[dailydriver]

It always irks me when people fail to correctly spell certain simple words, such as FORTY & NINETY.

The former very often gets an extra U (FOURTY) while the latter loses the E (NINTY).

An invoice posted in a different thread has an instance of this.



Link (Behind the Scenes: How Press & Media Drives Work)

Is it Forty or Fourty?

[adisan]

Some commonly observed mistakes:

• "Off late" instead of "of late"
• "Too good" instead of "very good". People do not realize that when "too good" is used it has a negative connotation, as in "too good to be true"
• "Few" instead of "a few".

[binand]

Originally Posted by adisan

People do not realize that when "too good" is used it has a negative connotation, as in "too good to be true"

"too good" has a positive connotation as well - something so good that nobody would willingly refuse to take it up. Like in this article:

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/54637251

The club is beset by deep financial problems [...] and the chance to replace high-earning veterans with low-cost youngsters was too good to miss.

[amol4184]

Something that annoys me and it really is basic stuff : using past tenses of two verbs, e.g. "Did you got that?" or "The dealer did asked me..". Correct usage - "Did you get it?" and "The dealer did ask me" or simply "The dealer asked me.." and skip "did" altogether.

The other one that frustrates me and I have actually told people that its the wrong usage "Can you be able to see this?" or "I can able to make it work". This is quite prevalent around my workspace, thankfully I haven't seen it on this forum yet.

[TheHelix0202]

Why haven’t people understood the difference between “brake” and “break” yet? “It’s” and “its” is another one. The improper things are posted all over the forum!

[silversteed]

Originally Posted by amol4184

...wrong usage "Can you be able to see this?" or "I can able to make it work". This is quite prevalent around my workspace, thankfully I haven't seen it on this forum yet.

It irritates many of us. "I could able to do it", "You should able to fix it" and their negated versions are a few other phrases from the same category. "Awhile" is also commonly seen in emails.

Originally Posted by mallumowgli

Somehow remembered this post

Somehow got reminded of our conversation, hence I couldn't able to resist tagging you in this

After having to call many a customer support number, these are a few more irritants:
OTP Password - like, One-Time Password Password?
IFSC Code - Code Code, to make it doubly sure?
Revert back - isn't this akin to a communication U-turn?
"I have one doubt" - isn't "I have a question" better?
various combinations of "raised", "complaint", "issue", "request" - no comments

End rant.

[Guite]

Originally Posted by TheHelix0202

Why haven’t people understood the difference between “brake” and “break” yet? “It’s” and “its” is another one. The improper things are posted all over the forum!

Sorry to nitpick on your post. Definite article "the" is used only on nouns. So your usage in front of "improper", an adjective, is wrong. Some people even use it in front of a person's name. That's plain wrong. There are exceptions of course, eg "the Margeret Thatcher government brought about sweeping changes in........"

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by Guite

Definite article "the" is used only on nouns. So your usage in front of "improper", an adjective, is wrong.

Why? I don't think I ever heard that before, and I don't think I agree. Never thought about it, so open to persuasion, but...

The one sunny day we had last week gave me a chance to clean the dirtiest car. I am looking forward to taking the long, winding route. Sometimes called the scenic route. But it may be the worst way to go, due to problems caused by the serious flooding.

What do you think? I'm sure it is possible to rewrite my examples, and the result may sound better, but does that make them wrong?

The improper things are posted all over the forum!

Should probably have been These improper things. This is partly a problem of singular/plural.

[TheHelix0202]

Originally Posted by Guite

Sorry to nitpick on your post. Definite article "the" is used only on nouns. So your usage in front of "improper", an adjective, is wrong. Some people even use it in front of a person's name. That's plain wrong. There are exceptions of course, eg "the Margeret Thatcher government brought about sweeping changes in........"

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Should probably have been These improper things. This is partly a problem of singular/plural.

My bad, I was glide / swipe typing!

[Guite]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

The one sunny day we had last week gave me a chance to clean the dirtiest car in my garage. I am looking forward to taking the long, winding route along the sea coast. Sometimes called the scenic route. But it may be the worst way to go, due to problems caused by the serious flooding.

Your examples are fine because your "the" defines the nouns highlighted in bold. I have added some phrases, because some sentences seem incomplete to me.

In fellow member Helix's post, adding the word "that" seems to complete the sentence nicely.

The improper things that are posted all over the forum!

Further reading on British Council website shows that "the" can be used with adjectives too. It is quite common usage actually.
https://learnenglish.britishcouncil....te-article-the

[kvsriki]

Originally Posted by Guite

In fellow member Helix's post, adding the word "that" seems to complete the sentence nicely

The improper things that are posted all over the forum!

This sentence is grammatically correct, but it is missing the context defined in the previous sentences. Let us combine it with the original message:

Why haven’t people understood the difference between “brake” and “break” yet? “It’s” and “its” is another one. The improper things that are posted all over the forum!

Also, adding "that" in the suggested manner makes the sentence incomplete on its own. It will be a complete sentence when used in proper context, here are a few examples:

The improper things that are posted all over the forum really irked me!

Q: What annoys you while reading posts on this forum?
A: The improper things that are posted all over the forum!

Someone mentioned using "these", which is a better option to use in this case, as the word "these" puts the emphasis on the context defined in the previous sentences:

Why haven’t people understood the difference between “brake” and “break” yet? “It’s” and “its” is another one. These improper things are posted all over the forum!

In my opinion, we can also use "such":

Why haven’t people understood the difference between “brake” and “break” yet? “It’s” and “its” is another one. Such improper things are posted all over the forum!

[tilt]

Originally Posted by adisan

*SNIP*

• "Few" instead of "a few".

You're right, totally opposite connotations "Few" means "almost none", "a few" means "some".

Originally Posted by silversteed

*SNIP*

Revert back - isn't this akin to a communication U-turn?

*SNIP*

"Revert" in the context of "getting back to you" is wrong because that is not what the word means or its intended use. It does not mean "reply" or "respond" as it's construed to mean by people from India. So, this is not a communication u-turn at all.

"Revert" means to bring back to original state before whatever change was made to something. A switch was turned on, it was reverted to its state of being turned off.

Besides, there should be no "back" after "revert" or "return". The "back" is implied.

Cheers

[meerkat]

Originally Posted by amol4184

...
The other one that frustrates me and I have actually told people that its the wrong usage "Can you be able to see this?" or "I can able to make it work".

I've noticed an apparently similar curious (but accepted) usage in some southern states in the USA: "I might can ....", meaning something like "I might be able to ..."

Originally Posted by silversteed

... "Awhile" is also commonly seen in emails.

Isn't it an accepted word now?

After having to call many a customer support number, these are a few more irritants:

You came close to, but somehow have missed out on pointing out another rather common irritant (apparently without realizing): some variation of "many a (plural word)"!

OTP Password - like, One-Time Password Password?
IFSC Code - Code Code, to make it doubly sure?

In a similar vein, I was taught quite early as a kid that 'DC' meant 'Direct Current', so used to laugh on hearing 'DC Current', ... only to learn much later in my professional life as an engineer that 'DC' now meant a 'constant' level, so expressions like 'DC level' or 'DC voltage' are quite common, and accepted! Language is a funny business!


Such acronyms are funny, -- they can somehow mean different things to different people, --because many are blissfully ignorant of the correct expansion!

In another forum someone once found fault with my usage of 'UHT-treated milk', -- the assertion was that 'UHT' meant 'Ultra-Heat Treated', so my usage of 'UHT-treated' was redundant, thus wrong! When I pointed out that 'UHT' meant 'Ultra-High Temperature', so 'UHT-treated' was correct usage, I was referred to the great arbiter, the Wikipedia (where 'UHT' was also claimed to mean 'Ultra-Heat Treated' (it still is, after years)!

A polite person that I am, I didn't try to explain that while 'Ultra-High Temperature' can be precisely defined, 'Ultra-Heat Treatment' was a meaningless expression, -- what is 'Ultra-Heat' for a cupful of milk, is certainly not 'Ultra-Heat' for a cowful of milk!
.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by tilt

You're right, totally opposite connotations "Few" means "almost none", "a few" means "some".

America, what did you do with our language!

Actually, they preserved some old forms and words that British English changed or lost, and developed some perfectly valid vocabulary. But they also did some bad things.

Few is understood differently in America.
Revert in communications, is a nonsense which, I think, started in America, not India.
Acronym when an abbreviation isn't one, like OTP, ATM, IFSC (NATO, NASA and radar are acronyms: abbreviations pronounced as words)

Even in London, people sometimes told me they would revert to me. I always wanted to say, "How can you? You weren't me before!" I probably did a few times.

"Revert" means to bring back to original state before whatever change was made to something. A switch was turned on, it was reverted to its state of being turned off.

I'm thinking that a thing reverts, you cannot revert a thing. Far from sure of that, though.

[mayankk]

Did a journalist's "I got that confused" (the sentence) rankle anyone else?