Grammar Gripes from BBC
Found this morning on BBC News Magazine:
Grammar just ain’t what it used to be, it seems. When we explained the difference between “fewer” and “less than”, following Tesco’s policy shift on this matter, readers told us what grammar rules they see being flouted or find confusing. The list was a long one. Here are the best.
1. The one that really annoys me is how people suddenly seem to confuse “have” and “of”, as in: “I could of learnt how to write properly.” There’s no excuse for it!
Pete, Sheffield
2. The phrase “for free” is becoming commonplace and is used often on television and it’s wrong. It should be “for nothing”.
Mary, Basingstoke
3. That guardian of our language, the BBC, is full of solecisms these days; just one example: 12 pm. There is no such time; “meridiem” as in am (“ante meridiem” means “before noon”) and pm (“post meridiem” means “after noon”) means midday. The 12th hour is neither before nor after midday. So please, BBC use either midday or noon with midnight the correct term for the other end of the day. This is not being pedantic; in these days of 24-hour days, it is often not readily apparent what time 12 pm might be.
Mervyn, Usk, Monmouthshire
4. If you do something to change a situation, then you “effect” a change. If your circumstances are changed by an action, then the change has caused an “effect”. You cannot “affect” a change in something, nor can you be “effected” by one.
Rob, Lyme Regis
5. I get annoyed at the reckless use of apostrophes, for example, the plural of CD can’t be CD’s.
Shahed Alam, London
6. Many people, including public speakers, incorrectly use “I” instead of “me”. For instance, they would say “She said some very kind things about George and I”, thinking that they are being polite or grammatically correct. An easy way to remember which to use is: if you would say him or her on its own, use me; if you would say he or she on its own, use I. For example, “She said some very kind things about him”.
Lorraine, Aylesbury
7. Incorrect use of reflexives make my blood boil. I think that for someone to say “yourself” and “myself” when they just mean “you” or “me” is possibly out of a false sense of politeness, or maybe the insidious effect of TV soaps, or both. Those who use it correctly can give “themselves” a pat on the back.
John Self, Wisset, Suffolk
8. How about “none of them is” and “none of them are”? Most people would use the latter whereas the former is correct. “None” is short for “not one” therefore “not one (none) of them is” would be used. Most newsreaders still get it right though – on the BBC anyway!
Emily, Bristol
NOTE: Fowler’s Modern English Usage says that “none” is not short for “not one” and although using a singular verb is more common, using a plural verb has also been an acceptable option since the reign of King Alfred.
9. Similar TO, different FROM, compared WITH. Not “to” used for all of them!
Susan, Brisbane, Australia
NOTE: Fowler’s Modern English Usage says: “The commonly expressed view that ‘different’ should only be followed by ‘from’ and never by ‘to’ or ‘than’ is not supportable in the face of past and present evidence or of logic.” It adds that “compare to” is to liken and “compare with” or “compare to” is used to point out similarities and differences. The BBC News website style guide differs with Fowler’s on this last point. It says that when pointing out differences, “compare with” should always be used.
10. Here’s one they often get wrong on BBC news! BBC reporter: “Then they opened fire on us”. This is incorrect. In military terms there are two methods of shooting at an enemy, controlled-fire and open-fire. I.E. you are not opening anything so using the past tense of open is incorrect. The correct expression should be “Then they open-fired on us”
JWTH, Belfast
11. I find the increasing, incorrect use of “literally” annoying…. “I literally went blue with anger!!” “Really?” I ask.
Ned, Wallingford
12. The proper use of “its” and “it’s” seems to confound many people, with “its” being a possessive and “it’s” being a contraction of “it is”. I’ve seen this mistake made even in some rather lofty publications…
Eric, Berlin
13. It annoys me when people use “due to” when they mean “owing to”. But then I’m a pedant.
Guy, London
NOTE: The BBC News website style guide says “due to” means “caused by” and needs a noun, but “owing to” means “because of” and relates to a verb. Hence, “the visit was cancelled [cancelled is the verb] owing to flooding” is correct. So too is “the flooding [flooding is the noun] was due to weeks of heavy rain”.
14. As a secondary teacher, I’m beginning to despair when it comes to “they’re”, “there” and “their”; not to mention “to”, “two” and “too”. Why are we so afraid to correct these simple mistakes which make all the difference at a later stage?
Alexandra, London
15. There is also confusion over lend and borrow. I keep hearing school children asking “to lend your pencil” when what they actually mean is to “borrow” the pencil.
Ian Walton, Bedford
16. I cringe when I hear BBC reporters say “amount of people” when it should be “number of people”!
Jill Thistlethwaite, Leyburn, UK
NOTE: Fowler’s says “amount” is used with nouns that are not countable, such as “amount of forgiveness” and “amount of glue” – but “number” is used with countable nouns, such as “number of boys” and “number of houses”
.
17. I don’t like it when people say: I can go there “by foot” instead of “on foot”….the right preposition to use is ON.
Daniela, Urbana, IL
18. The usage that I find particularly irritating is that of a single noun with a plural verb, for example: “the team are happy with their victory”, or “management have congratulated the workforce on the recent increase in productivity”. Team is a singular noun so it should read “the team IS happy…” or “the team members ARE happy”, the same applies “management HAS congratulated…” Also, what has happened to the word “versus”, abbreviated “vs”? Now all we see is “v”; it is even read like that in sports announcements.
Lucia, Horndean, UK
NOTE: The BBC News website’s style is that sports teams and pop/rock bands are always plural.
19. A classic confusing rule is the one that states that one is supposed never to end a sentence with a preposition. While this is easy and appropriate to follow in most cases, for example by saying “Yesterday I visited the town to which she has just moved” instead of “…the town she has just moved to”, it becomes troublesome when the verb structure includes a preposition that cannot be removed from it, as in “At work I am using a new computer with which my manager recently set me up”, which cannot correctly be changed to “…I am using a new computer up with which my manager recently set me”.
Philip Graves, Stockholm, Sweden
20. Stadiums, as a plural of stadium, rather than stadia.
C. Matthews, Birmingham, UK
NOTE: Fowler’s says that when dealing with modern sports grounds, rather than ones from the classical world, the plural is “stadiums”.
My own pet peeve is a very small thing; people say anxious when they really mean eager. Anxious, as in “I am anxious to take my vacation” really meaning “I am eager to take my vacation”. Anxious implies an element of worry, eager is take-the-brakes-off-ready-to-go!
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Amazina
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Here There and Everywhere 
we did NOT write about you on my blog 😀
someone needs to be cc’ing this to all media related companies in the gcc.
I’m reading EatsShoot&Leaves by Lynn Truss. Reading this posts gives me great comfort that I am not alone 🙂
that was interesting !
which sentence is correct ?
BBC grammar is bollocks
or
BBC grammar are bollocks
LLLLOOOOLLLL, nQ! Little sensitive, are we?
Mrm – Would they read it? 😉
Bu Yousef – Isn’t that a great book? What is interesting to me is how grammar changes. No, you are not alone!
Thanks, Joud!
LLLOOLLL, Daggero, maybe both?
thought you might be interested in this: http://www.simpleenglishnews.com/25099TescoGrammar.shtml
Love it, Darya! What a great site.
I think the editors of Arab Times should get a copy of this!
Ever read the Kuwait Times, Mimfoy? They are equally bad, grammar and vocabulary.
How do you increase the circulation of kuwaits’ English newspapers , answer try Selling them as toilet paper
You know, Daggero, I actually really love reading the Kuwait papers. Sometimes they have a very tough time, tiptoeing around telling the story without breaking any eggshells. It is a free press, and a press that sort of self-censors so as not to risk the freedom. So it is a mystery, reading between the lines . . .
hi, ve come back after a long break. not sure if u even remember me!!
going thru all your blogs id missed. do you by any chance teach english?? i mean professionally.
I do remember you, Onlooker/Desert Trails, and I am happy to see you back again! I taught EFL at one time, but my love for English comes more from a love of reading. I am not a very good teacher, at least not in a conventional classroom. I think people learn better as children learn – you plop them in the situation, and the need to communicate motivates them to learn and to speak.
That’s how it worked for me with French – I studied for years, but until I was thrown into a French speaking community, I didn’t speak it. Even then, it took me months to gather the courage. After a while, all of a sudden I realized I was just doing it, not even thinking about it anymore. What a WOOO HOOO feeling that was!
What are you up to?
Intlx :
Is saying “comprises of” wholly incorrect when you can say the same thing using ” comprises” as stand-alone ? And how about beginning the sentence using ” and ” and ” also” ? I shouldn’t ‘ave ended my previous sentence with a question mark, there should I ‘ave ? 🙂
While it was refreshing to read the first few chapters of Lynn Truss’s EatsShoots&Leaves by the time I was half way through the book I had had enough. To me, it was heavy reading akin to reading the Ulysses or somesuch.
I didn’t read the whole book, either, BL, but loved some of the examples.
As for English usage and grammar – when I was taking classes for certification to teach EFL, I was told my English was too correct, not “authentic” English. Today, usage is so different. For example, think of the spelling accepted in texting, that the use of “whom” is rare, and the very examples you gave – in blogging, we use a very informal English style, or no one will read.
Lots of white space, short paragraphs, for the attention-impaired demands of modern day life. People just don’t have the time to read long treatises. Or won’t take the time. 😉
I never hear anyone say “comprises of” only comprised of – and it is used differently from (British English would say “to”, I think) the verb form, comprises.
We are dinosaurs, BL, unless we make an effort to keep current.
Thanks alot, Intlx!
Bye the bye is which is correct – ” a lot ” or ” alot ?
I didn’t mean for it to read as – bye the bye is which is correct (tyypppo there) 🙂
Who cares?
By the way, you crossed the line. I deleted you. You know what I mean.
I crossed the line ?! You mean I won the race.
It was offensive, BL. Normally, I admire the finesse with which you dance along the boundaries.
I am sorry.
Really, how do you manage to come up with such a quick succession of posts, and on varying topics too. And do enjoy your flow of language, simple and at times as you had mentioned to someone, the poetic touch dancing along the boundaries! 🙂
Actually was teaching for a while in India, English. Here somehow not landing a job, though preference would be my kids’ school!
If the Arabic language is called loghat el dhad (لغة الضاد) the language of the the letter dhad ,then surely the English language must be known as the language of S ,(لغة الأس) ,because it contains so many words that start with the letter S , check it out on any paper dictionary ,you will find the thickest section is the S section. Also the most used word in the English language starts with S , Sh*t , and it is most understood too . We won’t talk about the F word . It is still fasting time .
BL, thank you, I forgive you gladly.
Onlooker – ooops, now you caught me. This is pretty much stream of consciousness, just what catches my eye in the news or questions I have about Kuwait.
One thing I am thinking recently, is that I feel like I am more stupid about Kuwait now than when I got here. Kuwait is different from every other country I’ve lived in, and my understanding is constantly challenged. I am learning so much, and yet . . . I feel like I have barely scratched the surface.
Good luck with your job search, Onlooker. 🙂 I have a feeling you will get what you want.
Daggero, go stand in the corner!
Hmmm. . . maybe S is the most frequently used letter. I think E is the most frequently used vowel.
You, too, are a little bit HT&E!