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Post by althea on Aug 6, 2022 11:54:57 GMT
Recently I saw someone had written, "pass the book" in their post. I thought it was,"pass the buck". Now I don't know which is right.
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Post by ARENA on Aug 6, 2022 14:20:11 GMT
Recently I saw someone had written, "pass the book" in their post. I thought it was,"pass the buck". Now I don't know which is right. It's 'pass the buck'. A poker origin. 'the buck' was an object passed round during poker games to ascertain who's turn it was to deal next. The expression was popularised when Eisenhower said ' The buck stops here' |
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Post by althea on Aug 7, 2022 11:05:25 GMT
I'm glad I had got it right.  |
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Post by themanwhoknewnothing on Aug 9, 2022 7:45:49 GMT
It has become so common nowadays.
The proof is in the pudding , for example
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Post by althea on Aug 9, 2022 12:26:49 GMT
It irritates me, that people can't read and write properly these days. You only have to look in the comments sections on sites to see the appalling
lack of English.
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Post by scalliwaggle on Oct 18, 2023 17:40:30 GMT
Absolutely. Forget Hallelujah! it's The Absolutely! Chorus.
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Post by scalliwaggle on Oct 18, 2023 18:11:42 GMT
If misused words covers poor grammar as well then the two howlers that are most widespread these days (thanks to our American friends) are lay instead of lie and between you and I instead of between you and me. Lay is a transitive verb that needs and object as in lay an egg, lay down the law, lay a brick, lay me down to sleep; lie is intransitive so you can lie down, where a nestmaker could possibly lay down.
Helen Mirren's Elizabeth I to Jeremy Irons' Essex "What is it between you and I?" Not only is that dialogue wildly anachronistic, it's appalling grammar and the pair of them should be ashamed of themselves, not to mention everyone on set when the scene was being recorded.
Website purporting to show photographs of Winston Churchill's personal correspondence with his wife where he writes "..enclose a photograph of Charles and I taken at.." The letter was typed, not handwritten, and must surely have been fraudulent because Churchill, of all people, would never have written that.
If ever anyone needs to decide whether to use "Charles and I" or "Charles and me", just reverse the two people, as in "..enclose a photograph of I and Charlestaken at.." and it's immediately obvious which usage is proper in the context. Between you and I? Between I and you? For you and i? For I and you? Enough already, this isn't good for my blood pressure.
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spot
Silver Surfer
Posts: 110
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Post by spot on Oct 18, 2023 19:16:05 GMT
I am never happy when someone refers to "my cohort" when meaning his associate. Lord knows where that came from. Perhaps I should decimate anyone who says it.
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Post by toots on Oct 19, 2023 9:53:38 GMT
Ahh, decimate, should mean one in ten now means everything and everybody- per hate of mine. When working I gave up with the I/me problem and just changed my bosses letters/reports accordingly. I’m sure they thought I was a “posh” version of me.
What is occurring more and more is an adjective used instead of an adverb. For example “it drove perfect…….”, instead of “it drove perfectly….”. perhaps not the best example, but you get the idea.
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spot
Silver Surfer
Posts: 110
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Post by spot on Oct 19, 2023 10:04:47 GMT
And anyone who can refer to his personal vehicle as "My driver" is deliberately winding up the listener. eta: I'm not the niggly sort but I keep seeing Eisenhower at the top of the page. A jail Warden was asked to get inmates to copy his desk sign and mail it to President Truman six months after Roosevelt died in 1945. www.trumanlibrary.gov/education/trivia/buck-stops-here-sign |
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Post by scalliwaggle on Oct 22, 2023 9:14:24 GMT
What is occurring more and more is an adjective used instead of an adverb. For example “it drove perfect…….”, instead of “it drove perfectly….”. perhaps not the best example, but you get the idea. Yes, I'm good with that! It's another dreadful American import, along with "different than". I suppose one thing could be more different than another but I refuse to speak to the correctness of red being different than green. Oh, Americans, why do you debase everything?
"Escalate" is probably the only useful American import, used in the sense of ramping up something, first heard by me in relation to the intensity of US activity in Vietnam.
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Post by ARENA on Oct 22, 2023 12:28:52 GMT
Sentence construction is a thing of the past.Nowadays you'll hear newsreaders put together a sentence thus.
'John Smith has passed away sadly' , instead of 'Sadly John Smith has passed away.'
They mean two different things
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spot
Silver Surfer
Posts: 110
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Post by spot on Oct 23, 2023 8:16:49 GMT
If I heard any newsreader use the word "sadly" in a news broadcast I'd change channel. The use of these fake knee-jerk obligatory expressions is a recent development and absolute valueless bilge. At this moment in time our minds are with the family. It's all robotic, it's false piety and it's not news even at a police press announcement.
Presumably it stems from onlookers saying "oooh look he didn't say how much they sympathized" despite everyone knowing that sympathizing, or even appearing to sympathize, is not their job, or at least wasn't before some Human Resources team told them it was. All they've done is devalued sympathy.
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Post by ARENA on Oct 23, 2023 9:40:14 GMT
If I heard any newsreader use the word "sadly" in a news broadcast I'd change channel. The use of these fake knee-jerk obligatory expressions is a recent development and absolute valueless bilge. At this moment in time our minds are with the family. It's all robotic, it's false piety and it's not news even at a police press announcement. Presumably it stems from onlookers saying "oooh look he didn't say how much they sympathized" despite everyone knowing that sympathizing, or even appearing to sympathize, is not their job, or at least wasn't before some Human Resources team told them it was. All they've done is devalued sympathy. Why is it that in knife attacks and other such fatalities the victim is always the brightest, best liked , kid , with the most promising future? This is not genuine information more a kind of mantra. |
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Post by althea on Nov 30, 2023 16:49:00 GMT
Seen on Facebook: "Don't get your nipples in a twist."
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