Pedants’ Revolt

This month’s irritants

I have a DVD of Yes, Prime Minister. On the back of the case is a yellow triangle containing the words PC. Next to the triangle are the words: ‘Contains one use of mild language’. Since when has mild language been worthy of a caution? Christopher Darwin

My pet hate is the use of ‘prone’ (lying on your front) when the writer means ‘supine’ (lying on your back). Even the great David Lodge is guilty, e.g. in Small World. Somebody once wrote that Snoopy (of Peanuts) was lying prone on his kennel roof – a shocking insult to that cool hound. David Cutting

I am irritated by the pronounciation of ‘flaccid’ as ‘flassid’, which seems to be gaining currency. To be consistent, one would need to pronounce ‘accident’ as ‘assident’, ‘accept’ as ‘assept’ and so on. Altogether too limp for my old ears. David Bye

One of my pet hates is women (it’s always women) who, especially in radio and TV adverts, pronounce ‘lingerie’ as ‘long-jer-ay’ instead of ‘lahnj-er-ee’. Even the slightest acquaintance with the French language appears to have passed them by. Elisabeth Ingles

I worry when I receive invitations to buy things for my ultimate Christmas. I was hoping to survive a bit longer. Andrew Sanderson

I have an issue with ‘issue’. It is a weak and lazy euphemism for problem, challenge, difficulty, etc. Better to acknowledge and deal with such matters head-on. James Whitworth

Email your grammatical errors, clichés and other bugbears to editorial@ theoldie.co.uk with ‘Pedant’ in the subject line, or send by post to Oldie Pedants, 23–31 Great Titchfield Street, London W1W 7PA.