Newsreaders and their grasp of English........

[Deb P]

Sorry, can't let this pass without comment, just watching Sky News with a female news reporter describing the current situation with the 'Boston bombers', who stated that one of the brothers had been 'catched on camera'.......really?!

[Deb P]

[grannyjanny]

A few weeks ago Deb they were interviewing a 'star' whose wife was pregnant, she was also a 'star'. The interviewer said the child would be 'criminally beautiful'. I cannot take that woman seriously anymore. It doesn't take much .

[Bill Door]

I didn't know there was a scan for that!

So that makes me innocently ugly.

Could be. Could be!

Anybody behind me yet?

Bill

[French-Dream]

I'm no expert, I drop the odd "H" but what is happening???

When did an "Actress" become an  "Actor"  and a "Comedienne" a "Comedian" we seem to have lost the female form on lots of things.

Also when you hear on the news ( from the USA) that a serial killer has been "hanged" should it not be "hung"  the past simple and past participle of hang?.

I've lost the power to live at times....

[grannyjanny]

Our youngest granddaughter often says to her mummy that the wrong word has been used on the news. I'm starting to get a little worried as she wants to be important to everyone. She read the paper on Thursday & the MT story really ticked all the boxes for her. She now wants to be a woman PM. BTW, she's 6, sorry, nearly 7 .

[Obelixx]

I spend quite a lot of time muttering, and sometimes shouting, at garmmatical mistakes made by suppposedly well educated newsreaders, reporters and pundits on TV and radio and I hate the way Americanisms are creeping in to every day language such a s gobsmacked and big ask.    What's wrong with speechless or amazed and a lot to ask?

Your grandaughter sounds great.  I hope she keeps her clarity, vision and ambition.

[GrannieAnnie]

and I hate the way Americanisms are creeping in to every day language such a s gobsmacked and big ask.    What's wrong with speechless or amazed and a lot to ask?

I think "gobsmacked" is Irish, not American. I first heard it recently when a Danish friend wrote it in a letter to me.
That said, we do seem to have deteriorated verbally. Part of the newspeople's problem is they have to keep talking to fill in the time when there really isn't anything new to say. We chuckled listening to one reporter who'd been asked how far in miles the bomber had traveled. Instead of saying she didn't know (which she obviously didn't) she began a repetitive monologue that added no new facts. The more unscripted blathering they do, the more grammatical errors pop out.
Here's a British-ism that now occurs in the USA "he went missing." What happened to he is missing?

[Obelixx]

He went missing is correct - as long as it's qualified by some more information such as yesterday, six months ago, after a row..............

[Unwashed]

Also when you hear on the news ( from the USA) that a serial killer has been "hanged" should it not be "hung"  the past simple and past participle of hang?.

No, hanged is correct - though you can also be well-hung.

[Unwashed]

I snigger when women are described as having fallen pregnant - what do they keep falling on?

[grannyjanny]

Oh Obellix I fear she will. She has 2 teenage sisters so can't wait to be one so that she can, in her words 'do lots of inappropriate things'. She has also written a letter to her self for when she's a teenager, to remind her not to be grumpy like her sisters .

[Obelixx]

I like her more and more.    My daughter is just 18 and mostly OK but does occasionally throw a proper teenage strop and grump.  I keep reminding her of all the conversations we had at 3, 4, 5, 6.......... about not turning into a grotty teenager.   

[GrannieAnnie]

Never heard of "fallen pregnant", "grotty" or "strop."  Must be British-isms?

GrannyJanny, Your grandchild must keep you laughing every hour. That age is my favorite: they can talk well enough to let you know what is going through their little minds and how they are interpreting our world.

[Chrispy]

I got a long lecture from the father of my now ex-girlfriend on how awful it is that young people are not taught to speak properly.

My crime was that I referred to the man down the road that keeps chickens as 'The man down the road who keeps chickens'.

However I tried, I could not persuade him it was OK to call a chicken a chicken, he just insisted that I was wrong because it was not what he was taught.

What a Muppet.

[Obelixx]

Is he a Scot who thinks they are all hens?

[Chrispy]

Not a Scot, But yes, insisted that you have to call them hens as chickens do lay eggs.

Solves that long standing question, what came first the chicken or the egg.

So the man down the road does not keep chickens, he keeps hens, so I have no idea where all the chicken manure comes from.

[Obelixx]

But that's denying the poor old cocks isn't it?   Hen is sex specific.  Chicken isn't - or you coul d be super correct and call them poultr but that includes ducks and geese and.......    Chickens it is then.