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Post by fumobici on Jul 14, 2021 2:37:44 GMT
I had to look it up I look at language more as a tool than a paintbrush, so I'm quite philistine about it. I hold few romantic notions about language, if it is well understood it is likely near enough correct. Then there are the languages where every noun must be assigned a gender...
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Grammar!
Jul 14, 2021 17:20:23 GMT
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Post by whatagain on Jul 14, 2021 17:20:23 GMT
Bah. Perso i can always look dumb and say i don't understand the subtlety... But it is indeed difficult for a non native to grasp the idea of the 'they' to cover both he or she. Thank God we haven't gotten there yet in French. Even cats have genders, no 'it', but 'elle' or 'il'.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 14, 2021 17:39:13 GMT
"Somebody left their umbrella in the office. Could you please let them know where they can get it?" An umbrella was left in the office. Could you please let that patient know that it is here."The patient should be told at the outset how much they will be required to pay." The charges should be revealed to the patient at the outset."But a journalist should not be forced to reveal their sources." Journalists should not be forced to reveal their sources.
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Post by fumobici on Jul 14, 2021 18:06:16 GMT
I wouldn't blink at either version of those, they both sound fine and fluent to me.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jul 14, 2021 18:06:17 GMT
I totally agree with Bixa. I do not find it any more difficult to say something like "the person" instead of "them". Language is going to hell in a handbasket (I have always loved that expression.).
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 5, 2021 21:43:54 GMT
The very next time I hears someone say "I's" for the first person singular possessive, I am going to quit speaking English and learn Urdu or Chinese or something. It is just too painful to hear my mother tongue abused in that way. How in the name of everything logical does a native speaker of English imagine that is a word?! Sheesh!
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Post by fumobici on Aug 6, 2021 2:13:45 GMT
I've only heard it used in African-American and general backwoods dialect, and actually never used as the possessive but rather as a contraction for "I is". Examples "I's gonna recode my website", or "I's ready to tee off". The same trick is used with all the personal pronouns in the compound tenses, singular or plural. The "to be" verb is conjugated "is" up and down all the pronouns or proper names and contracted. The second of the compounded verbs is often given a preceding "a-" prefix: "I's a-gonna", We's a-gonna", "I's a-ready", "They's a-wishing", and so on.
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 6, 2021 2:53:59 GMT
Actually, I'm okay with "I is" in place of "I am", if it's used by a person for whom that's the natural way to speak. Sometimes even people who know how to speak correctly will lapse into how they spoke growing up, if they're feeling comfortable. That particular kind of "bad grammar" is based logically on the rules of English, so can be considered more akin to regional speech.
What I'm referring to is this construction: "This is Martin and I's first trip together." Watch reality tv or talk shows or other situations where people are speaking spontaneously & you'll eventually be horrified to hear it. It is appalling because it comes out of the mouths of people who obviously should know better.
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Post by mickthecactus on Dec 4, 2021 8:15:03 GMT
On the tv news this morning "owners will have to microchip their cats when they are 20 weeks old".
UK babies are very forward....
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 22, 2022 17:51:40 GMT
It's what made you a great power. Having unburdened myself of a rant on Words You Hate, I went over to Food Abominations and found something else that not only do I hate, but that is just plain wrong. we might just give these ones a tryNo. It's not "these ones" or "those ones", but simply these or those. The usage is not only poor grammar, it's downright infantile.
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Post by bixaorellana on May 4, 2023 15:37:35 GMT
This is a common mistake:
William's children will wear scarlet uniforms and hold a small, ceremonial sword
So they can afford uniforms, but not individual swords?
This thoughtless construction is heard all the time, as in Those in favor raised their hand.
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Grammar!
May 4, 2023 16:32:45 GMT
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Post by mickthecactus on May 4, 2023 16:32:45 GMT
Annoying isn’t it.
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Grammar!
Aug 5, 2023 11:06:05 GMT
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Post by mickthecactus on Aug 5, 2023 11:06:05 GMT
On the BBC just now “Levi Roots cooks hot pepperpot stew with his mother”.
I’m sure she tasted delicious.
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Post by kerouac2 on Aug 5, 2023 11:53:40 GMT
"With" has become an all-purpose connector. I often see movies with Brad Pitt.
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Grammar!
Aug 5, 2023 12:23:41 GMT
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Post by mickthecactus on Aug 5, 2023 12:23:41 GMT
Does he pay?
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Grammar!
Aug 5, 2023 16:44:56 GMT
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Post by Kimby on Aug 5, 2023 16:44:56 GMT
When did “needs doing” or “needs to be done” become “needs done”? That’s just WRONG!
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Post by kerouac2 on Aug 5, 2023 16:47:42 GMT
Thank god I've never heard that, but since I no longer live in an English speaking country, I have the advantage of not hearing most new abominations unless they make it to the exported movies or television programmes.
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Grammar!
Aug 5, 2023 16:51:36 GMT
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Post by Kimby on Aug 5, 2023 16:51:36 GMT
I am doing battle with Auto spell on iPhone regarding the use of apostrophes. I KNOW my apostrophes but have to spellcheck scrupulously to avoid misuse by the little brain in my phone. For example, I cannot type “were” without it being turned to “we’re”, or “its” without it being turned to “it’s”.
And “Kimbys” automatically becomes “Kimby’s” even though I wanted the plural, not the possessive. Do I have to change it to “Kimbies” for the plural? Arrgh!
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 5, 2023 21:58:06 GMT
You have to disable auto-complete.
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Grammar!
Sept 16, 2023 7:40:39 GMT
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Post by mickthecactus on Sept 16, 2023 7:40:39 GMT
THis headline on Sky News doesn’t sound quite right.
“Ashton Kutcher resigns as chairman of Thorn, the anti-child sex abuse organisation.”
At least I hope it’s wrong...
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Grammar!
Sept 16, 2023 8:29:50 GMT
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Post by whatagain on Sept 16, 2023 8:29:50 GMT
It is clear for me. Foreigners !
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Post by bixaorellana on Sept 16, 2023 20:38:59 GMT
They really needed to put more thought into the phrasing of that headline!
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 6, 2023 2:34:52 GMT
This has been making me crazy for the past few months. We all know the difference between "there is" and "there are" and why and how to use them.
Not any more. Apparently it's just too difficult and exhausting to do all that subject-verb agreement now. This is a sentence I copied from a post in a private facebook group, but you can find this incorrect usage fairly regularly in journalism or other writing by those who should know better.
There’s 10,000 asylum seekers a day reaching the border.
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Grammar!
Oct 6, 2023 6:20:37 GMT
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Post by whatagain on Oct 6, 2023 6:20:37 GMT
And sometimes it becomes their …
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Post by bjd on Oct 6, 2023 7:09:37 GMT
I have noticed that use of "there's" for plurals often enough in Canada, even among educated people and on the news.
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Post by kerouac2 on Oct 6, 2023 10:07:37 GMT
There's a lot of ignorant people out there.
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Grammar!
Oct 6, 2023 11:19:54 GMT
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Post by whatagain on Oct 6, 2023 11:19:54 GMT
They take it from French. Il y a can be followed by singular or plural. These guys are multi linguists is all.
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 6, 2023 16:10:29 GMT
I have noticed that use of "there's" for plurals often enough in Canada, even among educated people and on the news. It's maddening. The Guardian is a rich source for this bad usage. My question is, did they used to know better, but then consciously or unconsciously start following others? There's a lot of ignorant people out there. Ha! Thanks, Kerouac -- that's one of the prime examples.
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Post by fumobici on Oct 6, 2023 19:05:16 GMT
I see the "greengrocer's apostrophe" used even by C-level executives and graduates from elite universities. I assume there's some sort of congenital cognitive disability in play.
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 16, 2023 1:43:00 GMT
I remembered that another anyporter ( fumobici) said that he had never come across "I's" used as a possessive pronoun. Well, here it is, freshly copied from an online travel group: This group has been invaluable over the past 1.5 years of planning my wife and I's 2 week honeymoon ...
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