Pedants' Paradise

[french frank]

'Lithuanian conductor, Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla, is the first woman to be appointed musical director of one of Britain's prestigious City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.'

You mean they've missed the 's' off Orchestra[s]???

[doversoul1]

Prom 6
In the second ever Gospel Prom…

http://www.bbc.co.uk/events/r938q9/by/date/2016/07/18?event_details=setlist#2016-07-18

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

One of our most esteemed posters frequently uses the word "folks" rather than "folk" (which is plural).

But "folks" is often used in informal setting, even though one doesn't hear of a singular folk.

[vinteuil]

.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=that%27s+all+folks+image&espv=2&biw=1366&bih=633&tbm=isch&imgil=izQqBu3ePRVw-M%253A%253BfeNLXa7N6eNwkM%253Bhttps%25253A%25252F%25252Fseesouthernstars.wordpress.com%25252F2015%25252F06%25252F24%25252Fthats-all-folks%25252F&source=iu&pf=m&fir=izQqBu3ePRVw-M%253A%252CfeNLXa7N6eNwkM%252C_&usg=__hn4A0WlH_a4FsMcH2G5_wkTf4uE%3D&ved=0ahUKEwixjvCT867MAhXBIsAKHZq2AwkQyjcILw&ei=VbsgV_GPGcHFgAaa7Y5I#imgrc=izQqBu3ePRVw-M%3A

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

... one doesn't hear of a singular folk.

People from Blackburn?

[ahinton]

People from Blackburn?

What's Ronald Stevenson got to do with this?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

What's Ronald Stevenson got to do with this?

A singular composer, if ever there was one!

[Pulcinella]

One of our most esteemed posters frequently uses the word "folks" rather than "folk" (which is plural).

But "folks" is often used in informal setting, even though one doesn't hear of a singular folk.

That's all, folks!

[ahinton]

A singular composer, if ever there was one!

!!!

...although one might also argue a certain plurality on his part in that, having been born in Blackburn, he ended up lliving for the last 60+ years of his life in a wee Scottish village to the rear of which is a black burn along which I walked with him once (and the sheer cornucopia of pluralities in his part of the conversation that took place during that perambulation had to be experienced to be believed!)...

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

That's all, folks!

I rest my case. To think that this lot have taken over EMI.

[jean]

Did anyone hear Nick Gibb make an idiot of himself on today's World at One?

But does anyone seiously think that getting children to correctly identify subordinating conjunctions is the way to improve their writing?

Here's Michael Rosen, back in November last year.

[ahinton]

Did anyone hear Nick Gibb make an idiot of himself on today's World at One?

But does anyone seiously think that getting children to correctly identify subordinating conjunctions is the way to improve their writing?

Here's Michael Rosen, back in November last year.

Thank you for this.

Rosen writes that "though this test's apparent purpose is to examine children's knowledge of language, I think its main purpose is to grade children"; I think that it's actually even worse than that, insofar as it's being made to look like that when the true purpose is to test and grade schools - after all, the ability to identify subordinating conjunctions at that age, if it's going to arise at all, will surely be dependent to a considerable extent upon the nature, quality and success of teaching (along with a goodly dollop of unbridled optimism on the part of the English teaching staff).

[teamsaint]

The whole sorry business doesn't seem to be very much about developing children's abilities, fostering love of reading and literature, or anything else useful , really.
No wonder so many young teachers leave the profession so soon after training.

http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/mar/31/four-in-10-new-teachers-quit-within-a-year

[Beef Oven!]

The whole sorry business doesn't seem to be very much about developing children's abilities, fostering love of reading and literature, or anything else useful , really.
No wonder so many young teachers leave the profession so soon after training.

http://www.theguardian.com/education...-within-a-year

Non-Sequiturs starting early today

[teamsaint]

Non-Sequiturs starting early today

I obviously should have hit the return button a few more times so that you could read between the lines more easily.