• The forum software that supports hummy.tv has been upgraded to XenForo 2.3!

    Please bear with us as we continue to tweak things, and feel free to post any questions, issues or suggestions in the upgrade thread.

Assume v. Presume

Telegraph 13/07/2013 Weekend section said:
His wife, Vera, would drive him out on butterfly collecting trips and after he'd collected his specimens he'd sit down to write on the same index cards he used to catalogue his species. After he'd finished writing, she'd type up his handwritten cards.
Click to expand...
A bit disappointing really, especially as it was found in the QI column.

PS: I may have mentioned it before, but QI XL ought to be QI VL.
 
Been hearing this a lot lately too: 10 o/c news on the Beeb, reporter talking about the American response to the Syria crisis, "...don't want to do this as well". Either man, either! The weather forecasters do it too.

With the standards slipping so badly, even on the BBC, it seems we are all that's left to stand between decent English and death of English.
 
Black Hole said:
With the standards slipping so badly, even on the BBC, it seems we are all that's left to stand between decent English and death of English.
Click to expand...

I agree and am getting avaaz to take up this important campaign as soon as possible. I have subscribed all users of this forum to the campaign and expect you all to do your bit.
 
Looking at their 'green' credentials, I doubt if they would be interested in anything really important like English as she are wrote
 
56-year-old Roy Hobbs said: “Heaven forbid that my scrupulous attention to linguistic detail should be driven by intellectual vanity.

“The reason I loudly vocalise my frustration about a writer confusing ‘that’ and which’ is because of my passion for good English.

“It’s not that I want a crowded room to know how clever I am.”
Click to expand...
 
Then aren't we amazing here in the Arms.:) (But perhaps not elsewhere. I know that I am more careful here than elsewhere and thank goodness for IE spellchecker.)
 
43-year-old pedant Mary Fisher said: “So we are ‘generally better’? Better than whom? Better is a relative term.
“But perhaps you didn’t know that.”
Click to expand...
Actually, 'better' is a comparative, but as the writer says, it does require an object of comparison to be included in the sentence. Of course, 'best' is a superlative, so does not require an object of comparison.
Or should we start another thread entitled "Relative v Comparative"?:frantic:
 
I was thinking of getting this topic retitled "There's No F In Apostrophe".

Of course "best" has an object of comparison - the entire remaining population.
 
Of course it does, silly me. Write out 100 times "I must engage brain before typing in future". That's the best I can do. Where's the rest of the population there?
 
Black Hole said:
Of course "best" has an object of comparison - the entire remaining population.
Click to expand...
But if the extent of the population being compared against is not defined? For example, I am reminded of John Lennon saying that Ringo was not even the best drummer in The Beatles.
 
Yes it is, all the drummers that the Beatles had, or am I walking blindfold into the Best trap here? Alternately, best is not a comparative superlative in this case as the Beatles only had one drummer. Or was he implying that one of the other three was a better drummer than Ringo?
 
My understanding is that it was a reference to Paul McCartney rejecting Ringo's recordings on two tracks from the White Album ("Back In The USSR" and "Dear Prudence") and replacing them with his own drumming, this resulted in Ringo leaving the recording sessions for two weeks
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top