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If I were you, I'd ....


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17 minutes ago, richi said:

Don't get me started on which vs. that.

 

Or the widespread, thoughtless abuse of the word therefore . Use of the word these days, so often means ' I'm right, so shaaadup '

 

PS.

Has anyone else noticed the written ' Prolly ' for probably ?

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4 minutes ago, Hecateh said:

That's one I sometimes struggle with.

 

Yes, some modern style guides permit ending a sentence with a "dangling" preposition :D

Edited by richi
prepend adjectival, gerundified dangle
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40 minutes ago, richi said:

Colon is correct, because the second part is as a result of the first. You'd use a semi if you had two sentences to join together, but style guides increasingly suggest eliminating semicolons wherever possible.

 

If you want see lots of semi-colons, read any book dealing with grammar; authors of such things seem to love semi-colons. I gave up reading "Eats shoots and leaves"; for me, the writer over-punctuated to the point of distraction. 

 

39 minutes ago, richi said:

Some style guides have it that you'd capitalise the W if the phrase after the colon was a complete sentence, which it is. But there's no hard-and-fast rule.

 

Mostly it's US style guides that say that - from grammarly:

 

"In British English, the first letter after a colon is capitalized only if it's a proper noun or an acronym".

 

29 minutes ago, richi said:

Don't get me started on which vs. that.

 

Snap. 

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2 minutes ago, richi said:

Yes, punctuation does differ across the pond, and most of my editorial clients are Over There, so those are usually the style guides I defer to. 

 

Don’t mention across the pond! Since when did I couldn’t care less become I could care less? 9_9

 

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5 minutes ago, richi said:

 

How about spanking anyone who begins their answer to a question with, "So..."?

 

Some people might want to be spanked. :ph34r:

 

(That sentence technically starts with "so".)

Edited by Ferdinand
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49 minutes ago, richi said:

 

How about spanking anyone who begins their answer to a question with, "So..."?

 

That’s my 13 year old niece. Or ‘basically’. She goes to a grammar school so hopefully they’ll beat it out of her ;)

 

 

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53 minutes ago, vivienz said:

When ringing any form of customer services with a complaint or problem and they begin with 'Obviously.....'

I had a run in with Anglian Windows the other day.

They broke my guttering while working on the neighbours house.  Simple job to put right.

After 3 days of not hearing from them, I called again.  The woman on the phone was defensive and started arguing.

So to get even I am posting up here that their customer relations are rubbish.

But my guttering is now back in place and my neighbour has about 10 meters of fascia, 8m of gutter for, and I must have misheard this from him, £6500.

I must check that price with him and see if it is correct as I think that is a job for trading standards.

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20 minutes ago, recoveringacademic said:

Danger no swimming allowed

 

Danger! No Swimming Allowed 

 

Danger? No. Swimming Allowed !

 

Danger? No? Swimming Allowed !

 

Ah, but that's punctuation, not over-punctuation.

 

I once went for a job interview where they asked me whether I had any comment about a sign saying "Dogs must be carried on the Underground". I asked whether they were interested in the potential ambiguity or wanted a discussion about whether the intended meaning is clear enough from the context. Apparently it was the former, and they were continually surprised how many people didn't see the issue even with prodding. This was for a job where accurate expression was utterly paramount.

 

Oh, and I didn't get the job. :/

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27 minutes ago, Ferdinand said:

On this subject, why is our main grammar-activist @newhometalking about Epilators on another thread?

 

De-Epilators, surely?

 

I’m certainly no grammar purist for sure lol but isn’t epilate removal of hair from the roots, hence an epilator that facilitates this,  whereas depilate is a general hair removal term that includes shaving? :S 

 

 

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