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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To expect people not to use the word hung when they mean hanged.

189 replies

cushioncover · 07/09/2007 17:22

Ok, I know IABU, and I'm no grammar queen myself but I've read this 4 times today and I just had to rant about it! There!

OP posts:
cushioncover · 07/09/2007 17:57

And not knowing something doesn't mean you're stupid, just ignorant. A willingness to learn implies the opposite, in fact.

OP posts:
tigerschick · 07/09/2007 18:04

Ooh can I join?? Please? Please?

I don't pretend to be the World's best speller or user of grammar ... but ... some things are simply inexcusable!

In Asda the other day they were advertising "100's of organic products". Sadly, though not for them, there was no one at the Customer Services desk. [grr] It's not so much the mistake but the thought of how many people saw the poster before it was printed and put up on the wall - Why didn't anybody notice?

WanderingTrolley · 07/09/2007 18:08

I have just realised my pedantry has its own pedantry.

I am annoyed by the following:
? poor grammar, spelling and punctuation on signs of any kind except greengrocers', of which I am paradoxically fond
? most printed matter
? websites that sell, inform or advise, but not forums,chat rooms or mad sites for mad people
? email attachments but not emails from friends
? anythingk wot I've writ rong

vacua · 07/09/2007 18:11

Surely it is fora, not forums [sic]?

RibenaBerry · 07/09/2007 18:13

Ooooh, oooh, I love these threads.

I want to join WanderingTrolley's fight against 'less'. They even use it incorrectly on the BBC. I sit there muttering 'fewer' under my breath. I can't help it. It's a reflex.

Can I also volunteer 'different from' and 'different to'?

To take pedantry to previously unscaled heights, you can even get yourself worked up about the use of the word dilema when there are more than two choices!

WanderingTrolley · 07/09/2007 18:16

According to the OED:

forum n. (pl. forums)

  1. a meeting or medium for an exchange of views.

  2. (pl. fora) (in an ancient Roman city) a public square or marketplace used for judicial and other business

Please, someone slap me for being a smug fucker.

I am going to get me a Latin nickname....

vacua · 07/09/2007 18:21

Usually with Latin words we follow Latin declensions, we use English plural forms for words we've imported from other languages though. We're both right but I bet anyone who has studied Latin at school grimaces at 'forums'!

VagusPabo · 07/09/2007 18:22

Ta da!

Though I am now a wheelbarrow, not a trolley.

I was going to be ErrabundusPlaustrum but it's a bit of a mouthful....

LoveAngel · 07/09/2007 18:25

slaps WT very very hard

Impressive, though!

I cannot stand it when people say 'somethink' instead of something. Also hate 'they're/there/their' confusion. Oh, and people who haven't grasped the 'i before e except after c' rule. Which reminds me - people who mix up except/accept and effect/affect. Just LEARN the difference, will you?

vacua · 07/09/2007 18:28

Ah you've just reminded me of people who say 'pacific' instead of 'specific'!

beansprout · 07/09/2007 18:29

People (especially those who live in London) who say "Westminister" instead of "Westminster".

VagusPabo · 07/09/2007 18:32

Took me ages but I found it - ah! Caecilius...

Could of.

GAAAAAHHHHRRGGGHHH.

vacua · 07/09/2007 18:35

people who think 'the converse' is a posh way of saying 'the opposite'.

VagusPabo · 07/09/2007 18:43

Converse

vacua · 07/09/2007 18:44

nice!

RosaLuxembourg · 07/09/2007 19:06

Disinterested gets to me.
Also momentarily. As in 'the plane will be taking off momentarily'...

VagusPabo · 07/09/2007 19:12

If it's an American plane, that's correct.

If it's an English one you'd better disembark pdq.

VagusPabo · 07/09/2007 19:13

momentarily
adverb
1 for a very short time:
She was momentarily confused by the foreign road signs.

2 US very soon:
I'll be ready to leave momentarily.

Alambil · 07/09/2007 19:16

I'm taking it you've all read Eats, Shoots and Leaves?

Brilliant book - well worth the read for the pedants out there.

PandaG · 07/09/2007 19:21

thanks for the cambridge latin course link - I did Latin for 4 years, one lunchtime a week, never got very far, but the site brings it all back!

HorseyWoman · 07/09/2007 19:30

I shudder when I see a person use 'of' instead of 'have'.

HorseyWoman · 07/09/2007 19:30

VagusPabo PMSL

cushioncover · 07/09/2007 19:36

Love the new name, VP!

I remember being on a first date with a guy who told me he liked to drink Australian rioja! Before that, I had thought him quite sexy but when he kissed me later, that's all I could think about.

Yes, I know that is not the same thing but it's my thread so, well, so there!

OP posts:
uberalice · 07/09/2007 19:37

"... with John and I"
instead of
"... with John and me"

suey2 · 07/09/2007 19:39

on the weekend instead of at the weekend?
I blame the aussies

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