It’s GIVEN not GIFTED FFS !!!

[TriflePudding]

Oh god it’s all over Facebook and it’s driving me crazy - “I have here to gift ...a tatty old sofa I can’t be arsed to get rid of myself so I’m fobbing it off on someone else”
or “I have been gifted a bag of baby clothes but they are too small, does anyone know if anyone in need ?”
Or “looking to gift some donations to local women’s refuge/children’s hospital- who do I get in touch with ?”

JUST FUCK OFF !! Say “given” and while we are at it just donate stuff quietly without any fanfare !

YABU - it is perfectly acceptable to use “gifted” as a verb

Or

YANBU - the word “gifted” being used as a verb was invented by Beelzebub himself.

Please feel free to add your own !

It also invariably makes me think of the Four Tops "Reach out and I'll be there", so I have an ear worm for the rest of the day.

Yes! The first time and only time someone at work told me to 'reach out' to them, I had to bite my tongue verrrrrrry hard.

I wanted to reply with 'Are you one of the Four Tops?'

@DuckyMcDuck

Also, you go TO a place

You don't go cinema - go TO the cinema

Go London - no, no, no go TO London

Go Tom's house - go TO TO TO TO TO his bloody house

And breathe

Oh yes. I really hate this.

Talking of cinemas, US films of the genre always refer to a species that will "go extinct" rather than "become extinct". That always sounds really strange to me.

Regroup being used for a single person - "Andy Murray will have to regroup at the interval after losing the first set"

The athlete is hoping to medal in this event. The verb is meddle meaning to interfere.

Every answer to an interview question beginning with So.......

At this moment in time - Just say now!

Will Beth Tweddle medal... drove me round the sodding bend.

‘I’m good’ - oh yes! A thousand times yes!

Ditto to ‘Can I get....?’

If it’s anyone Scottish I have no objection to ‘It needs washed’ etc. - it’s always been a Scottish thing AFAIK - but anyone else mindlessly jumping on that linguistic bandwagon can go in the rat-infested dungeon I shall provide for anyone who annoys me, once I’m a dictator.

Gifted, hosted etc are not technically incorrect but they are really pretentious and get on my nerves. Just say GIVEN!

Not sure it's been mentioned as haven't read ATFT but what grinds my gears is the use of 'myself' or 'yourself' instead of me / I / you. For example 'My husband and myself are looking for a house' or 'perhaps yourself and your children would like to...'

You do not sound educated even though you may think you do.

There's a certain irony to these threads whereby people complain about how their perception that someone is using language 'incorrectly' makes people sound uneducated while simultaneously lamabasting people who modify their language in an effort to sound educated.

I'm wondering what the ideal would be for those who are so frustrated by what they consider to be improper use of language? That everyone ascribes to their preferred useage? Or simply that they don't have to hear/read non-standard use?

I think gifted can be used legitimately as a development of language:

I was given a slice of pizza
I was given loads of work to do
I was given a dirty look for criticising other people’s use of language
I was gifted a trip to the Maldives
I was gifted a beautiful bouquet of flowers

To be given something can be mundane, but describe it as gifted indicates either that the giver intended the act of giving to feel special, or the receiver perceived it that way.

In that sense using the word “gifted” conveys a nuance that you lose with the word “given” - which is exactly what language should achieve when used well.

[bangs gavel]

Even John Lewis (who really ought to know better) was at it with ‘gifting’ in the run up to Christmas. Signs all over the place saying, ‘Gifting made easy!’ or some such.

It's becoming more and more common for children to say diapers, trash and so forth. I had a child ask me when recess was and could she have an eraser
That's odd, and sad. It's sad because these children are obviously spending a lot more time watching American videos/films/SM than they are spending watching British ones and talking to the people around them (who are most likely to be apeakera of British English).

In that sense using the word “gifted” conveys a nuance that you lose with the word “given” - which is exactly what language should achieve when used well.

Rubbish - bangs gavel back.

It’s Instagram cobblers.

*What's wrong with "in actual fact" ?

(Clue: nothing, and a student would get a mental tick for using it instead of "in fact" or "actually" because it's stylistically richer)

"A not insignificant amount"

Lovely phrasing- also stylistically richer usage.*

I would query the added stylistic richness. You’d say, ‘a significant amount’ for the second example.

@TheKeatingFive

I think it's just surprising that so many people are bothered by words. Language is dynamic, what's the problem?

I totally agree, I find people to be very rigid about this.

Where do we draw the line? English teachers would be redundant if people really meant that it's fine for language to "evolve". How do you know if a pupil's mistake isn't just the first time a new spelling or a new use of a word has been created?

If we need to accept that "language evolves all the time " I really don't think that we can say that anything is wrong. How would you decide what is incorrect and what is "evolved usage"?

How do you know if a pupil's mistake isn't just the first time a new spelling or a new use of a word has been created?

Most people aren’t looking at this through the lens of whether students work should get the red pen treatment, but rather how language evolves and develops in the real world.

I wonder how modern English language teaching methods would have coped with James Joyce as a student? Copious red pen there I imagine!

Different registers are appropriate in different settings. I don’t think that’s very controversial.

@Frogartist

It's becoming more and more common for children to say diapers, trash and so forth. I had a child ask me when recess was and could she have an eraser That's odd, and sad. It's sad because these children are obviously spending a lot more time watching American videos/films/SM than they are spending watching British ones and talking to the people around them (who are most likely to be apeakera of British English).

Yes that's it exactly. Hours of sitting in front of screens watching American programmes. We have, on average, 2 children per class who speak with a distinctly American accent, but have no connection to the US.

@CharityDingle

It also invariably makes me think of the Four Tops "Reach out and I'll be there", so I have an ear worm for the rest of the day.

Yes! The first time and only time someone at work told me to 'reach out' to them, I had to bite my tongue verrrrrrry hard.

I wanted to reply with 'Are you one of the Four Tops?'

@CharityDingle

"How are you darling"?
"I'm good thank you"

NO NO NOOOOO!!!!
Apologies if anyone else posted this.
Did I put the question mark in the right place on line 1?

www.mumsnet.com/uploads/talk/202102/large-529540-c2e77cfe-f720-4196-8621-9799018e8da4.jpeg

Thank you @giantkitten. I love it!

I don't have a problem with most of these examples, but the one that does both me is a misuse of ellipsis.

Either in a sentence where it's not required or an overuse (I get sent a lot of jokes and it seems to be common for people to use ellipsis as a means to separate the setup from the punch line):

What do you call a world renowned linguist?.................................................A figure of speech.

bother*

TrialOfStyle - I don’t think that is too awful, although they should limit to 3 dots!

In informal writing it is accepted that an ellipsis can be used to show hesitation, a thought that trails off or leaves something unsaid, or in the case of a joke to build suspense, so the basic idea there is correct!

I learned him - No, you taught him, you can't win a person.
I'm going to win you - No, you hope to beat me.
In scho, some people used to say "Can you borrow me your robber". What?

These phrases are so, so wrong, I struggle to believe that people don't know this. In my work environment I hear them and literally want to shrivel up. Sometimes, I will "correct" the person by saying something like "Oh yes he taught me". I cringe if they say it around people I don't know in case the newcomers think I would use the same phrases.

@TheKeatingFive

How do you know if a pupil's mistake isn't just the first time a new spelling or a new use of a word has been created?

Most people aren’t looking at this through the lens of whether students work should get the red pen treatment, but rather how language evolves and develops in the real world.

I wonder how modern English language teaching methods would have coped with James Joyce as a student? Copious red pen there I imagine!

Different registers are appropriate in different settings. I don’t think that’s very controversial.

Isn't school part of the real world then?

My point was really that words that used to be considered incorrect can become correct, but how do we get to,this point? Who decides what's acceptable? It is interesting process!