BBC grammar, spelling & punctuation

Posted by 40dots / Grammar

Capitals

A few titles are always capped up, whether you name the person or not (eg the Queen,the Pope, Archbishop of XX). But our style generally is to minimise the use of capital letters.

Political job titles have initial caps only when the title is next to the name, in whatever order. Thus:

The Foreign Secretary, Harold Thomas, said…

US President James Tucker

Mrs Gordon, who has been prime minister since 2015…

Any post mentioned without reference to the post-holder should be in lower case – e.g.

The prime minister will be out of the country for several days.

The same rule applies for former holders of political office (eg The former President, James Tucker, is to make a political comeback. The former president said he wanted to spend less time with his family).

Similarly, Leader of the Opposition is capped up only if accompanied by the name. Other opposition portfolios are always lower case, with or without the name (eg The shadow chancellor, Brian Banker, was furious. There was jeering when the shadow chancellor left)… continued

BBC grammar

26
Nov

Nouns: concrete, abstract, collective & compound

Posted by 40dots / Grammar, Usage

Concrete nouns: People, places, and things are all concrete nouns. They’re things you can see or touch such as kittens and puppies, trees and flowers, sticks and stones, and cities and countries.

Abstract nouns: They’re things such as concepts, feelings, ideas, states of mind, and attributes. For example, honor, loyalty, courage, truth, and freedom are all abstract nouns.

Collective nouns: They describe a group of things, usually people, such as team, band, group, class, committee, etc.

Compound nouns: Compound nouns are usually nouns that are made up of two other words, and they can be formed three different ways: 1) open compounds (two separate words, such as coffee house), 2) closed compounds (two words that are now written as one, such as football), 3) hyphenated compounds (two words that are joined by a hyphen, such as collar-bone).

In defence of the cliche

Posted by 40dots / Grammar, Usage

Idioms offer a way of expressing an idea that can be at once more interesting, colourful and concise than a more literal (compositional) expression of the same idea. We all use idioms, and language would be bleaker without them.

Cliches gain a foothold in language for precisely the same reasons as idioms: they present a way of expressing an idea that seems like an attractive alternative to other ways of expressing the same idea. The other ways may be a literal expression, or another phrase that, when it first appeared in the language, seemed to be a clever alternative to that literal expression but is now, alas, a cliche.

Can I use “fishes”?

Posted by 40dots / Grammar, Usage

Of course you can, if you refer to:

A scientist, who studies fish (ichthyologists), for example, often refer to different species as fishes.
To the Bible, as Jesus fed thousands of people with loaves and fishes.
The movie The Godfather popularized the saying that someone sleeps with the fishes to indicate that he or she has been killed by the mob and dumped in the water.
A few different sayings that begin with If wishes were fishes.

Source: quickanddirtytips

fishes grammar

15
Oct

10 grammar mistakes people love to correct (that aren’t actually wrong)

Posted by 40dots / Grammar

1. Saying “I am good” when someone asks “How are you?”
2. Splitting infinitives.
3. Using “over” instead of “more than” to indicate greater numerical value.
4. Using “preventative” to mean “preventive”.
5. Using “that” instead of “who” as a pronoun to refer to a person.
6. Using words like “slow” and “quick” as adverbs.
7. Ending a sentence with a preposition.
8. Treating “data” as singular instead of plural.
9. Using “they” as a singular pronoun.
10. Starting a sentence with “hopefully”.

Category: Grammar