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I don’t understand this universe any more

Heather Kay

By Heather Kay
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Mike Constant Member

Mike

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Here's one for you.  Why can't we count things in years anymore?  Something that happened 40 years ago is now four decades ago.  They use it for everything, as if they feel that we can't grasp the concept of individual numbers.  Do they think we all have to use number blocks to count? :shrug: It started a long time ago, and sneaked in until it was ubiquitous.  I know this because my dad has been moaning about it a lot longer than I care to remember :boom:

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Bertie McBoatface Blabber Mouth

Bertie McBoatface

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Just now, Mike said:

Here's one for you.  Why can't we count things in years anymore?  Something that happened 40 years ago is now four decades ago.  They use it for everything, as if they feel that we can't grasp the concept of individual numbers.  Do they think we all have to use number blocks to count? :shrug: It started a long time ago, and sneaked in until it was ubiquitous.  I know this because my dad has been moaning about it a lot longer than I care to remember :boom:

 

I have to use decades to talk about my life because I can only remember things +/- 5 years.

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AWFK10 Obsessed Member

AWFK10

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One frequently-committed error that irritates me is the use of "ordinance" ["a law or rule made by a government or authority"] when the writer means "ordnance". Another is the tendency of sports commentators to read out (e.g.) "Tottenham Hotspur vee Newcastle" because they don't know that "v." is an abbreviation of "versus". I wonder whether they would pronounce "etc." as "ettkuh"? 

 

I think the principal reason why people do this sort of thing is that they do very little reading. I mean reading books, the text of which has at least in theory been written by someone who's functionally literate and then checked by a proof reader. If you confine your reading mostly to social media you may unwittingly learn bad English and pick up incorrect terminology from other posters who are as much in the dark as you are. Similarly, if you're not used to seeing "ordnance" or "should have" written down you're more likely to spell phonetically what you think you've heard. It's many, many years since a work colleague told me that her daughter, who was then an undergraduate, had never read a book in her life. 

 

Then there's baby talk. Footie, Uni, Brits.........

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Heather Kay Very Obsessed Member

Heather Kay

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18 minutes ago, Mike said:

Something that happened 40 years ago is now four decades ago.


Then there’s the tautology of "it’s our three year anniversary".

 

Anniversary literally means returning annually. It’s your third anniversary.

 

Argh! Just been airbrushing some model coaches with their livery colour. The fumes must be getting to me!

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ckw Obsessed Member

ckw

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One I hate is "excited for" as in "I'm excited for the new Airfix release" * when it should be "about" or "by".

 

Seems to becoming a very common misuse.

 

Cheers

 

Colin

 

* just an example - I know nothing about any new release!

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Heather Kay Very Obsessed Member

Heather Kay

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1 minute ago, ckw said:

One I hate is "excited for"


A recent one is "smarts" meaning intelligent. The one thing that smarts is when I clip the person that says that to my face round the lughole! 
 

Add to that "sleeps". 
 

It’s a wonder I don’t go off pop with all the little annoyances in this off-kilter universe. I want to go back the one I was born in, please!

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ckw Obsessed Member

ckw

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53 minutes ago, AntPhillips said:

I have three step-daughters, two of them continuously use the "Should of" phrase,

This one I can understand, if not excuse, as people may say the contracted form "'should've" which sounds very much like 'should of'. Blame the parents!!😁

 

Cheers

 

Colin

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ckw Obsessed Member

ckw

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3 minutes ago, Heather Kay said:

Add to that "sleeps".

I'm going to take issue with that! The first time I heard it used I thought it an excellent way of conveying time to young children (e.g. 3 sleeps until Christmas). They immediately get it. Of course when adults use it between themselves, that's another matter!

 

Cheers

 

Colin

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JohnT Completely Obsessed Member

JohnT

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48 minutes ago, Mike said:

Believe me when I say that the "odd" is well and truly ensconced in a few modellers already :mental:

 

Mike just between :D us - all the world is mad and even thee is a little funny :penguin:

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malpaso Very Obsessed Member

malpaso

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4 hours ago, jackroadkill said:

 

Don't get me started....  This is what greets me every morning when I arrive at the car park at work:

 

spacer.png

 

Where do you start?!

Technically sandwich’s is correct as the apostrophe in this case replaced the e. 🤣

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alt-92 Very Obsessed Member

alt-92

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But they're inconsistent in their apostroph's ( :P ) in that case.

What did those cakes do to not receive the apostrophe love? And the groceries are feeling left out...

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Neil.C Obsessed Member

Neil.C

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2 hours ago, AWFK10 said:

One frequently-committed error that irritates me is the use of "ordinance" ["a law or rule made by a government or authority"] when the writer means "ordnance". Another is the tendency of sports commentators to read out (e.g.) "Tottenham Hotspur vee Newcastle" because they don't know that "v." is an abbreviation of "versus". I wonder whether they would pronounce "etc." as "ettkuh"? 

 

I think the principal reason why people do this sort of thing is that they do very little reading. I mean reading books, the text of which has at least in theory been written by someone who's functionally literate and then checked by a proof reader. If you confine your reading mostly to social media you may unwittingly learn bad English and pick up incorrect terminology from other posters who are as much in the dark as you are. Similarly, if you're not used to seeing "ordnance" or "should have" written down you're more likely to spell phonetically what you think you've heard. It's many, many years since a work colleague told me that her daughter, who was then an undergraduate, had never read a book in her life. 

 

Then there's baby talk. Footie, Uni, Brits.........

 

 

Exactly right.

 

Re the baby talk bit - blame the Aussies.

 

Unfortunately it has taken a foothold over here now. 😢 

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malpaso Very Obsessed Member

malpaso

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11 minutes ago, alt-92 said:

But they're inconsistent in their apostroph's ( :P ) in that case.

What did those cakes do to not receive the apostrophe love? And the groceries are feeling left out...

Because cak’s would be something relating to no.2s. 
 

or trousers

 

or underpants 

 

depending where you’re from.

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Navy Bird Completely Obsessed Member

Navy Bird

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This thread could go on forever. I may have missed it, but did anyone mention the frequent misuse of it's for its? I've seen this in news headlines and other places where the editor should "no" better. See what I did there? That's another one.    :)

 

Cheers,

Bill

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Learstang Completely Obsessed Member

Learstang

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20 hours ago, Bullbasket said:

I would think that that came about because of the way it was said; ie should've, and over time it's been turned into "should of".

 

John.

 

Yes, I suspect that's the 'folk etymology' of it.

 

Best Regards,

 

Jason

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IanC Very Obsessed Member

IanC

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7 hours ago, Mike said:

Here's one for you.  Why can't we count things in years anymore?  Something that happened 40 years ago is now four decades ago.  They use it for everything, as if they feel that we can't grasp the concept of individual numbers.  Do they think we all have to use number blocks to count? :shrug: It started a long time ago, and sneaked in until it was ubiquitous.  I know this because my dad has been moaning about it a lot longer than I care to remember :boom:

 

It's not so much decades that cheeses me off but 'back in the day'. A certain very well known and thoroughly nice Youtube modeller chap said it countless times during a kit review today. I was screaming at him to say 'years ago' or 'in the past' just for a change. 😄

 

 

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LorenSharp Completely Obsessed Member

LorenSharp

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54 minutes ago, Navy Bird said:

 

Although "should of" has already evolved into "shoulda." Life goes on...

 

Cheers,

Bill

Shouda, woulda, coulda, cha cha cha. Almost sounds like a line dance.

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alt-92 Very Obsessed Member

alt-92

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There's always a suitable Simpsons meme :D

 

y4m00Cjqi4T_d4U8Lh4S2PLfJiZ2AuJ3IV2JgQqY

 

 

1 hour ago, IanC said:

It's not so much decades that cheeses me off but 'back in the day'. A certain very well known and thoroughly nice Youtube modeller chap said it countless times during a kit review today. I was screaming at him to say 'years ago' or 'in the past' just for a change. 😄

 

If it is who I think you're referring to, then 

- No problem at all

- I'm not being funny

- We spoke about this before 


Once you start noticing it, there's no scoreboard big enough to keep count :D

Still  - love the banter they do. 

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Jochen Barett Obsessed Member

Jochen Barett

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On 16/11/2021 at 16:43, Heather Kay said:

Ooh! Here’s one that just popped into my email in-box.

 

We used to give gifts, the act of giving being better than receiving and all that. Now it’s become "gifting". :doh:

 

What's wrong with that? I'd rather be gifted than being given a gift.

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