Monday, 30 July 2007
That is so random!
This morning on BBC Radio 1 a newsreader, a newsreader by the name of David Garrido, when introducing a clip from an interview with a player from the French rugby league team the Catalans Dragons, said the following:
He's French but spent a lot of time playing rugby in Australia, so stand by for possibly the most random accent ever.The sportsman in question was then heard talking in an accent that can only be described as half French, half Australian. How random! I had a similar random experience this morning when I got in my car, put the key in the ignition, turned it and the engine randomly started!
Grrr.
It's not random, you idiot. It's unusual, it's peculiar, it's possibly even a little bit bizarre but in no way is it random. It would be random if a Frenchman living for an extended period of time in Australia started to speak with a Jamaican accent or a broad Scottish brogue.
I shouldn't really pick on David, he's far from alone. I just expect more from a BBC journalist - even a sports reporter.
You can listen to the broadcast in question here, the offending sentence occurs on the 40 minute mark so you might want to use the skip function.
**UPDATE**
It appears the link I used was to the most recent broadcast, so as of Tuesday that link was incorrect. I've fixed it now. That link will work until 10am (GMT+1) next Monday.
Labels: pet peeves, rants, vitriol
posted by Gez at 9:30 am
5 Comments
Tuesday, 24 July 2007
Should of, would of, could of...
When I get the time, I'll write a proper post on this with references and everything.
But for now I simply want to voice my displeasure at receiving the following sentence in a work email:I guess that's something we should of considered at the timeUrgh. Writing 'should've' is fine, a bit colloquial but fine. Writing 'should of' however, that's a death sentence. No trial, no jury: just death. That's street justice, GrammarBlog style!
To paraphrase the milky-eyed songstress Gabrielle (where is she now?), "Should of, would of, could of are the last words of a fool". At least they would be if everyone would just agree to give me Ultimate Power.
That's another thing that annoys me - why haven't I been given Ultimate Power yet?
**UPDATE** - I've just remembered it was Beverley Knight who did "Shoulda Woulda Coulda" (we've briefly touched on lyric grammar so I won't get too het-up about the deliberate misspelling - although if I had a cat, it would get kicked tonight). Nevertheless the point about Gabrielle's low profile still stands.
posted by Gez at 5:37 pm
6 Comments
Wednesday, 4 July 2007
An Apology?
After looking at my previous post I began to wonder whether all this vitriol is justified. Do a few misplaced apostophes, missing capital letters or wrong tenses really signify that our language is rotting from the inside? And even if it does should we just roll over and let it happen?
I was reminded of this clip from room 101:
I get a bit uncomfortable when watching this video as I can identify with the "nerds" and "bullies". I was certainly very disappointed by the outcome. Should we be a bit more lenient or is the answer to be more light-hearted and less elitist with regards other people's spelling, punctuation and grammar mistakes?
Maybe I'm getting soft in my old age, or maybe I should cut down on the "magic Es".
Speaking of old age, I'd like to wish a happy birthday to two of our GrammarBloggers, Tom and Andy.
Labels: crisis of faith, video, vitriol
posted by Gez at 6:25 pm
9 Comments
Tuesday, 19 June 2007
Introductory Thoughts From Dan
I even hate that last sentence because of the hyphens, and I WROTE IT. In turn, the capital letters I used there are already making me think about having a glass of wine to calm down (and no doubt when I look on the label of the wine bottle there will be a recommendation that it should be imbibed with “red meat’s”).
Where you fail to see a “your joking”, I see a vile, bellicose infidel taunting me to “come and have a go”. Where you read a text message as “off 2 pb, c u thr?” I see the words “I hate you, I hate your face, and I’m going to kill your family. Twice”.
This has caused problems for me in the past, but if people decide I deserve shunning for telling them that the plural of stadium is stadia, then they are not the type of friends I need. Similarly, I do not want or need to eat in restaurants serving “Nacho’s” and “Fish ‘n’ Chips”.
I have obstacles to overcome in my professional life too. One of my tasks at work is to transcribe 19th century literary manuscripts into XML form. The transcriptions must appear exactly as the text does in the original, and as such I am obliged to replicate the errors of previous generations or face censure from my superiors. This is extremely hard for me, and I actually think I’d rather face the hazards that firemen or people who wipe the backsides of the elderly do than have to consistently put the ‘i’ before the ‘e’ in ‘received’ (David Livingstone), or fail altogether to use apostrophes or commas (Isabella Bird Bishop).
I am not neurotic, just correct.
posted by Dan at 12:59 pm
0 Comments
Saturday, 12 May 2007
Welcome to GrammarBlog
Although I am well aware that the first post of any blog rarely gets read I thought I'd use the opportunity to tell you what GrammarBlog is all about and my reasons for starting it up.
I think I'm fairly normal kind of bloke, I'm not particularly anal or fussy and I'm certainly not a neat freak, but every time I see a misplaced apostrophe or get a text from someone calling me a "m8" I get annoyed, really annoyed.
You see grammar is important. The English language, due to the nature of its multiple origins, is brilliantly diverse and flexible. A well written piece of prose can convey so many levels of meaning but this meaning can be lost if the grammar is neglected. And yet is it being neglected all the time. I see examples everyday: on signs; on the internet; in speech and even in newspapers.
What isn't being neglected is being actively destroyed. In the last ten years the instant communication of email and text messages has meant that people value speed of response above all else. This led to smileys.
Well no more. Not in my name!
It's time for me and my fellow bloggers to fight back. GrammarBlog will be used to demonstrate examples of English that just makes us want to pull our hair out and hopefully we'll stop being annoyed long enough to find some of it funny.
posted by Gez at 5:57 pm
0 Comments
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