Pedants' Paradise

[Serial_Apologist]

I imagine next year will be 20–20 (twenty twenty), though whether or not we'll all have perfect vision for the future will remain to be seen!

The ancient little ditty by which I was first taught to count as a nipper went "nineteen, twenty, my plate's empty"!

[LMcD]

For reasons that I don't need to explain - oh, alright, I like gawping at Linda Thorson - I found myself watching the last few minutes of a repeat of 'The Chase'. The host announced that 'The Chaser', who's supposed to know all the answers, 'got only 1 question wrong' - NO SHE DIDN'T!

[kernelbogey]

For reasons that I don't need to explain - oh, alright, I like gawping at Linda Thorson - I found myself watching the last few minutes of a repeat of 'The Chase'. The host announced that 'The Chaser', who's supposed to know all the answers, 'got only 1 question wrong' - NO SHE DIDN'T!

Was it the wrong question that she got the right answer to?

[vinteuil]

For reasons that I don't need to explain - oh, alright, I like gawping at Linda Thorson - I found myself watching the last few minutes of a repeat of 'The Chase'. The host announced that 'The Chaser', who's supposed to know all the answers, 'got only 1 question wrong' - NO SHE DIDN'T!

... a pedant might aver - "all right is all right ; alright is all wrong."

.

[Serial_Apologist]

... a pedant might aver - "all right is all right ; alright is all wrong."

.

I always thought they were referring to Madeleine Alright on the news.

[LMcD]

At least TV reporter and consumer champion Matt is Allwright.

[Pulcinella]

The UK had been due to leave the EU on 29 March, but the deadline was pushed back to 31 October after Parliament was unable to agree a way forward.
(BBC News site)

Pushed back or pushed forward?
Surely forward, if it's in the future?
I think I've seen both, and admit to being confused which to use in similar circumstances (so I get round the problem by saying 'moved').
This particular sentence is all the more awkward in using both back and forward!

[LezLee]

The UK had been due to leave the EU on 29 March, but the deadline was pushed back to 31 October after Parliament was unable to agree a way forward.
(BBC News site)

Pushed back or pushed forward?
Surely forward, if it's in the future?
I think I've seen both, and admit to being confused which to use in similar circumstances (so I get round the problem by saying 'moved').
This particular sentence is all the more awkward in using both back and forward!

This has always puzzled me too. 'Brought forward' works fine but I can't think my way round the opposite!

[french frank]

The UK had been due to leave the EU on 29 March, but the deadline was pushed back to 31 October after Parliament was unable to agree a way forward.
(BBC News site)

Pushed back or pushed forward?

I suppose 'push back' implies pushed further away than the immediate now. So you also bring something forward to 'now'. Put back means put it off. ('Push back' is also the new term for 'object to', 'disagree with' sthg). 'Bring forward' is easier to explain because to bring means move sthg towards, whereas you push sthg away.

[oddoneout]

I find it a rather confusing term and have to read again sometimes to check that a date is actually being postponed. I'm not sure why 'put back' cannot be used(which to me seems to sit better as the opposite to 'brought forward') - perhaps the deadline element implies there has to be some force involved - a struggle to get one's way?

[french frank]

I'm not sure why 'put back' cannot be used(which to me seems to sit better as the opposite to 'brought forward')

Isn't 'put back' the usual term? In the example quoted here as 'push back', I took it to indicate in that context some pressure involved (You Have No Choice).

[oddoneout]

Isn't 'put back' the usual term? In the example quoted here as 'push back', I took it to indicate in that context some pressure involved (You Have No Choice).

'Push back' seems to be gaining traction(!) over 'put back'.

[LMcD]

I'm not sure whether these have been mentioned before, but, in view of my particular interest in things German, I would respectfully point out that:
(a) The surname of the German Chancellor is pronounced so as to rhyme with 'Marecull', not 'Murkel', and the 'g' in Angela is hard
(b) 'Bayer' is pronounced so as to rhyme with 'Buyer' and not 'Bayuh' - e.g. as in Bayern Munich, which most soccer fans get right.

On the non-German front, I see that 'AdVERsary' is now preferred by some to 'ADversary'.

[oddoneout]

Mention has been made before I think of the problem of homonyms not being checked before use, but I notice that it seems to be slipping to what might be termed 'pseudo-homonyms'. I suspect that predictive text coupled with ignorance is a main cause.
One that I have seen several times recently is defuse/diffuse confusion which, as was pointed out BTL on a Guardian interview with Dr Ruth Westheimer, can be unfortunate. "Humour and charm has[sic] long been Westheimer's reflex for diffusing anxiety and shame".

[gurnemanz]

(a) The surname of the German Chancellor is pronounced so as to rhyme with 'Marecull', not 'Murkel', and the 'g' in Angela is hard

Reigning Wimbledon Champion, Angelique Kerber, tends to get the same treatment - usually referred to as "curber"