Really, BBC?

[GlobalCitz]

English is not my first language, and as a foreign-speaker I'd say I've always trusted the BBC to steer me right.

Just read this headline and actually delved into the article to double check if it might be a play on words. It was not.

Oh dear

Not sure if I’m being super thick here, but I can’t seem to quite see where the error is?

Where it say 'open your palette'

It should be palate, which relates to taste. A palette is something an artist mixes paint on.

Palate. Not palette.

Oops, this was to @twobabiesandapup

@HopeSpringsInfernal oh goodness I didn’t see the second page! I read the first one about 10 times before I gave up, didn’t swipe to the second one 🙈 thank you!

Very poor, but not surprising.

Not surprising, they have long since forgotten when to use 'fewer' not 'less' and that it's 'the UK' and 'the United States' because the words are common nouns.

They also said Oasis had ‘buried the hatched’ the other day 🐣

Oh those poor chicks! 😱

A palette is a tray full of eyeshadow. Or paint.

I know I did post after that to say I stupidly hadn’t swiped to the second page so I didn’t see that!

Oh dear. The article was written by an intern, no doubt, aged 21.

I’ve given up with BBC.

I've seen pallet used for palate too. Make-up pallet would be an apt description of my collection of cosmetics.

To think that the BBC used to have high standards and people who met and exceeded them.

Over 25 years ago, I actually attended an interview for a temporary job with the BBC's Pronunciation Unit.

I still remember that they asked me a question about what nationality a person with a surname ending in -adze would most likely be.

I wonder if this department still exists at the BBC? I also possess a very old BBC Pronunciation Dictionary, as proudly issued to all BBC journalists as standard at one time. Again, I wonder if this is still the case (I can probably guess)?

The BBC also has people who can't spell 'Philip'.

Wow. I know a lot about languages but I don’t know the answer to that question. I am vaguely remembering someone who used to be in the news a lot who was called Edward (pronounced Edvard) Shevardnadze, but no idea where he was from. Will Google it but, as a guess, Slovenia or Albania?

Georgia

Yep, the answer was indeed Georgia - and Eduard Shevardnadze was meant to be the big clue.

I had vaguely heard of his name, but I didn't have a clue who he was or where he was from. The interviewer gave me a bit of a wounded puppy look when I didn't know - I felt like I'd really saddened him and ruined his day!

Most of the modern generation probably rely on spell checkers which would be OK with this.

The -dze ending is a fairly common one in Georgian surnames.
Adze as a full surname is Nigerian, I think.

How ironic that Most of the modern generation probably rely on spell checkers which would be OK with this. was posted by @BigFatLiar .

Spellcheckers can only check for words they know. They won't correct a word that is spelt correctly but is not the right word.

The -dze ending means 'son of'.

The other common ending -shvili means 'child of'.