Very unique!

Hmmm. As I see it, you can't be 'very unique' but you can be 'nearly unique'. 'Quite unique' would only work if 'quite' is used to mean 'absolutely', but not if it means' almost'.

Does Fowler have anything to say about pregnancy?

I dug out my Fowler's book on English Usage and found this:

^”...uniqueness is a matter of yes or no. The adverbs that unique can tolerate are quite, almost, nearly, really, surely, perhaps, absolutely...”

It is nonsense to call anything more, most, very, somewhat, rather unique".^

Wheniwasyourage

I think we'll have to agree to differ about "almost unique" choughdancer and Petera. I just can't get past thinking of in the same bracket as "almost pregnant".

I'm with choughdancer on this one.

Something is either unique or it isn't, and you can't qualify an absolute. But something can also be so rare that it isn't quite unique, but is almost there.

Being pregnant is not on a scale, in the way that 'unique' is, so it's not possible to be 'almost pregnant', or 'a little bit pregnant'. Someone cleverer than myself I am might be able to explain why 'unique' is both absolute and at the top of a scale. Or something.

Wheniwasyourage

I think we'll have to agree to differ about "almost unique" choughdancer and Petera. I just can't get past thinking of in the same bracket as "almost pregnant".

I see where you're coming from but I think that's because pregnancy is a binary state and not a range.

If I went into a shop and looked at prices an item could cost £10 or not cost £10. I wouldn't blink at saying that something that cost £9.99 was 'almost £10'.

Likewise 'always' means, well, 'always', but we have no problem with 'almost always'.

You may argue that unique/nonunique is also binary, but it's almost always (see what I did there?) applied to a continuum (or at least countable) state.

I think we'll have to agree to differ about "almost unique" choughdancer and Petera. I just can't get past thinking of in the same bracket as "almost pregnant".

Wheniwasyourage

Oh yes, CountessFosco. Every time I hear it, or its friend "almost unique", I can picture my DM with steam coming out of her ears. In fact, that whirring sound you hear as I type this will be her spinning in her grave!

Very unique - just no....

But I never saw the problem with "almost unique" - something that has happened to me only twice in my life is not unique, but it almost is.

Why say "I'm loving this (whatever)"? "I love this" was acceptable until this Americanism crept in. It makes me shudder.

I'm not sure why 'myself' is cropping up all over the place. "My wife and myself went to London". The other day I heard "The difference between you and myself". It seems 'myself' is now replacing 'I' and 'me'.

Also, we now longer 'show' things. We 'showcase' them. Does anybody know where that comes from?

AussieNanna

Hetty58

Anything more than 100% drives me crazy!

But sometimes it is.

I am getting a 110% credit on my cruise deposit (from pre pandemic) - deposit was $6000, I am getting $6,600 credit.

Is that not more than 100%?

It is more than 100%, which is perfectly possible where there is an infinite resource.

It's when people talk about liking things 110%, or putting in 110% effort that it grates on me. Both are 10% over the maximum amount of effort or ability to like that anyone can lay claim to.

Oh yes, Scribbles. Waterstones does it too. Even if the book hasn't been published yet, you are still ordering it!

I hate it when Amazon tells me I can pre-order a book.

Hetty58

Anything more than 100% drives me crazy!

But sometimes it is.

I am getting a 110% credit on my cruise deposit (from pre pandemic) - deposit was $6000, I am getting $6,600 credit.

Is that not more than 100%?

Then of course there is ' forward planning'. Another bugbear for me.

.

When I have telephoned to file a complaint with customer services somewhere and the person taking the call says "No problem" I am seriously tempted to say that of course there's a problem! Why else would I struggle through innumerable button-pressing options and long recorded messages in order to speak to a real person in customer services if there was NO BLOODY PROBLEM! But I usually just ask their name and thank them...

JackyB

I think that "whether or not" is tautological but I doubt I'll ever be able to stop people from saying it.

I doubt whether you’ll be able to stop people saying that -sounds OK.
Some sentences with just ‘whether’ sound wrong without the ‘not’ whether it’s tautological or not.

I think that "whether or not" is tautological but I doubt I'll ever be able to stop people from saying it.

I have also been asked to "confirm" my name, age etc.. This never means confirm. It always involves them wanting me to tell them my name so that they can see if it matches their records.
If only they would tell me my name (etc) then I'f be able to confirm it (or not).

And yes, being told my knowledge of myself, of my phone number or post code is "excellent" is ridiculous lolypops.

AGAA4

I find it a bit irritating when after I confirm my address they reply "Excellent!"
Then add "excellent" to every reply I give.

AGAA4. I agree. When asked “Do you know your postcode” I do “ fantastic”. Grrrrr.

Love this post! Often when I’m watching TV or reading I will say “ you can’t say that”. Much to the annoyance of my OH. My current bugbear is the incorrect use of “sat”. First world problem I guess

Anything more than 100% drives me crazy!

Revert back . ?
You can’t revert forward.

StarDreamer

AussieNanna

StarDreamer

Then there are those with something missing.

For example, in an email:

Please find attached a PDF

what is wrong with that sentence?

or do you mean it says that when no PDF is attached?

PDF means Portable Document Format.

So it should be

Please find attached a PDF document

as PDF is the format, not the document that has been constructed in accordance with that format.

I think PDF has become the known lingo for a PDF and you are on a road to nowhere expecting correspondence to say PDF document.

In a restaurant when you order and the waiter says "good choice" .One day I will order and he/she will say "don't have that it's rubbish" .

Contemporary can mean:

belonging to the same era or period as another thing (or person or event)

but it can also mean:

characteristic of the present time, modern

In the example, the word and is just linking two statements which are both true but may be mutually exclusive. The adjective contemporary describes the furniture in the exhibition which may be modern even though the house is old.