It's 'invitation' not bloody 'invite'!

[FurryDogMother]

Just that, really, it's been getting on my nerves for weeks. 'Invite' is a verb, not a noun! Thanks for the space to vent in.

Funnily enough, I can overlook quote as a noun in certain situations - I'd never say "the plumber gave me a quotation for a new bathroom".

Good call. I think it does come from the American phrase about college applications- on television, U.S. teenagers talk about being "wait-listed" for MIT or whatever, which is obviously slang, yet over here it has been taken as a real word, and now we are stuck with a stupid noun version. All wrong.

Actually, I'd probably use 'estimate' in that case.

on television, U.S. teenagers talk about being "wait-listed" for MIT or whatever,

Yes, it's the television to blame.

Probably explains the spread of "can I get...?" in shops and cafes too.

"I don't know? Can you?"

Oops now I've caught rising inflection from their very ghosts.

I've heard of workplaces having "problem solves". That's just horrible, isn't it.

I think a quot(ation)e and an estimate are, technically, different. Quote is fixed whilst an estimate is just that.

Actually, the "not interested" meaning of disinterested is older than the "impartial" meaning of the word going back as far as 1600 or so. It shifted sometime later and grammarians began to insist on a distinction between the two. The meaning is now shifting back, which is fine with me. "Dis" and "un" mean essentially the same thing. It's different meanings of "interest" that keep the distinction alive.

Seneca, yes, I was thinking about that since I posted. It's because there's a distinction between 'interest' as in the Register Of Interests MPs have to sign up to, and 'interest' in the sense of 'enthusiasm', isn't it?

So you could be right; it might be another thing I have to chill out about .

The only thing that one can quibble with grammatically in "can I get" is the use of "can" rather than "may." The definition of "get" is "to come to have or hold (something); receive". So "can I get" is as correct as "can I have," although the pedant in me would prefer "may." "Get" does not have some sort of built-in reflexive as so many posters on MN seem to think.

Bit When I am editing, I recommend finding another word for "disinterested" when the writer means impartial because I think there are so few readers who even recognize the distinction these days.

And why is everybody using 'gotten' instead of 'got' or 'had'? Grrr.

Oh wait. I know. It's because they all watch American tv programmes

Oh God yes.

When someone says "of a morning..."

I could scream

OP I love you. I absolutely loathe and abhor "invite".

Its companion is "the electric" as a noun. My Mum once had a cold call from someone who said he wanted to speak to her about her "electric". "My electric what, dear?" she said (knowingly). "You know, your electric in your house". This wenton for some time until she eventually told him that she wasn't buying anything from him till he learned to call it electricity. I suspect he didn't get it even then. Cruel but I don't blame her.

cutted we're on shaky ground though with "gotten" since it is just old English which the Americans simply preserved when it fell out of use here - you might argue they are helping us to "mend" our broken language by re-popularising it.

DH says 'of an evening' and it really grates on me. I can't really find out where it comes from though and the internet seems to suggest it's old English. Can anyone elaborate?

I have just come across very unique on a thread about A level results and Oxbridge.

Reader, I cringed

Thank you for starting this thread.
'Invite' used as a noun sounds so wrong to me.

The only thing that one can quibble with grammatically in "can I get" is the use of "can" rather than "may." The definition of "get" is "to come to have or hold (something); receive". So "can I get" is as correct as "can I have," although the pedant in me would prefer "may." "Get" does not have some sort of built-in reflexive as so many posters on MN seem to think.

Really? It's not traditional British usage is it?

Regardless of the reflexive issue, it sounds so very acquisitive.

So I need an elegance corner, maybe?

I'm getting to the point where I think English is evolving to fast. It seems as though by the time I correct someone it's entered acceptable usage.

Please tell me I'm not the only one who kicks a puppy every time I see "recommend me a"

Ignore my incorrectitude, I have a sore eye. It's my excuse for everything today.

I have to bite my tongue every time I hear invite.
Means I don't hear what I am to be invited to, as I'm too busy screaming
invitation in my head...

OP you are right. I have been known to rant that it is a verb not a noun.

Spends also makes me feel ill, DH says it to wind me up.

Oh, I don't like spends at all. It's horrible!

(I'm just going to have a quiet moan about "it needs done/finished" while I'm here. It may be Scottish dialect, but it grates terribly.)

Polkadots I can assure you that "it needs doing/finishing" grates equally on us.

HTH.