Pedants' Paradise

[Serial_Apologist]

Britannia waives the rules.

That's excellent!

[Anna]

I know it's from The Guardian, but .... in today's paper, a report about the mass grave found underneath Monoprix, Paris: "... part of the hospital became an orphanage known as the Hospice des Engants-Bleus, where residence dressed in blue uniforms learned a trade."

[french frank]

Engants?

[Anna]

Engants?

I just cut and pasted from the Guardian - they meant of course Hospice des Enfants-Bleus - but I was only commenting on their lack of proof-reading of English words, not French ones! (Unless they thought the children always wore gloves)

[Serial_Apologist]

I just cut and pasted from the Guardian - they meant of course Hospice des Enfants-Bleus - but I was only commenting on their lack of proof-reading of English words, not French ones! (Unless they thought the children always wore gloves)

Glovely-jubbly, Anna! There must be something in the air at the moment.

[Flosshilde]

Apparently it was National Grammar Day to day.


(I'm sure there will be a National Grampa Day too, just for Scotty)

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Apparently it was National Grammar Day to day.

Nobody told Bbm!

(I'm sure there will be a National Grampa Day too, just for Scotty)

[Bryn]

One for the apostrophe police. Here is the subject heading of an email that arrived from Maplin today (National Gammar Day).

Action & waterproof camera’s, Sat nav for your bike, Power on the go - Outdoor Essentials

[Don Petter]

One for the apostrophe police. Here is the subject heading of an email that arrived from Maplin today (National Gammar Day).

I read that as National Gammer Day, and it reminded me to get something for the old woman.

Conveniently, I have had an email from Garmin today suggesting that for Mothering Sunday I buy her an activity tracker so that we can see exactly 'how much she really does every day and keep her motivated'.

I think I'd play safe and stick to the bunch of violets.

[Bryn]

Cross reference.

[Serial_Apologist]

If not

I have never understood the, to me, ambiguous use of this phrase in, e.g., "The critics were condescending, if not damning, in their judgements on his latest film".

Is it trying to say that critics were not damning, but merely condescending? or that to describe them as condescending would be an understatement? E.g.: "The critics weren't just condescending, they were actually damning"? The former meaning would be clearly indicated if "actually" were to be inserted between "if" and "not".

[vinteuil]

... what about a simpler, perhaps less ambiguous, example -

"There were a dozen, if not a score of, bottles of wine on the table."

Which surely means - "I'm definite that there were a dozen; it is quite possible, and indeed probable, that there were more, perhaps as many as twenty... "

[Serial_Apologist]

... what about a simpler, perhaps less ambiguous, example -

"There were a dozen, if not a score of, bottles of wine on the table."

Which surely means - "I'm definite that there were a dozen; it is quite possible, and indeed probable, that there were more, perhaps as many as twenty... "

It's probably because examples like the one I've cited are more common than commonsense ones, vint!

[subcontrabass]

BBC Latest News Headline:

"England knocked out of Cricket World Cup following defeat to Bangladesh by 15 runs"

"Defeat to" ???? I seem to see this increasingly often. The specialist sports page is better, using "defeat by".

[Nick Armstrong]

One tiny point:

it all becomes moot later next month.

Surely it's moot now... but will become certain later next month?