Sunday, December 30, 2012

Grammarly - Don's Detestations


I was interested in your 'Grammarly' list of solecisms. Here are some of mine from my book 'Milestones':

Detestations

1.

How I detest the silly fool
Who calls the noble street 'Pawl Mawl'
But I'll make him a lifelong pal
Who, unaffected, says 'Pal Mal'.

2.

Some people in a verbal mix
Will call this star * an asterix
Far better not to take the risk
But properly say 'asterisk'.

3.

'Crèche' said 'craysh' just blows my mind I'd like to kick the sayer's behind While shouting 'Crèche is 'cresh' you fool Were you taught nothing at your school?'

4.

Bought for brought and brought for bought Is trotted out with little thought By teachers and TV presenters, Police, MPs and riot fomenters Proselytisers, red wine swillers - They're all of them just language killers!

5.

Singular, data is datum
So I hand you this stern ultimatum -
If you didn't do Latin at school
You shouldn't use Latin at all.


Don Donovan. Writer & Illustrator.

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