades get tangled up with their figners while they are tpying.

..erhm... you aren't going to endear youreself to this newsgroup with quips like that. IFAIK Hdrock IS dyslexic, but still makes a valuable contribution to this forum. It isn't a joke.

Quite right Andy. I consider my wrist well and truly slapped.

By the way, "youreself".  Tut, tut.