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 !

Oops

@notcricket

Yes language evolves, and yes some people find grammar tricky, but it's not as simple as that. A lot of the language uses being discussed on here arise from completely deliberate pretension or cutesiness, so I don't see anything wrong with finding them annoying.

Just to go back to your original point, yes of course language evolves, but most of it evolved at a time when we didn't have the internet or tv, so its a shame if we lose the rich variety of meaning that dialects or even little spoken languages retain, in favour of some mid-Atlantic homogenised mishmash.

For example, it recently came to light that in some former Norse speaking parts of Britain, the phrase "daet er dey" was still very much in use, meaning "there they are". This is "det er dei" in Modern Norwegian, from "Þat eru þeir" in Old Norse. There are many such examples, the point being that the original language was easily lost although so widely spoken that remnants of it still remain 1000 years later. Icelanders and Norwegians are very aware of the importance of preserving their languages from too many modern influences and have taken different paths towards that.

Personally speaking, I would rather gain language rather than lose it, and modern evolution of language tends towards the latter rather than the former.

@JohnMiddleNameRedactedSwanson

What’s your field, though, *@LouJ85*? It’s widely known in e.g. the humanities, although I’d hope that a peer reviewer in any field would pick up on it.

The OED is careful to say that it is ‘widely considered to be incorrect’ and this is a good example of the fact that, like all lexicography, the OED is descriptive of the language as it is used rather than prescriptive of how it should be used. Fowler’s Modern English Usage and the various newspaper style guides are very useful if you want the latter. Here is grumpy old Fowler on ‘disinterested’.

My field is psychology.

Also annoying is one of my teens always messages me when posts on SM not necessarily for me to really like it but because wants it to look like more likes, so messages me the following

Like it up and comment

This really grates on me. Teen will send this comment to all contacts and SM followers. And get narky with me if I do not respond straight away.

@JohnMiddleNameRedactedSwanson

Oops

That’s interesting - the version of disinterested that derives from the French - ‘disinteressed‘ from ‘désintéressé meaning 2. impartial was around in early 17th c.

@LouJ85 My field is psychology

Don’t worry about it - it’s the kind of thing you pick up if you’re a lit geek. Jane Austen uses it quite a lot.

“His choice is disinterested to say the least, for he must know my father can give her nothing”.

I hate this too OP!

I hate all kinds of words and phrases totally irrationally though.

The poster saying they hate "make a move" reminds me of someone I used to work with. When she was about to leave she would say "right I'm going to get myself off". It made me feel sick! Just the other meaning of it really, awful...

"Need gone" is fucking awful too.

I agree and accept that languages need to evolve but some of the new expressions mentioned on this thread seem to stem from sloppiness and not from a wish for clarity or a nuanced understanding.

[quote TatianaBis]@LouJ85 My field is psychology

Don’t worry about it - it’s the kind of thing you pick up if you’re a lit geek. Jane Austen uses it quite a lot.

“His choice is disinterested to say the least, for he must know my father can give her nothing”.[/quote]
Ahh that's why I didn't know about then. Definitely not a literature geek I'm afraid.

@Bananablondie

I’m still fighting the good fight against ‘I was sat’. I think I might be the only one left who uses ‘sitting’.

Do you not think that often we express ourselves verbally differently to how we would in written form, though?

I would quite casually comment "I was sat right there!" to someone. This isn't because I'm unaware of the grammatical inaccuracy of this statement - it's just my natural way of expressing myself based on the region of the country I grew up and having absorbed the way others around me spoke.

However, if I was to communicate the same message in writing, I'd know instantly that it looked incorrect, and I'd change it to "sitting".

Therefore, to hear me speak in every day life in my regional accent with its idiosyncrasies and quirks, others might form a different judgement of me and my command of the English language than they might when I communicate in writing. I just thought this was interesting point.

I say "outside in", instead of "inside out" and "here they go" instead of "here they come", but it's just a local thing.

Another thing I can't stand I've only seen on mumsnet. It's "think". As in "I have two children who's names begin with J. Think Jeremy and Jemima." Oh thanks OP I had no idea what the letter J was let alone coming up with names beginning with J! Totally pointless.

@WaterOffADucksCrack

Another thing I can't stand I've only seen on mumsnet. It's "think". As in "I have two children who's names begin with J. Think Jeremy and Jemima." Oh thanks OP I had no idea what the letter J was let alone coming up with names beginning with J! Totally pointless.

Exactly.

Often used for the mysterious hobbies that every other DH/ DP has, on MN. Cannot be named as they would be 'outing'...

'Think cycling.'

I'm constantly irritated by YouTubers that the dc watch using the wrong words for things. Yesterday I walked into the room to hear one saying that a Minecraft island was compromised of various bits. Had to point out that he meant comprised and what a compromised island might mean - which was quite amusing (to me at any rate, I expect dc wishes I would shut up so they could watch the video )

@Blancmangetout

Just wanted to agree with the pp who added the word hubby. (God, that was painful to type. F.R.O) It's everywhere!

What about hubster

'Fun fact' drives me bananas - it's almost never fun, sometimes not even a fact, and often passive aggressive.

Hello @LouJ85

Yes, I agree with you, actually, and I sort of said what you’re saying as a response to someone else further up the thread.

My view: ‘I was sat’ is technically incorrect in standard English. However, I have nothing against anyone saying it if that’s their natural regional variation. I was really trying to express that it’s gone beyond ‘regional’ now, to become the default for many, and that many people don’t now realise that it is ungrammatical.

@Bananablondie

Hello *@LouJ85*

Yes, I agree with you, actually, and I sort of said what you’re saying as a response to someone else further up the thread.

My view: ‘I was sat’ is technically incorrect in standard English. However, I have nothing against anyone saying it if that’s their natural regional variation. I was really trying to express that it’s gone beyond ‘regional’ now, to become the default for many, and that many people don’t now realise that it is ungrammatical.

Ahh, I missed your other comment.

It just got me thinking "I say that all the time in my broad Lancashire accent ... but I'd never in a million years write in that way!" It just got me thinking about the difference between spoken and written use of grammar.

I think it’s great that lots more people are talking about mental health & mental health problems. However, it really annoys me when people say things like “ I am a sufferer of mental health”! Everybody has mental health but some have mental health problems!