Grammar pedants - article on BBC website for your perusal

[popsycal]

here

[fryalot]

[Habbibu]

Quite a few misinformed people!

[Habbibu]

oops - x-posted, squonk!

[Katisha]

Ha! Someone has backed me up on "for free".

[NotAnOtter]

yes i enjoyed this

[Alambil]

can you explain the "for free" one to me?

[Katisha]

It's just wrong innit?

[Katisha]

Something is either "free" (you don't need to add "for") or else it's "for nothing".

[FattipuffsandThinnifers]

Ooh my blood is literally boiling reading those.

[WendyWeber]

I've been whingeing about "for free" for years but even the BBC itself, & the Guardian, do it now so I've given up (and in any case, at least half the time when something is "free" it isn't, it's "included in the price" )

Integral, that's another one - 99% of estate agents are too thick to know the diff between an integral garage and an attached garage

[MannyMoeAndJack]

The amount of people these days who cannot differentiate between 'amount' and 'number' really makes my blood boil

[FattipuffsandThinnifers]

It's also amazing how many estate agents describe certain streets as 'sort after'. Arrrghhh.

[WendyWeber]

Thank you, Fattipuffs - yes, it's Posy

(you were one of DD2's favourite books when she was little!)

[Racers]

LOL at 'sort after'! I have something in my fridge with a 'use buy' date

[FattipuffsandThinnifers]

WendyW - glad Fattipuffs still popular with youngsters today! We had a brilliant Posy S cartoon book when I was younger, remember it vividly.

'Use buy' - jeez! Where was it from? Please don't tell me a big supermarket?!

[Racers]

'Use buy' - Yes, Sainsbury's own branded product.

[tearinghairout]

There's this new(ish) quiz on BBC2 at tea-time, Battle of the Brains. Towards the end the announcer says something like 'The team with the least amount of contestants left...'

So I wrote to them pointing out that the BBC is highly esteemed the world over for its correct English & therefore should get it right & say 'fewest'. They wrote back saying that they have to use 'many levels of formality' in their programmes.

So it doesn't matter that it's wrong, then .

[WaynettaSlob]

Can't really take the BBC seriously on anything to do with grammar, seeing as it gets so much wrong itself.....on Thursday the ticker on News24 stated that the Bank of England had chosen not to change IT'S (sic) rates.......