Pedant's Revolt

     Chronicling egregious abuses of English by those who should know better.

This gravestone is the most unique in the cemetery.    BBC News 2/9/2012

The most potent of the two.....      Charles Dagnall, BBC TMS 11/8/2013

It's different FROM, not different TO or different THAN. Examples are too numerous to mention, though poor Charlie Dagnall (TMS) is a serial offender. 18/9/2013

     Your columnist finds himself overwhelmed by the illiteracy of the mainstream media, hence the recent lack of contributions.

     I make mistakes -- my spelling is atrocious -- but at least I acknowledge them as mistakes, unlike my leftie 1960s / 70s teachers, who simply said, "Things like that don't matter anymore."

     I hate those people. I really do hate them.

     So....... a few more examples of mangled English, courtesy of the Bolshevik Broadcasting Corporation. It would be unfair to name names. The perpetrators are mere victims of our corrupt and politicised education system.

 

     "If I was", rather than, "If I were".  Never heard of the subjunctive mood?

     "Would of", rather than, "Would have". Where did that come from? It doesn't even make sense, and suggests a failure to engage the brain before opening the mouth.

     "Train tracks". They are not train tracks, they are railway lines. I like Americans, but despise British people who employ Americanisms because they think they are "trendy".

     The failure to pronounce the first "L" in "vulnerable".  "Vunnerable"? That's another one that defies explanation.

     Here's a favourite of weather forecasters. "The overnight period". Why not just "The night"?