The Lemon Fool

Dod101 wrote:
Can I remind everyone that the term is 'have fewer children', not less?

https://www.lemonfool.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=99&t=30787&p=434750#p434750

Absolutely - it's important that high standards of diction should be maintained, after all....

Dod101 wrote:
It of course does not have all the answers, but these two scientists who have lead on the front line ought to be listened to.

https://www.lemonfool.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=98&t=30798#p434996

Can I remind everyone that the term is 'who have led on the front line', not 'lead'?

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

Good luck guys
I got rebuked when I tried similar
viewtopic.php?f=99&t=30079
At least there are at least 3 of us (no fewer) who think grammar is worth paying attention to

Itsallaguess wrote:

Dod101 wrote:
Can I remind everyone that the term is 'have fewer children', not less?

https://www.lemonfool.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=99&t=30787&p=434750#p434750

Absolutely - it's important that high standards of diction should be maintained, after all....

Dod101 wrote:
It of course does not have all the answers, but these two scientists who have lead on the front line ought to be listened to.

https://www.lemonfool.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=98&t=30798#p434996

Can I remind everyone that the term is 'who have led on the front line', not 'lead'?

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

Quite right IAAG. Slip of the finger I am sorry to say resulting in a spelling error. BTW, I do not lead on diction but I like your heading for this thread.

Dod

I was in the pub a couple of years ago having a few drinks with friends. One of them was a Pakistani who spoke pretty perfect English. I pedantically corrected him when he made the less/fewer error.

His instant retort was classy.

'i'm sorry John, English is only my fifth language".

I have tried not to be so pedantic since.

John

redsturgeon wrote:'i'm sorry John, English is only my fifth language".

by implication it sounds like he a knows a few more

Itsallaguess wrote:

Dod101 wrote:
Can I remind everyone that the term is 'have fewer children', not less?

https://www.lemonfool.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=99&t=30787&p=434750#p434750

Absolutely - it's important that high standards of diction should be maintained, after all....

Dod101 wrote:
It of course does not have all the answers, but these two scientists who have lead on the front line ought to be listened to.

https://www.lemonfool.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=98&t=30798#p434996

Can I remind everyone that the term is 'who have led on the front line', not 'lead'?

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

Make a word of your own - you'll feel much better

viewtopic.php?f=29&t=30793

If you can't beat 'em

AiY

redsturgeon wrote:I was in the pub a couple of years ago having a few drinks with friends. One of them was a Pakistani who spoke pretty perfect English. I pedantically corrected him when he made the less/fewer error.

His instant retort was classy.

'i'm sorry John, English is only my fifth language".

I have tried not to be so pedantic since.

Yes and moreover I have found that pedantry is a particularly British (or perhaps, English?) thing. For instance in my time working in the US I don't think I ever had anyone try and pull me up with: "Actually old bean, the pluperfect tense of that verb is . . .". Nor in the other places I worked like Canada, Switzerland and Hong Kong. As long as you know what the other guy means, that is sufficient. And that was before the age of smart phones and text speak.

I wonder sometimes whether pedantry (to use its polite term, one could call it being nitpicky or even anal-retentive) is really a deflection or cover-up? Like when someone replies to a post here to draw attention to a typo or syntactic error in order to avoid answering the point?

AsleepInYorkshire wrote:
Make a word of your own - you'll feel much better

viewtopic.php?f=29&t=30793

If you can't beat 'em

Thanks, and I have!

https://www.lemonfool.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=30793&p=435108#p435108

:O)

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

Itsallaguess wrote:

Dod101 wrote:
Can I remind everyone that the term is 'have fewer children', not less?

https://www.lemonfool.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=99&t=30787&p=434750#p434750

Absolutely - it's important that high standards of diction should be maintained, after all....

Dod101 wrote:
It of course does not have all the answers, but these two scientists who have lead on the front line ought to be listened to.

https://www.lemonfool.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=98&t=30798#p434996

Can I remind everyone that the term is 'who have led on the front line', not 'lead'?

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

In the spirit of this board, why is the topic title about diction, when what is being discussed is the writing style not the speech?

chas49 wrote:In the spirit of this board, why is the topic title about diction, when what is being discussed is the writing style not the speech?

Diction can refer to writing as well as speech - how pedantic of me
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/diction

Lootman wrote:

redsturgeon wrote:I was in the pub a couple of years ago having a few drinks with friends. One of them was a Pakistani who spoke pretty perfect English. I pedantically corrected him when he made the less/fewer error.

His instant retort was classy.

'i'm sorry John, English is only my fifth language".

I have tried not to be so pedantic since.

Yes and moreover I have found that pedantry is a particularly British (or perhaps, English?) thing. For instance in my time working in the US I don't think I ever had anyone try and pull me up with: "Actually old bean, the pluperfect tense of that verb is . . .". Nor in the other places I worked like Canada, Switzerland and Hong Kong. As long as you know what the other guy means, that is sufficient. And that was before the age of smart phones and text speak.

I wonder sometimes whether pedantry (to use its polite term, one could call it being nitpicky or even anal-retentive) is really a deflection or cover-up? Like when someone replies to a post here to draw attention to a typo or syntactic error in order to avoid answering the point?

I agree with you although I must say that using less rather than fewer grates with me. Reminds me of the signs in supermarkets using less than rather than fewer than. My excuse is that I was taught grammar at school and furthermore I had a father in law who was an old style primary headmaster who was a stickler for grammar and was much missed when he retired from his village school.

As a matter of fact, I spent much of my working life in Hong Kong and one of my Chinese colleagues spoke excellent if somewhat accented English. He could have corrected my grammar.

To answer RS, I would never try to correct anyone in speech.

Dod

Lootman wrote:Yes and moreover I have found that pedantry is a particularly British (or perhaps, English?) thing. For instance in my time working in the US I don't think I ever had anyone try and pull me up with: "Actually old bean, the pluperfect tense of that verb is . . .". Nor in the other places I worked like Canada, Switzerland and Hong Kong. As long as you know what the other guy means, that is sufficient. And that was before the age of smart phones and text speak.

I wonder sometimes whether pedantry (to use its polite term, one could call it being nitpicky or even anal-retentive) is really a deflection or cover-up? Like when someone replies to a post here to draw attention to a typo or syntactic error in order to avoid answering the point?

Pish tosh, and indeed piffle. Romanes eunt domus.

Most of us[1] apply different standards according to the company we're in. Pedantry is reserved for cases where the other party really should know better, which is very rarely the case in an international context. Or with foreigners, where there's an element of language tuition in the relationship.

[1] Perhaps not all, as witness John's account of his Pakistani friend. Though if the friend's English was sufficiently good, he may have treated the speaker as native.

chas49 wrote:
In the spirit of this board, why is the topic title about diction, when what is being discussed is the writing style not the speech?

Careful - you'll be added to my pedantalist!

https://www.lemonfool.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=30793&p=435124#p435124

:O)

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

chas49 wrote:

Itsallaguess wrote:

Dod101 wrote:
Can I remind everyone that the term is 'have fewer children', not less?

https://www.lemonfool.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=99&t=30787&p=434750#p434750

Absolutely - it's important that high standards of diction should be maintained, after all....

Dod101 wrote:
It of course does not have all the answers, but these two scientists who have lead on the front line ought to be listened to.

https://www.lemonfool.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=98&t=30798#p434996

Can I remind everyone that the term is 'who have led on the front line', not 'lead'?

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

In the spirit of this board, why is the topic title about diction, when what is being discussed is the writing style not the speech?

I thought that, checked, and remained silent...

Diction is more usually relating to speech rather than written word in modern usage (in my most 'umble opinion)

UncleEbenezer wrote:

Lootman wrote:Yes and moreover I have found that pedantry is a particularly British (or perhaps, English?) thing. For instance in my time working in the US I don't think I ever had anyone try and pull me up with: "Actually old bean, the pluperfect tense of that verb is . . .". Nor in the other places I worked like Canada, Switzerland and Hong Kong. As long as you know what the other guy means, that is sufficient. And that was before the age of smart phones and text speak.

I wonder sometimes whether pedantry (to use its polite term, one could call it being nitpicky or even anal-retentive) is really a deflection or cover-up? Like when someone replies to a post here to draw attention to a typo or syntactic error in order to avoid answering the point?

Pish tosh, and indeed piffle. Romanes eunt domus.

You get away with inserting a Latin phrase there, but probably only because of the Python reference. Otherwise there is a real danger that inserting Latin phrases into everyday speech renders you guilty of the charge of pretension.(*)

Which of course is the same charge leveled at those who practice pedantry i.e. the self-absorbed assumption of superiority based on technicalities of minimal material worth.

(*) Guilty of that myself as I am rather fond of a priori, a posteriori and a fortiori.

Lootman wrote:
(*) Guilty of that myself as I am rather fond of a priori, a posteriori and a fortiori.

Washed down with a chianti?

doolally

An excellent scene on the scaffold, sir. All agreed that the condemned man was well hung.

BJ

bungeejumper wrote:An excellent scene on the scaffold, sir. All agreed that the condemned man was well hung.

BJ

As a footnote, I feel that the start of a quote shoud be: "bungeejumper having written (ablative absolute):"

My Latin master always came out with that.

TJH

bungeejumper having written
Needs a comma in there somewhere
Not sure where. Right at the front, so people spot it?

I follow the less/fewer rule. But if you investigate, it's been a fuzzy rule at best, widely ignored, and perhaps one that was only invented in 1770:

https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2010 ... fewer.html

"... people happily used “less” to mean “fewer” for some 900 years before anybody minded."