This is a poll. Who will be UK's next PM?

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

I suspect it will be birching's for the misuse of apostrophe's ;))

[Pontius Navigator]

Oh dear, it should have been Organisations IS singular and why abolish the Oxford comma?

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

The Oxford comma comes before the 'and'.

The use of 'are' is correct. An organisation is singular; organisations are singular.

Have another beer PN, and forget it

OberGrammarFuehrer von Foxdrei

[CharlieOneSix]

To add to the above list I myself personally hate the use of the term almost unique.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

Just as bad as 'completely unique'.

[Slasher]

I really really hate this 'reaching out' crap.

Dear Mr Slasher,
Thank you for reaching out to us regarding your online difficulties in searching for CASA ERS SUP Vol 2. Further information for search filters can be obtained from the left menu at the CASA home page. Then follow instructions from the right menu.

Dear CASA,
I didn't 'reach out'. All I did was email you to help me find that document on that horrible bloody complicated website of yours. It's a frigging nightmare. It would've helped if you'd attached a PDF of it. Go back to the good old hardcopy ANOs and ANRs when it was easy to look up all this sh!t in two mins. Thanks for nothing you dicks.
And BTW the only time I 'reach out' is to pick my beer glass up from the bar.

[BenThere]

Slasher,

I can appreciate your frustration with poorly performing websites. Thanks for reaching out.

[prospector]

[Slasher]

Back on topic.

[Pontius Navigator]

Have another beer PN, and forget it

OberGrammarFuehrer von Foxdrei

Oh alright and, it were a nice Stellenbosch Cabernet Sauvignon in memory of our trip there.

All right, it was a smooth deep red with none of the harshness we sometimes experience with a Merlot, and I noted the marketing ploy of using thick glass. The bottle had quite a heft not dissimilar to a bottle of sparkling wine.

[ian16th]

One thing that I have always remembered from my very 3rd rate Secondary Modern education.

Our English teacher told us the 'got' was an ugly word, if you ever think of using it, think again!

Then in a later life I came across the even worse 'Merican past tense of it, 'gotten'.

[Pontius Navigator]

As in "I got zits" ?

[OFSO]

Are we allowed to use "embiggen" ? Love that word, Homer.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

It's "hugeify" now, I believe, owing to Trump's ubiquitous use of "'Uuuuge!"

[larsssnowpharter]

Get, got, gotten.

Methinks some verbal snobbishness going on here.

The English verb 'to get' is useful and has tens of pages on its usages and meanings in the OED.

'Got' is simply the past participle. It is neither ugly nor Mexican. I would maintain that few people would say; "I received a letter from my sister today". Most would say, "I got a letter from my sister today."

A few hundred years ago the conjugation of the verb in England went, get, got, gotten. Time has moved on and it has become, get, got, got.

In short, a useful, unpretentious little word that, mostly, communicates its speaker's meaning effectively and succinctly.

[Capetonian]

It depends on the usage. For example, I hate hearing people ordering something with :
"Can I get a double skinny caramel triple whipped zappo frothy moccacino."

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

Certain usages are culturally standard, and I just tend to go with the flow. It only delays things if you use OED-approved English. "Off of" is ubiquitous in Canada; even the CBC uses it. Superfluous language can be irritating; I had to get used to saying "Go ahead and..." ahead of every instruction when flying instructing in the US.

[Sisemen]

Gotten is old English and is used by the Merkins as they do with a lot of Elizabethan/Georgian English.

[llondel]

It depends on the usage. For example, I hate hearing people ordering something with :
"Can I get a double skinny caramel triple whipped zappo frothy moccacino."

That usage doesn't work in this house. Our son has been trained by the responses of "yes, you can" and no further action so now he's more careful with his wording.

[Pontius Navigator]

Or a survey where the top favourable choices were: Quite satisfied, satisfied, very satisfied and completely satisfied.