Sue Nicholas- Location: river
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 5,840
Where are the mistakes?I have read it several times.
Button
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 22 Jul 2016
- Posts: 2,508
Try the final bullet point.
(Not my real name.)
Ross Miller
- Location: London Road, Dover
- Registered: 17 Sep 2008
- Posts: 3,624
Plus the second last, bullet lists should not have full stops at the end of each item.
Also I would argue that that item makes little sense as school funding per-se does not got to pupils, so what will pupils receive a 5.5% rise in?
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"Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today." - James Dean
"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength,
While loving someone deeply gives you courage" - Laozi
Weird Granny Slater
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 7 Jun 2017
- Posts: 2,522
That train's going so fast it left its hyphen at Ashford.
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'Pass the cow dung, my dropsy's killing me' - Heraclitus
Button- Location: Dover
- Registered: 22 Jul 2016
- Posts: 2,508
It's quite a clever ploy, when you think about it: bung in a couple of deliberate typos so one can be sure that people read the darn thing, line by line, looking for them!
(Not my real name.)
Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,870
the first paragrafe is wrong to, it was labour who stopped the torys from selling of the port.
Button- Location: Dover
- Registered: 22 Jul 2016
- Posts: 2,508
There has been a number of "sell-offs" mooted over the years, but that's more yer actual politics rather than grammar.
(Not my real name.)
Sue Nicholas- Location: river
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 5,840
Clever .
Pablo- Registered: 21 Mar 2018
- Posts: 610
#32. No Brian. It might have been if Gwyn had grasped the nettle when he was MP. But we never got a straight answer out of him as to Labour’s policy on port sell-offs.
Weird Granny Slater- Location: Dover
- Registered: 7 Jun 2017
- Posts: 2,522
Button wrote:There has been a number of "sell-offs" mooted...
Whoops! Singular interloper stirs up grammatical disharmony.
'Pass the cow dung, my dropsy's killing me' - Heraclitus
Button- Location: Dover
- Registered: 22 Jul 2016
- Posts: 2,508
'A number' - singular, no? As in, for example, 'A herd of cows was crossing the road'.
(Not my real name.)
Reginald Barrington
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 17 Dec 2014
- Posts: 3,123
You're a has-been Button!
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Arte et Marte
Weird Granny Slater- Location: Dover
- Registered: 7 Jun 2017
- Posts: 2,522
I'd say plural, B. In your sentence, 'a number of' has the same function as 'several' or 'many'. So, e.g., 'there have been several "sell-offs" mooted...' For clarity, turn it around: 'several "sell-offs' have been mooted...' but surely not 'several "sell-offs' has been mooted...'
Now, I'm sure there's a typo in that Yellow Party leaflet somewhere...
'Pass the cow dung, my dropsy's killing me' - Heraclitus
Button- Location: Dover
- Registered: 22 Jul 2016
- Posts: 2,508
I see what you mean Granny, but I reckon I'm going to have to stick with my singular use of English! Actually, I was more worried about "sell-offs", but "sells-off" just sounded poncey....
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(Not my real name.)
Jan Higgins
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,363
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I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
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Weird Granny Slater- Location: Dover
- Registered: 7 Jun 2017
- Posts: 2,522
Regrettable apostrophe comment from Peter Hitchens:
'No, I won’t weep for the apostrophe, now obviously doomed. I can usually cope with it, but it’s clear that most people can’t, and hateful predictive text often shoves it in where it’s not wanted.
It’s hard to make a stand for this squiggle, mainly because there’s no firm rule about it.
In my childhood, Alice In Wonderland said ‘sha’n’t’ with two apostrophes. Now she says ‘shan’t’ with one apostrophe. Why? Either it’s vital, or it isn’t.'
https://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2019/12/index.html
What? An English stylist dissing an essential element of grammar? A 'doomed squiggle'? I should be outraged. Peter Hitchens is often very sensible (like his brother, before the Iraq war thing). But here I'd think some kind of derangement overcame him, were it not for one thing:
his correct use of the apostrophe. Structure subverts content. Hurrah! He's on the apostrophe's side after all. And Lewis Carroll sha'n't be denied.
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'Pass the cow dung, my dropsy's killing me' - Heraclitus
Button- Location: Dover
- Registered: 22 Jul 2016
- Posts: 2,508
I'm with you on this WGS, but it seems that English changes, as distinct from grows. Take a look at
https://m.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10157897664139339&id=604134338&set=gm.2725331684155537&source=57, an old Dover electoral roll. Quite apart from Swingfield and Folkstone (sic) being Dover's last territorial claims in Europe, and the laborer (presumably American) living in Above-wall, it seems that streetnames were written with a hyphen: Snargate-street and so forth.
Apologies if I've mentioned this before, but I noted from a recent GCSE exam paper (I did this last academic year, it now being forbidden for invigilators to do such a thing) that the preferred spelling for compound CuSO4 is Copper Sulfate. I really don't remember being consulted on this!
(Not my real name.)
Reginald Barrington- Location: Dover
- Registered: 17 Dec 2014
- Posts: 3,123
Sulfur and sulfate are the official spellings in the scientific world, the rest of us should stick with the pub!
Arte et Marte
Jan Higgins- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,363
I suspect the next generation will all be speaking in a version of text language, 'proper' english will be a thing of the past used only by the oldies who take our place.
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I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
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Weird Granny Slater- Location: Dover
- Registered: 7 Jun 2017
- Posts: 2,522
I do a bit of genealogical research, and I’ve seen that street-name format on electoral roles. But since I haven’t found it anywhere else, such as on censuses, I’ve assumed it was simply a printing convention. Odd one though. Perhaps capital letters were too expensive...
As for the sulphur / sulfur debate, I think both have been around for some time, but I only noticed the American spelling recently. Any argument's easily settled, though: it’s brimstone. Alternatively, as Riddley Walker has it, ‘the yellerboy stoan the Salt 4’.
Isn't it a bad idea, though, and futile, to try to fix a language? Spellings change, words come in, fade away, reappear, keeping it alive. But if you take care of the grammar, the words’ll look after themselves. And I'm less inclined now to resist American spellings and usages, as some of those arrived from England on the Mayflower. I guess, anyways.
'Pass the cow dung, my dropsy's killing me' - Heraclitus
