I have a thing about grammar.
These things just hit me, whether I want to or not; people do it deliberately, they shout when they pass me in the street; I simply cannot fail to hear every word they say.
It really isn't my fault.
A girl telling her friend that her boyfriend has got off benefits and into a paid job, which she finds good, because now "he ain't got to sit at home not doin' nothin'.
A girl telling her friend about her plans for Christmas: " No way I ain't goin' to no bleedin' carol service".
A few passing observations
21 minutes ago
I can't take no more snow storms!
ReplyDeleteAs Billy Idol put it, very succinctly, back in 1978: No No No ; who in turn was very likely paraphrasing Frankie Howerd - Nay, nay and thrice nay!
ReplyDeleteTriple Negatives they are! What funny quotes! I come from a long, long line of people who hear grammar misuse like bees in their bonnets. It's a curse, really.;-)
ReplyDeleteWell, you know what they say: "It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing,
ReplyDeletedoo-wab-di-wab doo-wab-di-wab doo-wab-di-wab doo-wab-di-wah."
(Though I believe, if I counted correctly, this is only a double negative . . .)
I suspect your affliction is related to mine, which causes me to find misspellings on every signboard.
ReplyDeleteI can't proofread my own paperwork, but others' errors might as well be writ in neon.
Ooooh - that hurts my ears!
ReplyDeleteI still get a terrible feeling when I think of a billboard I used to pass - "Girard Bank - For Everything You Need a Bank For"
Painful.
Imperfectly, in the way that three right turns, go the way of a left.
ReplyDeleteMore and more "underestimates" when they actually mean "overestimate"
ReplyDeletee.g "It is difficult to underestimate how stupid George W. Bush is"
"Less" when they mean "fewer" but never vice-versa. "Fewer" has almost disappeared.
"Disinterested" when they mean "uninterested" Very few folk, particularly Americans, seem to know what "disinterested" actually means.
But what I deplore MOST is the disappearing "t" from words like "better","little", "constitution" where the "t" is replaced by a glottal stop. And this is spreading fast. TV and Radio announcers are no longer immune.
I've said it before . . if you want to hear well-spoken Engish, listen to a Zambian truck driver or a Swedish waiter or a Chinese physicist. Avoid the natives! And Andy Murray. End if rant. Goodbye.
And FTSE obviously gets "if" and "of" confused! Sorry.
ReplyDeleteOo! Doc, mentioning 'of' - my pet hate is 'could of' instead of 'could have', or even 'could've'
ReplyDeleteMed'cine , gov'ment and secet'ry all vie with piahhhno , yummy mummy and "sproglets" to irritate me .
ReplyDeleteBut then , I'm a miserable old bat .
I agree that triple negatives equal one positive. Thus, the first girl's boyfriend needs to get off his lazy butt and get a job. The second girl needs to suffer through that bleeding carol service.
ReplyDeletexoRobyn
Punctuation is everything.
ReplyDelete'No way, I ain't goin' to no bleedin' carol service'. The comma reduces that unfortunate utterance to a mere double negative. But the other one - well, I have to admire her inventiveness.
MFB finds double negatives extremely confusing. Seems that French doesn't go in for that sort of thing. Although, come to think of it, they go the other way, and drop the 'pas' in certain situations which I will never figure out.
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ReplyDeleteMy name is Sandra.
Is there something wrong with the grammar? Please let me know. I have to teach this stuff and I'd hate to think I were doing it wrong.
ReplyDeleteReminds me of the old guy in the Vicar of Dibley: "No no no no no no no. Yes!"
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InTAt2hI_kg&feature=related