Pedants' Corner

Originally posted by Kewpie
Unlike Americans, Australians use the same version of English as the English do, albeit with a few local additions. I suspect your opinion has been acquired from satirical sources, which often give excessive attention to those local additions. Many of the words in the "strine" textbook have not been heard in everyday Australia for decades.

Point taken. 🙂

Originally posted by Kewpie
...but I do have a problem with the words "leftie" and "libtard". These invented words have no meaning other than in the mind of the person who uses them.

I get my new vocabulary from the very best of sources: The RHP
Debates Forum Right Wing Alliance. They assure me "libtard" is a
word. I believe it describes intellectuals whom they disagree with.

Originally posted by Kewpie
Unlike Americans, Australians use the same version of English as the English do, albeit with a few local additions. I suspect your opinion has been acquired from satirical sources, which often give excessive attention to those local additions. Many of the words in the "strine" textbook have not been heard in everyday Australia for decades.

Calm down Cobber. 'Strine has simply gone underground.

Originally posted by FMF
I am misunderstood.

And rightly so.

Originally posted by wolfgang59
Strictly speaking "the media" can be considered a collective noun and as such
both "the media is" and 'the media are" can be correct. Much the same as
"my family is large" and 'my family are large" are both correct grammatically
(although they may have different connotations!).

"The media" is not a collective noun; it is simply the plural form of "medium". The consideration regarding collective nouns applies to singular forms such as "Parliament" or "Congress" or "committee", but not to "media". Parliament and Congress, and committees in general, are bodies which, although consisting of individuals, may nonetheless act as one . The media do not constitute a body which acts as one. Moreover, the plural forms "Parliaments" and "Congresses" would lead to confusion or factual error, since there are not multiple Parliaments in Britain or multiple Congresses in America--whereas there are several media (print, radio, television, etc.) and it is grammatically useful to distinguish one medium from another by retaining the singular and plural forms.

EDIT: Whether your family are [sic] large is a matter best kept out of the forum, for their own good.

Originally posted by wolfgang59
I get my new vocabulary from the very best of sources: The RHP
Debates Forum Right Wing Alliance. They assure me "libtard" is a
word. I believe it describes intellectuals whom they disagree with.

"...with whom they disagree" is the preferred sentence construction, although I recognise that the Debates Forum may not have the same attention to grammatical detail as our group of pedants here.

Originally posted by moonbus
"The media" is not a collective noun; .

Oh yes it is.

(the media) [treated as singular or plural] The main means of mass communication (broadcasting, publishing, and the Internet) regarded collectively:

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/media

Originally posted by Kewpie
"...with whom they disagree" is the preferred sentence construction, although I recognise that the Debates Forum may not have the same attention to grammatical detail as our group of pedants here.

I thought I was going to get scolded for ending a sentence with a
preposition and that was something up with which I will not put!

Originally posted by moonbus
And rightly so.

Quite.

Originally posted by moonbus
And rightly so.

OK.