English Chess Forum

The BBC made a bit of a thing out of it, much more so than his wife being caught in the act of dodging train fares on her way to court in Luton of all places.

John McKenna wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 08, 2021 3:54 pm

Prime Minister Tony Blair

Was he right or wrong with his Brexit pronunciation?

Not about right or wrong. Never was and never can be given that RP constitutes less than 3% of spoken English.

I return to the first item mentioned in the Pedant thread: misuse of lie, lay, lying, laying, laid, lain.

As though the royals aren't in enough trouble already, here is a remark from 'a female royal' to Meghan: 'Why don't you lay low for a while...?'

LIE, please!

Paul Habershon wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 09, 2021 12:43 pm

As though the royals aren't in enough trouble already, here is a remark from 'a female royal' to Meghan: 'Why don't you lay low for a while...?'

Allegedly. The grammatical error be sufficient to show that the remark is invented.

NickFaulks wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 09, 2021 4:49 pm

The grammatical error be sufficient to show that the remark is invented.

I presume that you meant either "The grammatical error my be sufficient ..." or "The grammatical error is sufficient ...".

Well, this is the "Pedants United" thread.

NickFaulks wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 09, 2021 4:49 pm

Paul Habershon wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 09, 2021 12:43 pm

As though the royals aren't in enough trouble already, here is a remark from 'a female royal' to Meghan: 'Why don't you lay low for a while...?'

Allegedly. The grammatical error be sufficient to show that the remark is invented.

Nick, it's just occurred to me that the remark may have been translated into American by Meghan. I don't know how the Americans view 'lie' and 'lay'.

In passing, perhaps the 'racist' royal remark about the skin colour of the unborn baby could be construed as 'I wonder if the baby will have Meghan's beautiful dark skin', much as it's usual to speculate about whether a baby may have its mother's lovely eyes (e.g.).

What 'racist' royal remark - 61 word statement.
American speculation.
Who is the 'a female royal'?

Paul Habershon wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 09, 2021 12:43 pm

I return to the first item mentioned in the Pedant thread: misuse of lie, lay, lying, laying, laid, lain.

As though the royals aren't in enough trouble already, here is a remark from 'a female royal' to Meghan: 'Why don't you lay low for a while...?'

LIE, please!

I think you might be stretching things a little there Paul. Although what you are saying can clearly be applied to written English, or so I think, I am not so sure it can be with oral/spoken English. If the sentiment expressed exists in the form of an utterance, as is sometimes the case, applying grammatical rules/points/patterns is very tricky because utterances don't follow the same linguistic conventions, particularly that of the subject-verb-object relationship/order.

However, to contradict myself I think whatshername may have slipped up using back shift incorrectly. Perhaps she omitted 'they said...' accidentally?

What about the use of 'get' and 'be'? I just heard GM David Howell say 'he could get checked by the bishop' which to me sounds like an informal way of saying 'he could be/have been checked by the bishop'.

Greetings to all on Holy Saturday.

I am sure that all contributors to this thread will know that Easter Saturday is next Saturday.

From an email which I have just sent to the members of the SCCU Executive Committee:

"It may just be I, as I am notoriously pedantic, ..."

David Sedgwick wrote: ↑

Sat Apr 03, 2021 12:44 pm

From an email which I have just sent to the members of the SCCU Executive Committee:

"It may just be I, as I am notoriously pedantic, ..."

Makes me sorry not to be on the circulation list.

Reminds me of an extract from one of the Billy Bunter stories,

"Bunter, who stole those sausages?"
"It wasn't me, sir."
"It was not I, Bunter."
"I never said it was!"
(Laughter from the class.)

This is from memory and other foodstuffs are available.

"It may just be I, as I am notoriously pedantic, ..."

I wonder if anyone will dislike the split infinitive? If you change the word order, it gets worse.

Oh, all right, "order of the words", or I will be accused of using an adjectival noun.