On 17/10/05 20:18, in article ,
"Pam Moore" wrote:

On Sun, 16 Oct 2005 22:59:59 +0100, Janet Baraclough
wrote:


The correct use of apostrophes hasn't changed, there are just more
people abusing them.

Who has read Eats, shoots and leaves? (to bring in a gardening link!)
Quite entertaining for those of us fussy about such things.
While we are on the topic of grammar, I would ask if anyone is as
infuriated as I am by the number of people who say "somethinK" and
"anythinK".
Anyone know why?
Also the frequency of "I'm SAT" for "sitting" and I'm STOOD" for
"standing". Many radio and TV reporters are guilty here.
Is it just language eveolving or is it because they don't teach
grammar any more?


My pet hates are "laying in bed" - why, are you a hen? - and "dove" into the
water. Perhaps I should say 'some of my pet hates'.....but I know my own
punctuation is appalling. I think I missed school that day. ;-)
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds to email me)

The message
from "cineman" contains these words:

Hello my friends hello (neil diamond the jazz singer)

Well Mr. W Sheakespeare would have understood the dialect of a place near
where I live,

The local dialect in the black country is reputed to be as close to old
anglo saxon as we can make out.

Which is claimed for Lowland Scots, Northumbrian, Geordie, etc etc.

Even Dr. Carl Chinn speaks black country but with a Birmingham accent.
and the spelling of some words used are usually written phonetically
hence
Wem bay be gooin t shaps
We are not going shopping
I dare say if I started typing as They talk arand heya there would be
a "lot
of letters to the editor" about the misuse of the english language.

Yhere should be more of it - and less television - especially Aussie
soaps. You can't tell if half the kids and young adults round here are
making a statement or asking a question...

BUT what is the correct version of the english language, yours or mine or
the academics who designed an almost mathematical formulae for setting
letters in the correct order.

You *HAVE* to be joking about that last comment - er - question?

Trough off
Slough uff
Slough ow
Through oo
Thorough uh
Furlough oh

My view is that english is still evolving, after nothing stays the same, or
we would all have webbed feet, or fins according to Darwin
Now shall we discuss the use of TXTing language???
Not tonight I have just done 12 hour shift and am too tired( thank goodness
says everyone)

Thank goodness!

If your

ARRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

still awake and have read this far.
I bid you a fond goodnight and happy gardening weather tomorrow, just seen
time, I meant TODAY

--
Rusty
horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co full-stop uk
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

The message 1129617348.befc061ec7cf973c6c362a9c470ee381@teran ews
from "Tim C." contains these words:
On Mon, 17 Oct 2005 23:03:00 GMT, cineman wrote:

...must have been all that chalk going around at school affecting my
memory.
I dont need chalk and blackboard now ...

You probably have been doing too much grocery shopping, and reading the
signs. ;-)

ITYM sign's

D&RA

--
Rusty
horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co full-stop uk
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

The message
from "BAC" contains these words:

But he wrote that circa 1950, and, lately, I have noticed the additional s
creeping into wider usage. Hence my original question as to what currently
constitutes 'most favoured practice'.

The trouble is with 'most favoured practice', it's subjective.

--
Rusty
horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co full-stop uk
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

"Jaques d'Alltrades" wrote in message
k...
The message
from "BAC" contains these words:

But he wrote that circa 1950, and, lately, I have noticed the additional
s
creeping into wider usage. Hence my original question as to what
currently
constitutes 'most favoured practice'.

The trouble is with 'most favoured practice', it's subjective.

--
Rusty
horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co full-stop uk
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

All this banter re the correct or incorrect usage of the English language
leaves me with but a single thought at my young age of 80.....I am far less
concerned with what is correct or incorrect than I am with......"Am I being
understood".....H

"Harold Walker" wrote in message
news

"Jaques d'Alltrades" wrote in message
k...
The message
from "BAC" contains these words:

But he wrote that circa 1950, and, lately, I have noticed the
additional
s
creeping into wider usage. Hence my original question as to what
currently
constitutes 'most favoured practice'.

The trouble is with 'most favoured practice', it's subjective.

--
Rusty
horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co full-stop uk
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

All this banter re the correct or incorrect usage of the English language
leaves me with but a single thought at my young age of 80.....I am far
less
concerned with what is correct or incorrect than I am with......"Am I
being
understood".....H



Weren't you the person extolling the virtues of creating the 'right'
impression by communicating in the manner preferred by (or appropriate to)
the target audience?

"BAC" wrote in message
...

"Harold Walker" wrote in message
news

"Jaques d'Alltrades" wrote in message
k...
The message
from "BAC" contains these words:

But he wrote that circa 1950, and, lately, I have noticed the
additional
s
creeping into wider usage. Hence my original question as to what
currently
constitutes 'most favoured practice'.

The trouble is with 'most favoured practice', it's subjective.

--
Rusty
horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co full-stop uk
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

All this banter re the correct or incorrect usage of the English language
leaves me with but a single thought at my young age of 80.....I am far
less
concerned with what is correct or incorrect than I am with......"Am I
being
understood".....H



Weren't you the person extolling the virtues of creating the 'right'
impression by communicating in the manner preferred by (or appropriate to)
the target audience?


Precisely............I am better understood in France by speaking French and
in Birmingham among the 'Brummies' speaking 'Brummy'.....H

"Kay" wrote in message
news
In article , Pam Moore
writes
On Sun, 16 Oct 2005 22:59:59 +0100, Janet Baraclough
wrote:

snip

I would ask if anyone is as
infuriated as I am by the number of people who say "somethinK" and
"anythinK".
Anyone know why?

Isn't it just Birmingham/Black country accent?

sumfink is not B-ham/ black country ,ore sarfend mate

regards
Cineman
snip

"Harold Walker" wrote in message
...

"BAC" wrote in message
...

"Harold Walker" wrote in message
news

"Jaques d'Alltrades" wrote in message
k...
The message
from "BAC" contains these words:

But he wrote that circa 1950, and, lately, I have noticed the
additional
s
creeping into wider usage. Hence my original question as to what
currently
constitutes 'most favoured practice'.

The trouble is with 'most favoured practice', it's subjective.

--
Rusty
horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co full-stop uk
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

All this banter re the correct or incorrect usage of the English
language
leaves me with but a single thought at my young age of 80.....I am far
less
concerned with what is correct or incorrect than I am with......"Am I
being
understood".....H



Weren't you the person extolling the virtues of creating the 'right'
impression by communicating in the manner preferred by (or appropriate
to)
the target audience?


Precisely............I am better understood in France by speaking French
and
in Birmingham among the 'Brummies' speaking 'Brummy'.....H



And, on a primarily UK newsgroup, something approaching 'standard English'
is most likely to be understood by the widest audience, IMO.

"BAC" wrote in message news:112:

Weren't you the person extolling the virtues of creating the 'right'
impression by communicating in the manner preferred by (or appropriate
to)
the target audience?


Precisely............I am better understood in France by speaking French
and
in Birmingham among the 'Brummies' speaking 'Brummy'.....H



And, on a primarily UK newsgroup, something approaching 'standard English'
is most likely to be understood by the widest audience, IMO.

But, not by all....and it seems that the discussion generated from a
gardeninf one to the use of the Englsih language among gardeners and non
gardeners...in other words a general topic....if ya knows wat I meens

"Dah" wrote in message
...

"I'm staying while 5 o'clock." would puzzle many. ("I'm staying until 5
o'clock.")
. . . and caused serious injuries to the poor soul at the railway
crossing who obeyed the sign WAIT WHILE (until) SIGNALS ARE FLASHING
peeple who spake like that understand wht they mean......................

BAC wrote:
Whilst at school, we were taught that it was incorrect to put an 's' after
the 'possessive' apostrophe in the case of plural words ending in 's'. Hence
we would put, for example, the squirrels' nuts (meaning the nuts put out for
the squirrels); not the squirrels's nuts; certainly not the squirrel's nuts,
which latter would mean we were asserting the squirrel (singular) was nuts.
As an expert in these matters, can you please advise whether that usage is
still regarded as correct?

I'm French. I was told that, taking your example, 'the squirrel's nuts'
is 'the nuts OF the squirrel'. The 's' is for 'of'. Plural would be
'the squirrels's nuts'. When I see 'the squirrels' nuts' I always think
it's a mistake. I don't teach my children this way of writting. And I
hope I'm right!

The message k
from Sacha contains these words:

My pet hates are "laying in bed" - why, are you a hen? - and "dove" into the
water. Perhaps I should say 'some of my pet hates'.....but I know my own
punctuation is appalling. I think I missed school that day. ;-)

'Dove' is not incorrect, just a dialect variation.

--
Rusty
horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co full-stop uk
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

The message
from jane contains these words:

'Compare to' instead of 'compare with' bugs me almost as much as the
less/fewer mistake, and the use of snuck for sneaked is just plain
irritating.

I'd agree with the 'compare to' hate, even though Willie said: "Shall I
compare thee to a summer's day?"

The past participle 'Snuck' is, like 'dove', a dialect or local
variation. or an affectation in the mouths of many.

I've just been reading around the websites linked to the Apostrophe
Protection Society and there's some interesting rules I wasn't aware
of. I need to read Eats, Shoots and Leaves again...

There were some comments on the use of ' I should of' rather than 'I
should have', when the short version is simply 'I should've' which of
course sounds like 'should of' and is therefore written incorrectly a
lot of the time.

The folk who do my work's publicity flyers annoy me too: they insist
that it is correct to say

Mr Bloggs said: 'I would like to thank...' instead of
Mr. Bloggs said, "I would like to thank..."

Well, they are more correct, if you can have degrees of correctness (an
absolute). The colon is correct, and you can argue amongst yourselves
about the quotation marks.

Argh! I've had quite an argument with them about the colon and the
quotes, and they still insist that in printing grammar, the colon is
correct. I've ended up almost screaming!

They're absolutely spot-on about the colon.

--
Rusty
horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co full-stop uk
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

The message
from "Harold Walker" contains these words:

All this banter re the correct or incorrect usage of the English language
leaves me with but a single thought at my young age of 80.....I am far less
concerned with what is correct or incorrect than I am with......"Am I being
understood".....H

Which is an excellent point, but if ones grammar, syntax and spelling
are below par, then the answer is very often "No."

Sometimes the context makes the meaning plain, but at others the meaning
can be at best, obscure, and at worst, reversed.

--
Rusty
horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co full-stop uk
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/