Monday 1 December 2008
Update your feeds!
The feed address is http://feeds.feedburner.com/GrammarBlog.
If you are already using the Feedburner feed, you don't need to do anything as I'll push the wordpress feed into feedburner.
Labels: feeds, GrammarBlog, Moving, RSS, wordpress
posted by Gez at 7:41 am
Sunday 30 November 2008
Moving home for Christmas
It's new, it's shiny, it's fantastic and it's not entirely bug-free. GrammarBlog v2 is here.
As we mentioned earlier in the year, we've moved to WordPress and our own domain; the idea being that we can really develop the site into the grammatical nirvana we've always dreamed of. We've got lots of new stuff planned, including podcasts and a GrammarBlog shop. Exciting times. Please update your bookmarks and we'll see you there.
posted by Tom at 7:44 pm
Thursday 20 November 2008
Less Mistakes Please
Don't major TV networks have resident grammar checkers? They should. Nancy Burke writes:
Has no one else written about the ear-shattering mistake on the TNT Network? On their Movie promos they say: "More Movies, LESS commercials". It feels like fingernails on the blackboard to me. Of course it should be FEWER commercials.
Labels: tv
posted by Tom at 11:40 am
Monday 17 November 2008
Showen Tell
I do enjoy it when a spelling error appears to be the product of a regional accent...
posted by Tom at 6:00 pm
Wednesday 15 October 2008
‘ParenT's’
We've hit the mother lode! Inappropriate capitalisation, misplaced apostrophes (of course) and quotation marks used for emphasis.
Note how increasingly wayward the single quotation marks get; by the end of the notice they're almost like brackets.
Labels: apostrophe abuse, quotation marks, randomised caps, signage, signs
posted by Gez at 4:43 pm
Palin goes New-clear
I don't know which is funnier: the fact that the Republicans were so worried about Sarah Palin's ability to pronounce the word 'nuclear' that they resorted to phonetic spelling on the Autocue, or that they then left that spelling in the transcription that was released to the press.
Doh!
Labels: CNN, Election 08, nuclear, nukular, Palin, Pronunciation
posted by Gez at 12:52 pm
Thursday 2 October 2008
The Way I Are - a parody
As you can probably imagine, I'm not a fan of the Timbaland song, "The Way I Are".
I'm not usually so much of a stickler that bad grammar in song lyrics bothers me but there are limits. The Way I Are? Come on, that's egregious.
I like this parody, which pokes fun at the sloppy grammar of Timbaland's original.
This video is improved by no small amount by the cameo appearance of Hot For Words star, Marina, in a ridiculously short skirt.
Call me cynical but I'm starting to suspect that the reason she gets so many viewers on YouTube has little to do with her knowledge of etymology.
Labels: grammar, HotForWords, lyrics, Timbaland, video
posted by Gez at 6:24 pm
Tuesday 30 September 2008
Random Factor (like a tractor)
I've previously documented my dislike of the current trend for misusing the word 'random'. I was pleased, therefore, to hear Matt Forde vent on this topic on the Jon Richardson Podcast.
I thought I was alone in cringing at sentences such as the following.
OMG you are like so RANDOM today, look at your random hat!!!No, no, no! You are allowed to call my hat choice random only if I arranged to have 1000 hats dropped on my position and I emerged wearing said hat. Otherwise it's a deliberate, non-random hat choice. And while we're discoursing on the topic of clothing choice, can I suggest that you take off those massive furry boots? They look silly. And when will you learn that leggings and a long cardigan aren't enough to hide the fact that you haven't got any trousers on? And take your stupid rat-dog out of your handbag before I punt it into the river.
I feel better after that rant. I'm fine now.
Tangentially, can anyone identify what the title of this post refers to? There are shiny GrammarBlog points up for grabs.
Labels: BBC, Jon Richardson, Matt Forde, random, rants, video
posted by Gez at 3:25 pm
Monday 29 September 2008
Gordon Brown: texture like sun
The premise behind the blog is wonderful in its simplicity. The BBC website allows members of the public to comment on selected stories in a dedicated forum section called Have Your Say. As with most forums this attracts all manner of idiotic fuckwittery including the usual suspects: sheer ignorance, blustering arrogance and your common or garden variety racism. These thoughts are usually delivered with scant regard for even the most basic laws of grammar.
If you don't wish to trawl through the BBC news section searching for these hilarious nuggets of buffoonery, Nelson and Alex of Speak you're Branes (God, I hate writing that) are dedicated and gracious enough to do it for you.
My very first visit unearthed this gem from Acrobatickenny1, Scotland, in response to Gordon Brown's dogging display - I mean speech - at the Labour party conference here in Manchester.to be honest i dont care anymore, no matter how much we moan how much this country actually hates labout we will never be able to push them out, they will decide when the election is and nit us, so i just laught now, bleed me dry and penalise me for not being a muslim for not being gay and for not being a pregnant junckie because lets face it these groups get everything from this lot, i just laught as karma is a wonderful thing
[acrobatickenny1], scotland
Great stuff. Speak You're Branes is now in our list of friends.
Labels: BBC, conference, friends, Gordon Brown, Labour, spelling errors
posted by GrammarBlog at 7:15 pm
Thursday 25 September 2008
I do exclaim!
The overuse and misuse of exclamation marks has been previously discussed with enthusiasm and significant literary skill by Dan.
When I saw this slice of crazy in our flickr group I just had to share it.
P.S. I know it's incorrect to use 'crazy' as a noun. I just like the phrase "slice of crazy", OK?
Labels: exclamation marks, photos, punctuation
posted by Gez at 5:25 pm
Wednesday 24 September 2008
Graffitti
"Graffiti", originally uploaded by Trevor Coultart.
As well as the poor spelling, this gets extra hate marks for the rainbow-striped lettering – a sure sign of a psychopath.
It's an interesting word, graffiti. It's the plural form of graffito (rarely used in english) and Italian in origin, as you would probably guess. It derives from the Italian word graffiato meaning scratched.
It originally referred to inscriptions or carvings that were scratched onto walls, statues and tombs.
Anyway, it's spelled with two Fs and one T, capisce?
posted by Gez at 6:17 pm
Saturday 20 September 2008
It's a poo of two halves
We all love a sniggery typo - especially on the bastion of decency that is the BBC website.
GB's own Gez excitedly brought this to my attention (although I would expect that the Beeb staff have found it by now).
posted by Tom at 9:46 pm
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