Sorry, I know I shouldn't let it get to me but...

[Norm]

As an example of how not to do it...

... to get back at me on!

Should that not be "on which to get back at me"

I am the worst sort of pedant, criticising others but then my fingers screw up the communication between the brain and the screen and it all goes to hell in a hand-basket.

I'm not too worried what people post on forums but it annoys the socks off me when it happens professionally, either in emails, in government leaflets, in marketing / advertising literature or in something that I have paid money for.

Or should that be "for which I have paid money"?

 

[Debian]

If it's crass, rude and vulgar to express an opinion on the upholding of standards then I'll continue to do so. Sarcasm and name calling will be dutifully ignored.

To rh100 - I have no problem with people arguing back, this is a forum after all. What I do object to is name calling, undue sarcasm (which is famously the lowest form of wit anyway and thus irrelevant) and being picked on for exactly what we're not supposed to pick on people for!

This is a general thread, my OP was not aimed at anyone in particular, I can't help it if the subject I originally posted about annoys me, so I have no problem about discussing the in's and out's, in general, but there's no need for it to get personal, if it does then that infers something to me. And yes, I know the previous sentence was too long.

 

[Debian]

As an example of how not to do it...


Should that not be "on which to get back at me"

I am the worst sort of pedant, criticising others but then my fingers screw up the communication between the brain and the screen and it all goes to hell in a hand-basket.

I'm not too worried what people post on forums but it annoys the socks off me when it happens professionally, either in emails, in government leaflets, in marketing / advertising literature or in something that I have paid money for.

Or should that be "for which I have paid money"?

I can empathise with you on that!

 

[MacB]

So why did you word your thread title in that manner?

 

[threebikesmcginty]

But then I heard an old Bill Haley song from 56 years ago Shake Rattle and Roll which has
"you won't do nothin' " in the lyric.
Somehow that made me calm down and accept it a bit.

I think you'll find that it's 'You never do nothing' - if you're gonna quote the lyric get it right!

 

[Andy in Sig]

As an example of how not to do it...


Should that not be "on which to get back at me"

Alas no. The idea that it is incorrect to finish a sentence with a preposition stems from 17th and 18th century attempts (which unfortunately met with a lot of success as the ideas persist to this day) to fit English - a Germanic language - as far as possible into a straitjacket based on the rules of Latin grammar. The thinking at the time was that Latin represented some sort of linguistic perfection.

So prepositions at the ends of sentences of clauses and sentences are deliciously English and there is no reason not to stick with them.

 

[swee'pea99]

Do you have to provocatively raise such issues, Andy?

 

[Norm]

Alas no. The idea that it is incorrect to finish a sentence with a preposition stems from 17th and 18th century attempts....

Hooked one... can someone help me land it?

[quote name='swee'pea99']Do you have to provocatively raise such issues, Andy?[/QUOTE]
Very clever.

 

[goo_mason]

I'm with the OP too, though I ignore the errors on the forum as this is an informal place.

However....

I still think that everyone on a cycling forum should be able to use 'pedal' and 'brake' properly rather than 'peddle' and 'break'. There's no excuse for those here!

 

[Over The Hill]

I think you'll find that it's 'You never do nothing' - if you're gonna quote the lyric get it right!

Googled it and found
Well, you won't do nothin' to save your doggone soul
and
Well you won't do right, to save your doggone soul

My quote was from the original Big Joe Turner version but of course later versions could easily have changed the line.

While the wont do right one does not have the double negative it does not fit the tune.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

Googled it and found
Well, you won't do nothin' to save your doggone soul
and
Well you won't do right, to save your doggone soul

My quote was from the original Big Joe Turner version but of course later versions could easily have changed the line.

While the wont do right one does not have the double negative it does not fit the tune.

Surely if anything is allowed to bend the rules, it's rock 'n' roll?

 

[Over The Hill]

I am really frustrated by written English. Somehow I still have this notion that a letter should represent a sound and that sound be constant. My brain is too logical. Just as 2+2 is always 4, I want sounds to be constant too. It just seems pointless that you cannot tell how to say "ough" unless you learn all the different variations that can go with it.
(Rough, Through, Marlbrough, Dough, Cough, Lough, Bough, Although etc)

 

[Over The Hill]

Surely if anything is allowed to bend the rules, it's rock 'n' roll?

Yes - but we are allowed to get annoyed and pedantic at Rap

 

[Slowgrind]

Don't let it get to you.

 

[threebikesmcginty]

My quote was from the original Big Joe Turner version but of course later versions could easily have changed the line.

You said Bill Haley not Big Joe Turner, I think you're being a bit Flip Flop and Fly!