This post is especially for my good friend, mentor and fellow pedant, Ann Hawkins, who claimed on Twitter recently that she would fire anyone who dares to use reflexive pronouns incorrectly. Reflexive pronouns are those words with ‘self’ in them. Myself. Yourself. Himself. Herself. Themselves. Think of reflex angles: they’re the ones that go back [...]
I read recently on Facebook that one of my friends had encountered ‘hoards’ of Japanese tourists during her visit to Cambridge. Unless the city has started hoarding its tourists in cupboards and refusing to allow them to leave, I would imagine my friend was referring to ‘hordes’. It’s not a surprising error. Indeed, it’s not [...]
I consider myself to be more of a ‘descriptivist’ language lover than a downright pedant, but still I remember my horror when, as a trainee teacher many years ago, I was informed that I could not tell children that incorrect English use was ‘wrong’. I had to use the term ‘non-standard’. There is a not-so-subtle [...]
I’m having a moan. I know, I know – most unlike me. Anyway, contrary to what many of my followers think, I don’t spend my days trawling websites and social media platforms looking for written English errors (honest!) but I have noticed a growing number, particularly from businesses. As I often say, I’m not being [...]