Pedants' Paradise

[amateur51]

Careful, or French Frank'll modjer if you write sodjer!

lovely stuff!

[marthe]

Or even "nuclear/nookiller", marthe!

S_A I could never figure out the speech of GWB. I speaks like a real rube from the plains of Texas even though his family was New England WASP to the nth degree. He certainly didn't learn to speak that way at Yale.

[marthe]

'Sowjer' is a recognised English dialect spelling of soldier. Google pulls up plenty of references to Lancashire, especially Wigan, dialect. I had a feeling that Kipling uses some such spelling but haven't found it in Barrack Room Ballads. It might be in one of his army short stories though.

'Sowjer' as Wigan dialect explains everything. My husband is a Lancashire lad from Wigan!

[scottycelt]

It gets worse ...

As I type, on the BBCNEWS 24 channel there is a running headline at the bottom wich reads ...

'Both mainstream political parties are expected to loose support to anti-austerity parties in today's Greek elections.'

Is there no one left in the BBC qualified enough to check the spelling on text before it goes out?

[Beef Oven]

It gets worse ...

As I type, on the BBCNEWS 24 channel there is a running headline at the bottom wich reads ...

'Both mainstream political parties are expected to loose support to anti-austerity parties in today's Greek elections.'

Is there no one left in the BBC qualified enough to check the spelling on text before it goes out?

Their getting worst, you could of known this SC.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

For once a Thread that's not gone off of topic.

[mangerton]

I heard this construction on Radio 4 this evening. It is being used more and more frequently. Does anyone know why?

"If it hadn't have rained, we wouldn't have got wet."

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I heard this construction on Radio 4 this evening. It is being used more and more frequently. Does anyone know why?

"If it hadn't have rained, we wouldn't have got wet."

People don't respect the language. The just mangle it.

[mangerton]

Is there no one left in the BBC qualified enough to check the spelling on text before it goes out?

Oh, I think they can use the spell checker. "Loose" is of course a perfectly good word. Ewe can spellcheck till your blew in the mouth......

I'm sure this must of bean posted bee fore:

Spell Checker
Eye halve a spelling chequer
It came with my pee sea
It plainly marques four my revue
Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.
Eye strike a key and type a word
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am wrong oar write
It shows me strait aweigh.
As soon as a mist ache is maid
It nose bee fore two long
And eye can put the error rite
Its rare lea ever wrong.
Eye have run this poem threw it
I am shore your pleased two no
Its letter perfect awl the weigh
My chequer tolled me sew.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

[Pabmusic]

Perfect, Mangerton.

[Pabmusic]

I heard this construction on Radio 4 this evening. It is being used more and more frequently. Does anyone know why?

"If it hadn't have rained, we wouldn't have got wet."

I suspect it's just sloppy English - a spin-off from the (mild) confusion that can occur between these types of construction: "I'd like to have been there, but..." and "I'd have been happy to do it yesterday, but not now." They have different senses, but some people often seem to be overcome by the idiom and insert an extra 'have': "I'd have liked to have been there, but..." and "I'd have been happy to have done it yesterday", which changes the sense again to an almost metaphysical one ("I should like to have been in a state yesterday in which I was content in knowing that I had already done it") and which is almost certainly not what the writer meant.

The trouble is that this sort of misunderstanding can become an idiom, and then the battle's lost.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

The trouble is that this sort of misunderstanding can become an idiom, and then the battle's lost.

So often "an idiom" is used as an excuse for bad English.

[scottycelt]

So often "an idiom" is used as an excuse for bad English.

Talking about cool new idioms and the BBC ...

The preacher's opening words on Thought for the Day on R4 this morning ...

'Hello, John, how are YOU .. ?'

[jean]

I suspect it's just sloppy English - a spin-off from the (mild) confusion that can occur between these types of construction: "I'd like to have been there, but..." and "I'd have been happy to do it yesterday, but not now." They have different senses, but some people often seem to be overcome by the idiom and insert an extra 'have': "I'd have liked to have been there, but..." and "I'd have been happy to have done it yesterday", which changes the sense again to an almost metaphysical one ("I should like to have been in a state yesterday in which I was content in knowing that I had already done it") and which is almost certainly not what the writer meant.

I think it is a different and simpler confusion, between the (usually incorrect, but possible) If it wouldn't have rained, we wouldn't have got wet and If it hadn't rained, we wouldn't have got wet. I hear it a lot.

I agree with you that "I'd have liked to have been there, but..." has more 'haves' than are strictly necessary, but I don't agree about which one is the interloper. It is perfectly possibe to write "I'd have liked to be there, but..." when you're thinking about your feelings then about what you did or didn't do at the time.