Grumpy old men

"Almost exactly...." as heard regularly on the BBC news bulletins.

People who finish an answer with "Didn't I?" or similar. If I had known the answer, I would not have asked the question in the first place.

People who give the impression that they are experts, but then proceed to display their lack of knowledge.

As above, but accompanied by foul and/or abusive language which serves to hide their lack of knowledge by persuading the listener to shut up.

People who assume you know what or whom they are talking about and then use indirect language to refer to it or them, rather than using direct names.

As an aside, I, along with all other members of management were once presented with a document to read prior to a meeting to discuss the documents contents. This document was almost completely made up from what could best be termed "management speak". It was, to be blunt, a load of rubbish. I created a list of what I considered were the major problems, and as an exercise, took one paragraph, rewrote it in plain English, and thereby reduced the paragraph length to 75% of the original. At the meeting, I presented my list of problems, and my rewritten paragraph. The document was never seen again.

Peter G. Shaw

Oh dear, I didn't mean to get you all revved up on a Sunday afternoon!

However, I do find acronyms annoying as others have found especially when they are used to for multiple meanings depending upon the subject matter.

I find the use of the word " decimated " irritable when they mean destroyed or ruined. These days I also find that grammar is virtually non existent, particularly on the BBC radio.

Edited By roy entwistle on 11/10/2020 15:48:59

Edited By roy entwistle on 11/10/2020 15:53:05

Heard on The BBC at lunchtime, said by a well known presenter,"The waiters delivered food on Segways" when what should have been said was " The waiters on Segways delivered food" unless of course the food was on the Segway and the waiter was running beside it.

Oh and while I am at it, calling a milling machine a Miller, a milling machine is and always will be a milling machine, the person who operates it is 'a miller'. Thats not from the Beeb that's me.

How about "lathing a part"

"Boat" instead of "Ship"

People who moan about modern idiom whilse refusing to use words like thee, thou and happenstance, calling 7 days, a week instead of a sennight, signing letters yours sincerely instead of your humble obedient servant, insisting on referring to New Holland as Australia not knowing how far a league is and so on.

;O)

Martin

My wife's definition: you're on a boat if you can see the water both sides at the same time without moving!

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Well you have all managed to put a whole load of members off making posts for fear of writing the wrong thing or writing it the wrong way, I thought we had discussed not complaining about peoples grammar, spelling, etc not so long ago?

My pet hate - too much posting in the tea room and little input elsewhere

You plant BULBS in the garden to grow daffodils, tulips, onions etc. You plug LAMPS into light sockets. I really hate the supermarkets, where you have to buy a pack of three leeks, courgettes or whatever when you only need ONE. Also "offer", £2 each, 2 for £3.00. I will not continue any further as I will probably get banned.

I believe a submarine is a boat, I would not like your wife’s definition to apply to this one

Mike

I bet it irritates me more Daniel. regards

I watch almost no tv these days but my wife noticed a program I might enjoy so recorded it for me. I was very miffed when the 1 hour program turned out to be 19 mins long if you cut the adverts and the prefaces and suffixes from it. regards

When someone posts a question on MEW and I answer with how something actualy works and go into some details to explain it.

Then they repost my explanation in full then tell me it does not work like that at all. That they have a Theory of the way that they Assume it works is correct and is the only way to solve the problem.

The ones who drift off to post on something that maybe remote and possibly connected the subject being discussed on the forum

I went for a walk to think about this one.

An hour later I was back home, so I guess it's about two feet...

Neil

What amuses me is how many of the posts are complaining about metaphors, archaisms, dialect, genericised trademarks or even word usage that accords with the dictionary but may not be the preferred nomenclature in a formal setting.

(Or even complaining people can't type PayPal and eBay and getting the capitalisation wrong... )

In English there is one thing that matters above all, and that is clarity.

In future the moderators will be rating all posts against the Guardian Style Guide.

Transgressions will result in appropriate censure with a wet trout...

Neil

Wearing 7-league boots would be considered to be cheating.
DaveD

I get grumpy when I cannot do things that were easy once due to old age and arthritus.