Forum home› The potting shed
This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.

Curmudgeons ' Corner 😠

1676870727396

Posts

  • LiriodendronLiriodendron Posts: 8,328
    I don't feel any irritation at all with people saying things differently from the way I'd say them, or using dialect expressions, or having regional accents.  We all want to understand and be understood - otherwise why talk to each other? 

    My objection is with those who put themselves forward as experts to inform the rest of us, on the news on TV and radio for instance, and end up being hard to understand, or just plain irritating.  This is sometimes because they don't think through what they want to say before starting, or because they want to sound "up to the minute" by using some new expression or inflection, or by breathing half way through a sentence instead of at the end (a habit learned from politicians trying not to be interrupted).

    Clarity is everything.  If I can't remember what someone in authority has said, because I was distracted by the way he or she said it, it might as well have been left unsaid, in my opinion... 
    Since 2019 I've lived in east Clare, in the west of Ireland.
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    There is a difference between spoken and written language and sometimes the brain is going to fast and words come out jumbled but, when writing English, one has the time to reflect because, in my experience, fingers are slower than tongues and we have spellcheckers.   

    Spoken language is about communication and is done at all sorts of levels and can be formal and informal; playful or serious, precise for technical/scientific/medical accuracy; nitpicking (or it seems so) for legal affairs.    No problem with colloquial expressions but I do expect people writing in newspapers, magazines and books to have a grasp of grammar and I also expect TV presenters on the news and documentaries to have a grasp of correct grammar and language usage.

    Since when, for example, did "concerning" mean worrying?
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • Lizzie27Lizzie27 Posts: 12,494
    I live with a pedant. One day I shall scream and hit him over the head with a saucepan!
    North East Somerset - Clay soil over limestone
  • KT53KT53 Posts: 9,016
    Lizzie27 said:
    I live with a pedant. One day I shall scream and hit him over the head with a saucepan!
    He's not a pedant.  He simply wants things to be correct. Nothing wrong with that.  You just need to buck your game up a bit. :D
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    Cast iron or something lighter?
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • Lizzie27Lizzie27 Posts: 12,494

    Thanks a lot KT53. Haven't got cast iron so it would have to be a stainless steel one B3.

    He were brought up proper like.

    North East Somerset - Clay soil over limestone
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    Mind you don't dent it, then😕
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • BenCottoBenCotto Posts: 4,718
    And now I’ve got Mule Train playing on a loop in my head!
    Rutland, England
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    Finlandia is proving hard to shift here😕
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • KT53KT53 Posts: 9,016
    Picidae said:
    And now I’ve got Mule Train playing on a loop in my head!
    :D:D:D
Sign In or Register to comment.