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Pedants' corner

I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I know I shouldn't, but if I don't whinge about this, I will BURST!!!!

35 replies

TisNotChristmasYetSaysSquonk · 04/10/2008 22:03

If you go to the shops and buy something, you have bought it.

You have only brought something if you intended to bring something with you, and subsequently did so.

So: "I went to the shops and brought some sausages for tea" is wrong. You BOUGHT the sausages. "I went to the shops and brought my children home with me" is correct. (assuming, of course, that you bumped into your kids at the shop).

Thank you.

Apologies to anyone using said incorrect word tonight.

OP posts:

Report

TrinityRhino · 04/10/2008 22:04

I get really annoyed by that too

TisNotChristmasYetSaysSquonk · 04/10/2008 22:05

phew! glad it's not just me

OP posts:

missblythe · 04/10/2008 22:07

Oh, thank God! Me too!

cathcat · 04/10/2008 22:07

Also,
You cannot loose something, you lose it

MarjorieIsMyMessiah · 04/10/2008 22:08

I agree, thanks be to almighty Marjorie for kindred spirits

TisNotChristmasYetSaysSquonk · 04/10/2008 22:08

oh cathcart, yes that gets me as well!

OP posts:

TrinityRhino · 04/10/2008 22:09

oh yes cathcart
that is almost worse I feel

spicemonster · 04/10/2008 22:12

If you went to the shops with your children, surely you would have also brought them home? You don't need to bump into them at the shops to bring them home.

But yes, I agree. Bring. Buy. Two entirely different verbs. Hence bring and buy sales

Liffey · 04/10/2008 22:14

I've never heard that. I used to get told off for saying I brought it with me though. Somebody said I should say I took it with me. Taht you only bring things back. I was just terribly ocnfused.

CherryChapstick · 04/10/2008 22:16

Thank god you got that out. It would have been a terrible mess otherwise.

Swedes · 04/10/2008 22:18

Now you've bought it to my attention, I can see the difference.

TisNotChristmasYetSaysSquonk · 04/10/2008 22:21

liffey - I think it depends on the context:

if someone were to ask you whilst you were at the cinema where your children were, you would say "I took them to the shops" not "I brought them to the shops" but if you yourself were at the shops at the time, you would say "I brought them with me"

OP posts:

Liffey · 04/10/2008 22:23

Squonk. I sort of understand that when I'm reading it, but can I apply in advance in writing to the Pedant Dept to continue to get it wrong verbally??

TisNotChristmasYetSaysSquonk · 04/10/2008 22:24

as long as you don't go to the shops and come back saying you "brought" sausages for tea.

Unless of course, you took them with you in the first place

OP posts:

SoMuchToBits · 04/10/2008 22:26

Cathcat - you can loose something - but only in the sense of "let loose". Not the same at all as lose!

TisNotChristmasYetSaysSquonk · 04/10/2008 22:30

I'm not sure you can loose something actually, you could LET loose, or you could looseN something, but I can't think of any way that a verb "to loose" would be correct

(although I'm prepared to be convinced )

OP posts:

SoMuchToBits · 04/10/2008 22:34

I have found "loose" as a verb in the Merriam-Websters on-line dictionary Squonk!

TisNotChristmasYetSaysSquonk · 04/10/2008 22:36

"2 a: free from a state of confinement, restraint, or obligation b: not brought together in a bundle, container, or binding carchaic :"

yes, it is a verb, but you couldn't apply it to yourself.

You couldn't say that you loose the lion in the street, you need to add the word "let"

I think

OP posts:

slayerette · 04/10/2008 22:39

I can't bear any of these but need to add my own particular bugbear - people who use the word 'lay' when they mean 'lie'.

'So I went for a lay down...'

'I walk upstairs and lay down on the bed...'

[head exploding emoticon]

SoMuchToBits · 04/10/2008 22:40

I've found it as "to cause (a projectile) to be driven forward with force" - (the archers loosed a great volley of arrows) etc

SoMuchToBits · 04/10/2008 22:41

Oh yes, slayerette, completely agree!

You can lay something down, but you cannot just lay down!

JackieNo · 04/10/2008 22:45

Well according to my Concise Oxford Dictionary, there is a verb to loose - and it's transitive, and means 'release. set free, free from constraint, untie, undo (knot, fetters, seal, haari of heat) detach from moorings' and then it goes into the arrows, guns etc and loose hold, ie, relax.

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Liffey · 04/10/2008 22:47

Squonk. That's it. I'll go round with a half a kilo of bangers in my bag so that I'm 'covered', gramatically.

Tilia · 04/10/2008 23:25

I too find it distressing that so many people can't tell the (vast) difference between bought and brought. And so glad it's probably not just me shouting at the radio when I hear - even on R4 - presenters using "lay" when they mean "lie". At least you can't hear when they're mixing up lose and loose. And as for those who talk about "newkular" energy/weapons - don't get me started!

PrettyCandles · 04/10/2008 23:29

While we're on the subject of mistakes that drive us potty, where on earth did my dd learn to say "would ov"? AAAAAAAAAARGH!

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