Phrases/words that set your teeth on edge.

[Serial_Apologist]

Yes - but in that example, I'd keep the "two" and drop the "alternative".

[Lat-Literal]

Yes - but in that example, I'd keep the "two" and drop the "alternative".

You favour making the word "alternative" redundant?

[Serial_Apologist]

You favour making the word "alternative" redundant?

I would say yes, in agreement with ferney. If there are two options, the choice defined by virtue of their being options would automatically embrace alternativity, I would have thought.

One quibble I have over the use of "options" is the superfluous use of "keeping open" in association, as when politicians (typically) say, "Well, we're keeping that option open". This is surely tautological, since the openness is surely explicit in the option, (or options, if there are more than one). One cannot "keep an option closed" because it ceases to be, or was never, an option, though one can of course close an option; therefore one should dispense with the superfluous "open": eg "well, we're keeping that option".

[vinteuil]

One quibble I have over the use of "options" is the superfluous use of "keeping open" in association, as when politicians (typically) say, "Well, we're keeping that option open". This is surely tautological, since the openness is surely explicit in the option, (or options, if there are more than one). One cannot "keep an option closed" because it ceases to be, or was never, an option, though one can of course close an option; therefore one should dispense with the superfluous "open": eg "well, we're keeping that option".

... I don't see the problem here : 'option' means 'choice' [Latin optare] - keeping various choices still available/open seems to me to be a valid way of thinking about things.

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[Serial_Apologist]

... I don't see the problem here : 'option' means 'choice' [Latin optare] - keeping various choices still available/open seems to me to be a valid way of thinking about things.

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I suppose so vints. It just strikes me that to be an option, it has to be open in the first place!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

You favour making the word "alternative" redundant?

Not exactly - I just think that it's already redundant (or, at least, unnecessary)in the phrase "two alternative options".

[LMcD]

'The two sides are equal'

[kernelbogey]

See it, say it, sorted.

The catch phrase encouraging reporting suspicous items on a train.

The fond hope of the power of aliteration defeated by the banality of the ideas.

And that 'sorted'.....

[Bryn]

Not exactly - I just think that it's already redundant (or, at least, unnecessary)in the phrase "two alternative options".

How about the possibility of three or more alternatives? Its etymology notwithstanding, "alternative" now relates to two or more options.

[Bryn]

In the Piccadilly Line, "Terminals 4 and 123".

Just to be clear, the enunciation is not as in "one to three", but "one two three".

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

How about the possibility of three or more alternatives? Its etymology notwithstanding, "alternative" now relates to two or more options.

Oh, yes - though, again, as a personal preference, I'd probably just use "options" no matter how many were available, and wouldn't add "alternative" to the sentence.

[Bryn]

That is because there is a single station serving Heathrow Terminals 1, 2, and 3.

Firstly, Terminal 1 is no more, and secondly, a more correctly grammatical version would be "Terminals 4 and 1, 2 and 3", though "Terminals 4, and 2 and 3" would more acurately reflect the current facts.

[french frank]

Oh, yes - though, again, as a personal preference, I'd probably just use "options" no matter how many were available, and wouldn't add "alternative" to the sentence.

I'd probably use 'alternatives'. But not 'alternates'

[teamsaint]

See it, say it, sorted.

The catch phrase encouraging reporting suspicous items on a train.

The fond hope of the power of aliteration defeated by the banality of the ideas.

And that 'sorted'.....

Awful.

and useless.

Here's something to put your mind at rest, no honestly, if you happen to find yourself in a crowded space .

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/701910/170614_crowded-places-guidance_v1a.pdf

I happened to be chatting ( on business ) to a Grand Fromage at a very high profile visitor attraction recently, one intimately connected with the armed services. Suffice to say, he wasn't impressed with the nonsense which now surrounds such matters, as routine.

[vinteuil]

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...a more correctly grammatical version would be "Terminals 4 and 1, 2 and 3".

... a nice demonstration of the benefits of the oxford comma. The formulation above would seem to imply that there are two stations : one serving terminals 4 and 1, the other serving terminals 2 and 3.

Whereas with the oxford comma - "Terminals 4 and 1, 2, and 3" it is perhaps a little clearer that we are talking about a station serving terminal 4, and another serving terminals 1, 2, and 3.

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