bad english, so called americanisms and bad spelling

[dirtydeeds]

on the guage topic, somebody complained about something fitting real good. thats not american at all, its just bad english. it grates on my ear regardless of accent


as for differences in american and british terminology, i find it useful in some cases to differentiate between things

take the terms keep (mainly british) and strike plate (mainly american)


i use the term keep for the jamb fitting for a deadlock

and strike plate for the jamb fitting of a sash lock or a latch

both pieces of ironmongery do exactly what the word says


now for my bad spelling. it probably grates on other people

if its not a business communication, i dont bother with a spell checker

 

[NickWelford]

My personal bugbear is the use - especially by so-called educated people like politicains - of the word 'less' when 'fewer' should be used - e.g. 'less people' ...... I just have to shout 'fewer, you moron' at the radio........

 

[woodbloke]

DD wrote:

i dont bother with a spell checker

...or the 'shift' key for Capitals - Rob

 

[Woody Alan]

Sadly in corporate world, from time to time I have to participate in conference calls where top management back slap each other. We have a new american higher manager and he said on this call "We've been noticed BIG.. REAL BIG by the people that matter" we all listened in stunned silence. He went on for a while in this vein saying absolutely nothing in the end.
I must just counter that with our British management, who came up with the internally used slogan "we're not just good we're bl**** good", like that would pitch to our level of understanding. That went down like a lead balloon.

Alan

 

[Shadowfax]

My pet hate is the use of "of" when the correct word is "have".
It really grates with me when I read or hear people using the expression "would of" or "could of". They don't ever say "I of done something"!!
Must calm down!

SF

 

[bugbear]

http://www.effingpot.com/

(hmm; having to use the wayback machine for this one)

http://web.archive.org/web/200708231503 ... rican.html

http://nika.frontier.iarc.uaf.edu/~cswi ... =1#message

BugBear

 

[Paul Kierstead]

He went on for a while in this vein saying absolutely nothing in the end.

I really only care about two things in meetings; are we communicating, and are you wasting my *&^&*^$#, (*&$(*, ()*#)(#% , *#)_@_)#% time. For the former, I work hard to make sure we are communicating; there is an insane mix of cultures and languages around here, so you have to stick with the core. For the latter, I just couldn't stand it anymore. I like to make things, to do things. I couldn't take spending over half my week in meetings where absolutely nothing at all was accomplished. I now work in a job that pays a lot less, but I get only about a single email a day and have meetings about once a month, when its busy. Now I get to work.

 

[Russell]

Language evolves and phases and words in common usage will eventually become the norm. You only have to watch a 70's TV program to see how much language has changed. My children constantly spout new "cool" words and phrases in a few years those phrases will be in the Oxford dictionary :roll:

 

[Lord Nibbo]

Umm... This is a woodwork forum, this is the hand tool section. There are plenty of English literature/grammar forums where I can go and read if I wanted to.

What's this thread doing here? :?

 

[Pete W]

What's this thread doing here? :?

My thought exactly!?!

Pete

 

[tnimble]

My pet hate is the use of "of" when the correct word is "have".
It really grates with me when I read or hear people using the expression "would of" or "could of". They don't ever say "I of done something"!!
Must calm down!

SF

Could someone please elaborate a bit on how "of" could be used instead of "have". Maybe it's me not offing :? English as my native tonge. As a small tangent I know a few Americans that use "ov" instead of "of"

 

[Slim]

What's this thread doing here? :?

Especially as the OP's post is very bad English. :roll:

Who cares!

 

[pam niedermayer]

...
Could someone please elaborate a bit on how "of" could be used instead of "have". Maybe it's me not offing :? English as my native tonge. As a small tangent I know a few Americans that use "ov" instead of "of"

Sure, from the contraction of [sic ] have, e.g. "should've," which is often pronounced "should ov."

Pam

 

[Racers]

Hi,

I'm with Lord Nibbo on this one. And as some one who is dyslexic and has real trouble spelling even simple words, to see people pontificating about how much better they are at english than me is a slap in the face. If you where critiquing a piece of woodwork would you have the same attitude?


Pete

 

[TheTiddles]

It appears from the last few months posts Dirtydeeds has a great deal of internal anger and I think it's good that he can release it here instead of being an axe murderer. Though, axes are hand tools so perhaps this is the right place for it? Not tenuous enough?? ok, maybe he's got an axe to grind over something? Perhaps he's trying to chisel out a niche for himself? Seems pretty plane to me!

 

[Shadowfax]

Sorry, Pete, but I don't think there is any "pontificating" going on here.
OK, this thread is probably not in the right place but part of the point of it is that language is not used correctly on a lot of occasions.
I was merely saying what I find annoying - nothing more. I don't want to change the world.

SF

 

[Ryan Cathey]

My pet hate is the use of "of" when the correct word is "have".
It really grates with me when I read or hear people using the expression "would of" or "could of". They don't ever say "I of done something"!!
Must calm down!

SF

That's actually called a contraction. It's correct spelling is "should've". Brace yourself, I'm from Kentucky; here's a list of particularly common contractions.

-could've
-would've
-should've
-when's (when is)
-since'afor (since before)
-'ceppin (except)
-the ever popular "ain't"
-won't (ok, that's a normal one but seriously, "won't" from "will" and "not"...what's up with that???)
-aginit (against it. most of these happen when you talk really fast)
that's just a small list.

O' course I wou-int wanna make a mockry of the English language mates. 'Ello, pip pip and aw dat. Cherrio, mates.

 

[Pete W]

Tiddles, that's an outstanding attempt to bring an off-topic post back on-topic.

[applause]

Pete

 

[bugbear]

Umm... This is a woodwork forum, this is the hand tool section. There are plenty of English literature/grammar forums where I can go and read if I wanted to.

What's this thread doing here? :?

Indeed. This site does have "General Chat (Off-Topic)" which would seem the most appropriate.

Mods?

BugBear

 

[wizer]

Yes I could talk about this for days, I'm very fussy with language. Language fascinates me.

I really don't mind colloquialisms like "Ain't" and "Can't". Regional dialect doesn't particularly bother me either.

But when people use words they really don't understand out of context, gets my goat. Of course, there are lots of popular phrases that are not grammatically correct. If my missus wants me to take something up stairs she will say "Can you bring that upstairs." It drives me crazy, to the point where I either snap "take, TAKE!" back or just ignore her until she says it right.