On Wed, 2 Sep 2020 20:49:03 +0100, bert wrote:

In article , NY writes
"John Armstrong" wrote in message
. ..
Has there been some self-help guide or communication guru who started the
current craze?

I think it started in the US, but I could be wrong. Possibly as an
appalling example of "management newspeak" to which many people
subscribe. One person uses it, another hears it, and it spreads like a
rash. Other examples are "going forward", "deep diving", and the
perennial "blue sky thinking".

I refused to use these nonsensical expressions at work, (I am now
retired) and had little time for those who did. This did my promotion
chances no good. But when I saw that many of those above me had little
idea of singular and plural, the correct use of tenses, the use of
aspostrophes, the difference between their, there, and they're, and
even to, too, and two, I had no desire to be among them.

I was the same: I never let "blue-sky thinking", "thinking outside the
box" etc pass my lips. The worst is "leveraging" - always pronounced
"levveraging" (American) rather than "leeveraging" (British) even by
Brits. I still have not idea WTF it means.

Then you get all the financial jargon that creeps into management
briefings. I worked for a company that had "merged with"
(management-speak for "been taken over by") a Finnish company.
Pedant alert Big difference in practical implications between taken
over and merged.

If we take over you, you do as you're f**** told. A merger is more a
battle between equals.

Snip

I think it is more nuanced than that. Are some mergers not structured
as takeovers for financial reasons (or even reverse take-overs)? And
a merger might start as equals but one half could ultimately prevail.

On 05/09/2020 16:04, Gib Bogle wrote:
On Monday, August 31, 2020 at 3:35:53 PM UTC-4, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
Listening to the radio and the TV there has not been a single correct
verb in the plural form...


--
"Nature does not give up the winter because people dislike the cold."

ۥ Confucius

A common error is to use the most recent noun in the sentence to choose singular or plural for the verb, disregarding the number of the actual subject of the verb, which occurred earlier in the sentence. I find this particularly annoying.

+1

On Mon, 31 Aug 2020 20:35:49 +0100, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

Listening to the radio and the TV there has not been a single correct
verb in the plural form...

One thing that puzzles me is is 'police' singular or plural? My local
paper keeps reporting 'the police is investigating'. Surely if it's a body
(pun not intended!) it's plural, although saying 'the government is
investigating' seems right.

--
TOJ.

On Fri, 4 Sep 2020 11:23:37 -0700 (PDT), harry
wrote:

On Monday, August 31, 2020 at 10:34:24 PM UTC+1, Custos Custodum wrote:
On Mon, 31 Aug 2020 21:56:55 +0100, S Viemeister
wrote:

On 31/08/2020 21:37, Scott wrote:
On Mon, 31 Aug 2020 21:30:07 +0100, S Viemeister
On 31/08/2020 21:15, Scott wrote:
On Mon, 31 Aug 2020 21:04:20 +0100, S Viemeister
On 31/08/2020 20:35, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
Listening to the radio and the TV there has not been a single correct
verb in the plural form...
And news readers refer to nearly all events in the present tense.
And many people begin both questions and answers with 'so'.
And the younger generation try to get an expletive into every
sentence.
'An' expletive??? There are people who scatter them liberally through
every sentence. Not just youngsters, either.
Maybe I was underestimating the ingenuity of the younger generation.

I remember being told in my youth that the real skill was to fragment
polysyllabic words in order to insert a swear word (eg tele - f****g -
scope). He also said that the fine and noble English word c**t was
sadly becoming extinct and it was our moral duty to use the word where
possible to keep it alive. I think that problem has been resolved.

I had a sheltered childhood. I didn't learn those words until I met
people from Glasgow.
According to the OED, the earliest record of the word "****" was in
Scots. It's our gift to the world :-)


Not a chance.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/****ing,_Austria

A foreign place name which has no connection whatsoever with the
English word "****". There's a hamlet in Bavaria, close to the border
with Austria, called "Wank". That doesn't have any connection with the
English word, either.

On Sat, 5 Sep 2020 18:39:34 +0000 (UTC), The Other John
wrote:

On Mon, 31 Aug 2020 20:35:49 +0100, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

Listening to the radio and the TV there has not been a single correct
verb in the plural form...

One thing that puzzles me is is 'police' singular or plural? My local
paper keeps reporting 'the police is investigating'. Surely if it's a body
(pun not intended!) it's plural, although saying 'the government is
investigating' seems right.

I don't think it is consistent. I think you would usually say 'the
team is' because they are working together, as I hope the police would
be too.