Barging About Britain

[MHS]

God preserve us from The Grammar Police and pedants. I often wonder why people have to demonstrate to the world that they have a superior intellect by taking to task the spelling etc of fellow posters. Personally I'm not bothered by the odd error because it just serves to show that we all are less than perfect ( well most of us )

Phil

+1

Also many of those with the highest intellect have appalling grammar. My brother is one of them!

[Nightwatch]

I don't mind if anyone picks me up on me gramma or spelling. If done in good spirit.

 

I may even learn summat.

 

Martyn

Edited February 21, 2015 by Nightwatch

[Guest]

I don't mind if anyone picks me up on me gramma or spelling. If done in good spirit.

 

I may even learn summat.

 

Martyn

Me neither. It is when it is done for point scoring, or when losing the argument that it becomes tiresome and churlish.

Edited February 21, 2015 by Guest

[casper ghost]

I went to watch this episode, but ITV Wales didn't show it...

Casp'

[GUMPY]

I went to watch this episode, but ITV Wales didn't show it...

Casp'

You were spared

[kingswood]

I hope I don't have to share a lock with him, give me tim and pru......

[Nightwatch]

You won't have to,he's not a boater.

 

Martyn

[The Bearwood Boster]

Bring back Waterworld ! ...

[keble]

Well I'm undecided. On one hand he's an affable bloke and it's all very pleasant. On the other hand its a tad light.

As someone (an ex beeb man) once said, its all about the ratings.

Never forget that ..

[Laurie Booth]

Well I'm undecided. On one hand he's an affable bloke and it's all very pleasant. On the other hand its a tad light.

As someone (an ex beeb man) once said, its all about the ratings.

Never forget that ..

The ratings for this must be falling very quickly.

[little duck!]

I have just seen ad advert on more 4 for Tim amd pru's next series, Falkirk wheel amongst other areas, So excited even the advert showed how enthusiastic they are and interested! i Jst hope i dont miss it as no date yet just "coming soon"! Cant come soon enough

in the mean time i will put up with john barging about, just how many times i have said "no i don't own a barge, i own a narrow boat" i've lost count. Never mind, my opinion is that this will do if its all thats on offer, its better than no canals on TV at all!

[Athy]

 

However tedious correcting of spelling and grammar is often regarded as poor 'form' in internet forums as one never knows the academic or linguistic capability of people who may be posting.

From viewing their posts, one gets to know the CWFers for whom literacy is a bit of a problem. I avoid correcting any mistakes they have made as it would not, as you say, be good form. I don't incidentally, think of such people as lesser beings - they could probably rebuild an engine or build a boat's furniture, which I couldn't. We all have our areas of strength.

 

But equally, there are quite a few CWFers who share an enjoyment of language and who indeed relish such exchanges - which are generally conducted in a light-hearted way. Then there are the howlers, where a typo (now there's one thing which I am quite good at) can add unintentional humour to a post. I see no harm in mentioning these.

Edited February 22, 2015 by Athy

[keble]

From viewing their posts, one gets to know the CWFers fpr whom literacy is a bit of a problem. I avoid correcting any mistakes they have made as it would not, as you say, be good form. I don't incidentally, think of such people as lesser beings - they could probably rebuild an engine or build a boat's furniture, which I couldn't. We all have our areas of strength.

 

But equally, there are quite a few CWFers who share an enjoyment of language and who indeed relish such exchanges - which are generally conducted in a light-hearted way. Then there are the howlers, where a typo (now there's one thing which I am quite good at) can add unintentional humour to a post. I see no harm in mentioning these.

Yeah, I would miss your contributions (BTW did your spot your typo yet?)

An amusing web site is Language Log.

[Athy]

Yeah, I would miss your contributions (BTW did your spot your typo yet?)

An amusing web site is Language Log.

Thanks.

That, young man, was not a typo. That was my computer keyboard's inability to distinguish between an "o" and a "p". The standard of education amongst modern computer keyboards is sometimes deplorable.

[Laurie Booth]

Thanks.

That, young man, was not a typo. That was my computer keyboard's inability to distinguish between an "o" and a "p". The standard of education amongst modern computer keyboards is sometimes deplorable.

I fink that all keyboards should be taught the 3 R's from birth.

 

[Guest]

From viewing their posts, one gets to know the CWFers for whom literacy is a bit of a problem. I avoid correcting any mistakes they have made as it would not, as you say, be good form. I don't incidentally, think of such people as lesser beings - they could probably rebuild an engine or build a boat's furniture, which I couldn't. We all have our areas of strength.

 

But equally, there are quite a few CWFers who share an enjoyment of language and who indeed relish such exchanges - which are generally conducted in a light-hearted way. Then there are the howlers, where a typo (now there's one thing which I am quite good at) can add unintentional humour to a post. I see no harm in mentioning these.

Equally whilst it's quite true that people have differing areas of strength they also have differences in the things that they find tedious, unnecessary and that fall in the 'life's too short to worry about that' category. Correcting the use of an Americanism in a forum that is predominately about boating falls in to that category.

 

Of course if it was a forum dedicated to the use of the English language it would be completely different. I certainly have no intention of verifying the accuracy of each and every post I make with the OED before I click 'add reply'. If I don't spot something and the 'spell checker' doesn't either it gets added. Even then I miss things, and probably have in this post too, but I can live with that, as I say life is too short.

Edited February 22, 2015 by MJG

[David Schweizer]

Equally whilst it's quite true that people have differing areas of strength they also have differences in the things that they find tedious, unessaessary and that fall in the 'life's too short to worry about that' category. Correcting the use of an Americanism in a forum that is predominately about boating falls in to that category.

 

Of course if it was a forum dedicated to the use of the English language it would be completely different. I certainly have no intention of verifying the accuracy of each and every post I make with the OED before I click 'add reply'. If I don't spot something and the 'spell checker' doesn't either it gets added. Even then I miss things, and probably have in this post too, but I can live with that, as I say life is too short.

 

 

Hmmm!!

[Guest]

 

 

Hmmm!!

 

See.

 

And for what ever reason my spell checker didn't pick that up, nor did I.

[Guest]

Kids at the school where I once worked used to lever keys off the keyboards and swap a few around. More experienced ones would notice immediately, but less experienced kids got caught out (they would never proof read before printing!)

[Athy]

Equally whilst it's quite true that people have differing areas of strength they also have differences in the things that they find tedious, unnecessary and that fall in the 'life's too short to worry about that' category.

Yes, I feel the same about most of the political threads on here - they are not of much interest to me, but some people obviously relish them. How fortunate we are that CWF caters for so many diverse interests in addition to its "mission statement" of covering waterways topics.

[Jerra]

Kids at the school where I once worked used to lever keys off the keyboards and swap a few around. More experienced ones would notice immediately, but less experienced kids got caught out (they would never proof read before printing!)

I have a friend who in the very early days of computers in schools was asked by a junior school if he could see why the keys weren't producing the correct letters.

 

When he looked at the keyboard it read A B C D etc from top left to bottom right. When asking about this he was told by the Head "well we moved the keys as it would be easier for the kids".

[Darren72]

A little bit of the L & L with FT here:

 

 

That dirty nonce committed all his kiddy fiddling while on boats by the sounds of it. Should have sunk him while he did the weather off the floating UK.

 

 

FT. Fred Talbot or Fiddles Teenagers.

Edited February 22, 2015 by Darren72

[mark99]

or build a boat's furniture, which I couldn't.

 

Ahem.... can I ask - is that a correct use of an apostrophe ?

[furnessvale]

 

Ahem.... can I ask - is that a correct use of an apostrophe ?

Which one, or both?

 

Seriously though, I was always taught that if I could covert it to "the furniture of a boat" then the apostrophe was correct.

 

George ex nb Alton retired

[Athy]

 

Ahem.... can I ask - is that a correct use of an apostrophe ?

I don't know. Can you? You certainly may.

Yes it is.