"i am sitting here" right. "I am sat here" IS WRONG YOU FUCKERS

[MikeRotch]

amen

claret, the oldest poem in the English language starts with a word that basically means 'so' ... I like it.

nijinsky - huh? What's the end of the sentence to do with it? 'gotten' is just a past tense we don't use any more, except in 'forgotten'.

Sorry I get confused because in Dutch you would say something like "Ik heb gehad" and "gotten" sounds neither here nor there and as if it should be "I have gegot" or something. Probably just me but in Old English, the word order would have been more Germanic.

So that's interesting LittleRedDragon do you have a reference for it?

Ooh, you're Dutch? I believe we get some of our swearwords from you guys - thanks very much!

OE word order isn't a million miles from German I think (mind you I don't speak German myself and rely on my German SIL to tell me about it). But it's not strict about words going at the end of sentences, especially in poetry, because of the metre.

We have 'begotten' as well, but that's fairly archaic. I don't know why those survive and others don't.

claret - it's Beowulf. 'Hwaet!' is the word, which also means 'what' (you transpose 'w' and 'h'), but often it translates as 'so'.

'So, the Spear-Danes, in the days of yore ...' is the first line.

I wonder if MikeRotch is still sat there reading this thread?

There's something about a thread like this that makes me want to drop my haitches, elide my consonants and use your you're and yore interchangeably. Sorry Mike if you are still out there rocking quietly to yourself.

Thanks, LittleRedDragon! An ancient poem can be exempted, though. I'm sure the people who litter the start of their sentences with "so" are not paying homage to Beowulf. Maybe they should be using "hwaet" instead!

Is English tending slightly towards its Germanic roots once more?

I agree claret. I do find it immensely annoying when you find yourself counting the number of times someone says 'so' in one conversation. I'm guilty of 'Anyway' used in the same way ... makes me wince when I hear myself saying it.

nijinksy - nah, we're just being sloppy.

If it's an ancient poem, it's an unusual grammatical form; if it's spoken modern English, it's just plain wrong.

I might be wrong, but Shakespeare used "gotten" I think.

You're probably right - is 'ill-gotten gains' Shakespeare?

I should know (shoves English degree out of sight and whistles innocently), but don't.

The Americanism that really annoys me is 'through', as in, 'read pages one through five'. I don't know why but it really, really grates on me.

Nouns as adverbs FFS. 'She done it nice' FFS I can be found muttering ...LY constantly. Not to mention the 'done'.

Adjectives used as adverbs too

wtf is a "pedant"?

why do we have to use big clever words to prove that we got an A in English Lang in order to be taken seriously, innit?

or do you just have to live in London and drive a 4x4 'til you can use big clever words. (INNIT)

there are only three Americanisms that really get on my nerves:
normalcy - it's NORMALITY -ARGH!
'momentarily' used to mean in a moment, rather than for a moment
'I could care less' to mean 'I couldN'T care less'

Now admittedly the last one I have only seen in American novels rather than heard in speech but it's STILL WRONG. It doesn't make sense. And I have already had a few discussions on these boards with American people but it STILL doesn't make sense.

Sorry, its not wrong, you mean it is "incorrect" and actually, American English is not incorrect, just different.

If it doesn't make sense then it's wrong.

"I like to go for a swim of a morning" surely it should be "in the morning"

It's wrong isn't it? Please tell me it is actually wrong because it drives me NUTS!

Ooh missed a full stop and a capital there! It was a typo I swear!

And Bubbaluv, how do you feel about "on the weekend" instead of "at the weekend"? It bothers me but probably shouldn't.