Assume v. Presume

Wrong (or at least incorrect in its implication). Those are both handsets - the one on the left is a telephone handset, the one on the right is a Humax remote control handset. To suggest that the item on the left is the only possible example of a "handset" is misleading. "Remote" and "control" are both adjectives, so only describe a noun anyway.

Amazing how much effort some people will go to in demonstrating their lack of education.
 
There's a Channel 5 programme on about the history of the Tower of London, but I'm not sure who its target audience are. Distances are being stated in km, and apparently somebody "snuck" out.
 
Why is it that whilst it is the Law to have road signs and other roadside information signs in imperial measurements (miles and yards), councils etc. insist on using metric distances for road repairs etc?
A good one in our local rag a couple of weeks ago paraphrased to "132 yards of the 2.5km cycle track were washed away by the sea". Ye gods and little fishes, use one or the other; follow the law and use miles and yards.
 
I don't think it is against the law to use metric (but I have not checked). There was a case a while back where some footpath signs had to be removed because they showed distances in miles and km, as I recall they would have been OK in either but not both (bloody stupid).
 
Then you might want to take a look at this and the 2002 Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions here
I can't find anything in the 2011 amendments that countermand these. But what surprises me is that the dimensions of the various signs is given in metric units.

Edited to correct grammar. Sloppy me. Or should it be sloppy I?
 
Metric is an adjective yet you and BH are both using it as a noun.
You should be stating metric units.
Considering your insistence on being grammaticaly correct I'm surprised at your sloppiness.
 
Black Hole said:
Amazing how much effort some people will go to in demonstrating their lack of education.
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Oh dear. You describe "control" as an adjective, but it's a least a noun and a verb. Then you put an apostrophe in what should be "its" in your next message. Are you in the greenhouse about to launch small rocks?
 
Adjectives get used as nouns quite commonly, so I'm not going to worry about that. Nouns have become verbs too. EP was slinging rocks because he doesn't like me using the word handset to describe a remote control (two adjectives used colloquially as a noun). That's his problem, not mine. I was just pointing out that both pictures show handsets, and although the one on the right specifies what kind of handset, the other doesn't.

As for the misplaced "it's", I blame the iPad. Corrected.

FLOWERimage.jpg DAISYimage.jpg
 
Black Hole said:
There's a Channel 5 programme on about the history of the Tower of London, but I'm not sure who its target audience are. Distances are being stated in km, and apparently somebody "snuck" out.
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Another programme called Secrets of Britain, this one by coincidence also about the Tower of London, is clearly for the American market. Values are quoted in dollars, and reporting of things past is all in present or future tense.
 
And yet one of the very American series we are currently watching (Longmire I think, but might be Fargo) keeps using kilometres and other metric units. It's really weird.
 
On a different note (related to something about journalistic garbage in one of these threads recently, but I can't now refind) I noticed this in a Radio Times listing for today: "... the actor visits one of the country's only stunt schools".
I'm sure that 'only' is wrong, but I can't actually define how.
 
@Mike. 'Only' indicates just one, but 'one of' implies more than one and thus the sentence is contradictory. Replace 'only' with 'few' and you're home and dry.
 
Trev said:
@Mike. 'Only' indicates just one, but 'one of' implies more than one and thus the sentence is contradictory. Replace 'only' with 'few' and you're home and dry.
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Yes, I agree they should have said few.
At first I thought what you say about only, but in fact we often say things like "I only have three left", so only can be used in association with more than one.
 
Seems like it depends on whether it is being used as an adjective or an adverb. See here and here. As it is being used as an adjective in the above sentence, it seems that it's wrong. The 'only' is describing stunt schools and you can only have one if it is described as 'only' as in 'only child'. Therefore their usage is wrong as I implied above. I recon it should be '....few stunt schools' or '...only stunt school' not '.....only stunt schools'
 
Trev said:
But what surprises me is that the dimensions of the various signs is given in metric units.
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We started using metric 150 years ago. Our OS maps have long been metric. Official speed signs have to be in mph but many signs are unrestricted:

gates.JPG


Metric is miles better than, err, ...
 
As the word 'audience' as used in the context of the subject sentence is a collective noun for a gathering of people and thus singular, the correct word must be 'is'.
Mike said:
We started using metric 150 years ago. Our OS maps have long been metric
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Were you not paying attention to raydon's post #1227?:disagree:
 
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