Reeling in horror - teacher has put a MUST OF in DS's reading record book

[UnquietDad]

It's there in black biro. In the comment on his record book. Apologising for missing a page and saying they "must of" skipped over it last week.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGHHH!!!!!!!

From a teacher.

From

a

teacher

FFS!!!

It's like finding a turd in his lunchbox.

Help me, pedants. You are my only hope.

(Glances down corridor, bends and removes tape.)

I've just received a newsletter from preschool that contains more than 20 grammatical & punctuation errors. I'm horrifed. What do you do about it though that doesn't make you seem like a pompous arse?

Bookworm - practise is correct in the context of your daughter's numbers, i.e. it's used as verb.

Ds had his story writing book corrected. He has been at school a month and so when he sounded out "bought" he just wrote "b g t" and she wrote in the letters to make "brought".

I must ask her if she found anything she wanted to "bruy" in the shop.
Please tell me this is just a NZ thing.

Seen on a message board outside DD's classroom (at previous school, of course. Had to move her instantly!): Please bring a carrier bag tomorrow. We will be tidying draws.

Ds went to an open day for gifted children and the first thing the teacher did was write "marvelous" on the board.

So that was marvellous.

Notice at our nursery reads 'parents should remover there shoes when entering baby or toddler rooms'
Drives me mad; and yes I have pointed it out!

by it all!!

DD has the word camoflage in her spelling book this week - I've corrected it in red pen and put a big red question mark next to it!

I was helping at school the other day and the teacher (yr 1) wrote

'shiney'

'scarey'

'scaley'

on the board to describe a crocodile.

This means it wasnt a mistake as she did it 3 times!

I was but didnt want to come across as a smartarse so said nothing.

clam - believe it or not, the same "draws" mistake turns up on the John Lewis Advent Calendar box.

I had an advertising letter sent to me recently, selling I-don't-know-what, but there were literally dozens of grammatical and punctuation mistakes in one A4 sheet. I read half of it (with difficulty, as it seemed to say the exact opposite of what it meant) and sat down with the red pen. I sent it back to the company, with a margin-note - something along the lines of 'is this supposed to make me want to buy from you?'

Never heard back.

Reminds me of the notice at the school fete which stated 'Cakes can be bought in the Dinning Hall' in two foot high letters in case nobody noticed ....

Or do I mean letters two feet high? (Walks away and ponders.)

Particularly quiet period at work ...

UnquietDad. John Lewis!!!. And yet, a fellow pedant commented only last night that Waitrose (JLPartnership) actually goes as far as to write 6 items or fewer on their quickie tills. Someone's head must roll for this.

I thought it was supposed to be 'fewer' if it refered to a number? It always sounds wrong tho.

Sorry, captain. Mis-leading post. Yes, fewer is correct in that instance. My point was supposed to say that if JL can get that right, then who's responsible for "draw" on the thing UQD was referring to?

lol at captainmummy and the advertising letter!

Clarification needed please...is it fewer items and less people or how does it work? I've wondered about this for a while and asked an English teacher once, she said, 'it's easy, one's countable and one's accountable' What on earth does that mean? Can anyone help?

Fewer people - you could count people.

Less water - you can't count water.

It's to avoid sentences like "There are less qualified scientists" which is ambiguous as it could mean they only have a BSc rather than a Phd or that that they have all buggered off to America leaving the UK short of scientists.

twentypence - you star! How clear, how accurate, how I understand it now thank you very much

I've used that explanation several times to my own mother and she still refuses to understand. I'm glad to know it's not my explanation.

"she still refuses to understand" ... LOL!

I like your explanation 20p. It really bugs me that I can never remember which is which so I have just invented an aide memoire:
You could have an alliterative 'four or fewer' or 'five or fewer' but there is no countable/number which would give an alliteration with the 'l' in less.