My pet hate is the use of disinterested when the word should be uninterested, disinterested means unbiased, not swayed by outside influences.

Grammarians seem to have lost sight of the essential function of language,which AFAAIK is to clearly transmit information between people.

And but like I defiantly agree, but you must except you can gleam some pacific example’s hear were they’re claritys lost, no?

Crikey, Mastiles, opened a can of worms here! I have found myself correcting random people when they say “them” when they should correctly say “those” and “can I get a …” instead of “please may I have”. Nooo…please no!

I absolutely love using “what” instead of “that” to wind people up.

My biggest day to day bugbear is the number of people who’ve been through education, even to degree level, and can’t express themselves in a concise and clear manner.

The second one is the misuse of “percent” when the speaker actually means “percentage points”. If you can’t get that one right, don’t even bother trying to produce or interpret statistics.

Can we have thee and thou returned to their proper usage please?

In Glaswegian it is “sangwidgies”, which I quite like the ring of.

Oops! Split infinitive I think. “…Of which I quite like the ring” more correct, perhaps?It’s ‘a piece’ or ‘your pieces’! 🙂 Sandwich sounds odd to me which ever way I say it…

My pet hate is the use of disinterested when the word should be uninterested, disinterested means unbiased, not swayed by outside influences.

disinterested adjective
[list][*]1. not influenced by considerations of personal advantage:
a banker is under an obligation to give disinterested advice[/*]
[*]2. [u]having or feeling no interest in something; uninterested[/u]:
her father was so disinterested in her progress that he only visited the school once[/*][/list]

— http://oxforddictionaries.com/view/entry/m_en_gb0231200

Can we have thee and thou returned to their proper usage please?

Simply move to Yorkshire.

Tha knows it

Adding the last word of an acronym into a sentence ie The GMT time is

People that don’t know what an acronym is. 🙄

People that don’t know when to use i.e. and when to use e.g. 🙄

Redundant “it” there,TJ

People that don’t know when to use i.e. and when to use e.g.

So when do you use it? Must admit I just use i.e. all the time without a thought about it.

e.g. means ‘for example

i.e. means ‘that is to say’

Very different meanings.

e.g. means ‘for example
i.e. means ‘that is to say’

Yep remember it as, ie-xplain and eg-sample.

Use of the word horrorshow, or even worse, horror show, to mean something bad or unpleasant.

It makes the user look stupid, as the original meaning is the complete opposite.
Anyone who uses Nadsat without being able to prove ownership of the book in question should be whipped in the street.

The use of swap out by anyone but an American should be dealt with in the same manner.

Rusty Spanner – Member

Use of the word horrorshow, or even worse, horror show, to mean something bad or unpleasant.

It makes the user look stupid, as the original meaning is the complete opposite.

Clockwork Orange was hardly the first place the term was used. Are you really assuming that they’re trying to use nadsat, rather than using it as a simple description? That does strike me as ironic- complaining that their correct use of the real english language contradicts its use in a made up language which in turn was a corruption of russian.

Unless this was a joke of course

People, especially those in the media, who incorrectly pronounce ‘privacy’ and/or ‘controversy’. I’m not even sure why they pronounce them wrong, is it to appease the Americans?

People who misuse the words surreal, pedant(ry) or pedantic,who from their usage of the word obviously have no idea of what the correct definition is.

Is “horrorshow” from clockwork orange not used to describe something they liked?

TandemJeremy – Member
Is “horrorshow” from clockwork orange not used to describe something they liked?

Yes, but they liked some pretty awful stuff to be fair.

And Tucker, I always thought that the stress in the word ‘controversy’ could go on either the first or second syllable.

Just as an aside, my wife is a speech therapist and she never tries to stop patients from using colloquialisms, or using local words / pronunciations.

“acronym”. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English (1991), Oxford University Press. p. 12: “a word, usu[ally] pronounced as such, formed from the initial letters of other words (e.g. Ernie, laser, Nato)”.

Is that “English” enough for you?

Yes, and it supports what I originally pointed out, that ‘GMT’ is not an acronym, but an initialism. STRICTLY speaking of course… 😉

Surely GMT is an acronym?

You are thinking of abbreviation.

Northwind, bet you can’t find a pre ACO usage of horrorshow. 🙂
Willing to be proved wrong though – might have been a corruption used by returning soldiers or by people adapting it from the speech of Russian immigrants.

And no I’m not joking, it really annoys me!

Surely GMT is an acronym?

You are thinking of abbreviation.

No – see the definition on Wikipedia that I linked to earlier! I’m being overly pedantic for this thread only, but strictly speaking an acronym would be RADAR, SCUBA, PIN etc. and an initialism would be GMT, HTML etc. They are both abbreviations.

That said people often tend to call any abbreviation ‘acronym’.

Wouldn’t know where to start looking tbh, though I don’t know why you’d doubt that the term might be used to describe, well, horror shows. A lot more plausible than the idea that everyone who uses the term differently is trying to do a reference to Clockwork Orange and getting it wrong. It’s just a totally different use.

Usage, signage, utalise – usually ustalised in the wrong context.

At least once a day I have to correct “PC’s”.

I think you’ll find that PC’s can be considered correct as the apostrophe is used in this context to indicate the C as an abbreviation for computer.

Happy to help 😀

Regarding Tron’s reference to percent, a few years ago the government claimed that they had only increased national insurance by 1% as it went from 10% to 11%.
I make that an increase of 10%.

There was also a government radio advertising campaign about mis sold pensions or something, which warned that “Some people may have been cheated out of up to £10 000 or more”.
That sentence alone contains up to three or more misleading statements.

And Tucker, I always thought that the stress in the word ‘controversy’ could go on either the first or second syllable.

Interesting. I was always taught first only. And a quick Google turns this up.

Might be an age thing? I’m 46.

I’m being overly pedantic for this thread only, but strictly speaking an acronym would be RADAR, SCUBA, PIN etc. and an initialism would be GMT, HTML etc.

That’s not being pedantic. Words that made up of initials already have a name as you’ve correctly pointed out, the whole point about acronyms is that they form a pronounceable word.

I think you’ll find that PC’s can be considered correct as the apostrophe is used in this context to indicate the C as an abbreviation for computer.

IIRC, it’s also permissible when the absence of the apostrophe would make the resulting word confusing. PC’s would be borderline here perhaps.