As US 'peek' seems to have driven out UK 'peep', so the (prudish?) US 'tidbits' clearly has designs on 'titbits' - see e.g. Mariella Frostrup in this morning's 'Observer.'

It's red squirrels and gray squirrels all over again.

GrAy?

I agree about 'tidbits'. It does indeed come from the American media being prudish. And ridiculous.

Silly me.

One thing that puzzles me about US culture (or those aspects of it which we are exposed to over here) are how it seems sometimes to be prudish and Victorian and sometimes monumentally coarse. Perhaps there are in fact separate sub-cultures which Europeans cannot always distinguish.

This post was last modified: 22-12-2013 02:49 PM by robin orton.

Having lived there for a few years, I found that the television media especially was strangely prudish but that it didn't reflect most people's attitudes in real life. It's all a bit strange.

shzl400


While not quite at Robbrockley's level, I would have a lot more sympathy with what P1971 says, if only she learned how and when to use apostrophes. Please, please, I'm begging you! Post #5 above was sheer torture. I could forgive if you were a grocer (it's traditional), but not for a seller of sweetmeats.

Ok, I'll get me coat - off to the Usage of English thread we go....

"shop's" might be an abbreviation for shoppes - a shoppe being a fancier and more expensive shop according to the urban dictionary.

"time's" might be an abbreviation for times and dates.

It might be it was just a deliberate play with the spelling to emphasize this was an informal fun post rather than an advert.

Should I have capitalised "shop's" and "time's"?
I really dunno.

This is the first time i've looked at this post, but no doubt I'll be picked up time and time again. Thank's last two poster's for not butchering me! I know I don't write proper English when I post, but I am Scottish and just post my feeling's rather than think about spelling's etc. Please don't have a go because I missed the h in Thursday on my last post title, it was a mistake I wasn't able to change.

One thing I have learned over the years from frequenting online forums is to let go of my (once much prized) pedantry. Is P1971's use of apostrophes often wrong? Yes. Does that stop me understanding what she has written? No. I would only question punctuation on a forum if it made the meaning of what was written unclear.

P1971 - if you want to know what you've been doing wrong (as opposed to just being told you are wrong), it is mostly that you use an apostrophe where it's not needed in plural nouns. So in your last post, feeling's should just be feelings, and spelling's should just be spellings. You don't need the apostrophe when you add an s to indicate there is more than one of something (one shop, two shops).

I'm afraid your being Scottish is no defence, though!

This post was last modified: 29-12-2013 11:54 PM by rshdunlop.

rshdunlop - thank you so much for your honest and genuine post I really appreciate it.
The Scottish part was meant as a joke.
Hope you have a wonderful New Year.

Pauline

rshdunlop.

In my opinion, thats the perfect response.

Its obvious when someones making mistake's with their apostrophe's but who really care's when its better to simply read into what theyr'e saying.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

(HAPPY HOGMANAY TO P1971!)

P'S
I hope I have'nt made any mistake's with my use of apostophe's in this post.

This post was last modified: 31-12-2013 03:52 PM by Anotherjohn.

And the same goes for split infinitives!

Done me like a kipper!

(That went - WHOOSH - straight over my empty head - not the foggiest idea!)

This post was last modified: 31-12-2013 04:14 PM by Anotherjohn.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23362207
Interestingly I am not alone in finding sentences starting in so to be annoying. It made number six on the BBC list of overused words for last year.

Yes, its an interesting article. The only one on the list I hadnt come across was 'amazeballs.' I shall be on the lookout for opportunities for using it - preferably combined with 'totes.'

Haha Anotherjohn

Happy Hogmanay to you and the family too. The best and only shop landlord in FH that is trying single handedly to give us locals what we want shop wise.

I know you won't tell me off for saying 2 more in the New Year, but no hairdressers or nail bars on D Rd. Interesting shops only!

If anyone has any ideas please tell.

Anotherjohn xxx P xxx

On another matter, I noticed today that a BBC news bulletin called what I was brought up to call a 'railway station' a 'train station.' I remember first noticing this usage in the 1970s, soon after I moved to London from the Midlands, and from the context then I assumed it was London dialect and that 'railway station' remained the standard term. Recently however I have noticed its use increasing in more formal contexts. A little online research has suggested that it is in fact yet another Americanism. Ah well.

Today today reported on the further decline of the apostrophe - in Cambridge of all places. It seems they confuse the emergency services for reasons which were not clear.

.
Splendid. Quite in line with Cambridge's progressive traditions. (I expect that in Oxford the street names are still in Latin.)

As they should be.

Fowler's Modern English Usage (aka 'Fowler') has several pages on split infinitives. But it says quite clearly: "We will split infinitives sooner than be ambiguous or artificial..."

So in other words, there's nothing wrong with "To boldly go...". "Boldly to go..." and "To go boldly..." fail the "artificial" test, I reckon.

Now here's a treat for all us pedants: http://xkcd.com/386/