Idiomatic, grammatical, spelling and other misteaks....

"Right Now" has crept into usage instead of "Now" - Are we watching too many US produced tv programmes?
 
Duke of Marmalade said:
Which word in the English language is most often spelt wrongly?
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It's "incorrectly". One spells a word 'correctly' or 'incorrectly', because it is a matter of fact. You don't spell a word 'rightly' so you can't spell it 'wrongly'. But you can spell it 'correctly'. 'Rightly' or 'wrongly' you can be accused of being pedantic, because it is a matter of assessment, but not necessarily a matter of fact.

On this topic, the use of the verb 'revert', to mean to contact you in the future, really gets me. It appears all over the place especially in official letters in Ireland, e.g. "I will revert to you when I have considered the matter'. This is simply incorrect. Revert means to return to a former state, as in 'after two pints I revert to my childhood'. It does not mean I will get back to you in due course.
 
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Speak with instead of speak to.
This Americanisation has been creeping in over here for some time and the BBC,in particular,is letting its standards drop.
Likewise I now hear the occasional " we reached out to him for comment " instead " we asked him to comment. "
I also saw Tommy Gorman on RTE the other night begin a live link from Belfast by saying " good night from Belfast. "
It also seems a peculiarly Irish thing to say bring instead of take as in " Will you bring me to the shops. "
Or am I being pedantic ?
 
Wahaay said:
I also saw Tommy Gorman on RTE the other night begin a live link from Belfast by saying " good night from Belfast. "
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Maybe he's just trying to bring it back, as it used to be used commonly as a greeting.
 
Leo said:
Maybe he's just trying to bring it back, as it used to be used commonly as a greeting.
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Possibly.
There was an RTE weather man who used to say the same thing at 6pm in the evening but then he stopped using it and I presumed someone had had a word.
I know of nowhere else the world where goodnight isn't meant as goodbye.
 
Wahaay said:
I also saw Tommy Gorman on RTE the other night begin a live link from Belfast by saying " good night from Belfast. "
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Maybe he was saying it was a good night in Belfast?


Wahaay said:
I know of nowhere else the world where goodnight isn't meant as goodbye.
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You think that's confusing, what about the French or Italians who say Salut and Cioa respectively for either hello or goodbye!
 
"Good evening" is the greeting in my part of the country (Dublin). The Germans haven't taken over yet!? [I know, I know.....]
 
We could all set up free accounts on grammarly.com or ask the admins to turn on the Irish_English/British_English spell checker in the BBS software.

Free Grammarly exists as a browser extension, a desktop application (Windows or macOS) or a set of extensions for MS Office. There's a paid-for version too, a plagiarisation checker and a plethora of other stuff. I use the free versions and they're fine for my porpoises, as Jimmy Cagney used to say.
 
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