I've a 10 year Aberlour and a 12 year Singleton on the go and very nice they are too.

The confusion between American English and English is one that really annoys me. Not just spelling words differently but the use of American words instead of English words. For example, so many people are using the word awesome these days instead of just saying something is really good, great or fantastic. I keep seeing colour spelt as color and transportation when transport is the correct way.

This BBC news article highlights some of the other misused English spelling and grammar. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14201796

It doesn't help when many of the spell checkers only provide the American English version of the language.
 
Another whisky man. Very nice too!

The confusion between American English and British English (though the latter has its regional idiosyncrasies - do you call plimsoll shoes daps in Yorkshire as we do in parts of the West Country?) can have its amusing side.

Apart from the many jokes about Britons telling Americans they are dying for a fag, many years ago when the Parkinson chat show was at its height Parky had as his guest a well-known American film star on one particular occasion - I forget who she was but it doesn't matter.

As the interview progressed the film star was asked if producers had ever tried on with her the notorious casting couch routine.

She said it had happened only once when she was a young actress and the man had slapped her ****. Now this was in the 1980s and our society was not used to such forthright utterances then as perhaps we are now.

Parky looked both startled and embarrassed and quickly moved the interview on to what he obviously considered to be safer ground. Clearly he was not aware that in the USA **** is slang for backside, or butt as they say there.

Around that time the legendary cricket commentator and wit, Brian Johnson, interviewed Rachel Heyhoe-Flint, a former women's international cricket captain, on BBC Radio's Test Match Special. Now both Brian and Rachel had wicked senses of humour and he said to her, ""A delicate question, Rachel, but do women cricketers wear boxes?" "Oh, yes" she said, quick as a flash, "But we call them manhole covers." For non cricket people, it's unlikely that women cricketers do wear what are euphemistically called abdominal protectors in the men's game.

Thinking of the much loved and lamented Johnners, he was once commentating on a test match for the BBC in the 1960s featuring New Zealand who had a bowler called Bob Cunis. "Funny sort of name", mused Brian, "Neither one thing nor the other."

In those days such innuendo constituted a sacking offence with Auntie Beeb but it was thought that the BBC hierarchy was too unworldly to appreciate Brian's remarks for what they were intended to be.
 
I have a 10 year old Talisker and a Laphroig Quarter Cask at the moment. I'd also dearly love to contribute to this thread but seeing as I didn't even put capital letters on my user name I think it may be best not to :blush:
 
I can't offer you a tot....I gave up the heavy drink a while ago...but I could offer you a tonic water if that's any consolation!

As one of my many "sins" I was, for a fairly short period, married to a Senior Teacher of English, who also happened to be the Head of a large Comprehensive School. Latterly, she became the Chief Education Officer for a Metropolitan Borough Council. So much for her credentials.

She firmly believed that language ( whether written or spoken) was simply a means for communicating thoughts and, so long as it was comprehensible to the receiver, it was acceptable. She firmly believed that the 18th and 19th century academic movements to give English an assortment of rules...a la Latin...was just snobbish and that almost all these "made up" rules were an unnecessary restriction on a [young] persons ability to think creatively!

Now you have one reason why we have a couple of generations who find the rules of speaking and writing intelligent and sensible English difficult. I am sure she wasn't unique and as she was a member of plenty of curriculum committees at the Department for Education and Science,as it then was, her influence could have well been national. :reallyshocked:
 
Being the product of a rather formal boys' grammar school education of the 1950s I still find it painful to construct a sentence that lacks a finite verb. At least, the memories are painful as we had a significant number of form masters - the majority probably - who believed that corporal punishment was the first tool to turn to when pupil correction was deemed necessary.

I ceased worrying too much about split infinitives many years ago, because not to use them often looks unwieldy and awkward in written form. Most of us use them all the time in speech.

With British English drowned by American English ever more in the UK, together with such things as text-speak and sloppy speaking (the letter t seems to be almost an extinct sound in the middle of words), I believe the language has changed more in the past decade than during any other decade in my lifetime.

I accept that slavish compliance with all the rules of English (no-one knows them all anyway and some are unclear and the subject of argument amongst 'experts') is unnecessary but a basic knowledge ought to be available in order to communicate accurately.

For example, I frequently read such things as this written by professional journalists: Bloggs was convicted of murder at the city's crown court yesterday.

The writer didn't mean that the murder occurred on the previous day at the court but the meaning would have been beyond doubt if the sentence had been constructed thus: Yesterday at the the city's crown court Bloggs was convicted of murder.
 
You and I must be of a similar age and we both experienced the "benefits" of a 1950's Grammar School education! My own children ( both of whom are in the teaching profession) still reckon I had a better, more rounded, education than they experienced and,sadly, than the one in which they are currently engaged!

In my late 50's I took myself off to University to read "Humanities"... to add to the degree I had already. As part of the course I undertook a study of English linguistics ...which I found quite illuminating...especially when we came to study English, as spoken/written in North America .Many current Americanisms are really a throw-back to a form of language taken to the Colonies by early settlers which, unlike modern English, has scarcely changed over the centuries...An example is the use of the word "Fall" for Autumn as are speech patterns which often reveal the area in England from whence the settlers originated.

My wife comes from Canada....a country to which I normally fly a couple of times a year. I have great fun when I tell some of my wife's cousins that I speak English... that my accent is "educated Yorkshire" and that it is I, who sometimes has trouble understanding what they are "Drawling".
 
Perhaps I'm drifting slightly off the subject but I was amused when, about 15-20 years ago, one of the US television channels showed an acclaimed British-made documentary programme (program in the US and in 'computer-speak' :diablo: ) about the Yorkshire Dales.

The American television channel had to resort to sub-titles because its management believed the typical American viewer would be incapable of understanding the broad Yorkshire accents of local people featured in the documentary.

What a contrast to the wide range of American accents from all corners of that vast country we have to put up on British television without even a suggestion of sub-titles or other form of 'translation'.

I've found Americans generally to be extremely insular in outlook and knowledge of anything outside their own city or county, let alone state or country, so I wasn't surprised.

You're absolutely correct of course about some American words being frozen in time from the days the settlers crossed the Atlantic and re-exported to us, and I'm not bothered about that except that too many British people seem to automatically adopt anything American in favour of 'traditional' (in the sense of the past couple of hundred years or so) British words and expressions.

What does annoy me when I'm in that sort of mood are expressions that have no historical pedigree where the American version usurps the British one. One example is 'take away' where snacks or drinks are purchased. The Americans say 'to go' and on several occasions I've heard actors in British television drama use this expression where the action is clearly set in the UK. I could give a long list of similar examples but it would become tedious and would add little to the point I'm trying to make.

I empathise with those French people who are trying to resist the invasion of Franglais into their beautiful language. I wish I could speak it. I can resort to schoolboy French with co-operation from what are laughingly called my brain cells - not always guaranteed - but I've never mastered the language because I've never been in a position where it's been necessary.
 
My wife's Canadian pedigree is mainly French-Canadian with a touch of Iroquois.....She is , I suppose, strictly speaking a Metis. Her family moved from Quebec into Ontario in the 1870s with the prospect of being granted a plot of land. On arrival, in a small township consisting of former British soldiers, Germans and the odd Irish family, they rapidly learned to speak English and now, a few generations on, her family no longer speak any French whatsoever.I find it quite amazing that, nowadays, they tend to deride the Quebecois for their attitudes toward retaining the French language and French ways...well, sort of!
 
Since this topic already exists, should it not be 'Travel advice' in the forum titles, rather than 'advise', hate to be a pedant...

If it's a noun it should be advice and if a verb it should be advise.

Do you mean this part of the titles?

Travel Advice & Trip Reviews
Offer advice about your trip and tell us about the places you have visited and your experiences there. Advise others about the things to do and places to go. Give us your full airport, flight and travel reviews.


As it stands it's correct but it may have been altered since your comment. I can't remember seeing it as Travel Advise & Trip Reviews but if it was I obviously missed it.

We're really into American English again because in their version of the language they sometimes use advise for both the noun and verb, and always seem to spell license whether a verb or noun.

One of my irritations is to hear and see written down, sometimes by official bodies, driver's license (which is what Americans have) whilst in Britain we have driving licences.

It's further complicated by my spell checker, and I have English English installed on my computer, always underlining such words as licence with a red, wavy line. It wants me to write license whether I'm using it as a verb or a noun. The same applies to such words as organise. The spell checker wants the American organize even though it's supposed to be English English.

Those tea destroyers in Boston have a lot to answer for! :shok:
 
That's the one TLY, it used to read 'Travel advise and trip reviews', but sorted now...
Know all about licenses, was a driving instructor before moving to France...

Just reading earlier comments,, Whiskey, you say ?? has to be Irish for me, obviously , just so much smoother and kind to the throat, although I do like The Macallan and Glenmorangie occasionally, have taken a fancy to good Bourbon recently,, mmmmm. Rum is my drink of choice though, have bottles of Zacapa solera 23 and Diplomatico 12 reserve on the go now,,, so very nice..
 
In the BRS Twitter feed these two examples have appeared in recent days tweeted by an official BRS spokesperson.

Thank you for the information. Your tray would of needed further screening and a Security agent would of explained the reason.

I know that for some reason 'would of' has become increasingly prevalent in recent years but there is no grammatical basis for it. The writer means 'would have' which in informal speech can become 'would've'. When it comes to someone representing a major organisation publicly I find it entirely unprofessional that these grammatical errors occur.

Hi, yes Ryanair and Thompson fly to Palma.

If an airport representative doesn't realise the airline is 'Thomson' then who does? It's yet another unprofessional faux pas.

This might seem like the grumblings of a curmudgeon but I care passionately about the English language which is surely the most valuable thing that this nation has bestowed upon the world. It is both beautiful and rich - I can't think of any other language blessed with these two qualities in such profusion. French might be a more beautiful language to some but it does not possess the breadth of English, which anyway is never concerned about embracing words and expressions from other languages unlike the French intense dislike of 'Franglais'.

First the Americans, and now 'text speech', seem intent on debasing our wonderful legacy.

I ought to add that in normal text speech or message board discussion I'm not that bothered about such things - nobody is perfect - but when it comes to organisations such as airports (and even more so, newspapers) I find it hard to tolerate such sloppiness.
 
I am no master of the English language but I always try to spell and write things grammatically correct. It is sad that the English language is being bastardised to such an extent and like you say, large organisations in particular that should know better.

On another forum I recently encountered an Englishman complaining of another Englishman's use of grammar yet they made the fatal error of using the american spelling to do it using the word realize instead of realise.
 
Ah the spell-check, how often do we hear that blamed for poor spelling? When i started out in journalism more than 50 years ago there were none of the current computer aids. I invested in a copy of the Concise Oxford Dictionary instead.

I still have that dictionary, a little rag-eared but still containing all the words i am ever likely to use in what time God gives me. It might take a little longer to use than a spell-check but every time i use it there is invariably another word on the same page that improves my understanding of the English language.

I have never used a spell-check and never will.
 
You know what, I blame spell check on computers, it's forever being set the default as American English :p

On another note, I really hate Grammar Nazis! It's so rude as not everybody has perfect English...

I agree and it's something we don't do here. I don't like like it either.

I do believe that somebody who has taken time to write something who takes care with their grammar is more likely to be respected by fellow members here. I also think there is no excuse for "txt spk".
 
Richard

I've never been a journalist but like you I have a copy (1964 edition) of the Concise Oxford Dictionary which I've possessed for over fifty years. Occasionally I flip through a few of its 1558 pages (concise?) and it's quite instructive to find words that have now fallen out of favour and others not included that are in everyday use these days.

English has always been a continually evolving language but I just wish it wasn't so heavily influenced by 'Americanisms' these days.

My outburst in an earlier post was aimed at professional writers or at least those whose job it is to represent organisations in public via the written word. I certainly would not presume to criticise people who contribute to internet message boards, not least because I am well aware of the proverb, People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

With such things as journalism it's not necessarily being petty if someone criticises sentence construction, for example. If a sentence or even a phrase is incorrectly constructed it can bring a meaning not intended by the writer.

I use one of my favourite examples to illustrate this and it certainly applies to the BBC's Ceefax, now called Red Button. Incidentally, am I now the only person who reads Red Button? I realise that space is restricted in that medium but there is no excuse for telling us that, "John A was convicted of murdering his wife at Anytown Crown Court today". Now most people would realise that Mr A hadn't actually killed his wife at the crown court that day and been instantly convicted but the accurate construction should have been, "At Anytown Crown Court today John A was convicted of murdering his wife".

It is important because once a writer, or perhaps a harassed sub editor, lapses into this sort of sloppy journalism there will be occasions when the loose construction really does leave the reader unsure of what is being conveyed.
 
It is important because once a writer, or perhaps a harassed sub editor, lapses into this sort of sloppy journalism there will be occasions when the loose construction really does leave the reader unsure of what is being conveyed.

I saw an example of this today. There are a mumber of temporary AA route signs directing people to a golf course on the edge of Bristol that say, English Women's Open Amateur Stroke Play Championship.

So do they mean it's a competition only for English women? I found the golf website and lo and behold the same wording is used on that but a quick look at the contestants shows, as I suspected, that they are not all English at all. A transposition of the words 'English' and 'Women's' would make the sense clear and accurate.

I remember that when I started senior school we were told very firmly that the school was the Grammar School For Boys, Weston-super-Mare, and not Weston-super-Mare Boys' Grammar School as that would mean that it was only available for boys from Weston-super-Mare which was not the case.
 

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