| Scream | Comments |
|---|
| IT’S HE! | Similarly “It’s she”, “it’s they”, “it is I”, “it is they”.
The verb to be takes a compliment, not an object. |
| It’s WHOM! | Use Whom in the accusative, dative and ablative cases. |
| It’s FEWER! | Use fewer if you count it (starting at 1) then it’s fewer; if you measure it (starting at 0)
then it’s less. |
| You mean THE LAST! | It’s the latter of two but the last of many. Similarly former and first. |
| You mean SPASMODIC not SPORADIC! | Sporadic means “here and there” (in space);
spasmodic means “now and then” (in time). |
| It’s COMPRISES! | A comprises or consists of or is composed of B and C, but never is comprised of.
|
| DATA ARE ...! | The singular is datum. If you use data like sugar you then have to use a long-winded
phrase like “an item of data” when you mean a datum. |
| The media ARE ... | Media is the plural of medium. When we talk about the media we usually mean the mass
communication media i.e. the medium of television, the medium of radio, the medium of the press, etc. We also talk about storage media such as
tapes, discs, flash memory. One storage volume is not a media. |
| It’s A CRITERION! | Criteria is the plural of criterion. Even worse is the double plural, criterias. |
| It’s A BACTERIUM! | Bacteria is the plural of bacterium. |
| It’s A GRAFFITO! | Graffiti is the plural of graffito. It’s Italian. Similarly manifesti is the plural
of manifesto but manifestos is usual and acceptable. |
| The BBC IS ... | It’s one corporation, so singular. This applies to names of organisations, countries, teams, etc. and to
any collective noun used in the singular. |
| It’s NÜRBURGRING not NURBURGRING! | (and it’s not Nuremburgring either) The umlaut modifies the vowel sound. Nuremburg is an Anglicised version of Nürnburg. |
| It’s PORSCHE not PORSH! | The final “e” is pronounced. I don’t expect reporters and commentators to be fluent in foreign languages but they
could at least learn the basic elements of French and German pronunciation. |
| It’s LE MANS not LE MONS! | Similarly Grand Prix, not Grond Prix. Practice saying “Un bon vin blanc”. |
| It’s UTTOXETER not YOU-TOXETER! | There is no justification whatever for a long “u”, so pronounce the “u” as in utter,
under and Roger Utley. |
| It’s FLYING SCOTSMAN! | There is no definite article in the name of the locomotive. “The Flying Scotsman” is a named train which
runs between King’s Cross and Edinburgh. |
| Sir Tim Berners-Lee did not invent the internet! | He invented the Worldwide Web. Internet Protocol (there is no such thing as “the
internet”) emerged from the ARPAnet project in the 1960s. The web is just one of a number of applications using IP. |
