Irritating Inaccuracies

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Are there others here who can't walk past a pub called "The Queens Head" without cringing (unless it's a New York pub and is named so to distinguish it from the other pubs called "The Head" in Manhattan and the Bronx, for example)?

I thought I'd start a thread for those nigglingly ungrammatical or illogical phrases that are nonetheless all too common.

"24/7" is my favourite right now. It evaluates to roughly 3.4285. What can it possibly mean to say "I need to have technical support available 3.4285"? If, as evidence suggests, these people are referring to the number of hours per week that they want the technical support to be available, they must be very undemanding customers indeed. Even more so for those who only want it 24/7/356 hours a year, which I can only assume means (24/7)/356 hours, or just over half a minute.

24=hours in the day

7=days in the week

the "/" means "per", it is not a division symbol in this case.

I am also bothered by inaccuracies. The full expression is 24/7/365, not 24/7/356. It is a reference to there being 365 days in the year.

That's another way of interpreting it, but it still would not mean what it is commonly taken to mean. "24 hours per 7 days" would mean 24 hours a week, not 24 hours a day. And "24 hours per week per year" is meaningless, unless it refers to rate of change of hours-per-week over a period of years (analogous to the "per second per second" of acceleration).



I was not actually referring to typos, but to common statements that people intend as they are, but which are illogical. Needless to say I was very careful to avoid making any typos in the above because I knew that somebody would react in the way you did. However, I am mildly dyslexic and did not have an hour to spare,

If I don't dislike the person concerned, I'm fairly patient about inaccuracies, but if I dislike them, I can be pretty vitreolic.

One phrase I love to hate is "put up or shut up" - quite apart from the ethics of defying reasonable objections and concerns in such a glib way, they've got the grammar wrong - what they really mean is that they want you to put up AND shut up.

"pomp and circumstance" - what???? They mean pomp and ceremony don't they?

Yes, I used to mark my little sister's English homework after the teacher had marked it because there were so many things the teacher would let slip like spelling errors and bad grammar.

I hate it when people send me hoax emails that are very obviously not true, but they believe it and send it on to everyone in their address book. Of course you're not going to get poisoned by someone handing you a business card in a petrol station. I occassionaly email them back to her with a link to hoaxslayer which explains why the email isn't true, but she keeps on sending them...

I hate it when people say for example "Harry and me are going to the pub." and then someone corrects them (hypercorrection) and says, "no it's Harry and I."
Actually no it's not, the proper English is "Harry and me."

I also get bugged by people saying something like: "was it yourself I spoke to last time." It's a way of thinking you are being polite but actually misusing a word. Yourself is when you are by your. It should be "was it you I spoke to last time."

I feel a tiny bit hypocritical writing these examples because my spelling is terrible and I'm sure there are alot of spelling errors in this comment.

Repeated words after acronyms are my pet hate. Especially "PIN number"...(it even hurts to type it!) . "CD disc". etc etc

Yes, but not 24/7. The / is neither a division sign nor a placeholder for "per"; it's just a conventional mark to separate numbers in clock formats. ":" is used for ordinary hours-and-minutes time while "/" is used for hours-and-days or days-and-months.

anything can be analyzed to the point where it evaporates into absurdity.

for example: the buzz phrase "at the end of the day".

eg: "at the end of the day, we all benefit".

does this mean only at the end of the day "we all benefit"?
therefore, does it mean that only in the nanosecond before midnight we "benefit"?
even the final nanosecond of a day is not the very "end of the day".

therefore, does "at the end of the day we benefit" mean "only in the infinitesimal instant preceding midnight - - we all benefit"?

no it does not.
since all instants of time are contained within some day or another, then there is no end of any day, because transitions from one day to the next are points of time with no duration, therefore they do not exist in real time,
so there is no end of the day, and therefore no one "benefits" ever.

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when an advert says "you save 20% off the price", it is absurd (to me).
example: a dumb salesman says "you will save 20% off the price" (of a $100 item.)

salesman: the price is reduced by 20%
customer: so what is the price then?
salesman: $80
customer: ok, the price is $80, and you said the price is reduced by 20%, so the price is $64?.
salesman: errr yeah i guess so.
customer: so if the price is 64, and it is reduced by 20%, then the price is $51.20?
salesman: uhhhh i suppose so.

after another 16 steps the price is $1.80 etc.
customer: ok i will buy one.

also, the correct terminology is to say "save 20% OF the price", not "OFF" the price.

whatever.

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in australia, our smallest coin denomination is 5 cents. if something costs eg: $1.22, then it is rounded down to $1.20. if it costs $1.23, then it is rounded up to $1.25.

therefore, it is possible to fill up your petrol tank for free at the petrol station (gas station).

all you do is put 2 cents worth of petrol in, and go in and pay 0 cents, then go out and put another 2 cents in then go in and pay again etc until your tank is filled.

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there are hundreds of ones i have seen but that is all for now because i am not sure i am entirely on topic.

It's a Shakespeare quote, though most times people using it will be referring to the tune. It means "pomp and the things which go with it"; literally "pomp and aroundstanding."

(hehe, not "pomp and standing around", mind, though that'd be equally appropriate!)

If that is so then 24/7 means 24 hours AND 7 days, unless I have not understood your comment.

What it means is "always" or "around the clock".

The full expression is "24 hours per day, 7 days per week, 365 days per year" that such a place is open or such a thing is happening. This expression has been shortened to 24/7/365. There is nothing innacurate about it. It is an abbreviation.

So that's where it came from........I prefer "pomp and circumcision" which would serve them right for wasting time. But yes, standing around does seem to be 99% of the game.

edit

Are you sure? I would have thought that "I" would be better because it's the subject form of the noun......using "me" would be like saying "me am going to the pub."

Are you certain? Isn't "Harry and I" the subject of the sentence and isn't "I" the proper pronoun to use as the subject and "me" the proper pronoun to use as the object in a sentence?

I was taught the general rule that the correct pronoun is whichever one would be used if the other name were not present. As one would not say "Me am going"