In April 2003, the ISMS launched its Spotty Ribbon campaign for better use of the English language.
It started when we noticed an official Sunderland Association Football Club photograph [following the game against Newcastle United, 2-1 to SAFC] with a caption that said:
“Thomas Sorensen and Darren Williams celebrate the save what won the game.”
What won the game! What won the game!!! Surely, That won the game?
The aim of our campaign is to highlight those words, phrases and pronunciations that are gradually becoming established as acceptable grammar but are really irritating to those of us what speaks proper! See what we mean? No? Well maybe this page may help you to understand. If you have any further suggestions, please email the ISMS
See also our Cliché Corner and RANTS
Follow the links below to read the various Spotty Ribbon topics:
| Sixth It has come to the attention of the Chairman & Chief Executive that the majority of the UK population are now unable to correctly pronounce the word 'sixth'. Try it yourself and see what you can make of it: first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth! Listen to the majority of radio or television news reporters, friends and colleagues and you'll hear, amongst other attempts: sick, sith, seath, sicth. It's pathetic. Steve Wright of BBC Radio 2 fame is without doubt the best (or should that be worst) example, but 90% of broadcasters are just as bad. It must be stopped now! The ISMS is starting a campaign (April 2003) to reintroduce the correct pronunciation of 'sixth'. It should at least sound like 'six' with 'th' attached. Join us now and make a public nuisance of yourself by pointing out incorrect pronunciation as soon as you hear it. Contact your local TV or radio station or whoever the guilty party is. |
| e-mail Mail as a noun. If one paper letter in an envelope can be referred to as 'mail', as in "will you put this mail in the postbox" and a bundle of such letters can still be called 'mail', as in "will you put this mail in the postbox", then why do most people insist on calling a number of e-mail, e-mails?? Stop it now! Campaign for the use of the word 'e-mail' to mean not just one, but any number of e-mail. A recent ISMS poll, in which 246 votes were cast, showed an overwhelming majority (69%) of voters in favour of calling a number of e-mail, e-mail, rather than e-mails. Thank you for your support. One Member's (edited) comment (8 July): Sir, I wanted to say something about your (the ISMS') stance on e-mail or e-mails. I was under the impression that in the UK we have Post and Letters. Two different things. But we don't have mail (except for the Royal Mail which is more of a delivery system than an object or objects which are pushed through a hole in the front door). A letter is an individual item of post, letters are a number of items which arrive in the post, and the post may be one or more letters. Regarding the Royal Mail, don't they also masquerade as the Post Office, why is that? I'm confusing myself now. The point is, why in this country do we refer to e-mail(s) when we should call it or them e-letter(s)? Do you see? No one could object to either expression 'e-letter' or 'e-letters'. Or possibly e-post? (you keep him talking, I'll call an ambulance - Ed") The Institution's view on this topic has generated a great deal more email so we asked for a comment from the Chairman. Chairman's comments: A number of people have contacted us by email to point out that the word 'mail' is not singular (ie you would never read 'a mail') but we at the ISMS contend that you would read 'the mail' and 'the mail' might only be one letter, but you would still refer to it as the mail. The contention of many people appears to be that e-mail is both singular and plural (like sheep, perhaps?) therefore, to their mind, e-mails is perfectly acceptable. We disagree. If e-mail is both singular and plural then e-mail is also correct for one or a number of e-mail and, to our mind, e-mail sounds better for both. However, if 'mail' (as in letters or post) is always plural - as the majority of people contacting us so far contend - then 'electronic mail' (e-mail) must also always be plural, so our argument still stands - a lot of electronic-mail is a lot of e-mail not e-mails! Don't add an unnecessary 's' to a word that is already plural or you'll just be copying others like a flock of sheeps. |
| Exact same How many people have you heard say that something is the 'exact same' as something else? (The Scots appear to use this term a lot.) Surely, if something is the same as something else, then they are just 'the same', and if they are not the same then they are different, even if only slightly different! |
| Birmingham England's second largest city is Birmingham. So why do so many people, including a significant number of announcers and news readers from the BBC, insist on calling it Burningham! It's not on fire! And it's not difficult to get it right is it? It's BIRMINGHAM!! |
| PIN Number We've been going to add this one for a while now and Tony Wright's e-mail has prompted us to act. How many times have you been asked for your PIN number? That's an ism: Personal Identification Number number! Go on, make a nuisance of yourself, ask if they mean your PI number or just your PIN. Let's see if we can make a difference. And, we are reliably informed by an insider, the British Police force regularly refer to their FWIN numbers (Force Wide Incident Number Numbers). |
| Ireland The country just to the left of England and Wales, across the Irish Sea, is Ireland (rhyming with direland) and not, as many people insist, Island (rhyming with highland). |
| Schedules For UK members only to consider: do we follow our schedules (like shedules) or do we have skejools instead? Mixed views from members on whether or not this is valid. |
| Burglary Burglars, those who break into your house at night to steal things, commit burglary, not burgalry. The use of burgalry is increasing; members have even reported hearing 'burgalry' used on crime prevention programmes. |
| Dot.com How many times have you read, or heard news readers say, "Dot.com millionaires"? If read like other 'internet speak' surely this reads as "dot dot com millionaires"? |
| Spellcheck Do you remember how we used to 'check the spelling' of a document or letter? Now all we hear is 'have you spellchecked the document?'. I ask you, what kind of grammar is 'spellchecked'? Let's return to checking the spelling, please! Even the macro in our web site design package (it’s ‘spell checker’) failed to recognise ‘spellcheck’ as a word, offering spell check or paycheck as alternatives! |
| Sexing up From a member: I fear that as a result of the recent political arguments concerning Alistair Campbell, we are going to be overwhelmed with the asinine expression ‘sexing up’. Unless I am entirely mistaken, I would suggest that the English language contains suitably appropriate terminology to describe the recent political accusations. Would it not be fair to suggest that ‘exaggerate or embellish would have been acceptable. Sexing up is an abuse of the English Language and ‘me’, ‘personally’, ‘I’ would like to see its eradication before it becomes rampant. |
| Asterisk The small star-shaped symbol (*) used, for example, to mark a note or omission in text is not related in any way to the well known cartoon character from Gaul; it is not an asterix, it is an asterisk! Please correct your office colleagues when you hear this sloppy language. A poem from Jim MacQ of Monkeyspit.net that may help to remind you of the correct pronunciation: Little Susie donned her skates Upon the ice to frisk Wasn't she a silly thing, Her little * ? |
| Nuclear Some members think they've spotted why we haven't found any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq! Listening to the US president George 'Dubya' Bush, they were struck that he appears to be looking for the wrong thing entirely. He appears to be asking Iraqis if they have any New-Cular or Nookleer or Newkiller weapons, whatever they might be. Maybe if the Americans asked if there were any Nuclear weapons, the locals would say "Oh, yes - we've got loads of those. Why didn't you ask before?" |
| February Like February the 29th only appears once every four years so, it appears, does the second 'r' in February. It's not Febry, it's not Febuary, it's Feb-ru-ary. |
| Wednesday Similarly, this day of the week should be pronounced "Wednzday" not "Wensday" |
| Unique We've been waiting for someone to raise this. We have received a few e-mail on this subject, but here is a direct quote from Jo Riddle which we rather like: The word unique....is an absolute term (like pregnant), not a sliding scale - you either are or you aren't. How many times have you heard newsreaders, colleagues, friends describe something as 'rather unique' or 'very unique' (or almost unique - ed.) meaning, actually, that they thought that it was unusual or rare? I believe that this one of the most misused words in the English language. (we share the same sentiments on exact same, it either is or it isn't!) |
| Ask & Asked There may be a valid reason for this one, but why do many, many people 'aks' (pronounced axe) other people questions? An oft aksed question perhaps. If you know someone with the answer, please aks him what it is! As Chris Mark comments: "Why aks? Cna we just swap around teh letters of ayn three letter word?" Dan Feldhaus and other readers have pointed out that some people drop the 'k' in asked altogether, giving a slightly posher accent and such gems as: “Have you arsed Kevin about that yet?” Specific and specifically This one features in our database but so many people want it listed here so that we can raise it as a pacific issue! I have pacifically heard this one myself, on a number of pacific occasions. |
| History From a member: I am intensely annoyed by the BBC's continual use of the word "histry". Why cannot they pronounce the "O" in the word? Do they have so much to say that they have to shorten everything? |
| Project Manage Do you remember when we used to 'manage projects' and other things? Now all we hear is 'we'll have to project manage this, that and the other'. I ask you, what kind of grammar is 'project manage'? Let's return to managing projects and other things, please! |
| Begging the question From Phil Mattison: This means, to quote the Concise OED, 'to assume the truth or validity of something yet to be proved'. It does not mean 'to raise' the question, or to 'ask' the question or even 'to prompt' the question. |
| Jewellery From Kate Prestwich: this is often pronounced joolery (instead of jewelree) by an awful lot of people who should know better. |
| Mischievous From Kate Prestwich: its NOT mis-cheev-ious - its misch-i-vous. The i is before the v not after it. |
| Off Of From Kate Prestwich: 'off of' - as in it fell off of the table, or I got it off of Father Christmas. Its far easier just to say off or from. |
| Drawring and samwich From Karen Glynn: people seem to have no idea how these words are spelt (or pronounced - SLR-R). |
| Scalextric Can no one pronounce the name of this electric slot car racing game correctly? The letter x is not at the end of the word, it's about two thirds of the way through it. It's not Scalectrix, it's Scalextric!! |
| Crescendo Noise, talk, racket, even music cannot reach a crescendo as in "the noise of the crowd reached a crescendo!" The term crescendo means to get louder gradually, not to reach the peak of loudness. |
| These ones From Heather Francis: There's nothing wrong with the word "ones" as a plural, as in "surrounded by her loved ones"; however, "this one" should never be pluralized to "these ones". It is not these ones or those ones, just these or those. |
| UFO UFO stands for "Unidentified Flying Object" so if can see that the silver disk hovering above your head is in fact an alien spacecraft from the planet Zog then it's no longer a "UFO", it has become an IFO, an "Identified Flying Object". |
| I ain't got none The old double negative is becoming more and more wide spread - apparently it's almost mandatory grammar amongst Cockney's. If you ain't gone none it means you must have some! Along the same line is: "I didn't do nothing, Guv!", suggesting that the person did in fact do something. We at the ISMS are keen to improve grammar using this reverse logic, so: Please use double negatives. |
| Secretaries From Michelle Grayson: Secaturs are for pruning things in the garden, people doing typing and the like are Secretaries. Who knows what secutaries are. Say it right - seck-RE-taries not sec-uh-taries. |
| Pence This might be a British thing but, how many times have you purchased something in a shop and been given one penny (1p) in change with the comment from the sales assistant, "That's one pence change"? Pence is plural, it's for more than one penny. Make a fuss and point it out to the sales assistant or they'll never learn. Quote from Chancellor of the Exchequer's March 2005 budget speech: "and I intend adding 1 pence to a pint of beer". And this guy is in control of billions of pounds of our money!! (Click this coin to visit our new "1 pence for your comments" page) In a similar vein, we also hate to be given "one p" (pronounced pee or pea) in change from some sales assistants. We want neither of these put in our hand in return for goods, thank you very much! |
| Meet with From John Payne: The Americanism of the English language goes on regardless. One Americanism rampant in modern usage is " meet with..." I always thought one met someone eg "I am meeting xyz at 11 o'clock". The "with" is superfluous. Ban it and kill it. |
| Etcetera From Cheryl Verghese: Etcetera is often pronounced Eccetera. (We thinks it's mostly by those people who say Scalectrix etc. - Ed) |
| H From David Gallacher: The eighth letter of the alphabet, 'H', should be pronounced 'aitch' and not 'haitch'. I guess the proponents of this mispronunciation are worried that the might accidentally miss an aitch in cases where it is necessary! |
| Length, Width and Heighth From Chris Cox: One from my work - the freight industry. If you speak to somebody away from the world of shipping they will say the word 'height', but once you put them into the world of international freight forwarding the word mysteriously gains an extra 'h' at the end. It must because the two words which normally precede it end with 'h' and the speaker is subconsciously going for the hat-trick. It's amusing, and irritating......! |
| Decimate From a member: To decimate means to reduce by one tenth. Why then do television presenters and newspaper journalists use the word decimated to describe something that has been completely, or almost completely, destroyed? |
| Stadia From Dave Driver: In the context of the London Olympics bids, several times in the media I have heard talk of building new stadiums. Do people really not know that the plural of stadium is stadia, or or are they embarrassed to use the correct word in case others don't know what they are talking about? |
| Criteria From Kate Sheffield and others: one from a list of criteria is just a criterion. |
| Soccer pundits Soccer commentators and pundits are getting a section of their own, because they use sloppy English and can't speak proper like wot we does. If you can't see or hear anything wrong with these recent examples from radio and TV then you have a problem:
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| Texted From numerous people, including some who texted us: Is 'texted' a word? It's certainly used enough by the mobile-phone-owning millions on the planet, but we can't find a dictionary listing it - yet! Anyhow, could it not be 'taxt', as in 'I taxt you yesterday'? Incidentally, we've heard people say that they receive a lot of 'texas' on their phone! What a state they must be in! An aside: If phones that you carry around with you are mobile phones, why are computers that you carry around with you called portable computers and not mobile computers? |
| HAT From Sharon Curtis: Television presenters, radio announcers and the general public often use the phrase '...hat to do it/this/that'. I think it's possibly because 'hat' is quicker to say! [and it may help them get a head!, sorry - Ed!] |
| Should of From Sharon Curtis: '...should of..', ...could of..', '...would of...'. Not only are these phrases spoken but I've also seen them in letters and e-mail! |
| Excerts Classic FM radio: "...plus a CD containing excerts of ........". Also most every announcement about a new CD is said to have "excerts" from various sources. It's excerpts! It's like a visit to a public toilet... the P is not silent! |
| Belgium Chocolates from Bronwen Barber: It's surprising how many people say "Belgium chocolates", "Belgium lace", etc, rather than "Belgian". They wouldn't say "Switzerland chocolate" or "France lace", would they? |
If you have any further comments on these or related matters, please email the ISMS |
