Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Rising strongly?

On The World at One on Radio 4 just now the presenter said, 'Prices are rising strongly.'

Can anything rise strongly? I was so distracted this by this question I failed to listen to the rest of the report. I blame dubious grammar for my lack of topical news knowledge.

When I went to the car boot sale a few weeks ago it was as much as I could do to stop myself getting out a felt pen and correcting all the misplaced apostrophes and spelling mistakes on the various signs on tables and car boots.

If I had been born a few years later I would probably have obsessive compulsive behaviour disorder. It's just as well they didn't have it in my day.

13 comments:

MissKris said...

That kind of stuff just drives me to distraction, too. Just recently I've seen July 21th and "We've moved to 51th & Powell." Arggghhhh! Someone out there is trying to drive me CRAZY!!The pronunciation of words is driving me nuts as well.

Dragonstar said...

51 th? Really? That would drive me mad too.

I know apostrophes can be difficult, but plurals are generally easy. Who first decided to make plurals by adding an apostrophe before the s ? I can't imagine why that one caught on.

Anonymous said...

well I would notice any grammar/punction mistakes being dyslexic, but I did snigger in a suitably childish way ;0)

Lindsay said...

My 90 year old Dad has a habit using a biro and correcting bad grammar in the books he reads!

Wolfie said...

It says a lot about the people who supply car-boot sales then. I'm more of an ebay kind of guy myself. Some people don’t know how easy they have it ...

Jules said...

I completely agree with you. If you are going to put something out for the public to see, at least make it correct.

I have a pet peeve with people who write "alot" instead of "a lot" as well, but that's just a me thing I think.

MaryB said...

Ha! Yes, we're so lucky to have been born before OC was invented. ;-) I'm the same way about grammar and punctuation. It's only getting worse with texting, you know. Sigh.

Anonymous said...

Life is not often so simple though!

Back in September 2006 I wrote about all the exceptions to the
'I before E except after C' rule.

See
http://www.savory.de/blog_sep_06.htm#20060902

You'll be surprised at how many there are!

cheshire wife said...

Poor grammar and inappropriate punctuation annoy me too. When we moved to Chester I listened to the local radio for a time, but had to stop listening because the bad grammar and wrongly use words grated on me so much, especially first thing in the morning. Now I listen to Radio Two most of the time. At least they speak properly.

Leslie: said...

You and me both, Liz! When asked to read something, if a spelling or grammatical mistake is there, it will JUMP OUT at me! And that's the end of the reading for me - all I see is the mistake. It's all I can do not to correct someone. Bite tongue, Leslie, bite tongue!

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