Are, but I don’t think the contraction used is wrong. It’s at least universal in spoken English, and isn’t objectively wrong, unlike Americanisms like “I could care less”, or that widely used incorrect prefix, irre-somethingorother? I can’t bring to the front of my Sunday morning mind.
Bloke in Wales
By “fairer tax” I presume they don’t mean lower.
So wrong on both counts.
Tim Worstall
A mate is a sub on that newspaper. And ‘ee says it’s wrong and will be got at.
PF
“It’s at least universal in spoken English”
About 30-40 years ago from memory? Prior to that, it sounded as wrong as “I is”. Still does to me, but – its progress, innit.
Steve
Tbere are Net Zero routes to growth.
Bloke in the Fourth Reich
PF, languages evolve. If they didn’t, you’d still be speaking King James English. Doubtleſs ſome contemporarieſ complained about þe moderne, progreſsive, proſe choſen for þat book.
John B
The correct spoken contraction is there’re, but seldom used in writing – the incorrect contraction is used instead.
English (1950s/60s) lessons: we were taught contractions must not be used in writing except for quoted speech, or poems.
Peter MacFarlane
“…you’d still be speaking King James English…”
As I remember hearing every Sunday, from birth to whenever it was that the Church of England lost the plot.
What we have now is what my dear old dad used to call “DHS English”. No wonder nobody bothers to go any more.
/grumpyoldgitrant
Bongo
Even ‘route’ sounds wrong.
E.g.
There are two ways to Northern Ireland, boat or flight.
NCL-BFS and Cairnryan-Larne are the routes.
Peace, easy taxes, security and justice are ways to prosperity.
Abolishing SDLT, staying out of foreign wars and building more prisons are examples of routes.
Imv of course.
PF
4th Reich
Or worse still, some form of German. 🙂
BraveFart
Incorrect English grammar really greats, ya get me blood?
PJF
– its progress, innit.
That’s a shamefully incorrect correct use of “innit” for “progress”.
Proper contemporary use should be as in:
“We iz gonna rob da store, innit.”
bloke in spain
I presume “demographer” is another imaginary talent to come out of your “world leading” university system?
As for the three future options quoted in the piece, what about 4) increased individual productivity by a declining population (thanx to severely curtailed immigration) leading to vast increases in personal wealth & happiness. That’s contrary to the current situation, where increasing individual productivity is rewarded with higher taxes & the benefits ending up we know where.
jgh
Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan achieved amazing levels of prosperity through staggeringly huge amounts of immigration…… oh wait.
Grikath
PF, not german, but germanic… And it’d be a flavour of celtic to begin with, not germanic.
Not even going into the rabbit-hole that a very significant part of english is just french pronounced wrong…. 😛
Tractor Gent
Grikath: depends which entry in Roget you use. As a native speaker I never really noticed the richness of synonymity in English until later life and a better exposure to other languages. It was just how to use the language from experience, both writing and speech. I suppose that’s for what we should most thank Guillaume le Bâtard.
As an example, watching Swedish crime dramas on TV they’ll say ‘bra’ and the subtitles will be good, great, fine, etc depending on the exact context.
Anon
@jgh
To be fair Singapore is a high immigration society. But they were prepared to be more ruthless at differentiating “high value” migrants they wanted to nab, and allowed to settle down properly with family, versus “other” migrants to come and do more menial work, who often have to live in dormitories out of the way, and aren’t allowed to stick around all that long.
You get that to some extent in the UK with fruit-pickers etc but Singapore take it much further.
Comments are closed.
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If you can spare a few pounds you can donate to our fundraising campaign below. All donations are greatly appreciated and go towards our server, security and software costs. 25,000 people per day read our site and every penny goes towards our fight for free and fair journalism. We don’t take a wage and do what we do because we enjoy it and hope our readers enjoy it too.
Are, but I don’t think the contraction used is wrong. It’s at least universal in spoken English, and isn’t objectively wrong, unlike Americanisms like “I could care less”, or that widely used incorrect prefix, irre-somethingorother? I can’t bring to the front of my Sunday morning mind.
By “fairer tax” I presume they don’t mean lower.
So wrong on both counts.
A mate is a sub on that newspaper. And ‘ee says it’s wrong and will be got at.
“It’s at least universal in spoken English”
About 30-40 years ago from memory? Prior to that, it sounded as wrong as “I is”. Still does to me, but – its progress, innit.
Tbere are Net Zero routes to growth.
PF, languages evolve. If they didn’t, you’d still be speaking King James English. Doubtleſs ſome contemporarieſ complained about þe moderne, progreſsive, proſe choſen for þat book.
The correct spoken contraction is there’re, but seldom used in writing – the incorrect contraction is used instead.
English (1950s/60s) lessons: we were taught contractions must not be used in writing except for quoted speech, or poems.
“…you’d still be speaking King James English…”
As I remember hearing every Sunday, from birth to whenever it was that the Church of England lost the plot.
What we have now is what my dear old dad used to call “DHS English”. No wonder nobody bothers to go any more.
/grumpyoldgitrant
Even ‘route’ sounds wrong.
E.g.
There are two ways to Northern Ireland, boat or flight.
NCL-BFS and Cairnryan-Larne are the routes.
Peace, easy taxes, security and justice are ways to prosperity.
Abolishing SDLT, staying out of foreign wars and building more prisons are examples of routes.
Imv of course.
4th Reich
Or worse still, some form of German. 🙂
Incorrect English grammar really greats, ya get me blood?
– its progress, innit.
That’s a shamefully incorrect correct use of “innit” for “progress”.
Proper contemporary use should be as in:
“We iz gonna rob da store, innit.”
I presume “demographer” is another imaginary talent to come out of your “world leading” university system?
As for the three future options quoted in the piece, what about 4) increased individual productivity by a declining population (thanx to severely curtailed immigration) leading to vast increases in personal wealth & happiness. That’s contrary to the current situation, where increasing individual productivity is rewarded with higher taxes & the benefits ending up we know where.
Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan achieved amazing levels of prosperity through staggeringly huge amounts of immigration…… oh wait.
PF, not german, but germanic… And it’d be a flavour of celtic to begin with, not germanic.
Not even going into the rabbit-hole that a very significant part of english is just french pronounced wrong…. 😛
Grikath: depends which entry in Roget you use. As a native speaker I never really noticed the richness of synonymity in English until later life and a better exposure to other languages. It was just how to use the language from experience, both writing and speech. I suppose that’s for what we should most thank Guillaume le Bâtard.
As an example, watching Swedish crime dramas on TV they’ll say ‘bra’ and the subtitles will be good, great, fine, etc depending on the exact context.
@jgh
To be fair Singapore is a high immigration society. But they were prepared to be more ruthless at differentiating “high value” migrants they wanted to nab, and allowed to settle down properly with family, versus “other” migrants to come and do more menial work, who often have to live in dormitories out of the way, and aren’t allowed to stick around all that long.
You get that to some extent in the UK with fruit-pickers etc but Singapore take it much further.
Comments are closed.