What are your pet peeves re English usage?

What do Americans, Canadians, Scots, Aussies put between words like 'India Adventure'? The English tend to intrude an R sound, or perhaps a glottal stop. Bristolians traditionally insert an L.

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Clary wrote:

What do Americans, Canadians, Scots, Aussies put between words like 'India Adventure'? The English tend to intrude an R sound, or perhaps a glottal stop. Bristolians traditionally insert an L.

Generally, it's an R sound here in the USA, particularly in the Northeastern states. Bostonians are apt to add the R sound to many words ending in A, even without that vowel transition. Thus 'Cuba' becomes 'Cuber' etc. Grates on my ears somefin' awrful.

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I'm from the northeast, but I don't put an R there. I say it with a slight stop between words. The A at the end of India and the A at the beginning of Adventure are almost one sound.

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Isn't that additional consonant called an epithetic consonant or is it only vowels (as the Irish add between consonants, pronouncing elm and film as "elem" and "filem") that are epithetic? Then again, I might not have the word spelled correctly.

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Roberta wrote:

I'm from the northeast, but I don't put an R there. I say it with a slight stop between words. The A at the end of India and the A at the beginning of Adventure are almost one sound.

You ain't from the Northeast, 'Boita. You're frum NU Yawk which has a patois all its own. Smile

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Merry Andrew wrote:

Roberta wrote:
I'm from the northeast, but I don't put an R there. I say it with a slight stop between words. The A at the end of India and the A at the beginning of Adventure are almost one sound.

You ain't from the Northeast, 'Boita. You're frum NU Yawk which has a patois all its own.

So they moved Noo Yawk and nobody told me? They got a noive.

Much as I hate to admit it, Andy, you're probably right. People from Noo Yawk and Joisey have their own special sound.

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Clary wrote:

What do Americans, Canadians, Scots, Aussies put between words like 'India Adventure'? The English tend to intrude an R sound, or perhaps a glottal stop. Bristolians traditionally insert an L.

Scots sneer at English talk of "Africar and Indiar". Glottal stop please, or just speak more slowly.

Bristolians do what? Jeez.

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plainoldme wrote:

Isn't that additional consonant called an epithetic consonant or is it only vowels (as the Irish add between consonants, pronouncing elm and film as "elem" and "filem") that are epithetic? Then again, I might not have the word spelled correctly.

Yes. I was reminded of it by the appearance of a game player called epithesis on my favourite threads.

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I noticed recently a couple of times on tv programs that "issues" was used when in my opinion "problems" would have been the correct word:

- a driver in last Sunday's F1 race had "break issues" (brake problems, I think, he had),
- some CNN weather woman spoke about "rain issues" (problems with the heavy rain she obviously was referring at).

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Walter Hinteler wrote:

I noticed recently a couple of times on tv programs that "issues" was used when in my opinion "problems" would have been the correct word:

- a driver in last Sunday's F1 race had "break issues" (brake problems, I think, he had),
- some CNN weather woman spoke about "rain issues" (problems with the heavy rain she obviously was referring at).

Oh bloody hell yes. It's a kind of management-speak, a neologism, a "new innovation" that we could well do without. A passing fad, I hope.

We had plenty of "issues" at my last place of work, and plenty more unlovely new phrases that the management were apt to use, to show how up-to-date and cutting-edge they were.

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Whenever anyone at work tells me he/she has "an issue" with something, I always tell them that I, too, have some issues. Then I show them the back issues of National Geographic, American Heritage magazine and others I keep in a desk drawer. An issue is not a problem. And a problem should not be described as an issue.

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My peeve today is the overuse of the description "luxury" in advertisements and suchlike writings, which seems to crop up everywhere.

In a newspaper advertisement this week, we were invited to "Change your flat roof to a luxury pitched and tiled new roof!"

A luxury roof? Please.

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agree

almost as bad as "quality"

as in quality plumbing services

quality hotels

quality apples

makes me want to qualify the abstract noun with adjective POOR

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Found this the other day, written by some high-ranked civil servant in Her Majesty's Courts' Service, via a British legal blog:

Quote:

The Balanced Scorecard is the principle planning tool used by HMCS. It aims to ensure that business objectives address four key quadrants and achieve a balanced focus across different aspects of its business.
The ..... Regional Plan uses this approach to ensure that all its business activities are aligned to contribute to one or more of the key dimensions. Many initiatives and activities will contribute to achieving the objectives within more than one quadrant but have been placed in the quadrant for which successful implementation will deliver most benefits.

Since I understand nothing, I only can guess: 'principle' should be 'principal' :wink:

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Ah, you have found a good example of Mandarinese, which can mean anything or nothing.
It is particularly valuable for those high-ranking civil servants who busy themselves with policy-making.

:wink:

(I don't understand it either.)

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As Mandarinese, it's a goose example... Shocked

From the point of view of a mathematician dealing with Trig, it's understandable.. Cool

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On a recent radio program, someone brought up the subject of using "loan" as a verb, a practice which has become so common we hardly notice it. This person insisted that "loan" can be used only as a noun. You take out a loan, but the bank doesn't loan it to you, it lends you the money. "Did Shakespeare write 'Friends, Romans, countrymen, loan me your ears'?" this speaker asked rhetorically.

I'm interested in what you all think. (I'm not entirely sure what I think. I have mixed feelings about this.)

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principle is correct in that context, Walter. It means chief or main. They used to differentiate between the two by saying, "the principal is your PAL" yuk.

Andy, I am with you. Loan is a noun; lend a verb.

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Hate to disagree with you, Letty, but my Webster's New Riverside Dictionary defines principle as "a fundamental truth, law or postulate." Principal, on the other hand, is defined as "most important, chief." A secondar definition says principal is also "the chief official of [a]...school."

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I understand principle as a noun, Andy, but the way Walter used it was as an adjective, right?

I already explained principal as being the head of a school. Of course, it can be used in other contexts.

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What are your pet peeves re English usage?

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