Things that annoy you beyond reason...(Vol 4)
Discussion
DavidJG said:
People who can't understand when to use 'of' and when to use 'have'. Posts containing 'could of', 'should of' etc...... I really struggle to understand why we waste so much money trying to educate people who clearly can't be bothered to learn the basics of their own language.
Because, to them, language is a fluid structure meant for communication and they don't get hung up on preserving a static snapshot of language at a certain point in time, forsooth. 
I think a lot of the problem is caused by the fact that people simply don't read books any more. All their entertainment comes from screens of one sort or another. The idea of should've being a contraction of should have doesn't make sense to them, and by the time you finished explaining it to them their attention would of already wandered.
RobinOakapple said:
I think a lot of the problem is caused by the fact that people simply don't read books any more. All their entertainment comes from screens of one sort or another. The idea of should've being a contraction of should have doesn't make sense to them, and by the time you finished explaining it to them their attention would of already wandered.
/ I saw what you did there meme /nicanary said:
Yup. P*sses me off totally. It's not as if it's advanced grammar. I know we are constantly told that language evolves, but this "of/'ve" is simple dumb ignorance. The evolution of a language shouldn't be through error and lack of knowledge. Did any of these culprits actually attend a school?
I agree that the written word should be grammatically correct. Especially when written formally, such as in a proposal or manual or other document. (Although, as an aside, how many of us still write gaol instead of jail? I used to but conceded defeat a couple of decades ago.)
Also I agree that evolution through ignorance isn't how language should evolve, although sometime it does.
GroundEffect said:
It looks better than an all-grey courtyard...
When my BMW was shot for Total BMW mag there were no grimy urban buildings around so ended up in the gravel parking area at a nature reserve. It looked stunning against all the different autumn leaves in the background. The magazine cropped all the images and they look crap. It does not need to a be an all grey courtyard, they probably only went there because of the graffiti
Cotty said:
GroundEffect said:
It looks better than an all-grey courtyard...
When my BMW was shot for Total BMW mag there were no grimy urban buildings around so ended up in the gravel parking area at a nature reserve. It looked stunning against all the different autumn leaves in the background. The magazine cropped all the images and they look crap. It does not need to a be an all grey courtyard, they probably only went there because of the graffiti
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