Pretentious use of ...
 

[Closed] Pretentious use of English. How can I make a fool of myself?

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The lady on CNBC just used premia rather than premiums as the plural of premium. She's not plain wrong given her American accent but it did sound a little strange, and quite posh. Any other gems of this type I can slip into conversation when I want to make a prat of myself?


 
Posted : 15/07/2011 4:36 am
 Pook
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Libation.


 
Posted : 15/07/2011 5:04 am
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You sir could be a perpetrator of terminalogical inexactitudes....


 
Posted : 15/07/2011 5:55 am
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Blackadder has the key....


 
Posted : 15/07/2011 6:07 am
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Posted : 15/07/2011 6:12 am
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Datas


 
Posted : 15/07/2011 6:52 am
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use podium as a verb


 
Posted : 15/07/2011 6:57 am
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Caveated. Used often by bell in work.
(I know its a real word, just hate it!)


 
Posted : 15/07/2011 7:01 am
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Fora?


 
Posted : 15/07/2011 7:02 am
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will Cav podium or medal today?


 
Posted : 15/07/2011 7:08 am
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aaaaaaaarrrrrrrgggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh


 
Posted : 15/07/2011 7:19 am
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Cromulent.

[url= http://www.beexcellenttoeachother.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=7459 ]Cibrushsille[/url].

aaaaaaaargggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh

I think you'll find there's two Rs in "aaaaaaaar[b]r[/b]gggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh"


 
Posted : 15/07/2011 7:21 am
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i think you'll find there are several 😉


 
Posted : 15/07/2011 7:23 am
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Ah, Alan Partridge. Truly inspired.

If you want to sound pretentious, try using psuedo-medical verbiage and jargon at every opportunity. My mother does and it's amazingly annoying.


 
Posted : 15/07/2011 7:31 am
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A woman ahead of me in Costa the other day asked for two capuccini. When her friend looked at her quizzically she said airily "Oh, it's the plural of cappucino." She's probably right but it was a bit Alan Partridge.


 
Posted : 15/07/2011 8:26 am
 Pyro
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Contrafibularities


 
Posted : 15/07/2011 8:26 am
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Could all those plural smart-arses please note that when a foreign word is appropriated into English then English plural rules apply. So cappucinos it is. And forums etc.


 
Posted : 15/07/2011 8:38 am
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Molgrips, I was contemplating the same whilst enjoying a plate of spaghettos. 🙂

i.e. to simply appropriate the foreign plural into english must be equally valid.


 
Posted : 15/07/2011 8:47 am
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A classic mistake is agenda/agendas.

Any fule know that agenda is the plural, and agendum is the singular.


 
Posted : 15/07/2011 8:50 am
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It's down to convention unfortunately. Hence data and agenda. We have lots of funny conventions like that. For instance we write disc and programme UNLESS we are talking computers, in which case it's disk and program like the US.


 
Posted : 15/07/2011 8:55 am
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You could always send someone an [i]invite[/i] to an event....

*Blood boils*


 
Posted : 15/07/2011 8:58 am
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Are we sure that premium is a neuter noun anyway?


 
Posted : 15/07/2011 9:32 am
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A classic mistake is agenda/agendas.

Any fule know that agenda is the plural, and agendum is the singular.

But that makes sense surely, agenda is list of items, ie. a plural of the items on it. If you have two different lists, it makes more sense to say agendas, to make that clear than just to say I have two agenda, which sounds stupid.

Joe


 
Posted : 15/07/2011 9:57 am
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I'm off out to lunch (verb) with mrs deadly!

The "with" has huge significance there...


 
Posted : 15/07/2011 11:17 am
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just don't guestimate.


 
Posted : 15/07/2011 11:49 am
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There was a quote in Private Eye recently that went something like;

Foreign sports person, "I'm sorry that my English is not very good"
Interviewer, "That's OK, you're doing wonderful"


 
Posted : 15/07/2011 12:11 pm
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octo/pi/podes/puses

seem to remember a thread, probably superstar related


 
Posted : 15/07/2011 12:18 pm
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Cephalopods please, scaredypants.


 
Posted : 15/07/2011 12:22 pm
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Gestalt is a nice word, but pretty much impossible to use without sounding pretentious.

Trivia - Michael from the AP sketch now voices Captain Barnacles on the Octonauts. Wouldn't have thought it possible to get any higher than Partridge in your TV career but he's gone and done it.


 
Posted : 15/07/2011 1:10 pm
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capuccini

Excellent, just the sort of horror I was looking for. Perfect for roadie baiting.


 
Posted : 15/07/2011 2:02 pm
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capuccini

what would have been really funny, was if she'd asked for a [i]lar-tay[/i] too after going through the trouble of getting the plural of cappuccino right.

but really i don't think anyone is going to top that. it would almost of been less skin crawling if they'd asked for 'due cappuccini per favore'


 
Posted : 15/07/2011 2:10 pm
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My last boss was a complete tool. He often used the words like 'outwith' and 'extant' instead of 'outside' and 'existing'.

In fact he would always try to use two words where often one would do, and I took pleasure in asking if 'that was a tautological tautology'.

Which kind of makes me a **** too, I guess.


 
Posted : 15/07/2011 2:33 pm
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Which kind of makes me a **** too, I guess.

😆


 
Posted : 15/07/2011 2:36 pm
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For instance we write disc and programme UNLESS we are talking computers, in which case it's disk and program like the US.

... unless it's a technical term that originated outside the US. So you'd have a floppy dis[b]k[/b] and a hard dis[b]k[/b], but a compact dis[b]c[/b].


 
Posted : 15/07/2011 3:26 pm