Comments on: Muphry’s Law disproved

By: gene berman

gene berman — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:03:37 +0000

I did a double-take: the piece is so poorly written I almost thought it had been deliberately made so.
DocBud mentions some but there are others; the whole thing could probably have been said in half the words without loss of any meaning.

By: AntiCitizenOne

AntiCitizenOne — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:09:37 +0000

baclk sawn?

By: dearieme

dearieme — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 11:24:32 +0000

I agree, DocBud, that prepositionphobia uglifies English.

But “It is a poorly written piece, the repetition of “Dr Lamb said” grates” might be improved by relacing the comma by a semi-colon, don’t you think?

By: DocBud

DocBud — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:17:03 +0000

I don’t think my tongue could say learned in that context, I’d always say learnt. I’d only say learned as in “learned scholar” which is, of course, pronounced differently. My background is working class, grammar school educated from Surrey.

By: DocBud

DocBud — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:07:55 +0000

It is a poorly written piece, the repetition of “Dr Lamb said” grates.

If it was put before me for editing I’d be suggesting a few changes. Arguable errors do seem in short supply, but possibilities are:

“If they go and get jobs their employer will not hesitate to correct them.” I suggest “employers”.

“There are reports every year of patients being killed because doctors confuse the drug names.” I suggest the “names of drug.”

By: dearieme

dearieme — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 09:54:45 +0000

On mature reflection: “learnt” is fine in Scots English, probably unusual in formal American English, and in standard English English, insofar as there is such a beastie, it’s … I dunno, I’ll let the Portugeezer decide.

By: dearieme

dearieme — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 09:20:24 +0000

On reflection, yes it is. I think.

By: dearieme

dearieme — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 09:15:39 +0000

“He learnt to spell relatively late” – I learned early, but years of reading pore spelling and hearing bad grammer is taking it’s tole, like, innit.

Come to think of it, “learnt” is kosher in that quotation, is it?

By: dearieme

dearieme — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 09:08:42 +0000

“corrollary”: v droll, Worstall.