My name is CurlewKate and I am a recovering pedant….

[CurlewKate]

After 30 years as an active pedant, I am now trying VERY hard always to look at what people obviously mean, and not the way they express it. Not everyone has been taught about apostrophes.

But for the love of GOD- please stop saying “stag doo” “birthday doo”. Any other “doo”! Where did that come from?

Yes, I know. I get that bit. But will it be lighter in the evening or the morning? Riddle me that! That's the bit that's been patiently explianed to me, time and agaian. "So yesterday it got light at 8am, and now the clocks have done their thing. What was 8am yesterday will be 3:30 tomorrow, so it'll be lighter in the...blah blah blah." I cannot make my brain work it out.

...and breathe....
🪷 🌲

Also me when I try to work out if a strong pound makes it cheaper or more expensive on holiday. I think about it really hard but I just can't do it.

I catch myself typing are for our as I pronounce then identically. I think your brain types the sound. So I try to be more generous with others if I see there/their/they're mistakes.

I'd had a perfectly nice morning, and now I'm in a tizz about clocks 😉

The spring forward, fall back thing can work both ways though. Spring back and fall forward.

You get an extra hour sleep when the clocks go back so maybe you might wake up and fall back to sleep ?

Don't think about clocks! Go and enjoy the sunshine. Oh, and the nights are drawing in, have you noticed? ⏰

That's a puzzler. Whatever happens, you pay more.

No they're not. They're not even the same in my own voice all the time - to can vary between tuh and too, depending on the surrounding words. I mean, it's all sounding weird to me just now, because I have been muttering to myself to see how I say things, so I could just be talking bollocks now. But I can imagine saying, "I am going tuh the zoo, too," but, "no, I said I am going too the zoo from the shops," for emphasis.

Vowels often change between different accents.

Not everyone has been taught about apostrophes, but it's pretty simple to learn and very important to get right. Our language NEEDS pedants. So many people don't believe it matters and it certainly does. So please don't 'recover'!

@CurlewKate what do you think of the Education Secretary’s views that primary school spelling tests are ‘too obscure’?
Do you think the spelling tests should be easier?

For nigh on 50 years I’ve been asking my family ‘is that good or bad’ when they’ve told me if the pound is up or down against our local currency. I just don’t understand it.

I relate to this very much. Certain things have been explained to me numerous times and I still don’t understand. How planes work is one of them.

Ugh, I have a lot of trouble trying to work this out, too.

Wouldn't it be easier if the clocks didn't go backwards and forwards at all?

Another thing I don't understand is the concept of the longest day.

Surely all days are twenty four hours long?

I have a friend in Australia and a friend in Pennsylvania. I chat to them both online. They are both used to being woken up because I get their time differences wrong.

😂😂

Yes, we don't need people to work in munitions factories anymore.

I don’t know what the words are. Are they obscure?Generally speaking, though, I think being able to spell is a good idea. I have a child who has spelling as a superpower- when asked, he says “I just look at the word in my head and spell it.”

Never seen anybody say 'stag doo.'

It was tried in the early 70s I think. People didn't like it.

I saw it twice on here before sunrise ( whenever that is!) Hence the thread.

This is true. I will admit to being slightly irritated when the word 'shirred' is pronounced as rhyming with weird, when it should rhyme with bird (shirred as in those dresses with the elasticated bodice). I try very hard not to be irritated though!

And why are sweatshirts now called jumpers by some people? They are completely different types of garment to me!! That's not really a grammar/pronunciation thing though...