Grammar Discussions

[Deleted member]

I thought this yesterday as I was booking my car in for a service. The person I was arranging it with kept using "yourself" unnecessarily/incorrectly. SMH.

It drives me nuts !!

 

[Tropic]

Better than "youse" (mob)
I don't worry myself, but please yourself....

 

[ALH]

I know I have said it before , but it needs saying again, please, please, please, please, please STOP using "Yourself / Myself" at every opportunity, it is more often than not used incorrectly.

They’re their.......... don’t worry whom gets this wrong!!! Whilst I find your alone in you’re complaint, myself and my husband agree with yourself.

On another note; my pet hate right now is not so much grammar, as just dumb people constantly referring to “Frankenstein” in reference to scars and ugliness (like my scars from MVA).

Frankenstein was the Doctor. Not the monster.

I refer to my scars as Frankenstein’s handiwork.

 

[p--and--t]

My blood pressure and my friends are very grateful that KFC has removed those adverts that constantly referred to "goodification". I would go ballistic at the TV on each occasion the advert was played.

 

[ALH]

My blood pressure and my friends are very grateful that KFC has removed those adverts that constantly referred to "goodification". I would go ballistic at the TV on each occasion the advert was played.

WTF is goodification? Is it a bigly word I’ve not heard? I haven’t watched TV for 5 years. I wonder why?

 

[Cappuccino99]

My pet peeve is customer service reps asking me "what WAS your name?"
I want to say that it has always been 'Cappuccino99'

 

[TheRealTMA]

Better than "youse" (mob)
I don't worry myself, but please yourself....

Given that myself is reflexive, you should not be worried, personaly.

I quite like “youse”. English is one of the few languages that does not have a plural “you” so many Australians have just reinvented it and/or expanded the language, especially waiters.

 

[tgh]

Youse are a female sheep in many places….

 

[Melburnian1]

Some AFFers and many others in the community do not know the word 'fewer' and incorrectly use 'less.' It drives me bananas!

 

[DC3]

Some AFFers and many others in the community do not know the word 'fewer' and incorrectly use 'less.' It drives me bananas!

So, if you can count it, use fewer. If you can't, then make it less.

 

[get me outta here]

It doesn’t help that supermarkets say things like, ‘eight items or less’ instead of ‘eight items or fewer’. Another one that pops up all over the place including AFF is using disinterested when they mean uninterested.

Some AFFers and many others in the community do not know the word 'fewer' and incorrectly use 'less.' It drives me bananas!

 

[Hvr]

Some AFFers and many others in the community do not know the word 'fewer' and incorrectly use 'less.' It drives me bananas!

Would it be ten or fewer AFFers who get it wrong?
✈

 

[Melburnian1]

Never underestimate the power of a steel ruler in the hands of Sister Margaret Mary to inculcate the rules of grammar!

I had wonderful Catholic teachers - Nuns, Brothers and lay staff, the latter female and male, and they all were insistent we learn correct grammar.

It's always been useful, but 30s and younger that I've mentored at work often lack these skills. One further reason may be that the median ability of teachers may have declined as for years an education degree has been only 'attracting' graduates with the lowest VCE or equivalent in others States' scores. (Sometimes there might not be a nexus between good teachers and a high VCE score, but the latter hopefully indicates one is literate and to some degree numerate.)

 

[get me outta here]

Someone on a local group is giving away a pair of trainers. How many daughters does it cover and how many feet? “Both my daughter’s feet are too big”.

 

[Melburnian1]

So, if you can count it, use fewer. If you can't, then make it less.

That's indeed the general rule but while I can't think of them in an instant, there may be one or two exceptions because it's perceived as odd-sounding.

But supermarkets ought use 'eight items or fewer' not ...less.'

 

[tgh]

So, if you can count it, use fewer. If you can't, then make it less.

Is this not a preferential issue rather than "technically incorrect " grammar ?
Our everyday language is changing constantly and has done so for a very long time , where should the line be drawn ?

 

[Julesmac]

Another pet peeve is radio ads (looking at you 3AW) which messes up singular/multiple entity and uses is/are. Something like - Coles 'are' giving away......Coles the organisation is singular, so it should be Coles 'is' giving away....

 

[Tropic]

When you see people who cant spell (or do simple arithmetic) in your professional life, all over the internet, the media, even on our dismal ABC.. You realise, perversely, you're actually the one with the problem for being too literate.. People who cant spell just dont see or worry about spelling errors....

 

[TheRealTMA]

When you see people who cant spell (or do simple arithmetic) in your professional life, all over the internet, the media, even on our dismal ABC.. You realise, perversely, you're actually the one with the problem for being too literate.. People who cant spell just dont see or worry about spelling errors....

I liked the 7 /9 program (Current Affair or similar) who ran a campaign about illiteracy in schools and did a street questionnaire. They asked questions like “what’s the square root of 144.”

 

[Melburnian1]

When you see people who cant spell (or do simple arithmetic) in your professional life, all over the internet, the media, even on our dismal ABC.. You realise, perversely, you're actually the one with the problem for being too literate.. People who cant spell just dont see or worry about spelling errors....

Many of us must have seen shop assistants who use a calculator, or their smartphone, to subtract say 18 from 105. Appalling!