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Dobies email

EsspeeEsspee Posts: 274

Just opened an email from Dobies advertising their Colour Collection. "The easiest way to ensure complimentary (sic) colours".

Am I alone in hating the way our language is being mangled by the ignorant.  Complementary and complimentary are two very different words.  Don't they teach this stuff at school these days?

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  • Joyce21Joyce21 Posts: 15,489

    You are not alone  Esspee!!!!

    Examples are numerous......definite definateimagein spelling

    council,  counsel

    practice, practise   etc  etc.

    SW Scotland
  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,889

    there , their  and they're?

    Devon.
  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 11,340

    I'm shaw your rite :)


    Billericay - Essex

    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
  • CloggieCloggie Posts: 1,457

    ensure / insure

  • principle and principal does it for me

    and yes, we do teach the differences in schools!

  • TopbirdTopbird Posts: 8,355

    Oh dear! - maybe Dobies should of gone to your school then Gingly image

    While we're on the subject - if the GC / chain belongs to Mr Dobie or multiple people called Dobie  - shouldn't it be Dobie's or Dobies' GC?

    Last edited: 17 April 2017 09:30:05

    Heaven is ... sitting in the garden with a G&T and a cat while watching the sun go down
  • PosyPosy Posts: 3,601

    Well, yes, they DO teach this stuff in schools but nobody regards it. I remember being told that three basic spelling or grammar mistakes would result in an automatic Fail in my O Levels - whether true or not I can't say - and all our class work in all subjects was marked down for such errors, so it was worth making an effort. These days, markers are required to look for 'positive' features of the work and literacy only counts in the English papers because bad spelling doesn't mean you cannot understand History or Science. There is good and bad in this: some very bright children were persecuted for poor spelling, which is a test of memory, not intelligence, but it has made many very careless, and uncaring when it comes to speaking and writing English.

  • Don't get me started on this subject. I see travesties against the English language on a daily basis. Makes me want to become a grammar vigilante, like this guy:

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/04/03/revealed-self-styled-grammar-vigilante-corrects-badly-punctuated/

    image

    Last edited: 17 April 2017 11:00:27

  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190

    It doesn't matter to me one bit, as long as people write or talk to me

    My 13 year old grandson is doing a MathS A level this year, has already won a scholarship to a special Maths school which will ensure/insure ? him a place at university, he's already joined the Police Force as that is what he wants to specialise in , with a view to MI5 later, try to read one of his English compositions, best not mentioned,  I don't think it really matters, we are all good in our own field.

    i have stopped posting on other forums because of this, I feel certain people are not reading what I post, just picking up on my grammar. For certain reasons, I didn't do a lot of schooling, so finer points sometimes come harder to me.

    i have just read on another forum I post on sometimes someone said she couldn't be friends with someone who didn't get the grammar right.  That lets me out then?

    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • Joyce21Joyce21 Posts: 15,489

    "couldn't be friends with someone who didn't get the grammar right"

    Lyn, I wouldn't like someone like that for a friend.

    Even after years of teaching, it's not unKnown for me to make a grammatical error.  So what.........

    SW Scotland
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