Am I being too pedantic?

[Squash64]

If you phone Asda's customer services you get the following message -

Due to higher than average call volumes it may take us a little longer
to answer your calls than usual.

I think this should be -

Due to higher than average call volumes it may take us a little longer than
usual to answer your calls.

Am I being too pedantic?

[Squash64]

[Pescador]

Not at all! Disgraceful mis-use of the English language.

Use Tesco instead!!

[okra]

Probably something to do with being an American company, I'm surprised that it does not include have a nice day

[daitheplant]

Okra, you missed out Y`all.lol

[lillian]

Wondered if the call centre was in the Uk as I always speak to somebody with a foreign accent

[theothermarg]

I hate it when Poloma Faith comes on the radio warbling "Don't say nothing"  grrrr
marg

[Jeannine]

One of my pet peeves too, and no not the US..I hear it all the time whatever countries channel I am on..
yesterday I heard someone on a news show talks about " maid of honours" when it should be " maids of honour"
XX Jeannine

[galina]

Squash,

What are the actual rules here, if any?  I would have said both are correct and it is a matter of emphasis.  The main message is that it may take them longer to answer the call, the 'usual' is of secondary emphasis?  But then English isn't my native language. 

I sometimes wonder whether what I write here comes across the way I intend, and I often re-write my messages too.  Don't have an innate sense of what is right and what isn't, but if I let that worry me, I'd never post here again.   

[Squash64]

Galina,
I'm not an expert, but I think that it sounds wrong because than usual
is referring to the length of time (a little longer) so it sounds better next
to it. 
The message is the same however they put it, it's just me being too picky!

As for you, it's only by reading various things you've said about yourself
that I realised you are not English! 

[Digeroo]

Galina your English is just fine.  It is my mother tongue and I am dreadful at it.   My mother was a primary school teacher so I was brought up with eight year old language. 

I am sure Squash is right that it should be the other way round, but as long as everyone understands I do not mind.  My husband was very picky about grammer but after a stroke his language is very odd.  So after years of correcting me, I now have to put up with trying to understand a lot of gobbledegook.

Been surfing the net and found both forms scattered about.  So even if it is wrong it is in common usage.

Perhaps Squash you should feel lucky to have got an explanation at all.

[galina]

Galina,
I'm not an expert, but I think that it sounds wrong because than usual
is referring to the length of time (a little longer) so it sounds better next
to it. 
The message is the same however they put it, it's just me being too picky!

Thanks Squash, makes perfect sense.  Maybe they tacked the 'than usual' on at the end to make you think that 'usually' they are very prompt?  Now that I don't believe ..............

As for you, it's only by reading various things you've said about yourself
that I realised you are not English!

Thanks Digeroo and Squash - that is reassuring.

English is a very deceptive language.  At first it is very easy to learn, then some very odd spellings (nowhere near pronunciation) and more exceptions than rules in grammar make it really difficult. 

Also the language is in flux.   When I learned English, the rule was: use 'fewer' if you could count it and 'less' if you couldn't - for example 'we are spending less time on housework, we are spending fewer hours on it'.  But now (BBC included) it seems we 'will have less planes in the military' rather than 'fewer' etc, etc.  In a few years time 'fewer' may be considered an old fashioned word because everybody says 'less'.   Right now it grates, but I wonder whether today's teens already consider this perfectly normal? 

Hope your hubby's speech is getting better, Digeroo.

[gazza1960]

I had to chuckle at Bettys ""your not English"" Galina.......................when in fact im surprised any of us can converse with each other at all if you look at the evidence..!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


E=VERY OTHER COUNTRY WEVE CONQUERED,AND WHOS DECENDENTS NOW LIVE HERE
N=ORMANS..........FRENCH
G=AELIC SPEAKERS.........CELTS
L=ISTED AS ANGLO SAXONS..............GERMAN EXTRACTION
I=TALIAN.............ROMANS
S=CANDINAVIAN...........SWEDEN/NORWAY/DENMARK (VIKINGS)
H=OLLANDERS........DUTCH     

sorry  just amused me.......

Gazza(half German and half welsh ) but calls himself English.....so gord knows if anybody can understand me.......      

[small]

Don't start me on 'less' and 'fewer', it's my pet hate. Galina, you are quite right, just because the BBC don't care doesn't mean we all have to give up. I used to insist on my class of 6-year olds getting it right, and they all had English as a second language....I wonder if any of them remember!

[tricia]

I would add 'amount' and 'number' to 'less' and 'fewer'. I always shout at the TV when those words are used incorrectly (but they don't listen  ).............and as for saying Haitch as so many do........grrrr!

Tricia 

[InfraDig]

You might enjoy "Eats,shoots and leaves" by Lynne Truss!

[Obelixx]

I'm all for correct usage of English and expect big companies like ASDA or the government or the BBC to employ people to make sure it is correct in anything they publish or broadcast or use to inform the public or their customers.   Knowing how to construct a sentence is key to communicating the correct meaning and also to learning other languages.   Unfortunately, British state schools stopped teaching formal grammar some 40 odd years ago.

When I moved to Belgium 20 years ago I took classes to improve my school girl French so I could understand and contribute to local life.   People just a couple of years younger than I were completely flummoxed because they didn't know about basic stuff like subject, verb, direct and indirect objects and complementary words and phrases, let alone transitive and intransitive verbs or the subjunctive form.

Meanwhile the Beeb along with rather a lot of reporters in the so called quality newspapers doesn't know about less and fewer or even that government is a single noun and other such grammatical transgression.  Lots of fuel for a rant when I'm in the mood.

[Deb P]

Am I the only person who still bridles at every 'drive thru' I see.......they make my blood boil!!!

[Borlotti]

I hate kids go free, kids are baby goats, or so my father told me. Feel like taking a baby goat to a restaurant and see if he gets served.  I did pass English language at school but still don't understand some of the parts of speech, but anyway I don't like Asda much, try Waitrose.  Fed up with Marks & Spencer as only bought a loaf of bread, and long queues, and they have introduced self service tills, which I refuse to use, so the quick till only had two staff serving instead of the usual five.  One member of staff was handing out plastic bags to the self service till customers, felt like telling her to open up a till.  Feel much better for that moan.  By the way I have two children and four grandchildren, not kids or grandkids, so there.

[Squash64]

When I see a notice saying 'Please take a basket' I feel like doing just that,
they would come in handy at the allotment.

[Unwashed]

Dogs Must Be Carried!