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| Bête noire feedback |
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| Wednesday, 09 April 2008 | |
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Many thanks to all the readers who responded with their bêtes noires, including: • totally unique/practically unique – Paul Hornsby • the use of ‘less’ instead of ‘fewer’ for countable nouns, the use of ‘most’ and ‘least’ with amount, eg, Sir Alan Sugar’s “the most amount of money” and ‘off of’, eg, Jamie Oliver’s “I picked the tomato off of the vine” – Peter Evans • I, myself, personally and join, meet or gather together – Bernard J and R J Ramsey, who points out that there is nothing wrong with ‘necessary requirement’ (which I agree is true when ‘necessary’ means ‘much-needed’ or ‘sorely lacking’, but more debateable IMHO if it means ‘mandatory’). He also wryly asks: “un bref résumé – is there such a thing in the UK or France?” • ‘the exact same…’, a ‘true fact’ and, heard at most airports, the ‘last and final call for flight no...’ – Rod Coates No response though from French readers and hardly any on the French language. Françaises, français ! Réagissez ! Faites-nous part de vos bêtes noires de prédilection (tautologies, pléonasmes et autres lapalissades, barbarismes, solécismes… qu’il concernent la langue française ou la langue anglaise). My two pennyworth: • pallier à – usage intransitif discutable, mais fréquent, pour signifier ‘remédier (à)’ • par contre au lieu de ‘en revanche’ • malgré que au lieu de ‘bien que’, ‘quoique’ |
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