Grumpy Grammar Grinch Grouses...

[SadieKate]

Renown or renowned? If the latter, a heck of a long time.

[OakLeaf]

The former. That's what drives me crazy about it. Your post is the first time I've even seen the word "renowned" in about five years. Everyone writes "renown" to mean "renowned."


ETA: Oh, I get it.... it's been re-nouned.

[SadieKate]

ETA: Oh, I get it.... it's been re-nouned.

I'll have to send that to my English teach dad.

[Skierchickie]

Regime used in place of regimen. I see / hear it WAY too frequently, and am afraid it is becoming generally accepted. Even on Masterpiece Theater last night, on PBS (it was "Emma", by Jane Austen, of all things - her father made a remark about his exercise regime). A regime is a government, a regimen is a system of training or treatment.

And how about all of the nouns that have become verbs, all of a sudden?

[SadieKate]

That might be more of a style thang.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/regime

[Maxxxie]

And how about all of the nouns that have become verbs, all of a sudden?

This is particularly obvious in the IT industry. A few months ago, I had to sit through a sales spiel in which the speaker described how they "productised" a service. Instead of just saying "We decided to sell our services", he said "We productised our service". ARGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! And he did this all through the presentation. I wanted to take him aside and slap him, but I think that might've been unprofessional.

Max

[lph]

This is particularly obvious in the IT industry. A few months ago, I had to sit through a sales spiel in which the speaker described how they "productised" a service. Instead of just saying "We decided to sell our services", he said "We productised our service". ARGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! And he did this all through the presentation. I wanted to take him aside and slap him, but I think that might've been unprofessional.

Max

You could've productised a slap

A bit lost in translation maybe, but similar: there's a trend in Norwegian for people to describe typically chocolate or luxury foods by using "wine taster terms" like: "deep, rich, good on taste".... I hate that! There's nothing wrong with saying that something just plain TASTES GOOD!

[SadieKate]

Regime used in place of regimen. I see / hear it WAY too frequently, and am afraid it is becoming generally accepted. Even on Masterpiece Theater last night, on PBS (it was "Emma", by Jane Austen, of all things - her father made a remark about his exercise regime). A regime is a government, a regimen is a system of training or treatment.

And how about all of the nouns that have become verbs, all of a sudden?

Voila! Perhaps she meant regiment.

http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/regiment.html

[SadieKate]

Actually, this is a very interesting site.

http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/index.html

You will find certain words or phrases criticized here listed in dictionaries. Note carefully labels like dial. (dialectical), nonstandard, and obsolete before assuming that the dictionary is endorsing them. The primary job of a dictionary is to track how people actually use language. Dictionaries differ among themselves on how much guidance to usage they provide; but the goal of a usage guide like this is substantially different: to protect you against patterns which are regarded by substantial numbers of well-educated people as nonstandard.

List of errors with a search engine
http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/errors.html#errors

A particularly good one.
http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/poopoo.html

[kjay]

Note use of "which" as opposed to "that." Okay, I need to stop this. ;-)

[lph]

argh! I've been spelling "ad nauseam" wrong for years. Damn.

[OakLeaf]

to protect you against patterns which are regarded

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah [running screaming out of room]!

kjay, I'm SO glad I'm not the only one who's bothered by that!

[crazycanuck]

Ok, i've been pondering this one for the past week & am now wondering if i'm out to lunch..

Someone please tell me why I can't say "Please email the details to me or Please email the details"?
Email can be a a verb..Email, emailing, emailed... If i'm incorrect, please provide numerous accurate sentences as examples.

Next one is Sunburn. Can it be used in the folowing manner:" I ended up with a sunburn." ?? I could say " I'm sunburnt" but can I say " I'm sunburnt on my back"? Should one only say " My back is sunburnt"?

Thank you..