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Post by marie on Nov 30, 2017 13:36:56 GMT
Hi,
I'm writing an email to a colleague and I am tripping over this sentence...
a) The homeless man with whom I have been speaking said he lost his passport. -- it just sounds too formal.
b) The homeless man whom I have been speaking said he lost his passport. -- still sounds snooty.
c) The homeless man who I have been speaking with said he lost his passport. -- sounds too common.
What do you think of sentences a, b, and c? And can anyone offer alternative wording?
Merci!
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Post by Dave Miller on Nov 30, 2017 15:05:26 GMT
Hello Marie,
b) is not correct (it doesn't contain "with" and it needs to).
a) and c) are both fine.
a) is formal, and how I would write it.
c) is less formal, and is the way that most British people would say it. In other words, it's "normal"!
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Post by Little Jack Horner on Nov 30, 2017 17:03:23 GMT
I agree with Dave. I would write a and, probably, say c
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Post by corkscrewcurly on May 9, 2019 21:51:01 GMT
I know this thread is dead, but I think this simplifies the sentence:
"The homeless man I have been speaking with has lost his passport..."
I prefer to use as few words as I can to convey meaning in professional communications.
Writing this:
"The homeless man I have been speaking with SAYS HE HAS lost his passport..." could - potentially - be interpreted to mean that whilst he SAYS he has lost his passport, you doubt his assertion. As a (now ex-) civil servant, we would use this technique to intimate to colleagues that we thought the story was as likely as it raining unicorns and glitter; it's more subtle than calling someone a liar.
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Post by Verbivore on May 9, 2019 22:27:36 GMT
New blood! Welcome, Corkscrewcurly! May you continue to contribute to our discussions. There's no thread so dead that it can't be revived.
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Post by corkscrewcurly on May 10, 2019 12:43:54 GMT
New blood! Welcome, Corkscrewcurly! May you continue to contribute to our discussions. There's no thread so dead that it can't be revived. Thank you, Verbivore (I love your name, incidentally. I am using my universal internet pseudonym, because I am lazy  ). I am a grammar and syntax pedant and have emailed - among many others - BBC News on countless occasions to complain when they have shown a graphic with errors like this: "Causes of vomitting" This makes me quite unreasonably angry. I can't tolerate mispronunciations like "nuCUlar", either. This makes my toes curl and elicits a very obvious wince, similar to when I hear chalk screeching on a blackboard. |
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Post by Verbivore on May 10, 2019 12:57:39 GMT
Corkscrewcurly: I think you'll find yourself in likeminded company here.  |
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Post by Twoddle on May 10, 2019 18:42:21 GMT
Corkscrewcurly: I think you'll find yourself in likeminded company here. I can't imagine why you'd think we're like that, Verbivore. We're all very tolerant here.  That reminds me, tonight on the TV News my blood was brought to boiling point yet again by hearing reporters mentioning "epicentre" where there was no earthquake, "enormity" when no wickedness was involved, and "for free". And if I hear "h" pronounced "haitch" one more time, I may well kill. Greetings, Corkscrewcurly, you'll make a worthy addition to the forum! |
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Post by corkscrewcurly on May 18, 2019 3:48:02 GMT
Corkscrewcurly: I think you'll find yourself in likeminded company here. I can't imagine why you'd think we're like that, Verbivore. We're all very tolerant here. That reminds me, tonight on the TV News my blood was brought to boiling point yet again by hearing reporters mentioning "epicentre" where there was no earthquake, "enormity" when no wickedness was involved, and "for free". And if I hear "h" pronounced "haitch" one more time, I may well kill. Greetings, Corkscrewcurly, you'll make a worthy addition to the forum! "Haitch" drives me to the point of homicide, too! I am slightly more relaxed when hearing "epicentre" (for example), but only because I acknowledge that language evolves over time. Bad spelling is unforgivable, though...  (P.S. I do love an ellipsis... ) |
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Post by Dave Miller on May 18, 2019 7:37:31 GMT
Well, be careful with your ellipses! Do remember that there are two kinds: With a space: I do love an ellipsis ...This signifies that the sentence has more to say, left unsaid. Without a space: I do love an ellipsis...This signifies that the word is not complete.  |
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Post by Verbivore on May 18, 2019 8:43:55 GMT
[...] on the TV News my blood was brought to boiling point yet again by hearing [...] "for free". [...] [...] I am slightly more relaxed when hearing "epicentre" (for example), but only because I acknowledge that language evolves over time. [...] I've been on a decade-long copyeditor campaign to expunge for free from my newspaper. Like many less-than-desirable usages it has transmigrated from niche – "smart"(?), catchy, advertising lingo – broadly into journalism, reportage, entertainment, letters to the editor, and widespread general use across the paper. One day at work I eliminated 59 for frees in an 80-page issue! (And to my frustration I had to ignore another two that were embedded in client-supplied uneditable files, dammit!) Epicentre: I haven't "evolved" in step with that one yet – I still emend it whenever I find it "misused" at work and grind my teeth when hearing or reading it on/in the news. I wrote the paper's style guide a decade ago (ongoing project, expanded / amended quarterly) and am the final pre-press "page-okayer" so I have impressed my style upon the newspaper. It should be interesting to see if / how the overall style remains or changes after I retire in September. (I don't much care – I'll not be being paid to!) Both the paper and I get a lot of positive feedback on quality of presentation (as in few typos / grammos / punctos / dangling participles / hyperbole / grawlixes …) because we neither "talk down" to our readership (approx. 60,000) by the insulting use of tabloid-level monosyllables ("baby talk") on complex matters nor allow many "mental winces" to be printed. Perfect it isn't, but it's definitely a rung up on the five other local papers, all of which are owned by that scoundrel expat Aussie Rupert Murdoch and his Faux News. (Oops – I just unintentionally swore!) |
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Post by Dave on May 21, 2019 1:07:00 GMT
There may be some frustration on your part if you read your paper post-retirement!
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Post by Verbivore on May 21, 2019 1:42:05 GMT
There may be some frustration on your part if you read your paper post-retirement! That's a possibility, Dave, though over a recent five-week period of leave I managed to not look at the paper once. Can I maintain that stance in retirement? Perhaps not. |
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