English like it should be spoken

Is it, like, such a tough ask to speak proper English?

Graham Lord

25 July 2007

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We all know that correct English is no longer taught in most of our schools, but now at last the government seems to agree.

But now most of the other prepositions are also suddenly and inexplicably being misused by journalists. During the World Cup cricket tournament in the West Indies in March almost every newspaper, TV and radio sports reporter decided for no apparent reason that teams were being defeated ‘to’ each other rather than by each other. They kept referring to Pakistan’s defeat ‘to’ Ireland, South Africa’s defeat ‘to’ Australia, England’s defeat ‘to’ New Zealand.
Before long this idiocy had infected every other sport, so that football and rugby teams and tennis players were suddenly being defeated ‘to’ their opponents. On 3 June the Sunday Telegraph’s Mandrake editor, Tim Walker, even mentioned that Andrew Davies was writing the screenplay ‘to’ the new film version of Brideshead Revisited and that Sir John Mortimer had once written the screenplay ‘to’ the classic television version. Their screenplays were surely not ‘to’ but ‘for’ or ‘of’ the film and TV versions.
Why did this illogical misuse suddenly become so common, and why has it equally suddenly been followed by a rash of other inappropriate prepositions?
A month ago the governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, a Cambridge graduate, announced that ‘the balance of risks to inflation remains to the upside’. To the upside? On the upside, maybe, or perhaps towards the upside — if he really had to use such a clumsy phrase.

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Clare Flowers

January 21st, 2008 3:50pm Report this comment

Yes, yes, yes!

And what about the ad campaign for the Goldfish credit card, featuring various "celebs" including Sir Ranulph Fiennes and Meera Syal. It begins: "Me and my Goldfish went to ... " It gives me indigestion.