Fun with Grammar.

[mr_hippo]

Ooo, get 'er!

Are you sure it's one of your pet hates? Seems to me you quite enjoy it. One of my pet hates (sic) is people being snotty about other people's posts without reading them properly. Where do I refer to 'pound British Sterlings'? 'proud British Sterlings' is what I said. It was a joke. Not a great joke, just a gentle bit of fun. You've heard of jokes, right...?

One other thing: if you're going to get all poncey about this kind of stuff, do take care to, say, spell basic words correctly and begin your sentences with capitals.

Oh, and I'll use sterling any damn way I please if it's all the same with you. Or even if it isn't.

Aren't jokes supposed to be funny or at least homourous?
If you want to use (sic), please use it in the right context.
Sometimes typos and spelling mistakes slip the net.
Your last sentence is great! You want to use English any way you want to but do not like others doing so.

 

[vernon]

Aren't jokes supposed to be funny or at least homourous?

When being critical of others it pays to get your spelling right.

Now write out one hundred times:

Aren't jokes supposed to be funny or at least humorous?

It doesn't pay to get on your high Chihuahua and level criticism at others when your own criticism has errors within it.

We can all be grammar, spelling and punctuation Nazis but improvements in all three by others are brought about by persuasion not derision.

 

[mr_hippo]

Vernon, whilst humorous is modern usage, humourous is still permitted; it is like me - archaic!

 

[vernon]

Vernon, whilst humorous is modern usage, humourous is still permitted; it is like me - archaic!

Really?

The OED draws a blank on humourous even as an obscure permutation of humorous and I think that it is a more reliable arbiter of what is permissible.

 

[Aperitif]

When being critical of others it pays to get your spelling right.

Now write out one hundred times:

Aren't jokes supposed to be funny or at least homorous?

It doesn't pay to get on your high Chihuahua and level criticism at others when your own criticism has errors within it.

We can all be grammar, spelling and punctuation Nazis but improvements in all three by others are brought about by persuasion not derision.

It's all about the 'o'! (sic)

You could be a schoolteacher, Vern.

 

[Aperitif]

I don't understand this. What's wrong with 'a myriad of'?

A myriad of Maz's is infinitely better than a constipation of Aperitifs.

I have heard only one way to use that particular word - some poem or the other beginning...
Myriad a little lamb,
It's fleece was white as language
Everywhere that Myriad
some food, it was a sandwuage

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

A myriad of Maz's is infinitely better than a constipation of Aperitifs.

I have heard only one way to use that particular word - some poem or the other beginning...
Myriad a little lamb,
It's fleece was white as language
Everywhere that Myriad
some food, it was a sandwuage

It's?

 

[Aperitif]

It's?

Shhhhhhhh! I caught the wrong fish!

 

[Maz]

[QUOTE 1684235, member: 45"]My bug bear is people who use 'I' in the wrong place and think they're being posh.

"He came to the shops with Graham and I." Wrong, bloomin' Gordon Ramsay.

"He came to the shops with Graham and me." Yes, that's right. Sound wrong? Tough. Get over yourself.[/quote]
"Graham and I" is correct, but most people don't use it, for fear of being labelled as posh.
I think we need to revive this by having famous people like Wayne Rooney in post-match interviews saying stuff like "The gaffer and I had a chat..."

 

[Archie_tect]

Take out the other people and if it doesn't make sense with me, myself or I then it's the other one!
[Graham and] I went to the shops
He went to the shops with [Graham and] me.

 

[swee'pea99]

"Graham and I" is correct, but most people don't use it, for fear of being labelled as posh.
I think we need to revive this by having famous people like Wayne Rooney in post-match interviews saying stuff like "The gaffer and I had a chat..."

It isn't though. "The gaffer and I had a chat..." is, because I and the gaffer are doing stuff. "He got all arsey with the gaffer and I..." is wrong because it's about stuff being done to us. You wouldn't say, 'he came to the shops with I'.

"We can all be grammar, spelling and punctuation Nazis but improvements in all three by others are brought about by persuasion not derision." Absolutely. I'd always been taught that 'a myriad of' was wrong. It appears I was wrongly taught, and the alternative is 'permissible' (not, of course, that that'll ever stop it jarring with me). Had this been brought to my attention in a friendly and good humoured way, I would've been the first to acknowledge my sins with a cheerful and probably self-effacing comment. Nastiness was in my view totally uncalled for, given the tenor of my original message. Which, after all, was not about sneeringly lording it over ordinary people, but taking to task (amiably enough, I would've thought) a professional, who Ought To Know Better.

 

[yello]

I've found occasions where splitting the infinitive makes for clearer understanding. Personally, I'd prefer clarity (or common language) to strict grammatical correctness any day. Though, in truth, it's rare that the two genuinely conflict.

 

[swee'pea99]

The prohibition on splitting infinitives has been dead in the water for a generation or more. With no better grounding than the idea that English should ape Latin (perceived by Victorian halfwit snobs as superior) in which infinitives aren't split, it's lost all credibility among all but the most misguidedly pedantic. Much like the idea that there's anything inherently wrong with starting a sentence with 'and' or 'but' - also surprisingly resilient.

 

[yello]

Much like the idea that there's anything inherently wrong with starting a sentence with 'and' or 'but' - also surprisingly resilient.

And it's something I'm particularly fond of doing. For me, there's a stylistic difference that I like.

 

[Aperitif]

And it's something I'm particularly fond of doing. For me, there's a stylistic difference that I like.

And rue.