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Assume v. Presume

Black Hole said:
It's "comprises" or "comprised of", not "comprises of".
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"comprised of" is just that past tense of "comprises of", which is obviously the present tense.
Both are incorrect in the same way.
The correct usage is "it comprises <whatever>" or "it comprised <whatever>" depending on your required tense.
It is wrong to use "comprise(s|d) of" - although someone's bound to argue about it. Just like it's wrong to use "either-or" with more than 2 terms. But you will argue you're right.
Which kind of makes this whole thread redundant...
 
prpr said:
The flippin' apostrophe in "it's" of course.
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Oh. I blame the iPad "auto-correct" for that! Is that why the mods never responded - because the grammar was incorrect?

prpr said:
There wasn't an infinitive in what you wrote anyway, so how could it have been that?
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There was: to stray significantly / to significantly stray (but I didn't notice I hadn't used the split form)... it doesn't matter that the "to" is missing, the effect is the same (the adverb coming before the verb).

EEPhil said:
What! In this thread?
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No, not in this thread, obs...

prpr said:
But you will argue you're right.
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Yep, the same as you will. It doesn't matter what reference you can supply to support your opinion, they are all just opinions. All matters of (living) language are just that: opinions - but some people like to think that because they were taught a particular way that makes it fact. At least I provide the reasoning for my opinions.
 
Might Misuse.

I hear this a lot, particularly on the likes of Tipping Point: "I might go for drop zone 4".

I really hope I am not guilty of this one. I have a friend who does this all the time, replacing the definite "will" with the indefinite "might". When I am feeling particularly curmudgeonly (which isn't all that rare), I reply "when will you make your mind up?".

Then there's Rod Stewart on his Great American Songbook series of CDs. Lousy voice, but great music (and Louis Armstrong didn't exactly have a great voice either). For some inexplicable reason, in I've Got You Under My Skin (Cole Porter), in the line "I'd sacrifice anything come what might", Stewart substitutes "may" – apparently without any recognition "may" is grammatically incorrect, but most importantly that it doesn't rhyme with "night" two lines later! It's an insult to Porter, and grates on me every time I hear it (which is a pity, because otherwise the music is good).

Might: possibility
May: permission
Can: ability

"Only food bought here can be eaten here" – that's incorrect, and I can prove it (by eating my own sandwich, albeit without permission).
 
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Minor gripe in the current climate but anyone else a little irritated by the government covid-19 communications (I subscribed to the email alert), and the slavish copying by some newspapers. American spellings galore - "Stay two meters apart", "Limit traveling". :(
 
But that's lead, as in heavy metal and similar to Led Zeppelin. Or even a string to restrain a dog.
Too easy to get them all mixed up especially when you throw a couple of tenses into the conversation.
 
It used to be dah-tuh in the seventies. Now it's day-tuh. Day-tum (datum) is of course the singular.
 
mihaid said:
give an example of a datum
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Any occasion where the information is only one value. In that case, "data" is incorrect. Typically however, "datum" refers to a reference point (eg the zero on a scale), and a non-zero value is commonly (incorrectly) called "data".
 
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