"Less" and "Fewer," Does It Matter?

[edger]

Few of us who support the grammarian side of the argument are represented here. We are likely to get called out for our bad grammar. Contracts and constitutions demand accurate language, however, so I don’t enjoy the slippage in standards.

 

[mawnansmiff]

"And then add the “glottal stop” that replaces “T”s. Yowzer!"

Edger, I confess to have used the glottal stop in speech on occasion but it's something I wish I didn't utter.

Another linguistic gripe I have is when folk say "haitch" for the 8th letter of the alphabet when it is actually "aitch". I have heard many so called educated folk in politics and the TV media say "haitch" that leaves me wondering how they got the job in the first place.

My late father was a journalist of the old school and would likely have dismissed a potential trainee for uttering such among other linguistic nonsenses.

Over here we have a TV journalist called Beth Rigby and she has an awful habit of leaving the 'g' from the end of words such as "when I was vistitin 10 Downin Street hopin to speak to...." .

Your language defines you just as much as your manners!

Regards,

Jay.?

 

[JMcQ]

Another linguistic gripe I have is when folk say "haitch" for the 8th letter of the alphabet when it is actually "aitch". I have heard many so called educated folk in politics and the TV media say "haitch"

Jay, I'm pretty sure a test of how YOU think that the 8th letter of the alphabet should sound is not a normal job interview question.

 

[edger]

"And then add the “glottal stop” that replaces “T”s. Yowzer!"

Edger, I confess to have used the glottal stop in speech on occasion but it's something I wish I didn't utter.

Another linguistic gripe I have is when folk say "haitch" for the 8th letter of the alphabet when it is actually "aitch". I have heard many so called educated folk in politics and the TV media say "haitch" that leaves me wondering how they got the job in the first place.

My late father was a journalist of the old school and would likely have dismissed a potential trainee for uttering such among other linguistic nonsenses.

Over here we have a TV journalist called Beth Rigby and she has an awful habit of leaving the 'g' from the end of words such as "when I was vistitin 10 Downin Street hopin to speak to...." .

Your language defines you just as much as your manners!

Regards,

Jay.?

I'm with you. My relatives in Ulster all use "haitch". The dumbing down of standards does no one any good.

 

[edger]

America is too large and unique to make and keep any hard grammer rules. Language and dialect change over time. Even great authors and poets have bent and down right broken strict accepted rules of written grammer.

To nit pick someone's grammer or pronunciation, is just saying, "how I was taught is right and how you were taught is wrong".

Nah! You over simplify. One of the reasons we are so polarized today is that no one agrees that accuracy in language is important. It's the" my truth"shit over the more universally accepted TRUTH.

 

[Seamaster]

Language is a bitch. I always get upset at people who don't use unique properly.

Don't get me started on "literally".

 

[mawnansmiff]

"Jay, I'm pretty sure a test of how YOU think that the 8th letter of the alphabet should sound is not a normal job interview question."

JMcQ, the horse is dead, you can stop flogging it now.

Regards,

Jay.?

 

[Magpiety]

I think the few people still using the Oxford comma are the only reason civilization still stands.

I went to the fair with the strippers, Hitler, and Stalin.

I went to the fair with the strippers, Hitler and Stalin.

Very different meanings there.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Fewer people misunderstand me, than if I try to speak another language. In Paris, back in college, every time I would ask where the bathroom was in my high school French, some jackass would send me into an alley... which I was pretty sure someone was waiting to kill me... or Parisians prefer to piss in the alley... not sure which is which.

 

[jpmcwjr]

John, "o1f course" being an appositive phrase, it needs a comma before, as well as after. I put some extras in the other sentence so feel free to use one of those of course!

You be rite! I do have plenny 'postrophes and commas, though.
,,,,,,,,,,,,
Thanks!, !, !, !,!

P.S. Wouldn't a comma go nicely before "of course"? Prolly not necessary, tho.

 

[jpmcwjr]

<< Snipped bits out >>

Over here we have a TV journalist called Beth Rigby and she has an awful habit of leaving the 'g' from the end of words such as "when I was vistitin 10 Downin Street hopin to speak to...." .

Your language defines you just as much as your manners!

Yes, but isn't that affectation quite "U"?

Similar to Bertie Wooster, IIRC.

 

[anotherbob]

"Still, for anyone who has been around long enough to cultivate a particular usage, the "wrong" diction can really grate. "

I'm forever dismayed that Americans have lost the ability to pronounce the letter 'T' in many words as thus....

"In twenny twenny the democradic pardy did their doody and voded for Biden in the baddle of the pardies".

Having heard American speech from the earliest available recordings, this seems to have been a relatively recent thing.

Regards,

Jay.?

actually it's the British that say T all weird. Like when they say thing. Of course that's perspective but I always find it funny when I hear British people doing their American accent and think oh God that's how we sound to them.

 

[anotherbob]

Some people have a mastery of the English language, and some people not english so good.

^right there why it's important to learn proper language skills, or in other words that first half no idea what the guy is talking about (as usual) it's not till after the (,) that it gains any clarity. But what can you expect from a Cosmic guy probably too high on some weird drug to string words together well (or good not sure which it is).

 

[anotherbob]

"To nit pick someone's grammer or pronunciation, is just saying, "how I was taught is right and how you were taught is wrong"."

JMcQ, the word you are looking for is grammar so I can confidently say that you were indeed 'taught wrong' ?

Regards,

Jay.?

I agree with JMcQ. You know when not even the experts can agree on certain things or even understand. Seriously there are rules in English no one talks about and yet they're there and discovered by linguist somewhat frequently. Things that aren't actively taught things we all do that no school has ever said you have to.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I don't think I've ever said the "g" at the end of an "ing" word. It requires a nasal collapse that locks up my ability to say the next words, and creates a gap in my sentences. If I force the "g" and try to speed my way up to the next word, I get this sensation that I might flip.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

^right there why it's important to learn proper language skills, or in other words that first half no idea what the guy is talking about (as usual) it's not till after the (,) that it gains any clarity. But what can you expect from a Cosmic guy probably too high on some weird drug to string words together well (or good not sure which it is).

I don't know no nothing about no speaking good... but I do it stone cold sober.

 

[anotherbob]

I don't know no nothing about no speaking good... but I do it stone cold sober.

I knew it he's so high he feels sober again. It all makes sense now. And it's spelled stoned not stone.

 

[hawky454]

The one that grinds my gears is when people use the word, “conversate” rather than, “converse”. I’ll get over it though.

 

[jpmcwjr]

I knew it he's so high he feels sober again. It all makes sense now. And it's spelled stoned not stone.

No, it's not.

 

[jpmcwjr]

The one that grinds my gears is when people use the word, “conversate” rather than, “converse”. I’ll get over it though.

Resiliency chaps my hide a bit. The word "tradegy" meant something very different than a pet being run over or a pallet of milk spoiled.