An arris is a term that is sometimes used in roofing - a ridge tile is put over the arris - i.e where the two slopes meet. The finest slang reference to arse has to be 'Gary'. Beautifully delivered one morning at Warren St tube station. All was quiet as everybody was making there way up on the escalator. The middle escalator was out of action and hoarded off. Two workman behind the hoarding seemed to be in a world of their own discussing 'current affairs' when one said to the other (clearly and audibly to all the passengers on the escalators) 'That Jodie Marsh - she's a proper sort - takes it right up the Gary' A brilliant moment and perfectly delivered piece of slang.
Guess this should be on a linguistic pet likes thread.
This week my boss referred to "blue sky thinking" and sent me an email containing "a mind dump of thoughts".
I just cannot believe that anyone would think they sound anything other than utterly stupid by using such ridiculous phrases.
couldn't agree more - delivery, stakeholder focus etc etc. We even employed a 'Pan European Knowledge Practitioner' last year - you could replace him with a piece of data cable. Everything has to be 'delivered through a portal' as well.
Out here it is quite common for people to speak a form of pidgin English to help Thais understand: missing out articles, stating everything in the present tense, saying "I go" instead of 'I am going", even using "me' instead of 'I', and there are plenty more examples. It's particularly common in certain types of bar!
OK, I am a little guilty of it when talking to some Thais but it is very annoying when fellow Brits talk to me in that way!
[cite]Posted By: Bexley Dan
couldn't agree more - delivery, stakeholder focus etc etc. We even employed a 'Pan European Knowledge Practitioner' last year - you could replace him with a piece of data cable. Everything has to be 'delivered through a portal' as well.
Stakeholders - I f*%king hate that term. Been looking for a new job recently and it seems to appear in every job description.
Not keen on acronyms either. Used to take meeting notes when I first started my current job, had to spend absolutely ages after each meeting looking up what the various initials meant because no one could be bothered to explain them to me.
[cite]Posted By: [/cite] * LawrieAbrahams
* CommentTime4 days ago
# 57
Yous. The plural of 'you' is 'you'.
I feel that the (re?)introduction of a plural form would be beneficial to the English language. There are occasions when this creates confusion.
Generally I think that a lot of the comments on here are ridiculous. New words and phrases are a natural part of language evolution. If someone from a previous century could hear you(s) speak what you(s) consider good English now, he/she would probably say you are wrong on certain things.
What I do hate is spelling and punctuation errors. That means that whilst orally I accept 'would of' I don't accept it in writing.
[cite]Posted By: Bexley Dan[/cite] * newsshoppersport
* CommentTime3 days ago
quote# 120
The use of words such as 'munch' and 'sleep' as nouns makes my blood boil. .
But 'sleep' is a noun. What's more it has 5 definitions:
–noun
10.
the state of a person, animal, or plant that sleeps.
11.
a period of sleeping: a brief sleep.
12.
dormancy or inactivity.
13.
the repose of death.
14.
sleeper ( def. 10 ) .
Generally I think that a lot of the comments on here are ridiculous. New words and phrases are a natural part of language evolution. If someone from a previous century could hear you(s) speak what you(s) consider good English now, he/she would probably say you are wrong on certain things.
Never let the reality get in the way of a good piece of banter i say.
[cite]Posted By: Bexley Dan[/cite]Generally I think that a lot of the comments on here are ridiculous. New words and phrases are a natural part of language evolution. If someone from a previous century could hear you(s) speak what you(s) consider good English now, he/she would probably say you are wrong on certain things.
Never let the reality get in the way of a good piece of banter i say.
ban·ter
/ˈbæntər/ Show Spelled[ban-ter] Show IPA
–noun
1.
an exchange of light, playful, teasing remarks; good-natured raillery.
[cite]Posted By: Henry Irving[/cite]Any one want me to deliver some Using Plain English training I can give references.
Are you serious Henry? I'd have thought that taking on the anything goes "it's a living language" argument that you've previously espoused, obviates the need for training.
[cite]Posted By: Henry Irving[/cite]Any one want me to deliver some Using Plain English training I can give references.
Are you serious Henry? I'd have thought that taking on the anything goes "it's a living language" argument that you've previously espoused, obviates the need for training.
I never said "Anything goes". What I said was that it is a living language and it changes.
And yes I do deliver Using Plain English training and have done for years now.
Plain English is about getting the message across to the reader.
I never said that you said "anything goes", that was my interpretation and that is why I left it out of the quotation marks. The whole trouble with the "living language" argument is that you are effectively saying that people can change what they want. It must be very difficult to then say, ahh but there's certain things you should do to make your English understandable.
[cite]Posted By: Stig[/cite]I never said that you said "anything goes", that was my interpretation and that is why I left it out of the quotation marks. The whole trouble with the "living language" argument is that you are effectively saying that people can change what they want. It must be very difficult to then say, ahh but there's certain things you should do to make your English understandable.
Good luck anyway.
I never said or even effectively said "people can change what they want".
What I said was that "the language changes" and it does. That is a demonstrable fact.
But yes, there are things you can do to make your English understood which is what Plain English is about. Not using jargon or abbreviations when they are not likely to understood by the reader, using everyday words, not latin or text speak, short sentences, etc, etc.
The confusion some people have between his and he's. It's quite simple, his means belonging to him; he's is short for he is. Is there some sort of text speak thingamy where these words ore deliberately confused nowadays, or just a lot of people who don't know or care? There seems to be so much of it recently.
[cite]Posted By: Stig[/cite]The confusion some people have betweenhisandhe's. It's quite simple,hismeans belonging to him;he'sis short for he is. Is there some sort of text speak thingamy where these words ore deliberately confused nowadays, or just a lot of people who don't know or care? There seems to be so much of it recently.
They don't care, schools do not seem to be as big on grammar as they used to either, when I was at school if the grammar was really bad on a piece of writing my teacher would put a line through it and tell me to start again, now they merely lose a few marks.
[cite]Posted By: bibble[/cite]And, when did the Nou Camp stadium become Camp Nou?
Just seen this. The Nou Camp 'became' The Camp Nou when it was built in the fifties. Only ignorant foreigners call it the 'Nou Camp'.
Exactly, many Johnny Foreigner's stadiums are written this way, Stade Velodrome, Camp Nou, Stade Delle Alpi etc.
Oh and throw Stadium:mk into that too!
Personally, I hate people that try to use other languages mixed into ours, so for instance some tweer at work decides that he suddenly knows everything about football as he watched the World Cup, and he says to me 'so I see old Espana won the World Cup this year. Viva Espana!'
Can someone please tell me why the hell people feel the need to do this? If I'm ever speaking French to someone, I don't suddenly drop in a useless phrase from another language just for the hell of it!
- Boo for no reason (i.e. 20 minutes have been played and its still 0-0 (although against plymouth this didn't happen)
- Think they know alot about football and then have no idea who some well known players are (xavi, maicon etc etc)
- Think that nathan ecclestone is the bollocks and will get us out of the division on his own (as well as getting the player of the year award)....he had a decent 25 minutes and scored a good goal, but that does not make him some sort of messiah....
- Think that we are a big club and deserve to be the PL...no, we got relegated down to league 1 and we do not have an automatic right to go back up!
Now onto women who:
- Think they are gods gift to men, yet are either fat or ulgy (or a combination of both)
- Who are in a mood because it is that time of the month, yet when they see someone they don't know as well as you they are happy as larry, joking etc...
- When asked "how are you?" reply "fine" when clearly they are not
- Cock tease
- are feminists and thinnk everything should be equal, but then make a bloke carry some boxes because "i'm not as strong as you becuase i am a girl" or think a guy should play for dinner as "thats the blokes job"....the list goes on
- are called kerry katona (I dont think an explanation is needed for this one)
Comments
Guess this should be on a linguistic pet likes thread.
This week my boss referred to "blue sky thinking" and sent me an email containing "a mind dump of thoughts".
I just cannot believe that anyone would think they sound anything other than utterly stupid by using such ridiculous phrases.
couldn't agree more - delivery, stakeholder focus etc etc. We even employed a 'Pan European Knowledge Practitioner' last year - you could replace him with a piece of data cable. Everything has to be 'delivered through a portal' as well.
People who 'Pacifically Arks' questions (Specifically Ask)
OK, I am a little guilty of it when talking to some Thais but it is very annoying when fellow Brits talk to me in that way!
NB the Brits are the worst for doing this.
Stakeholders - I f*%king hate that term. Been looking for a new job recently and it seems to appear in every job description.
Not keen on acronyms either. Used to take meeting notes when I first started my current job, had to spend absolutely ages after each meeting looking up what the various initials meant because no one could be bothered to explain them to me.
I feel that the (re?)introduction of a plural form would be beneficial to the English language. There are occasions when this creates confusion.
Generally I think that a lot of the comments on here are ridiculous. New words and phrases are a natural part of language evolution. If someone from a previous century could hear you(s) speak what you(s) consider good English now, he/she would probably say you are wrong on certain things.
What I do hate is spelling and punctuation errors. That means that whilst orally I accept 'would of' I don't accept it in writing.
you've met him as well....
harsh
Never let the reality get in the way of a good piece of banter i say.
ban·ter
/ˈbæntər/ Show Spelled[ban-ter] Show IPA
–noun
1.
an exchange of light, playful, teasing remarks; good-natured raillery.
Is all this really banter?
The first thing the lecturer did was shorten it to 'TWA'...!!!
WAP...
Are you serious Henry? I'd have thought that taking on the anything goes "it's a living language" argument that you've previously espoused, obviates the need for training.
I never said "Anything goes". What I said was that it is a living language and it changes.
And yes I do deliver Using Plain English training and have done for years now.
Plain English is about getting the message across to the reader.
Good luck anyway.
I never said or even effectively said "people can change what they want".
What I said was that "the language changes" and it does. That is a demonstrable fact.
But yes, there are things you can do to make your English understood which is what Plain English is about. Not using jargon or abbreviations when they are not likely to understood by the reader, using everyday words, not latin or text speak, short sentences, etc, etc.
They don't care, schools do not seem to be as big on grammar as they used to either, when I was at school if the grammar was really bad on a piece of writing my teacher would put a line through it and tell me to start again, now they merely lose a few marks.
he's/his
their/there/they're
where/we're
your/you're
Are the biggest problems. But as I previously stated they just don't care!
Exactly, many Johnny Foreigner's stadiums are written this way, Stade Velodrome, Camp Nou, Stade Delle Alpi etc.
Oh and throw Stadium:mk into that too!
Personally, I hate people that try to use other languages mixed into ours, so for instance some tweer at work decides that he suddenly knows everything about football as he watched the World Cup, and he says to me 'so I see old Espana won the World Cup this year. Viva Espana!'
Can someone please tell me why the hell people feel the need to do this? If I'm ever speaking French to someone, I don't suddenly drop in a useless phrase from another language just for the hell of it!
- Boo for no reason (i.e. 20 minutes have been played and its still 0-0 (although against plymouth this didn't happen)
- Think they know alot about football and then have no idea who some well known players are (xavi, maicon etc etc)
- Think that nathan ecclestone is the bollocks and will get us out of the division on his own (as well as getting the player of the year award)....he had a decent 25 minutes and scored a good goal, but that does not make him some sort of messiah....
- Think that we are a big club and deserve to be the PL...no, we got relegated down to league 1 and we do not have an automatic right to go back up!
Now onto women who:
- Think they are gods gift to men, yet are either fat or ulgy (or a combination of both)
- Who are in a mood because it is that time of the month, yet when they see someone they don't know as well as you they are happy as larry, joking etc...
- When asked "how are you?" reply "fine" when clearly they are not
- Cock tease
- are feminists and thinnk everything should be equal, but then make a bloke carry some boxes because "i'm not as strong as you becuase i am a girl" or think a guy should play for dinner as "thats the blokes job"....the list goes on
- are called kerry katona (I dont think an explanation is needed for this one)
Thats it, rant over for now!