Conanne the Grammarian Rides Again!
Just some pet peeves, oh so dearly cherished (it's hot and sticky today, I'm cranky, I can't have the a/c and the modem on at the same time since they need to use the same heavy-duty cord):
"Her and I went to the movies." "That's between he and I." (And all other variants of this particular piece of heinousness.) You get this ALL THE TIME on TV, and I think it should be made a capital offense.
"Passed" meaning "died." Drives. Me. Crazy. "Passed away" is fine, if rather precious. But "She passed last night"? No.
To which I always respond, "Passed what? Gas? Someone in the street? The finish line?" Don't do it, people! Why are you so afraid of the verb "die"???
"He's one of the artists who makes my favorite kind of music." No again. Should be "of the artists who MAKE my favorite, etc." The thing modifies "artists", not "he." If you invert it ("Of the artists who makes my favorite kind of music, he is one"), you see where the verb is wrongwrongwrong.
I even chided William Safire once for pussyfooting on this. BAD Safire!
Local newscasters who can't pronounce the name of local towns/inhabitants: Sade Baderinwa of our local ABC 5 o'clock news is especially bad in this, though she's one of my faves in all other respects. But she can't seem to learn to pronounce town names derived from Native American: you should hear her mangle "Hauppauge" and "Copiague". (HAW-pawg and CO-payg, in case you were wondering...) Well, she's Indian herself, but of the dot, not the feather, variety.
At BBC headquarters in London, they have lists all over the walls on how to pronounce names and stuff correctly. Maybe I'll work one up and send it to Sade. (Shah-DAY Bed-er-in-WAH, so you'd think she'd be more careful.)
Feel free to chime in, my legions! Ride out with me to slay written and verbal incorrectness with our terrible swift swords! Aye, and the perpetrators thereof also! Conanne likes company!
"Her and I went to the movies." "That's between he and I." (And all other variants of this particular piece of heinousness.) You get this ALL THE TIME on TV, and I think it should be made a capital offense.
"Passed" meaning "died." Drives. Me. Crazy. "Passed away" is fine, if rather precious. But "She passed last night"? No.
To which I always respond, "Passed what? Gas? Someone in the street? The finish line?" Don't do it, people! Why are you so afraid of the verb "die"???
"He's one of the artists who makes my favorite kind of music." No again. Should be "of the artists who MAKE my favorite, etc." The thing modifies "artists", not "he." If you invert it ("Of the artists who makes my favorite kind of music, he is one"), you see where the verb is wrongwrongwrong.
I even chided William Safire once for pussyfooting on this. BAD Safire!
Local newscasters who can't pronounce the name of local towns/inhabitants: Sade Baderinwa of our local ABC 5 o'clock news is especially bad in this, though she's one of my faves in all other respects. But she can't seem to learn to pronounce town names derived from Native American: you should hear her mangle "Hauppauge" and "Copiague". (HAW-pawg and CO-payg, in case you were wondering...) Well, she's Indian herself, but of the dot, not the feather, variety.
At BBC headquarters in London, they have lists all over the walls on how to pronounce names and stuff correctly. Maybe I'll work one up and send it to Sade. (Shah-DAY Bed-er-in-WAH, so you'd think she'd be more careful.)
Feel free to chime in, my legions! Ride out with me to slay written and verbal incorrectness with our terrible swift swords! Aye, and the perpetrators thereof also! Conanne likes company!
posted by Patricia Kennealy Morrison | 12:42 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home