Return of the Rant
It's been a while since I did a proper "rant" post. The reposted ones from a couple of weeks back don't count. So here's one: Improper use of "more".
Now I know my grammar (and spelling too really) isn't up there with the BBC newscasters of old, but something about the increasing misuse of "more" seems to just jarr.
Things like "I feel more better now" More better?! Well I'm pleased for you, really. I'm sure just "better" would have been enough though.
"More better" is a common one I seem to hear a lot. But the other day I saw on the news (the BBC news of all places, once the high pinnacle of the Queens English) an officer in the armed response unit trying to reassure someone that their job was "to make people feel more safer". "Safer" is a relative term in its own right, it means, "to feel more safe" You don't need the addition of "more" there to get the meaning across. Am I being unreasonable to expect a police officer to know the proper use of words like "more" and "safer", and the fact that they don't need to be used in conjunction to indicate an increased level of security? Say “to make people feel more safe” or “to make people feel safer” NOT “to make people feel more safer” because it just makes me twitch (although that could be the caffeine).
Other examples I seem to remember (or maybe just imagine I remember, it's always hard to tell which) include "more richer" (not, I hasten to add, the quality of being more like Lint, although on his Actuary salary he probably is "more richer" than I am.) "More quicker" and a number of other 'er' type ... whatever they are (I'm sure there must be a grammatical term for them, besides the obvious adverb and adjective classification, but I’ve no idea what it is)
Another interesting point... MS Word's green squiggle system (which technically highlights grammatical errors, but in my experience seems to just highlight random words, and all the instances of "which") doesn't appear to see anything wrong with all the above "more" sentences. I guess they need a more better grammar checker. It didn’t like that last one though.
Now I know my grammar (and spelling too really) isn't up there with the BBC newscasters of old, but something about the increasing misuse of "more" seems to just jarr.
Things like "I feel more better now" More better?! Well I'm pleased for you, really. I'm sure just "better" would have been enough though.
"More better" is a common one I seem to hear a lot. But the other day I saw on the news (the BBC news of all places, once the high pinnacle of the Queens English) an officer in the armed response unit trying to reassure someone that their job was "to make people feel more safer". "Safer" is a relative term in its own right, it means, "to feel more safe" You don't need the addition of "more" there to get the meaning across. Am I being unreasonable to expect a police officer to know the proper use of words like "more" and "safer", and the fact that they don't need to be used in conjunction to indicate an increased level of security? Say “to make people feel more safe” or “to make people feel safer” NOT “to make people feel more safer” because it just makes me twitch (although that could be the caffeine).
Other examples I seem to remember (or maybe just imagine I remember, it's always hard to tell which) include "more richer" (not, I hasten to add, the quality of being more like Lint, although on his Actuary salary he probably is "more richer" than I am.) "More quicker" and a number of other 'er' type ... whatever they are (I'm sure there must be a grammatical term for them, besides the obvious adverb and adjective classification, but I’ve no idea what it is)
Another interesting point... MS Word's green squiggle system (which technically highlights grammatical errors, but in my experience seems to just highlight random words, and all the instances of "which") doesn't appear to see anything wrong with all the above "more" sentences. I guess they need a more better grammar checker. It didn’t like that last one though.
posted by Sarum at
Thursday, September 09, 2004
7 Comments:
I have to agree. In fact, the news in general would be "more better" (or even "more betterer" according to that silly mr V.Kay) if they got a "more better" grip on the english language. They use the wrong words and the wrong phrases all the time. Then people wonder why the children of today can't speak properly. Then they go adding all these stupid meanings of words (like "dogging") to the dictionary. WHY??? OK, real new words should be allowed, (like technophobe and technophile) but dogging and bling? NO!
Please don't get more angrier.
*hits lint with something heavy*
You've managed to make your own grammatical error in this post: "Queens English" (sic) should in fact be "Queen's English" because it is her language.
bleh... *hides*
And I'll not mention the spelling of jarr...
Some grammar comedy I've noticed recently :
"We now do engraving of dogs and cats" (on locksmith's window in Gillygate - I hope they missed out an S)
"Human Hair Extentions" (oddly enough, in a hairdresser's also in Gillygate - perhaps it's compulsory to have poor-quality signs up in that street)
"Market share increased against our key competitor's" (one of our very own internal brand advertising posters)
Lucky us, only having a single competitor!
I'd like to draw everyones attention to paragraph two. My own inability with the subtleties of spelling and grammar is well documented, however, this doesn't mean I'm not able to find other people with similar difficulties annoying.
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