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Here's a nice, fresh thread for all the PEDANTS amongst you. The pedantry can cover all areas of grammar, language, duff announcements from tv commentators, newspaper articles etc etc.

If you have any gripes on the spoken or written word, then this is the place to air those grievances. PU 2021 could quickly become your spiritual home.

What a happy start to the day for a pedant, seeing this on the Daily Mail's website*....

Prince Harry pledges. $1.5 million ... as he makes first public appearance since Lilibet's birth at US polo match.

I knew Harry and Meghan wanted to do things differently, but giving birth at a polo match seems a little dramatic.

*I was reading the Mail only because the morning papers hadn't been delivered. That's my excuse and I am sticking to it.

You don't have to apologize for reading the Daily Mail, malone. It's the only national newspaper that's read more by women than men.

(And before anyone starts, "apologize" is not American only.)

My pet hate - the use of "... none of them were ..." None, being a short form of not one, takes the singular. Therefore, "... none of them was ..." Unless I is proved wrong!!

The OED says:

Many commentators state that none should take singular agreement, but this has generally been less common than plural agreement, especially between the 17th and 19th centuries... Plural agreement [is] now the commoner usage, the singular being expressed by no one.

There then follows an excerpt from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle of 1070:

Beleaf þær nan buton an munec. (None were left there except one monk.)

The use of "none are" goes back a long way!

Orson, thanks. I wouldn't go as far as saying I 'read' the Daily Mail. Looking at its front page (or whatever the online equivalent would be) is enough for me!

PS Another of their articles today mentioned Covid being given 'free reign' in certain countries. There's something a little Freudian about that, I feel!

Keppel, I often felt unsure of none is/are - so I found it easier to avoid that altogether and just rephrase things. I do the same to avoid the who/whom dilemma. I'm a pedant, but one who likes making life easier for myself.

Thanks for your observations, orson and malone.

I am particularly annoyed by "off his own back"

Agreed, Fred!