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

[cushioncover]

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!

[cushioncover]

Just don't blame them for rioja!

[woodenchair]

This thread scares me a little.

Asks quietly, what does haitch mean?

[uberalice]

woodenchair - haitch doesn't mean anything. But it's the way some people pronounce the letter H when it should actually be pronounced aitch.

[blousy]

OOh this is my sort of thread!! There's a shop near to where I live called 'Your Beautyful'!! Yes, both words! Aargh! I keep thinking about writing to the local paper/council/anyone to complain.

[woodenchair]

I am soooo stupid sometimes. Thank you for clearing that up.

Good I can now join you all in hating the poorly educated.

[StripeyKnickersSpottySocks]

People who confuse effect and affect.

[AuldAlliance]

I still wince, after being nagged about it all through childhood by my mother, at
"it looks like he's going to..." or
"I feel like I'm..."

But I think this has now shifted into the language, judging by common usage. Saying it is one thing, writing it is another [schoolmarm emoticon]!

[StealthPolarBear]

There's a new housing estate near me called "Mill Muse"

[saltire]

Ok pedants, can someone help with this one.

I've often heard people say they are "going to X's for New Years"

and I always want to say "New Years what? New Years day, New Years Eve?". I say "I'm going to X'x for New year's eve/day etc".
Saying New Years just doesn't sound right. It probably is though, just wondered

[winemakesmummyclever]

Double negatives - aaarrgghhh!

"I've not done nothing."

[StealthPolarBear]

Thanks to whoever explained hanged and hung - turns out I have been using them correctly but didn't know that.

[Jamantha]

I have said it before but the one that really winds me up is when people muddle up teach and learn.

"Can you learn me how to ..."
NO! But I can teach you.

Similarlt with lend and borrow.

[RibenaBerry]

Uberalice- that annoys me too. Do you get irritated by people who use 'myself' because they think it sounds posh? For example: "Please call myself on 020 8888 8888". It makes me want to scream!

[geekymummy]

I hate the "haitch" mispronunciation as well! Rogue apostrophes are too annoying.

I am in the process of training my nephew to say "no I didn't" instead of "no I never"...

[Ellbell]

Can I just add that I agree with all of you?

RibenaBerry... I thought I was the only person in the world who still cared about 'different from' and 'different to'. I feel less lonely out here in Pedantsville tonight!

And, on the subject of difference, can I add to the list of unacceptables people who say 'diverse' when they mean 'different'. Aaargh!

[Ellbell]

PS Round here 'haitch' seems to be the standard pronunciation of the letter that comes after G. I am trying to convince my dds that my pronunciation is right and everyone else's (including their dad's and their teachers') is wrong, but I am fighting a losing battle.

[skidoodle]

I am really tired of people who are so ignorant of language and how it changes that they bang on about irrelevant points of grammar that are no longer observed or even recommended by experts because they think it makes them seem clever.

It's just a way of looking down on people you think are less clever or educated than you are. In fact it normally just makes you look like an ignorant, poorly-educated prig.

As for giving out about valid spellings, meanings or pronunciations from other parts of the world . How do you say "insular" in Middle Englandish?

English is a beautiful, flexible language that works extremely well when its rules are broken, either inadvertently or vertently.

Lynn Truss is to not-so-bright pedants what Richard Dawkins is to not-so-bright atheists.

[Ellbell]

Sense of humour failure, skid?

[UCM]

Oh dear, I am guilty of saying that. Will remember now.

[UCM]

I haven't read the whole thread but Skidoodle, I do believe that the English language is lovely and very complex and should be kept that way. Not turned into textspeak or Americanised as that just dumbs down the entire thing. Probably really bad grammar here, but I do try.

[skidoodle]

me having a senses of humour failure on a thread of competing priggishess and intolerance of other people's tiny mistakes?

uh OK

:D

I just laugh at people who think that "haitch" is a mispronunciation the way you guys laugh at people who don't know where to put an apostrophe. It's all about what tickles your funny bone.

[skidoodle]

What's wrong with American English? You do realise a lot of its spellings are older than the ones we use in these parts?

Perhaps we're the dumb ones?

Also, who is in charge of preventing English from changing?

You know what they call a language that's not changing, don't you? A dead language.

[StealthPolarBear]

RibenaBerry - yes "Please discuss that with myself", what happened to "me"

[StealthPolarBear]

?
oops
(not claiming to be perfect myself)