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Annoying phrases

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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    grace wrote: »
    What, like ness-ess-ree? I find it difficult to get my tongue round that!

    :yes: Yeah it just annoys me!
    Xx
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    JavaKrypt wrote: »
    It's also evil and wrong what organizations like PETA do.

    Eating meat is natural, yes the way we go about it isn't, but how to expect to feed billions of people meat? Animal cruelty will always happen - but not on the scale PETA etc make it out to be. Shit what about human cruelty? Don't see many people fighting for that these days.

    If you want to debate this then I'll happily debate it in PM's with you, but not on the boards. I ended up leaving last time.
    Xx
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    This is another one that gets me. With all this election stuff going on at the moment, I've seen the following phrase "if I were Prime Minister" written a few times. Why is it were? Were is plural and Prime Minister is singular, so shouldn't it be "if I was Prime Minister"?

    - He was (singular)
    - They were (plural)
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    It's a different tense. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subjunctive_mood

    It really annoys me when people get this wrong.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I'm pretty sure that was/were in the context of Prime Minister wasn't covered back in my GCSE English days but cheers for the link Katralla :-) We certainly didn't cover any subjunctives or indicatives and today is the first day I've heard of them and I'm aged 31! At least I don't mix its and it's up :-D
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I think we did it in Latin, rather than English.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Yeah I only learnt about the subjunctive in Portuguese. If I were... then I would...
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    katralla wrote: »
    I think we did it in Latin, rather than English.

    This is why everyone should learn at least some Latin, or classical greek. They teach you far better grammer than English lessons ever do.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Monserrat wrote: »
    I'm pretty sure that was/were in the context of Prime Minister wasn't covered back in my GCSE English days but cheers for the link Katralla :-) We certainly didn't cover any subjunctives or indicatives and today is the first day I've heard of them and I'm aged 31! At least I don't mix its and it's up :-D

    One of the problems of English teaching in schools, and this is confirmed by the girl I'm currently seeing who is herself an English teacher, is that we're not taught English grammar in school.

    Katralla is absolutely right about the subjunctive which is frequently misused in English - another one of my bugbears.

    The basic premise of a statement such as "If I were Prime Minister", is that you're not the Prime Minister. Therefore, it's a hypothetical situation.

    Thus, if you make a hypothetical statement, followed by a present conditional statement; "If I were Prime Minister, I would do xyz", grammatical rules stipulate that you use the perfective subjunctive; "were", rather than "was".

    The sequence of present conditional -> perfective subjunctive and all that is in Latin and Greek. Yet another reason to learn them - so you can speak English properly.

    Now, all together:

    Amo, amas, amat, amamus, amatis, amant.

    Write it out one hundred times.

    [/grammar lesson]
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Thanks a lot Thunderstruck. My spellings are ok but I have always lacked on the grammar side, so this is much appreciated :-)
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    On annoying phrases, I hate when people state "It's just the Internet" - it's also real people on it.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    skakitty wrote: »
    I seem to have picked up 'sweet' and 'sweet as' and am currently annoying my friends with said phrases :p

    That made me laugh. I wonder why you've picked up those phrases :p
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    english grammar in schools is really really lacking. Im really noticing this when I learn french, and when they explain to me what the equivalent english grammar is, I just dont get it.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    at Key Stage 3 they only teach you to differentiate between past present and future, which isn't really good enough, IMO. Things like this just make me more tempted to homeschool...
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