I was just wondering. If your wife has two brothers who share a house, or a brother who lives with his civil partner, how do you apostrophise their house? Is it “My brothers-in-law’s house”? I reckon that is right, but it does sound pretty clumsy.
Entries Tagged as 'Language'
Should of known better
February 5th, 2010 · 3 Comments · Life
One of pet hates is when people write “should of” instead of “should have”. While the targets of this site’s ire are all worthy enough (and thanks to Damian for bringing it to my attention on Twitter the other day) the author should have1 made some room for “should of”.
I did a Google search on [...]
Tags: Language
The fog of (price) war
December 22nd, 2009 · No Comments · Life, Technology
I think I have found the year’s least readable newspaper story. It is from the Guardian and all about Vodafone’s forthcoming deals on iPhones. The first section is OK, and Vodafone will be happy that their PR line about it not being a price war but a network quality war got included. After that it [...]
Tags: Language·Newspapers
Cameron on faith
November 15th, 2009 · 1 Comment · Life
I’m always a little worried about politicians having strong beliefs in god: you really want those in charge to make decisions based on logic rather than faith after all. But what caught my eye in this story about David Cameron’s beliefs is not what he says about religion but what he says about psychology:
Politicians are [...]
Unusual song titles
November 9th, 2009 · No Comments · Music
I have been listening to a couple of artists today who have not real common ground musically, lyrically, or any other way, but both of them do seem to specialise in song titles that are out of the ordinary in their own way. The two artists are Morrissey and Nile.
The Deep Freeze Mice
September 15th, 2009 · No Comments · Music
I have been doing some random listening on Spotify this evening. Sometimes, when the list of new additions is published I have a look down it and choose some tracks based on the criteria that I have never heard of the artists and they have an interesting name. Tonight it was Xyra, Jazz Sabbath, Bullet [...]
Boisterous
July 27th, 2009 · No Comments · Life
There was a funfair along Worthing seafront today.
When you see a sign that says “Warning – this is a very boisterous ride” it is very hard to resist… so I went on it to keep Chrystal company while Jayne minded the bags and camera.
Boisterous is not a word I have heard to describe a ride [...]
Gazprom with attitude
July 2nd, 2009 · 3 Comments · Life
The catalogue of brand-naming disasters got a new entry this week, when Russia’s Gazprom entered into a joint venture with Nigeria’s state-run gas company and decided to call the new entity… Nigaz. What could possibly go wrong?
Whole pieces
May 16th, 2009 · No Comments · Life
This evening I noticed that the cat food we have proudly boasts on the packaging that it includes “whole pieces of meat”. Hmm. Seems like a very flexible and meaningless term. Take a steak and it is a whole piece. Chop it into chunks for stewing and they are all whole pieces. All it reallt [...]
Tags: Language
Portmanteau cliches
May 12th, 2009 · 5 Comments · Life
One phrase keeps turning up in all the coverage of the latest tranche of expense abuses – “Tory Grandee”. Why is it always “Tory Grandee”, “Union Baron” and “Oil Magnate”?
Tags: Language·Newspapers
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