A point of English??

[woodbury22uk]

Of course we go one step further and destroy other peoples' languages too. I despair at the number of times I see "deja-vous" and "nestpa" in social media postings from writers who are already struggling with English without venturing abroard.

However, my English is not perfect. I like a capital in English. I also know the difference between "led" and "lead" which is more than most spelling and grammar checkers used by our local and national newspapers.

[Dorsetmike]

One of my pet hates is those who spell definitely as definately. I also recall an RAF boy entrant who after over a year of electronics training still mis-spelt magnet as magnat. As for those who mix up their, there and they're ... ... ... ...

[Newportnobby]

Why do people pronounce 'nuclear' as 'nucular', or 'burglary' as 'burgulry'?
Anne Robinson also pronounces 'cutlery' as cuttelry'.
There is a trend on TV for presenters, newsreaders etc to pronounce 'to' as 'tuh'.

I despair.

[Adrian]

The one that really gets me going is the widespread use today of "train station".

I can't be the only one on here who was brought up with "railway station", can I?

Suppose that's the evolution of language for you.

Adrian

PS I well remember the first time hearing something described as "well bad" !

[keithfre]

The one that really gets me going is the widespread use today of "train station".

I can't be the only one on here who was brought up with "railway station", can I?

Indeed, I regard 'train station' as Toytown-speak or Noddy language. But it is analogous to 'bus station'.

In the 1970s no English speakers said 'hopefully' except in the sense of 'better to travel hopefully than to arrive'. The only translation of German hoffentlich or Dutch hopelijk was on the lines of 'I hope...'.

[Tdm]

Sometimes get some interesting English translations on signs in Tenerife.
The one below is on the wall by a local Spar - at the place where you tie up your dog whilst you shop inside - but reads as though it is something different.

[Jack]

The one that really gets me going is the widespread use today of "train station".

I can't be the only one on here who was brought up with "railway station", can I?

You are not alone, on a similar theme; people seem to fly in airplanes....      They are not airplanes, they are aeroplanes!

[Tdm]

The one that really gets me going is the widespread use today of "train station".
I can't be the only one on here who was brought up with "railway station", can I?

You are not alone, on a similar theme; people seem to fly in airplanes....      They are not airplanes, they are aeroplanes!

Not if your talking "Jefferson Airplane" - once had an LP of theirs but don't know what happened to it. 

[davidinyork]

BTW, has anyone come up against the current curse inflicted upon formal ''English' - the mixing of 'text-speak'  and 'correct' words in the same sentence? it's appearing at university level now and causing  immense problems for the current ('non-texting')  generation of lecturers in respect of exam and assignment marking.  The students who use such things see absolutely nothing wrong with the practise and become somewhat aggrieved when their mistakes (which cost them marks) are pointed out to them.  They simply do not understand, and the practice will, if anything, increase as 'Generation Y' et al start to arrive at the doors of the institutions of higher learning - and then take up teaching positions within them.

I remember when I was a student 15 years ago, after the first essay a fairly sizeable chunk of the year group were told to go to what were basically remedial classes in English. It caused a lot of grumbling - I recall one saying "But I'm not doing a degree in English". Talk about missing the point!

[Adrian]

Mention of college in the previous post reminds me of one notorious event.

Staff from other colleges were invited to a "meeting" and signs had been placed in key areas to help visitors find the venue for the " Language Conferance"

I'm not kidding!!  But I was glad that day I was a member of staff in another quite unrelated department.

Adrian

[Jon898]

A lot of what is being commented on here seems to be the apparent invasion of the English language by the American language.  I suppose it should not be surprising given the Hollywood culture.  It makes you somewhat sympathetic to the French approach to attempt (largely without succeeding) to maintain the purity of their language from foreign invasion from things like "le weekend".

When I came to the US, I had a tough time adjusting to some of the usages, spellings and pronunciations, and 35 years on, I still cannot bring myself to say "tomato" or "schedule" in a way that is comprehensible to most american ears.  Some usages can be confusing as well as sources of friction ("tabling" an idea in the US means to start discussing it...exactly not what a Brit would understand was being proposed to happen to their idea).  I was familiar with the idea that "ou" was often changed to "o" (favour to favor), but still have to think hard when presented with a word that I had learned should contain an "oe" that has been changed here to "e" (oesophagus becomes esophagus).

Reverting to the original postings, my pet peeves include the confusion between affect and effect (now ignored by most spell checkers), and the phrase "on the other tact" ...fingernails on a blackboard to me.  In the spoken language here, in addition to the "nucular" one (often paired on the TV with a photo of a cooling tower...what is that coming out the top, "nucular smoke"?) is the spread of the simple word "ask" being pronounced as "aks".

If anyone is really into this stuff, Paul Brian's website is quite useful: http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/errors.html#errors

[Jack]

The one that really gets me going is the widespread use today of "train station".
I can't be the only one on here who was brought up with "railway station", can I?

You are not alone, on a similar theme; people seem to fly in airplanes....      They are not airplanes, they are aeroplanes!

Not if your talking "Jefferson Airplane" - once had an LP of theirs but don't know what happened to it. 

Jefferson Airplane is/was an American Rock Band... We are discussing a point of English   

[Bikeracer]

Well at least they didn't put LOL at the end.

I can never understand the constant use of LOL often after just a normal statement or sentence that isn't even remotely funny.

Allan

[railsquid]

My wife, who is Japanese, speaks excellent English, and for the most part with very British inflections. However I do need on occasion to remind her that there's no "d" in words like "thirty" or "party", and "zee" is what German speakers say when they mean "the". There's also some cross-pollution with "Japanese English" words which are not used in any English dialect which cause confusion from time to time. The other day she asked me to hand me an item of (something which sounded like an Anglo-Saxon proper name) clothing - I've forgotten already - which turned out to mean "striped". In the same way that a "Hotchkiss" (or hotchikusu) is a stapler here, named after the (American?) inventor or marketer or whatever.

Looking at things from the Japanese side, literacy is highly valued here and there's no such thing as the "Grocer's Apostrophe" LOL and it's a very rare event if you see so much as a misplaced character (which is a minor miracle bearing in mind it's a language seemingly designed by masochists). In fact it veers towards the other extreme - a business email which in English speaking countries would go something like this: "Hi Mike, Got it, thanks, Railsquid" in Japanese would be something like "Honourable Smith, It is I, Railsquid, of the humble company Celaphods, Inc. I am honoured to have received your prior communication. In consideration of your position on this matter I am pleased to say we are able to offer our full understanding and cooperation in this field of endeavour.".

[Tdm]

Does that mean we have to addess you as "Honourable Railsquid" in the future?