Thursday, February 4, 2010

The Lesser Catastrophe

Those of you, who know me personally might have discovered that I am quite a spelling and a grammar nazi. So much that I feel like screaming my guts out when someone uses a verb in the past tense after "did" or "didn't". Considering I am not much of a screamer, I think I have OCD.





My brother's English paper read "comprehension, grammEr and writing skills"!! And then since the 1st standard I guess, we have been taught that the plural of hair is hair and not hairs. Wren and Martin say the same. Then they also go on to advise that 'grey hairs should be respected.' Same is the case with fish and deer. While, I don't hear deers often, I hear about fishes everywhere. I even read about different types of fishes in my Biology textbook. Oh, but childrens, that is not why I am writing this post.

Today I would like to single out my wrath on 'lesser'. Quite how the trend started to use the word, I don't know. But my Readers' Digest Dictionary says 'lesser' doesn't exist. Urban Dictionary is of the same opinion. When less itself is a comparative degree of little, ( little > less > least ), where does lesser come from? Choose the lesser of the two evils, Children of a lesser God, your marks are even lesser than the previous test. It gets on my nerves so much! I had to endure it during my HSC classes.

Bah, I am not a snob nor do I want to give the impression that I am one. But this is just the way I feel. I mean some people feel the same, when they see a mess around them. They can't stand it and they go about cleaning it. If I point out the mistakes, the most common reaction is 'Haan, Haan , we know you know better English than us. Please spare us the tutorial' What's a poor nazi to do?

Ok. Rant over. Next time maybe I will go on to direct my wrath to 'anyways'. But not now.

On an unrelated note,
Layman's view :
Roger Federer rules.
Manchester United rules.
Sachin Tendulkar rules.

Expert Opinion :
After comparing the statistics for the past few years, we have to admit that Federer maybe one of the greatest tennis players of all time. In other words, Federer rules.

Rule, rule United; Glory Glory Man Utd; In other words Man Utd rules. (biased but a true opinion)

Sachin is probably the greatest player of all time. On field and off it too. Sachin rules. Duh.

Why be an expert when you know all the important truths of life? Ok another truth is that I have exams from Monday. Got to study. Bye!

21 comments:

shweta said...

hye its a coool article.............

Unknown said...

"Considering I am not much of a screamer" hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha sorry got a dirty mind

spicymist said...

lol

Adhokshaj said...

Hey, ossum. Some of the issues I get confused about too. And it is anywaySSS that makes me lose my mind. But I did not really know that lesser is not a word. (See? My Firefox did not underline it in red! :D) Cool. But do guide people having 'lesser' knowledge like us in future. :)

humbl devil said...

http://www.google.co.in/search?q=define%3A+lesser&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a


aap jara upar wala link check karo ji...
miss angrez ki aulaad... >:P

princeton defines it..aur kya chahiye??:D

sachin rules...the other two are just plain lucky...>:P

humbl devil said...

respect the "grey hairs"...
is proper english, missy!!!
here "grey hairs" is a noun..i think a collective noun...not a verb...

spicymist said...

I never intended it as a verb sirjee. i mean we have always been taught that the plural of hair is hair. Then how do they use it as grey hairs!! maybe they use it collectively like >> one grey hair , many grey hairs. In that case the plural of brother in law shouldhave been brother in laws and not brothers in law.

spicymist said...

@ as for lesser, tell me, how can you add a comparative degree to a an adjactive whose degree is already comparative? What gets into my nerves is that it is wrong but it has been accepted. more clearer, worser, betterer, tallerer.... and so on. And the last rant >> sachin rules. i tell you federer rules and wait tillt he season ends, the world will tell you united rules. 19th League title, 4 in a row, 2 records at once!

spicymist said...

@ vibhav,

yeah anywayssssssssss gets on my nerves too. but the other day, i got to watch tv like after so many weeks and they show this movie titled 'children of a lesser god'. dude, there has to be a limit to artistic licence

humbl devil said...

muwahahahaha...chelsea owned arsenal's ass...
manu fans were hoping arsenal wud defeat chelsea and they will get it easy...losers...:D

humbl devil said...

you are not getting the point missy...
think of "grey hairs" as a nik for old people..like we have mallus for ppl who speak malayalam...

so respect the grey hairs..is perfectly tolerable...
but if someone actually uses it to refer to the hair...
for eg...
"all her grey hairs are turning white now..."
now that would be incorrect and improper usage...

humbl devil said...

nadal...that kid had to deal with his parent's separation...and injuries..dunno which of the two affected his game more...
or else federer would have cried a lot many tyms lyk he had done when nadal defeated him in that epic final!!!
:))
nadal rox!!!

spicymist said...

i thought you wouldbe a nadal supporter .

humbl devil said...

how come?!?

spicymist said...

your diatribe a few comments above :P and im sure you thought it was sheer luck united drew yesterday. Not really. It was Giggs all the way. That should ave been his goal. Draw with 10 men against Villa away? Not so much luck But chelsea losing was no luck, it was pure pleasure :D

humbl devil said...

i m an arsenal and barca fan...
go figure...
>:P

humbl devil said...

http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Manchester_united

check that link...
hilarious...
they have that for all the teams..check the one for chelsea too...:D

spicymist said...

check the one for kolkatta and iit and girlfriend :D awesome-o

spicymist said...

Lets hope barca fares better than Arsenal :P

humbl devil said...

so does that mean you are a female from kolkata whose bf is in one of the iits? :D
or does it mean that you are a bengali female from an iit???
:D

and many more conmbinations can be made but i m sure then you wud beat the hell outta me :D

yeah..let's hope for barca's sake..:)

spicymist said...

haha. No I am neither from kolkatta, nor from iit, nor do i have a bf who is in iit. Jeez which is why i checked them all out in uncyclopedia. Btw Arsenal needs a better keeper, so how the hell does fabianski fit the bill? lmao. the second goal!!!