grammar question

I'm afraid it is * escYOUlator* , thatbags I am not not sure I would hear the difference between "escalator" and "escuhlator" in the standard station announcement delivered as it is with the nose clenched firmly between forefinger and thumb ,and the head in a bucket.

We call them alligators anyway.

I keep hearing reporters on news programmes saying 'amblance' or 'amb uh lance' whereas I was brought up pronouncing it as amb yew lance.

I would say the English version is 'have you got' whereas the Americans say 'do you have'.

That's why when I ask an American "have you got x?" they reply with "no, I don't" because another American would have asked them "do you have x?" An Englishman would reply No, I haven't.

But that's one of my biggest bugbears - people not understanding the question tag correctly

Why do people pronounce 6th as sickth? I know it is supposed to be acceptable but it's not that hard to pronounce the x before the th. It seems lazy to me. Jeremy Paxman even says sickth. Maybe we should call him Jeremy Packthman.

It's very difficult! The 'ss' and the 'xthhh' seem to go on forever!

and you are in danger of spitting.

or losing your teeth.

Of course, jinglbellsfrocks, it's true, one does need to be in control of one's tongue, lips, and teeth.

Also things such as September 11. What happened to the 11th of September?

Yes. One does.

February seems to have all but lost its first 'r' these days - it's nearly always pronounced 'Feb-yew-ry'...

Which is probably why one of my DD's pupils (secondary English) appeared convinced DD had misspelled the date on the whiteboard.

'Miss, you've put an extra 'r' in Febewry!'

My Yorks pals say 'Oop on't Muers'

I'm always accused of being pedantic, but "could of" and "bored of" are surely the thin end of the wedge, and will become accepted if we don't shout. According to my children "different to" is now taught at University. It was "similar to" and "different from" in my day, which is surely more logical. Another irritation is the constant use of "y'know" when I don't anyway! I counted 21 from one golfer interviewed this week.

how come no-one has mentioned the dreaded '

I hate it when you see a sign that says potatoe's

grr

it's not difficult!!

It was only a matter of time, nannymeryl .

The one that really drives me crazy, probably because it seems to be the most frequently-seen error, is the use of an apostrophe in the possessive "its". There is barely a thread on the forum that isn't littered with them!

(Disclaimer - when I'm typing away on my laptop, my fingers have a mind of their own and sometimes stick an apostrophe into that very word without my permission! )

I'm pretty sure we have previously had a thread about misplaced apostrophes. Maybe even more than one! I wrote a unit for my mature students to teach them the correct use of the apostrophe. I don't know how much good it did. Why should they find it any more difficult than I did? And I never did!

And what about "See you later" when there is absolutely no likelihood you will see that person later. We had a neighbour who always used it when he left. Took me a while to realise that he wasn't going to reappear (and so I could stop hiding behind the sofa)

anno, I share your despair!

Purpledaffodil,
DS's girlfriend spent the evening with us and as she left at 11.30pm to go home, she said, 'See you later!".
I thought, good grief, is she coming back??!! Have I got to wait up??

Just want to say 'Hear, hear' to Cosafina. That's my huge bugbear too.

'Have you got . . . ?' 'Yes, I do.'

English usage distinguishes (or used to distinguish) between 'Do you have . . ?' i.e. 'Do you usually have, is it your habit to have . . . ? ' (answer: Yes, I do) and 'Have you got . . .?' i.e. 'Have you got . . . at this moment?' (answer: Yes, I have).

Loathe your instead of you're and I'm another who hates "haitch"

Nvella: I loath the reverse of that one too (you're instead of your), along with who's instead of whose etc .

I can't remember the details, but I seem to remember spotting one of these mistakes or a very similar one fairly recently on a message accompanying funeral flowers from the Camerons. I wonder who wrote that!