It's "the worsT", not "the worse"

Just a thought...

I'm a pedant when it comes to official use of language and professional people's use of language.

But of course I understand that some people haven't had the benefit of a good education, or don't come from families where reading and discussion was encouraged. However, I feel very strongly about the importance of literacy for everyone. To deprive people of language and to tell them it doesn't matter is the opposite of empowering.

Sometimes - rarely - on MN there's an Original Post which is illiterate: no sentence breaks, no paras, spelling and grammar all over the place etc. These posts are hard to understand and pps often ask for clarification. The ones I've seen have been from an OP who is clearly in need of help and advice - they tend not to be the lighthearted, frivolous threads. It always strikes me how hard life can be for people who don't have a command of English for one reason or another.

That's why I feel so strongly about language - it's a vital tool and not just for poets and academics. You might not be into creative writing, but everyone needs to leave school feeling confident that they can make themselves clear in both speech and writing - it's not a trivial matter.

It’s not regional and I would certainly use it in general conversation. I would expect whoever I was conversing with to either understand it or make an effort to find out what it means.

There was an incident not so long ago where an angry mob gathered outside the house of a paediatrician, forcing her from her home, thinking her to be a paedophile. This is where such ignorance and laziness gets us.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/vigilante-mob-attacks-home-of-paediatrician-710864.html

It has become common to use cringe as an adjective online to add brevity and punchlines. Language evolves quickly online and I’m embracing that.
It is very different to saying ‘apart’ instead of ‘a part’ in a written message sent out to parents.

You have used one of the ones that gets to me in this post. So many people using cringe when they mean cringeworthy or cringey.

In other words, everyone should dumb it down. I am worh @CoffeeCantata on this one, niggardly is not archaic, rather misunderstood.

I wonder if it's regional. I don't recall ever hearing the word niggardly used in general conversation.

In most cases I would agree that we should preserve our language but I wouldn't mourn the loss of a word that resembles a racial slur. There are plenty of alternatives.

I see it as the flip side of that - they’re such commonly used words/abbreviations and therefore seen/read everywhere, so they should be ones people are getting right!

It is kind of correct, “winter of discontent” , it comes from Shakespeares Richard 111 and is actually now is the “winter of our discontent”. So I don’t see the issue myself.

What’s hard to understand about you’re = you are?

Did you all get lost on the way to Pedants’ Corner??

My vocabulary is just fine, thanks love. However, I would suggest that your circle is a pretty niche one. If someone is speaking to a broad group and wishes to be understood well by them, they should tailor their vocab to their audience. This is Communication 101.

Surely the very fact that they are “depressingly common” tells you that not everyone finds the difference as simple to discern as you do.

Surely the very fact that they are “depressingly common” tells you that not everyone finds the difference as simple to discern as you do.

YES.

also, ‘should of’, ‘could of’, would of’, instead of ‘have’ makes my teeth itch.

I've done a lot of public speaking and always tailor my material to the audience. But that doesn't mean I compromise on quality of language - that would be unbelievably patronising.

I wouldn't assume a Cockney accent and start doing glottal stops to ingratiate myself with an audience - simply because I'd made all kinds of assumptions about them! And before you sneer at this - I've seen it done. Actually, Tony Blair was a big offender in this way - he was a public schoolboy who felt he needed to talk down to the masses. I don't think 'the masses' like that, or are fooled by it!

The PTA has been posting the same ‘Be apart of our PTA’ message via SM, WhatsApp and email for a few days. It’s particularly cringe when school related. Headteacher and a few of the TA’s are PTA members.

Is that not correct?

Archaic? I disagree. I’ve seen it written and heard it spoken throughout my lifetime, including recently.

It would be far better for people to understand the meanings of words rather than avoid using them because of a coincidental resemblance to unacceptable ones. We need to preserve the wonderful breadth of the English language.

Broadcasters in particular need to pronounce words properly. Radio 4 presenters forever pronounce “defuse” as “diffuse”, very annoying.

These threads are always just the same kind of snobs tutting about the same set of errors.

So yes, YABU as these mistakes have been made for decades and people will continue to make them because not everyone either knows or cares about immaculate grammar as long as they can be understood by any halfway intelligent person. Which in every single example cited so far, they can be.