1. Tyunglebo

    Tyunglebo New Member

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    Pet Peeves (when reading)

    Discussion in 'The Lounge' started by Tyunglebo, Jun 2, 2008.

    This is a sort of off-topic and on topic at the same time, so I thought the lounge was the place to mention it, to see if anyone else might happen to share these beefs.

    The first is one that I always thought was surprisingly common in modern writings and commentary. Surprising because there seems little reason for its occurrence.

    Queen Elizabeth II is the Monarch of the United Kingdom. She is not the Queen of England. Nor is Gordon Brown the Prime Minister of England, but, likewise, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. I hate when people make this mistake, and it is so astoundingly common, you almost wouldn't think that England ceased to be an independent nation in....1707! Literally every person alive today does not remember England having it's own individual sovereign, yet even journalists, who allegedly are supposed to be reporting the facts, make this mistake all the time.

    (As a child, I made a point of calling it the Soviet Union, when all my classmates called it Russia, and that used to be one of my pet peeves.)

    The other major one is the use of the term A.D.

    The following sentence is not grammatically correct;

    "The battle occurred in 300 A.D."

    The following IS correct;

    "The battle occurred in A.D. 300."

    Anno domini, "in the year of our Lord..." It goes before the year, not after. Despite Wikipedia pointing out that placing it after the year is now "more common" these days, it does not make it any more correct than the very common "Queen of England" thing. Yet just like that, otherwise reputable sources, like the History Channel, will make this error.

    So there you have it...to things that tend to annoy my very quickly when I read or hear them. Just wanted to relate that to someone.
     

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