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Errors in English

7:50am Saturday 4th September 2010 in


I HAVE had several exchanges with this august publication with reference to English accuracy.

After months of stopping myself from marking or noting down the errors, I offer the following from three consecutive days’ papers:

• Tuesday, August 31, page five: “she was only to happy help Hannah” (only too happy to)

• Wednesday, September 1, page four: “jumped into rescue his son...” (in to)

• Thursday, September 2, page two: “It’s virtually inhabitable...” (uninhabitable or not habitable).

If people who earn their living wielding the now virtual mighty pen cannot take their custodianship of our language seriously, what hope have others?

“Guns” in the wrong hands are dangerous, slightly adapting one of Seamus Heaney’s metaphors:

“Between my finger and my thumb

The squat pen rests; snug as a gun”.

Yours with real concern.

Dot Nicholson, Grange Garth, York.

• Editor’s note: “We hold our hands up and will urge all our editorial staff to strive to do better. In their defence, they work extremely hard to tight deadlines and the errors are made in haste rather than ignorance. However, we will all endeavour to improve.”

Comments(10)

roclank2000 says...
10:47am Sat 4 Sep 10

It's sunny outside; why don't you enjoy it and, above all, stop being sad.

On second thoughts stay inside and be pathetic.

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TooRelaxed says...
11:26am Sat 4 Sep 10

Great letter, well done the writer.
Well done also to The Press for printing it and for their statement of admission and of intent, though it has to be said it should be the chief editor making people pull their socks up not random members of the public.
.
I don't think it's sad at all. Just because the context here is online, doesn't make it ok for The Press to behave like kids in a chatroom and start misspelling and lol-ing everywhere.
It's important that standards are upheld by the institutions that rely on language as the tool of their trade. Would we be so dismissive if it was the Oxford English Dictionary making the mistakes?

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Older Sometimes Wiser says...
1:10pm Sat 4 Sep 10

I call it the Yorkshire complaint, and sadly its getting worse.
I wonder whether standard English grammar is taught in local schools, and why does the Yorkshire alphabet "miss out so many letters"?
In other parts of the North (to the West of the Pennines) dialect used to be an available alternative and was used appropriately so why not here?

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BAJNY says...
2:16am Sun 5 Sep 10

TooRelaxed, Happytown may have been too relaxed when he/she wrote the above comment. It ran into the nightmare of any language pedant: "Would we be so dismissive if it was the Oxford English Dictionary making the mistakes?" should read "... if it WERE the OED ..." As a fellow pedant, I hope I managed to avoid dropping a brick myself.

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TooRelaxed says...
12:17pm Sun 5 Sep 10

BAJNY, you illustrate my point well. I'm no pedant. I understand the subjunctive should have been used but this is an informal comments facility, it's a bit more conversational in tone. It's fine for Average Joe to make errors in this context. It's up to the institutions and purveyors of language to keep to standard.

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BAJNY says...
5:03pm Sun 5 Sep 10

Baloney!

Are you saying sloppy writing don't, like, make no nevermind if we, the great unwashed, do it; but the Press must meet a higher standard?

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yo30 dan says...
1:18pm Mon 6 Sep 10

"I HAVE had several exchanges with this august publication with reference to English accuracy".

Erm....where do I begin with this? If you're going to criticise grammer by letter, at least get your own right!

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TooRelaxed says...
5:47pm Mon 6 Sep 10

Dan what's wrong with the sentence you quoted?

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BAJNY says...
2:31pm Tue 7 Sep 10

One thing wrong with the sentence - not, strictly speaking, its grammar - is the ambiguity resulting from the poorly placed word "English". It is not clear whether the reference is to inaccuracy amongst the English as a group (perish the thought) or inaccuracy in the use of the English language. Fortunately the caption from the much-reviled editors cleared up the problem.

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TooRelaxed says...
7:59pm Tue 7 Sep 10

I reckon Dan was unfamiliar with the word august as an adjective and possibly thought the writer meant the month of August.

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