#138

I bet someone has.

#139

Yes but not someone in their right mind.

1 Like
#140

As a medical geneticist, I start twitching when someone (usually an athlete of some description) comes out with, “It’s not in my DNA to give up.”

DNA makes protein, variants might contribute to their above average muscular performance and co-ordination, but I’m yet to happen across a generic variant for ‘giving up’.

1 Like
#141

Not a distinction I’ve ever felt the need to make personally

But I don’t want to clutter up the societal board with such hair splitting.

1 Like
#142

‘Chest of draws’

Or, as i once read in a local selling page

‘Chester draws’

3 Likes
#143

that is how it is pronounced tbf

(@Epimer…)

3 Likes
#144

Only if you’ve got an idiot accent for dickheads.

6 Likes
#145

Wow, did not know this. Pretty baffling, especially with such an inconsistent language as this one.

#146

Yeah it’s a really tricky one because today’s English teachers (like me) grew up in a system that didn’t teach formal grammar so there’s a whole rung missing from that generational ladder.

Easy to criticise the hippy teachers who got rid of formal grammar teaching but I think it came from a good place of trying to make English a more creative and more practical subject rather than the over formalised teaching of English - as - Latin that had been the norm previously.

2 Likes
#147

ah but surely that societal board sounds stupid is precisely why having the word is useful

1 Like
#148

Huh if you say so. I feel that I manage fine without it.

#149

Much more recently, i learned what the past participle was in French before I ever grasped the concept in English

1 Like
#150

I never heard of the preterite until I took Spanish.

#151

Yeah I learned lots of grammar rules in French that I never learned in Norwegian or English, but then French grammar is a whole THING so

1 Like
#152

Alright, Thomas Pynchon

#153

at my school we only even learned what nouns, verbs, adjectives etc were in french lessons, never mind any actual rules of grammar.

1 Like
#154

We learned SO much Norwegian grammar

#155

Secret Sessions: the bop redux. Available through kickstarter and on spotify 31/09/2019

3 Likes
#157

People who call the Republic of Ireland “Southern Ireland”

#158

This took ages to get my head around when I first joined the rail industry - now it’s extremely helpful and does make life a tonne easier.