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Grammar, Spelling and Usage Peeves

 
 
 
bilby said:
It is always a bean can, as it was designed and constructed to contain beans.
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No, it was not. It's a generic thing, designed and constructed to contain way more than Heinz's 57 varieties of whatever. The fact that it once contained beans is mere happenchance. It is neither a can of beans nor a bean can, but we all know what is meant when someone says or writes: "We used an empty can of beans as a scoop", so keep your pedantry under control. I can't do that for you, having more than enough of a struggle to control my own. :p
 
:D ^ ^ ^

Now could you guys discuss the following sentence, in common use in the Carribean when I was there:

"My pockets are full of empty."
Please ignore the bean at the end of Carri, that's another can of beans altogether. Or even of beans all apart.
 
bilby said:
Indeed it can, as you just demonstrated.

It is always a bean can, as it was designed and constructed to contain beans. It is not a can of beans unless it contains beans right now.
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Bilby is correct. The figure may be synecdoche.
 
On top of the usual peeves about "their", "they're" and "there" it drives me mental hearing "He done well to finish the race" and "He would of finished the race in first place". I hear quite a lot of that in sports commentary but also notice it being used in forums.

I pass a car repair shop and their sign always has a mistake in it. For years it read "Oil changes, tune ups and break repair" which I'm guessing is supposed to be brake. Recently they changed their sign and include "insurance claims excepted". I'm assuming that should be "accepted".
 
I avoid Carl's Jr restaurants because I can't make sense of the name.

And I avoid listening to that song where the kid is a legacy to his father rather than from him.
 
The use of 'do' in place of the verb to which you are responding is common in Australian and American English, but to my British raised ears it is a bit strange:

"You have got to see my point, surely?"

"Yes, I do"

Oh, really? You do got to see his point? Or do you mean "Yes I have"?
 
Old Woman in Purple said:
Well, you Brits do things "different to" us, rather than our "different from"... which I understand, but it just sounds wrong! :D
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You have Shakespeare on your side: "This week he hath been heavy, sour, sad, / And much different from the man he was". I use "to", imagining an unsaid "compared" in between the adjective and the preposition, but I am OK with either. There's even a place for "than", though it does jar in many contexts.

The OED describes the issue of which one should follow "different" as a grammatical minefield
 
Hermit said:
Old Woman in Purple said:
Well, you Brits do things "different to" us, rather than our "different from"... which I understand, but it just sounds wrong! :D
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You have Shakespeare on your side: "This week he hath been heavy, sour, sad, / And much different from the man he was". I use "to", imagining an unsaid "compared" in between the adjective and the preposition, but I am OK with either. There's even a place for "than", though it does jar in many contexts.

The OED describes the issue of which one should follow "different" as a grammatical minefield
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Is Oxforddictionaries.com related to the OED? I couldn't find any reference to the OED.
 
Copernicus said:
Hermit said:
Old Woman in Purple said:
Well, you Brits do things "different to" us, rather than our "different from"... which I understand, but it just sounds wrong! :D
Click to expand...
You have Shakespeare on your side: "This week he hath been heavy, sour, sad, / And much different from the man he was". I use "to", imagining an unsaid "compared" in between the adjective and the preposition, but I am OK with either. There's even a place for "than", though it does jar in many contexts.

The OED describes the issue of which one should follow "different" as a grammatical minefield
Click to expand...

Is Oxforddictionaries.com related to the OED? I couldn't find any reference to the OED.
Click to expand...
Yes, it is.
Oxford Dictionaries is part of Oxford University Press (OUP), a department of the University of Oxford.

...

Oxford Dictionaries is proud to publish the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the world’s largest repository of information about the English language. First published in instalments between 1884 and 1928...
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