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Hi!
I have, for many years, been irritated by the misuse of "due to" and "owing to", although I realise that the distinction between the terms is, to all intents and purposes, meaningless in modern usage.
I regularly see signs such as, "The 8.19 train is cancelled due to staff shortage".

Tyke - on the subject of Hull and cold/curled, there is a Radio 4 comedy called To Hull And Back which introduced me to its local pronunciations. Maureen Lipman is a leading member of the cast.

Malone

Yes it is strange how the 's has become standard, so much so that Sainsbury themselves use it for their stores now. But Marks and Spencer are holding out.

By the way I loved the "thereat" in a Times clue the other day. I think it was

Perform sport and cheat thereat (4)

I am looking forward to a few "thereunder", "herewith", and so on in future clues

Tyke, Steve

I saw part of a programme the other night, and the presenter, a Yorkshire lass I think, mentioned the "poo - er" of York a few times.

I pronounce it as paw. "poo - er means something else here.

I was going to suggest a sub-section of Pedants United for pronunciation woes. I've had a rethink … pronunciation is so variable across the country, it doesn't seem right to include these differences in our gripes. I've not mellowed too much, I still don't like the use of alleged homophones in crossword clues when the 'homophone' is only possible if you live in a certain area.

Jigjag, I have never pronounced the 'poo' (in 'poor') as 'paw' in my entire life. That definitely seems Southern to me. My geography is so poor [!] that I often use 'south' to mean any place south of Scotland. Not very specific, I know!

Steve, Brendan, Pedagogue … and anyone else I've overlooked.

Thanks for the interesting comments. It's always good to hear what other people think - and to find out what annoys them! I suppose we all have our own particular little bugbears - if we take on other people's, we'd hardly sleep at night.


I was out shopping earlier today and combined this with an apostrophe patrol. I was pleased to discover no striking absences and no glaring misuses.

Stevea & Jigjag , Yes I can imagine the Yorkshire pronunciation of poorhouse (poo-erhouse) could lead to confusion!

Hull is geographically remote - someone described it as not being at the end of the world but not being of it either. It`s an interesting City - the `Old Town` boasts a museum quarter with lovely pubs etc and marina close by. Many famous people are associated with Hull - Maureen Lipman being one of the best known actresses while poets include Philip Larkin, Stevie Smith and Andrew Motion.

Tyke

I have only been to Hull once - about 30 years ago. We had a very pleasant evening in the Hull Cheese pub. I was delighted when Hull was named capital of Culture as I did not know it had any!

Malone

Pleased to hear about your shopping trip and the lack of misplaced apostrophes. I take your point about shopping only at Waitrose but sadly there is no convenient one here. I will be buying my fruit and veg from Ivan on Saturday, and will ask about you friend Mr Aspberay. I will no doubt hear some grumbles and will gladly post them hear if you wish.

sorry - that should be "here"

Pedagogue

Yes that annoys me too. "Due to - caused by - owing to - because of" was drummed into us at primary school. One of many things we had to chant.