What are your pet peeves re English usage?

Ow har you, Inteler?

fien thx for askng :wink:

I'm not talking about accents, McTag - I'm talking about deliberate pronunciations which are peculiar to certain groups of English-speaking people.

Except for the Devonshire accent where I lived for a number of years, I think the most attractive accents are those spoken by foreigners speaking English.

Most regional English is an absolute pain to listen to... sheer purgatory for the audio-masochist.

Midlands, Londoner... Scottish, Australian. Ye gads, how some of us have suffered in silence upon the anvil of needing to remain civil.

I love English as the Irish speak it who come from certain parts of the Emerald Isle where it is spoken softly and with an attractive lilt to it.

In all honesty my first choice for the most pleasant sounding of all accents is when subcontinental Indians speak English. Coming second place - Irish. I love American accents too. When the Italians and the French speak English it is a joy to listen to.

The worst accent by a country mile has to be raw, working-class Australian - closely followed by immigrant Greeks who have learnt to speak a basic version of English -- what a rasping and gritty racket that is.

Okay I'm not disagreeing, but I think it's a subjective thing.

I myself hate the Salford accent, like the Geordie, not keen on the Brum, etc etc. It might be to do with associations- my wife likes the Aussie, but then she lived there for some years.

Imur...

Imur from the Land of The Hai[/i]tch People.

And then we have most of London insisting there's no such thing as 'H' in the English alphabet... init right, Steve?

Come to think of it... there is also a division between people with those who say 'an hotel'[/i]... and those who say 'a hotel'.

That might be a hearing problem? Perhaps some people can't distinguish between consonant and vowel sounds?

McTag --

Totally agree. And despite my previous comments in all honesty I have to admit that I have heard certain, select individuals from all parts of the British Isles speak their regional accent in a most attractive and lovely way.

I'm also intrigued by how it is that certain of you Northerners feel compelled to pronounce the 'g' when there's an 'ng' at the end of certain words. (for the life of me I can't think of an example right now).

McTag --

Totally agree. And despite my previous comments in all honesty I have to admit that I have heard certain, select individuals from all parts of the British Isles speak their regional accent in a most attractive and lovely way.

I'm also intrigued by how it is that certain of you Northerners feel compelled to pronounce the 'g' when there's an 'ng' at the end of certain words. (for the life of me I can't think of an example right now).

And while I'm here, may I say that the loyalty of you people to Able2Know is quite amazing considering it takes a full effing two minutes to load ANY page here. Press 'Preview' -- wait 2 minutes. Press 'submit' -- wait 2 minutes. Press to go to another topic -- wait 2 minutes. Click to sign on -- wait 2 minutes. Click to sign off -- wait 2 minutes.

Do me a favour all of you - please DO NOT answer any of my posts. DO NOT give me a reason to come back here. This ridiculous tardiness is unique to this forum site - and I belong to a score of them. Please bloody well IGNORE me so I've got nothing to answer here.

Ple-e-e-a-s-e release me let me gooooooooo... I don't wanna post here any mooooooooore....

Walter...

No, it's a grammar thing.

If you say 'an artillery barrage descended upon satellite coordinates 51° 43' 3.96'' N, 8° 20' 8.83'' E... ' no one thinks you're being a prissy and pretentious word-snob.

But if you should say... 'Walter indulges in secret steamy love-trysts with a red-haired buxom bar-maid in an hotel in his local neighbourhood at satellite coordinates 51° 43' 3.96'' N, 8° 20' 8.83'' E... ' - then your fussiness with choosing to say 'an' has you marked out by many as being a word-snob and a conceited pedant.

Nicht war... ?

Walter, couldn't you choose a better hotel than that one to take your floozie?

Fer a thread which is 'sposed ta be about English, there sure is right many Dutchmen on the loose . . .

Judging by Walter's ecstatic grin I think he's doing a lot better than the rest of us poor buggers.

That's a smile of lewd satisfaction which most of us blokes can only dream about.

Perhaps the lovely Sigfrieda has a sister, no?



What were those satellite coordinates again... ? 51° 43' 3.96'' N, 8° 20' 8.83'' E.... hmmm... might be time for a dirty-weekend in Walter's neck of the woods...

Don't forget - no racism here Itchy Homosexual... McTag's monitoring this thread very carefully for even the slightest wiff of racism. I am sworn to be on my very best behaviour.

So you've failed already?

Go scratch yourself.

grammar or construction
their (belongs to them), they're (they are), there (that place)
amazing how often these are used incorrectly.

BUT what I really wanted to ask (Dutch is my first language) is your determination of the following sentence, which was in an advice I received from the Australian Taxation Office:-
[/QUOTE]
Delays in determining whether an employer has met their obligations can be caused by one or more of the following strategies:

* contacting the employer in writing to obtain information;
* visiting the employer to review their records; etc., etc.

It's illogical. And, in common with much other "officialese", most unhelpful.

"delays in determining" should not be "caused" if you adopt a "strategy". It seems to suggest, if it suggests anything, that the aim of the exercise is to cause delays. The bits of the sentence don't seem to hang together in any useful way.

Even if you substitute "avoided" for "caused", the sentence still does not read well.

Why did ailsa have to axe this question?

Taxation English
Dear McTag, thanks a lot for your reply. Your suggestion that the whole "strategy" might be one to delay matters didn't even occur to me, but is perhaps right on the mark. Thanks again.
Wouter