h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I hate the phrase 'significant other', what's wrong with saying 'boyfriend' or 'girlfriend'?

I hate 'partner'. Eugh.

Oooooooh yes, Guru Rogan Josh, I'll join you in that! I also *HATE* that song with a passion after it was used non-stop in all the sale adverts over Christmas.

Reddyfreddy, did baiting your breath work?

Doh, slow post there .

A friend of mine once walked out of a furniture store after refusing to sign a finance/deposit agreement because it said "partner" rather than "wife or husband" on the countersignature section. He then ranted at the salesman that he was married, proud to be married, and he determined to call his wife by that title rather than the PC wishy-washy term of partner.

>> Saying 'one pence piece' when 'pence' is the plural. <<

There is a reason for that. When the decimilisation took place in the 1960s and both old and new money was in circulation at the same time. Pence was adopted to differentiate between the old penny and the new pence. Pence was used for both plural and singular when talking about then new currency. Penny and Pennies when talking about the old currency. Pences just didn't sound right. Although old pennies no longer exist, the different word has stuck.

Donald

Why does the coin say 'one penny' then?

Because that is written English and it can been to be different than the old currency. We are talking about spoken English where the correct meaning has to be conveyed by the spoken word with no visual clues at all.

Donald

I wasn't in the country then so can't state from memory, but maybe it was adopted in spoken English? To differentiate?

"I also *HATE* that song with a passion after it was used non-stop in all the sale adverts over Christmas."

I think my ewif dreaded that advert coming on because it made me moan so much. I hate companies that say they have 'crazy' prices. Are we really supposed to think they've gone a little bit mad and are offering crazy prices? What businessman offers crazy prices? Eventually I wanted to go in the furniture shop and slash their sofas. As the security men dragged me away I'd say "hey, I'm crazy too!".

Decimalisation wasn't until 1971.

Quoted from A2204146:
"Everything was "new pence" and people, in their confusion, slowly slid into calling a new penny a new pence."

I don't like 'how's tricks' I'm not a b magician and I don't have a pet with that name

1971 was when the old currency ceased to be legal tender. The 15 February, known as D-Day. Both currencies were in circulation side by side for some years prior to that. The first decimal coins were issued in 1968. Believe me, I was there and there were lots of room for confusion.

http://www.tclayton.demon.co.uk/dec.html

Donald

I still maintain my penny-pence annoyance, the confusion explanation seems far more likely to me than 'pence' being the official singular term.

So there.

Overheard today...

"He were sat at the keyboard, and I were sat there looking at him..."

<> (Mr Dreadful)

Well, my boyfriend is 52 years old so using that word sounds a bit stupid to me in my situation. Not as bad as 'significant other', mind you. And 'partner' sounds like a business associate. Odd that a better term hasn't been thought of yet.

az

all sounds a bit high brow. I think language is an abstract concept, therefore there is no right or wrong, or wright and rong. Please correct any grammmatical errors.

Being an American, and a Texan at that, I'm no authority on British pronunciation, but personally I would have a great deal of difficulty in distinguishing 'could of' from 'could've' in speech, and suspect that this is the root of the problem. Many people today simply don't read, and get all their language by ear. One is as good as the other to them.

I have two pet bugaboos. One is the inability of many people--including those who should know better--to identify the subject of a sentence, and instead make the verb agree with the nearest noun. The other is the hideous but almost universal 'My parents came to visit my wife and I'. How can they justify this? They wouldn't say 'My parents came to visit I'.

QUOTE Mr Dreadful: "I hate the phrase 'significant other', what's wrong with saying 'boyfriend' or 'girlfriend'?"

Well, our relationship defies all classification. Seriously, I have no idea what we are except that we probably wouldn't be able to live without each other.