Bad English.

[just jim]

The missing apostrophe in "Fruit 'n Fibre" gets on my friend's nerves. I'm cool with it though.

 

[Andy_R]

"Better than half price"......aaarrgghhhhhhhh! No, no, no, no, no.

 

[swee'pea99]

With regard to and in respect of are two little expressions that grind my gears. It's a bit like that use of myself and yourself rather than me and you - pretentious putting on of airs by empty-headed numpties.

 

[benb]

Oh, and imply and infer.

 

[the_mikey]

Which is preferable, people who can spell and use punctuation correctly, or improved attitude towards cyclists from other road users?

 

[Norm]

Which is preferable, people who can spell and use punctuation correctly, or improved attitude towards cyclists from other road users?

Struggling to see why the two are mutually exclusive. Can I go for (C) Both of the above?

 

[Angelfishsolo]

Being a real Geek - "Data is stored". It should be "Data are stored" as Data is the plural of Datum.

 

[Fnaar]

Being a real Geek - "Data is stored". It should be "Data are stored" as Data is the plural of Datum.

Yeah but, no but... in the end, it's all about usage. You can't be (well you can try to be) prescriptive about language. In the end, what people say becomes and defines the language. Innit.

 

[Angelfishsolo]

Of course. The only time the correct usage wouldn't seem out of place in in a technical document.

Yeah but, no but... in the end, it's all about usage. You can't be (well you can try to be) prescriptive about language. In the end, what people say becomes and defines the language. Innit.

 

[Fnaar]

Of course. The only time the correct usage wouldn't seem out of place in in a technical document.

That's true. Or is it? Got any datums on it?

 

[Angelfishsolo]

You are in my book

That's true. Or is it? Got any datums on it?

 

[sunnyjim]

If he hasn't been mentioned so far, Fowler's 'The Kings English' will provide hours of entertaiment to the erudite contributors to this thread. Best enjoyed as a Real Book(TM), but now available online here http://www.bartleby.com/116/.

Although what Fowler would have thought of the internet ...



Best sign I've seen - advertising Pannini's

 

[Fnaar]

Best sign I've seen - advertising Pannini's

I explained to some Italian friends that we say "Paninis" (plural), whereas "panini" in Italian is the plural of "panino" (singular). They thought it was odd, but we ordered some anyway

 

[Norm]

Being a real Geek - "Data is stored". It should be "Data are stored" as Data is the plural of Datum.

I go the other way and complain when people say "data are..."

Data (and information) takes the singular. A piece of data and another piece of data become two pieces of data but the data remains a singular noun.

There are times when data, meaning individual statistics, can be analysed in more "granular" (ironic) detail, and I might use plural verbs there but I'd say I pretty much exclusively use it in the singular.

 

[Angelfishsolo]

As I said earlier in technical writing The term data refers to qualitative or quantitative attributes of a variable or set of variables. Data (plural of "datum") are typically the results of measurements and can be the basis of graphs, images, or observations of a set of variables. Data are often viewed as the lowest level of abstraction from which information and then knowledge are derived. Raw data, i.e. unprocessed data, refers to a collection of numbers, characters, images or other outputs from devices that collect information to convert physical quantities into symbols

I go the other way and complain when people say "data are..."

Data (and information) takes the singular. A piece of data and another piece of data become two pieces of data but the data remains a singular noun.

There are times when data, meaning individual statistics, can be analysed in more "granular" (ironic) detail, and I might use plural verbs there but I'd say I pretty much exclusively use it in the singular.