New blog: "Gilded Grammar"

[ccfpcl]

I saw a truck today go past me carrying a load of calor bottles with

"Rick's gas's" on the side in 2ft high letters.

[chocoholic]

If I see one more "I don't want to loose my deposit" or "I am going to sale my old grammar books" I will scream. Internally, of course, so as not to scare the dogs.

[Piotrek81]

If I see one more "I don't want to loose my deposit" or "I am going to sale my old grammar books" I will scream. Internally, of course, so as not to scare the dogs.

At a risk of sounding like an ignorant, I'll ask: what's wrong with the latter sentence? EDIT: OH, I get it...

Oh, and nothing I've seen here so far beats "cereal killer" I've seen it written, in an absolutely serious post on a certain forum. In case you should wonder, the poster meant "serial killer".

[Mike001]

If I see one more "I don't want to loose my deposit" ...

Similarly, you will see sentences similar to "She went like a lamb lead to the slaughter".

Perhaps there are vague memories to do with the sound/spelling of the metal coming in there.

[ElleyKat]

MY pet peeve - "I borrowed him the book."
No, you did not. You loaned him the book. He borrowed it from you."
(Or you lent him the book, I suppose, if you speak British English.)

[chocoholic]

Oh, I have another one. "It needs cleaned." I have been seeing variations of that all over the place lately. I am seeing it so much now that I am wondering if it's a colloquialism, as opposed to people just not knowing.

[tovarisch]

Colloquialisms have their way of popping up into existence and become widely accepted. Take "thanks very much" for example. Is "thanks" a verb here? Then who thanks? The one who speaks it? Nope. If it were, then we'd have "thank" (1st person), right? Somebody else? (As in "it thanks very much"? Unlikely. So, it's not a verb. It's a noun, then. As in " thanks, a lot [of them]", right? So, "thanks very much" is a replacement (or a variation on) "thanks, a lot" or "thanks, a million"...

I come to the conclusion that when a living language is concerned, don't try to make sense of some parts of it. And trying to get people to go back to a "proper" way is like trying to quell a volcano from a teapot.

As for "thanks very much", I am guessing it's akin to Russian "спасибо" (spasibo, "thank you"). It came from two words "Спаси Бог" ("may the god save [you/us/everybody]"). Eventually it became its own word.

I would not really be surprised to learn that some years from now "it needs cleaned" or "I borrowed him a book" become accepted...

[RuthieG]

'Thanks' in this case is a noun, and according to the OED, is

a much abbreviated expression of gratitude for a favour received or recognition of a service; = I give you my thanks, my thanks to you, or the like.

'Thank you' is similarly an abbreviation for 'I thank you'.

'Borrow' and 'lend', however, are opposite in meaning.

Using the wrong tense or part of speech merely shows a basic lack of understanding of grammar in my opinion, but, as grammar doesn't seem to be taught any more, I suppose it isn't surprising.

Ruth

[ElleyKat]

Speaking of thanks, what's up with "You're welcome."
I don't understand this exchange.
[I lend you a hankie.]
You: Thanks. (I thank you.)
Me: You're welcome. (You are welcome.)

Welcome to what?

And on top of that, there are people who get all uppity if you say some variant of "you're welcome," like "no problem," insisiting that's a rude reply. Um, if you're telling me thanks for something I did, then I should be able to response however the heck I want. I was already nice to you. Sheesh. I usually find myself saying "Thank YOU" back. Like, thanks for thanking me!!

Synonyms (acknowledgment of thanks): de nada, don’t mention it, my pleasure, no problem, not at all, no worries (Australia, informal), think nothing of it

Language be weird, yo. Word up.

[ElleyKat]

I also enjoy :

"I need to unthaw the chicken." (You just said you need to freeze the chicken there, buddy, when you meant thaw. It's just thaw. No un.)

"irregardless" (Regardless is already without regard. You don't need to add an extra without. I think you meant either regardless or irrespective, not both of them smooshed together.)

them/those

[Darvinia]

no worries (Australia, informal)

Not only Australia, I hear this often in Canada too. I think it's a shortened "Don't worry about it."

[Ernst Pattynama]

no worries (Australia, informal)

Not only Australia, I hear this often in Canada too. I think it's a shortened "Don't worry about it."

.. no sweat ...

[Mike001]

I come to the conclusion that when a living language is concerned, don't try to make sense of some parts of it. And trying to get people to go back to a "proper" way is like trying to quell a volcano from a teapot.

Absolutely. There's an impoverished idea of "sense" moving behind that notion. People's utterances are often "incomplete", frequently idiomatic, and just as frequently highly allusive. And if there are authors out there complaining about "bad grammar" on that basis ... well, they're barking mad.

I'd go further than that. It would be silly to take the attitude that anything goes, but the idea that written, let alone spoken, language should always conform not to what good writers (or speakers) actually do but to rules that originally arose as a way of analysing how people used a language in order to be able to speak about that use is peculiar. It's mistaking the stepchild of an activity for its parent.

One should also notice that in the past people have often tried to make English usage conform to rules extracted from the way Latin works. But English is a different language and works in a different way. So you end up with an artificial standard of correctness that is actually incorrect: it's precisely not what native speakers do.