ect is not short for et cetera

[BlueMountainHusky]

It is etc. not bloody ect.

ECT is electroconvulsive therapy.

I have seen it on this web site literally hundreds of times this week alone.

It's like a contagious form of ignorance that is spreading like a plague.

Is it unreasonable to be driven nuts by the sheer number of people who think it's just ect.

If I don't come back, I have seen it again and my head has exploded.

Terry Pratchett used to have characters say “Eksetera eksetera” for comic effect. That’s what I think when I see ect BLOODY EVERYWHERE.

@Bbq1

They may call you a "grammar Nazi" but at least you don't run the risk of being called a "punctuation Nazi".

@ErrolTheDragon, as far as I know, it's linguistically the norm for compound nouns to evolve into one word over time, which seems a logical evolution. "web site" was the original form, and over time "website" has appeared. (Haven't read your link, so apologies if I'm repeating what's said there!)

CARNT

[quote Geamhradh]@Bbq1

They may call you a "grammar Nazi" but at least you don't run the risk of being called a "punctuation Nazi".

@ErrolTheDragon, as far as I know, it's linguistically the norm for compound nouns to evolve into one word over time, which seems a logical evolution. "web site" was the original form, and over time "website" has appeared. (Haven't read your link, so apologies if I'm repeating what's said there!)[/quote]
'Over time' .... the web didn't exist for the first half of my life (first recorded occurrence of website was 1993, apparently). A person getting annoyed because someone uses a slightly earlier form is a bit weird imo, and possibly ageist. 'Web site' is still in dictionary definitions as an alternative.

www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/website

[quote Geamhradh]@Bbq1

They may call you a "grammar Nazi" but at least you don't run the risk of being called a "punctuation Nazi".

@ErrolTheDragon, as far as I know, it's linguistically the norm for compound nouns to evolve into one word over time, which seems a logical evolution. "web site" was the original form, and over time "website" has appeared. (Haven't read your link, so apologies if I'm repeating what's said there!)[/quote]
Is that at me?

Nothing wrong with the punctuation in my post. I just don’t feel the need to shove rogue commas in here there and everywhere when not actually needed. If you’ve got ‘and’ in a long sentence and it chops it up into two manageable (i.e. not long) sentences, then there’s no need for a comma.

Absolutely.
It's lovely to see a late October conjunction of Dunning-Kruger and Muphry on these threads though.

@brokenbiscuitsx,

Not unless you're also posting under the username I tagged, no.

☺️ Sorry I thought it was a tag error as I’d literally just posted about being a grammar nazi. Obviously need to just step away from anything too taxing today.

“Recommend me” is the one that makes me spit.

@maternitycoat, unique means being the only one of its kind; unlike anything else.

Something can't be more 'only one of its kind', and if there is more than one then it isn't unique.

Things that drive me crazy:

Fewer/less, they’re not interchangeable!

And the overuse of “myself”. It doesn’t make you sound clever if you use it when “me” would be correct. “Myself and my husband” is the one that I see on here all the time. It’s just wrong.

[quote MindyStClaire]@Geamhradh? I fucking love you. [/quote]
So do I.

I can't get with the sneering at inappropriate use of reflexives (I can't get with the sneering at other people's use of language full stop, in fact) - because at some point it appears to have developed among people who mistakenly thought they were speaking in a higher/posher register when they did it. So sneering at it is basically sneering at people for having pretensions and putting them back in their place. Which is not something that any 'proper' linguists I've ever met are inclined to do.

The use of I and me aren't interchangeable.
I often read things like 'that happened to DH and I'

@Octagoneaway

Things that drive me crazy:

Fewer/less, they’re not interchangeable!

And the overuse of “myself”. It doesn’t make you sound clever if you use it when “me” would be correct. “Myself and my husband” is the one that I see on here all the time. It’s just wrong.

Fewer/less usage is a lot more complex than the "countable/uncountable" prescriptivist rule suggests. Lots of long and interesting threads on this in the Pedants' archives. Among historical linguists it's thought that the fewer/less distinction will soon (in language terms) be redundant. (Probably at around the same time that we lose the R in February, the D in Wednesday and, a bit later, the P in September.)

@RobertaFirmino

Swapped out. Why on earth add the 'out'? Is this an Americanism?

No. I'm American and I've never heard "swapped out".

@Tilltheend99

I hate all the Americanisms. I keep seeing people referring to buying groceries! I know we used to have greengrocers but if I went to buy food I would say ‘I’m doing my shopping at the supermarket’ or ‘at the shop’ or ‘at shop name’ AIBU to think groceries sounds very American and people are watching too many box sets?

Are you talking about people posting on Mumsnet? Because some of us are actually American, and therefore talking about grocery shopping is completely correct and normal.

@YellowandGreenToBeSeen

Yep. Along with the use of ‘bring’ when ‘take’ is correct (see: ‘he said he’d bring me to my mums next week but now he’s changed his mind’).

Makes me shout ‘TAKE’ in the manner of Father Jack.

Father Jack would never shout 'TAKE' in that instance though The character is Irish, speaks Hiberno-English and a quick google shows the 'Irish use of these words (bring and take) differs from that of British English because it follows Irish grammar. English usage is determined by direction; a person determines Irish usage. So, in English, one takes "from here to there", and brings it "to here from there". In Irish, a person takes only when accepting a transfer of possession of the object from someone else – and a person brings at all other times, irrespective of direction (to or from).'

I know that wasn't quite what you meant YellowandGreenToBeSeen. However, like the previous poster, I think it's no harm to remind people that many posting on these threads are not necessarily speakers of British English.

I make the same error even though I know how it should be wrote

@Geamhradh - I'm intrigued by your mention of the P in September. Is it commonly elided? I'm trying to imagine such a usage and find myself continually putting in a glottal stop.

(I've said Febyerry for nearly five decades...)

@Tilltheend99 - fairly sure that grocery shopping has been British for a long time. Places like Sainsbury's originally opened as grocer's shops - and thinking about it, I have a couple of people on my tree described as grocers in 19th-century censuses.

No, it isn't- but in line with most Latin based languages not having the /p/ sound, even though the word derives from those, it's thought it will go in time. Not as soon as the Feb-you-erry and Wensday sounds though!

I believe again, "groceries" is the original the taken over to America and hasn't been modified whereas British English has evolved into "shopping/food shopping" etc.