• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

Oddities of the English language?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

pdeaves

Established Member
Joined
14 Sep 2014
Messages
5,632
Location
Gateway to the South West
Many years ago at work, some drawings were printed out and signed by someone senior in the evening. Then, someone spotted an error or needed to change something. Either way, the relevant drawings were reprinted and left for the senior person to sign in the morning with a note "please resign here". Obviously, the intention was "please sign the drawings again" but the word resign had other connotations!
 

SteveP29

Member
Joined
23 Apr 2011
Messages
1,005
Location
Chester le Street/ Edinburgh
Wouldn't the correct term for the form be *complete* but we shorten it?

We catch a train, we take a taxi. We neither catch nor take....

Stepkids always say thgey're going to take a shower.

I always ask 'where are you taking it?' as my education in that was to say, I'm going for a shower, or I'm having a shower

Scone - do you say it to rhyme with cone or to rhyme with gone? :)

Gone

Many years ago at work, some drawings were printed out and signed by someone senior in the evening. Then, someone spotted an error or needed to change something. Either way, the relevant drawings were reprinted and left for the senior person to sign in the morning with a note "please resign here". Obviously, the intention was "please sign the drawings again" but the word resign had other connotations!

Shouldn't resign have had a hyphen in it to make it re- sign?
 

krus_aragon

Established Member
Joined
10 Jun 2009
Messages
6,042
Location
North Wales
Stepkids always say thgey're going to take a shower.

I always ask 'where are you taking it?' as my education in that was to say, I'm going for a shower, or I'm having a shower
My father, as a teacher, was often asked "can I borrow some glue?" He'd typically respond "sure, as long as you put it back in the pot afterward."
 

Cowley

Forum Staff
Staff Member
Global Moderator
Joined
15 Apr 2016
Messages
15,688
Location
Devon
My father, as a teacher, was often asked "can I borrow some glue?" He'd typically respond "sure, as long as you put it back in the pot afterward."
Reminds me of the time I said to a rather posh tweedy jacketed red trousered chap in Salisbury “You wouldn’t know the way to railway station would you?”*
He replied “Well would I, or wouldn’t I!?”

As I walked away having administered an atomic wedgie I did think that maybe he had a point.

*Even now I’m thinking that I’ve probably made a mistake with where I’ve placed things like my “ and ? etc.
 

DaleCooper

Established Member
Joined
2 Mar 2015
Messages
3,507
Location
Mulholland Drive
Reminds me of the time I said to a rather posh tweedy jacketed red trousered chap in Salisbury “You wouldn’t know the way to railway station would you?”*
He replied “Well would I, or wouldn’t I!?”

As I walked away having administered an atomic wedgie I did think that maybe he had a point.

*Even now I’m thinking that I’ve probably made a mistake with where I’ve placed things like my “ and ? etc.

Your punctuation looks fine to me, apart from the unnecessary comma.
 

Howardh

Established Member
Joined
17 May 2011
Messages
8,120
And I've started a sentence with "and"... (twice) ;)
I think that's legal now, isn't it??
Dunno who decides these things, probably the makers of the Oxford dictionary. Wonder if any words get removed from it over the years and why?? I'd love to bring a few out-of-use words back to life?
 

krus_aragon

Established Member
Joined
10 Jun 2009
Messages
6,042
Location
North Wales
I think that's legal now, isn't it??
Dunno who decides these things, probably the makers of the Oxford dictionary.
Nope. The Oxford English Dictionary is descriptive (it notes how other people use the langauge) rather than prescriptive (creating the rules of how people should use the language). There's no such body (like the Académie Francaise) for English.
 

DaleCooper

Established Member
Joined
2 Mar 2015
Messages
3,507
Location
Mulholland Drive
I think it is actually grammatically correct in some circumstances - not nearly as many as it’s used for though.

Songwriters and poets are allowed to get away with it.

Walk Away Renée
And when I see the sign that points one way
The lot we used to pass by every day
Just walk away Renee
You won't see me follow you back home
The empty sidewalks on my block are not the same
You're not to blame

Jerusalem
And did those feet in ancient time,
Walk upon England's mountains green?
And was the holy lamb of god
On England's pleasant pastures seen?
 

Lucan

Established Member
Joined
21 Feb 2018
Messages
1,211
Location
Wales
"It is more than my job's worth to [eg] let you ride without buying a ticket."
What is really meant is that it is less than the job is worth. Ie, keeping the job is more valuable than someone getting a free ride.
 

Cowley

Forum Staff
Staff Member
Global Moderator
Joined
15 Apr 2016
Messages
15,688
Location
Devon
Does anyone know why ‘Monger’ is only used before - Iron/Fish/cheese etc?
Not tickets/beer or manure?
It’s always seemed like a strange hang up to me.
 

TRAX

Established Member
Joined
2 Dec 2015
Messages
1,648
Location
France
Sat here dying a slow death from man-flu, popped into the chemist and asked "have you anything for a heavy cold?" In other languages you would ask for something *against* what you have, to make it go away, not give you it! Also I get an annual jab *for* flu.
Any other examples?
It’s the same in French, although saying "against" is also correct but not necessarily used more.

Also:E0315ADF-4565-4A03-B6D5-8B65A591A721.jpeg
 

Calthrop

Established Member
Joined
6 Dec 2015
Messages
3,297
Does anyone know why ‘Monger’ is only used before - Iron/Fish/cheese etc?
Not tickets/beer or manure?
It’s always seemed like a strange hang up to me.

Interesting thought -- I've never seen it that way be fore. Of course, one can (semi)-humorously coin "monger" words ad lib.

There's a very funny little book called How To Be An Alien, by one George Mikes -- a Hungarian refugee in Britain in the World War II era. Published shortly after that war, it's a humorous "guide" for other expatriates, to the oddities of British life. In the section on the strangeness of the English language, the author muses briefly on the "monger" thing -- to the effect of, "A fishmonger mongs fish. The ironmonger and the warmonger do the same with iron and war. They all mong them."
 

Howardh

Established Member
Joined
17 May 2011
Messages
8,120
I'm on my PC now. Well, no I'm not, I'm sat in front of it, if I were on it it would break!!
 

Busaholic

Veteran Member
Joined
7 Jun 2014
Messages
14,029
Either that, or he'd arrest you!
I have a friend who works as a supermarket cashier. She always refers to her relief cashier 'jumping on the till' and I've heard the phrase being used in other supermarkets too, often shortened to 'will you jump on for me please?' My friend is not a lightweight, and any jumping years she had are well behind her at age 71.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top