Topic: Pedant's Corner

[Rhubarb Thrasher]

i suppose a pedant is someone who learns the rules and sticks to them. It takes a bit of confidence to know when it's OK to break them for effect.

[antipodes]

With the Internet I feel like our English has gone down the toilet! People write then don't re-read themselves! and they write rubbish as a result!
My pet hates are:
"loose" when they mean "lose"
"He must of done it" instead of "must have" (idem "would of")
its/it's confusion (come on! just get it right!)
their/there/they're confusion (ggrrrrrr)

I think that most of the time it's just laziness, people don't want to think about learning rules anymore.

[Rhubarb Thrasher]

the truth may be that with computers and email we're all writing a lot more, and what sounds OK in speech doesn't look right written down. On the other hand, here's something that will make your blood boil
http://www.birminghampost.net/news/west-midlands-education-news/2008/07/01/student-picks-up-marks-for-swearing-on-exam-paper-65233-21207054/
-he'd have got more marks if he'd put an exclamation mark at the end! Priceless

[GrannieAnnie]

With the Internet I feel like our English has gone down the toilet! People write then don't re-read themselves! and they write rubbish as a result!
My pet hates are:
"loose" when they mean "lose"
"He must of done it" instead of "must have" (idem "would of")
its/it's confusion (come on! just get it right!)
their/there/they're confusion (ggrrrrrr)

I think that most of the time it's just laziness, people don't want to think about learning rules anymore.

Part of me agrees that there is writing laziness out there. But the larger part of me would rather read people's comments written conversationally (as in "off the top of their heads") and freshly uninhibited.

Many folks have been discouraged from writing for fear they'll make mistakes. What a pity that is! They have as many creative ideas to share as those with a spelling talent, and often have a flare for quick humor without which the internet would be a dessert, or is it desert?

[Hyacinth]

I can't, atm, access the links that have been put up...something for tonight (or tonite?) when I've more time, but.......

Word of Mouth...

fed up that the letter 'H', pronounced "aitch" is sometimes referred to as haitch.

So there! >:(

 ;D

[OllieC]

They called it haitch where I grew up in the North of Scotland... where they still stare at fires and don't trust wheels.

[GrannieAnnie]

They called it haitch where I grew up in the North of Scotland... where they still stare at fires and don't trust wheels.

:D LOL, Ollie!  Wait til I tell my husband that- his grandfather was from there. Can't wait! teehee!

The street language here is horrendous with obscenities. Aside from that, one hears, "I axed her, "Whatsa matter," instead of "I asked her, "What's the matter?"  Why can't people get the sk correct when they had no problem with it years ago?

[Grandma]

O! Don't start me on aitch! Even reporters on the BBC - (who should know better - having a pronunciation unit at their disposal) - are saying 'haitch'! Do they think it sounds 'posh' to put an aitch in front of every vowel?

'Ate it with a passion.

[hopalong]

I don't think cleverness has to be a prerequisite to pedantry. I argue whenever possible, and am pretty thick.

I would like to point out that the correct usage is "prerequisite of" or "prerequisite for", not "prerequisite to".

[Rhubarb Thrasher]

ha go and stand in the corner of the Pedant's Corner ollieC. Or Pedants Corner as the are a lot of us. God! is a lot uf us. My head hurts now.

What's a Gentleman's Prerequisite btw? I've often wondered, and have I got one? Or am I not a Gentleman?

[GrannieAnnie]

I don't think cleverness has to be a prerequisite to pedantry. I argue whenever possible, and am pretty thick.

I would like to point out that the correct usage is "prerequisite of" or "prerequisite for", not "prerequisite to".

Ollie should get 90 points minimum for spelling prerequisite correctly and another 10 for expressing his viewpoint with humility, a rarity on forums.

[OllieC]

Awww, thanks Grannie!

I would like to point out that if you google "prerequisite to pedantry" this discusion pops up now. That was deliberate.

Also, why on earth can't you have a prerequisite to something?

[Rhubarb Thrasher]

i don't understand this word prerequisite.

A requisite is a thing you need to have, and a prerequistite is a thing you need to have before you can have the thing you need to have

doesn't that make a prerequisite another requisite?

[markfield rover]

Prerequisites, a well used  or used well word in a Python's sketch.
The clever get it wrong too , near miss and wait for it .......... I myself, both of which appear on Newsnight too often.

[Hyacinth]

h

What's a Gentleman's Prerequisite btw? I've often wondered, and have I got one? Or am I not a Gentleman?

Huh! I'm just in from a hard slog.....many hours under a pitiless sun which has baked my clay soil to bricks......and yay! we're talking about my Passion....FOOD! 8)......but we weren't :'( Not Gentleman's Relish (Patum Peperium) atorl......but I still maintain it's a prerequisite to civiliz ed living...

[Melbourne12]

the truth may be that with computers and email we're all writing a lot more, and what sounds OK in speech doesn't look right written down. On the other hand, here's something that will make your blood boil
............
-he'd have got more marks if he'd put an exclamation mark at the end! Priceless

I'd seen that story on the BBC website, but they didn't quote the question ...

The expletive was reportedly given in answer to the question: “Describe the room you’re sitting in,” part of a 2006 GCSE exam. But the student missed out on marks because the phrase was not punctuated. Mr Buckroyd said: “If it had got an exclamation mark it could have got a little bit more.”

I wondered what had prompted the student to write such a thing.  Perhaps he was sitting in a large hall, and was struggling to say, "It's a big f@ck-off room, innit?"

Poor lamb.  He'd probably never had to write anything with an instrument smaller than an aerosol can, and was having problems with his motor control.  So he just extracted the key words.

[Rhubarb Thrasher]

the examiner said - it's better that he wrote something than write nothing - no it ******** isn't  ??? Are we showing our age in assuming it wasn't a girl, as only men swear? (That's why we have menswear departments  :D)

still don't know what a Gentleman's Prerequisite is. Is it a euphemism for something, and why isn't there a nice way of saying euphemism?

[hopalong]

I don't think cleverness has to be a prerequisite to pedantry. I argue whenever possible, and am pretty thick.

I would like to point out that the correct usage is "prerequisite of" or "prerequisite for", not "prerequisite to".

Ollie should get 90 points minimum for spelling prerequisite correctly and another 10 for expressing his viewpoint with humility, a rarity on forums.

I agree. I was just trying to enter into the pedantic spirit.

[OllieC]

You mean you wanted the spirit of pedantry to enter you?

I'm off to Belfast for a week now so sadly must let you all continue with this merry jape on your owns. Hope to see plenty of nit picking (picking knits?) upon my return...

Ollie

[Melbourne12]

Apropos of not very much, I was once delighted to be referred to as a pedanticist.  ;D