Children of a fewer god - my new rebellion
 

One of my nails on the blackboard things is when people use the word ‘less’ with countable nouns instead of ‘fewer’.

As in, “there’s less people...”. Since people around here think it’s also ok to say shit like, ‘on accident’, or ‘over top of’ I’ve decided that from now on I’m going to start using fewer for non countable nouns as a way of leveling the playing field.

As in, “that small glass holds fewer liquid than the big one”

Fuck em.

The purpose of language, written or spoken, is to make the recipient understand your message.
Pedantry is silly when you know exactly what they mean.
Much ado about nothing. :p:

Go with the flow and you'll have one thing fewer to worry about.

(oh noes, it's contagious)

Frustrating is when people ...

Irritating is when people ...

Disheartening is when people ...

Aggravating is when people ...

Prophetic is when people ...

Harrassing is when people ...

Onerous is when people ...

Unpleasant is when people ....

Disconcerting is when people ...

Painful is when people ....

Why blame the poor blackboard?

Shots fired!

I would argue it's not the blackboard, it's the nails.

...maybe if there were less of them.

(aha)

Frustrating, irritating, disheartening, aggravating, harassing, onerous, unpleasant, disconcerting, painful is when TW...

...is right and Gravdigr is wrong. Forgot about Henry Ford (II) didn'tja?

FoMoCo would like to. :rolleyes:

Yeah I have a thesaurus but it’s terrible. Not only that it’s also terrible.

Thesaurus, isn't that the kind of Dinosaur Jesus rode?

I want to know if this is going to effect me in anyway? Especially as I don't know where my theosaurus is at, so I will have less words to impact you with.

Damn thesaurus. It could not even come up with another word for 'terrible'.

Let's burn the books. Then only delightful will exist. Antonyms are more pleasant.

Save the world. We need more English Nazis.

Those are the spirit! Less words will have fewer impact. This is what it’s all about.

Exactly. Why should the Germans have all the fun?

Prime Minister's Question Time is on the TV as I type.
I happened to wander through the living room a few minutes ago, as a politician, in the highest of high dudgeon, complained about '500 less police officers'.
I am pleased to say that both my father and I (in even higher dudgeon, were that possible) yelled 'FEWER' at the offender.
Standards are slipping these days.

Y'all may have heard that I've been editing the 25th edition of a major med school book. One would think that the book would be pretty clean, gramatically, after having been reviewed at least 24 times in the previous years.

One would be mistaken.

Of note, "Less people are getting married . . . " :facepalm:

From Merriam-Webster:
In short, it just does not matter. Only thing that matters: is what the author is saying understood? IEEE Spectrum once wrote an article about English Nazis. They misspelled almost every word. That article was easily read and understood. English Nazis failed to censor it.

Only an author choses 'less' or 'few' based only in what he wants to say. He (not an English Nazi) chooses what he thinks best states his point.

Spelling and grammar, in rare cases, is necessary so that one who reads does not see something different from one who writes it. So better spelling, grammar, and punctuation is useful. Punctuation often more important than spelling or grammar.

Most every English teacher I had was enthralled with following the rules; could not bother with concepts such as logical thought. Another example of one entranced by what they were ordered to believe and with contempt for what is really relevant.

They were lesser thinkers. Hopefully they will become fewer.

Wenn du willst, mein fewer.

Oh, it absolutely does matter.

And then the author's editors and proofreaders (you know, the "Grammar Nazis" :eek:) correct his shit to remove ambiguity and improve readability. And to protect his moronic ass from rightful criticism.

https://i.amz.mshcdn.com/ckJbKnrw77t...2_28017578.jpg

Also, "Spelling and grammar ARE necessary . . . " Sheesh.

Happily, there are plenty of people on the planet with a completely different view. It keeps me in beer and skittles.

:crazy:

Final statement: Words MEAN things. Next time you have something to say about Trump's assenine rhetoric, remind yourself of this. WORDS fucking MEAN THINGS. Neither you nor Trump can hide behind "it doesn't matter."

Editors...

Everyone knows exactly what that sign means - even with the missing word "and".

A perfect example of what I posted. Only a lawyer would care. Even the judge would probably throw out any resulting lawsuit. Since only English Nazis care about a missing AND.

Eventually the sign will be changed - for the same reason we also clean water spots from windows. It is nice to do. And it certainly is not necessary.

As an IEEE Spectrum article so accurately demonstrated with every sentence full of errors. It was completely readable; the point glaringly well made.

Clearly this sign is Grandmatical. But there's no period.

Mein fewer?

Rly? Nthng?

That was funnier than funny. I'm gonna larf and larf, I can't wait for you people, I got things to do, people to see, dope to smoke...

Mein fewer. Ya get it don't ya?

:p:

Clearly an grandmatical era.

I laughed, Mr G! Honest, I did! :)

Mein Lesser?

Sieg heil Mein fewer. :rolleyes:

I'm sure multiple people chortled. And if not, you can send them to see myself or someone else.

Well, I know you folks are busy and all...:rolleyes:

Rules rule, even if you are unaware...

Google scanned all the books at their disposal (a shitload) and found out the word "winner" is the winner.

how 'bout "winningest"?

Looking Forward to the musical "South Specific".....

I was, but just got back to this and I laughed until I stopped. when I saw that it was you who wrote it I was not surprised, but gratified that your wit is as clever as ever.

Sam and Janet Evening! You may meet a stranger...

And the seasonal RomCom with Hugh Grant ... "Love Literally".

Shouldn't that chart say 'Winner' and 'Looser'?

I don't think anyone speaks perfect English (apart from The Queen of course *doffs cap*). I like the way people corrupt it sometimes, whether on purpose or not. It can be a part of their personality. If you get too anal about it and correct people all the time that can become tedious. I suppose some are more tolerant than others on this matter. It can also be down to how educated you are as to how much you know about the language. If you skipped a lot of school you're probably not going to know much about split infinitives.

there's a school of thought that to boldly split infinitives is ok in current parlance....

I'm all for playing with language and having fun with corruptions, puns, spoonerisms, intentionally transposing letters and words for humorous intent.

I correct only my children, but occasionally I'll help out a friend so he or she doesn't sound ignant when they don't want to.

Maybe because my parents died in the apostrophe mines, punctuation is a bit of a sore point for me. Grammar, less so.

I tell my kids not to use big words that they don't understand just because they think it makes them sound more photosynthesis; it doesn't.

But especially don't use little words they don't understand, because it's probably a slur and they didn't realize it.

Actually laughed out loud.

I just saw this. And I larfed.

:jig:

With my fucking mouth? They know all the little words, but we follow the principle of, there are no bad words; just inappropriate audiences.

Trump rally?

Total inappropriateness and badness in words, thoughts, and deeds.

I just went back through the whole "Funny/Embarrassing Things They Say" thread, thinking I had already posted this little gem, but apparently I hadn't:

Minifob: [gets two people confused with each other]
Me: No no, that was the boyfriend before this one. She's had more than one boyfriend.
Minifob: [in all earnestness, proud to have made the connection and with no negative connotations] Oh, you mean she's a slut.

Ha!

Absotively. Word play is one of my favorite things, and a HUGE reason why I love this place. You all are so clever, so witty. ;)

^^^PRIME EXAMPLE ^^^ :D

Of course, I earn a living by getting it RIGHT, so I'm scrupulous and highly anal when it comes to my work. On a personal level, I don't always follow the rules when speaking and I don't usually bother to correct others on such matters (written or spoken). *

But in the end, using the right words, punctuation, and grammar are representations of one's self. If you're ok with appearing the fool, that's on you.


* Caveat: If they're online a-hole morons, I'll gleefully rip 'em up.

So she gets it, then...

:p: