Comments on: English as she is spoke

By: HP

HP — Mon, 24 Jan 2005 20:14:22 +0000

The past tense of “cast” is “cast.” Maybe “forecast” is being used in this case as some kind of preterite imprecative. Perhaps it is formed as an analogue of “forsworn” or “forgone.” Examples: “I am forsworn for England, my liege.” “We are forgone for provisions as of Wednesday next.” “The weather is forecast for snow, my liege.”

By: jet

jet — Mon, 24 Jan 2005 02:31:50 +0000

Thanks Kevin. But it was quite amusing to have the person who called me functionally illiterate argue this point with me. Thanks for the lesson Dr. Healy :P

By: Dan Simon

Dan Simon — Sun, 23 Jan 2005 22:39:20 +0000

Maybe the idiom, “location forecast For weather”, is the brainchild of the same now-legendary headline writer who came up with “’Newsworthy Comment’: Official”, which any literate person would rewrite as, “Official: ‘Newsworthy Comment’”.

By: Kevin Donoghue

Kevin Donoghue — Sun, 23 Jan 2005 18:55:08 +0000

Delete that comment, I hadn’t followed the link to Yes, Minister.

By: Kevin Donoghue

Kevin Donoghue — Sun, 23 Jan 2005 18:49:25 +0000

Jet/Kieran: I think nitpick is a regular verb, but intransitive. Will you settle for that?

By: Kieran Healy

Kieran Healy — Sun, 23 Jan 2005 17:48:06 +0000

Well, it seems like some TV weather forecasters use it. But if you ask me, I still think it’s backwards.

By: Will Baude

Will Baude — Sun, 23 Jan 2005 17:42:26 +0000

Okay. Thoughts on the answer? It looks like Josh’s use was intentional, and a smattering of google hits are in the same vein. Do you have some sense from these comments (or emails you’ve received, etc.) how widespread the use is?

By: Kieran Healy

Kieran Healy — Sun, 23 Jan 2005 17:22:36 +0000

Maybe you meant “regular” instead of “irregular”? No, I meant “irregular.” but if there is some point to this post that I am missing, and you don’t mind sharing it, I’d love to be let in on the game. I’m not trying to game anyone, Will. The point of the post was right there in the question it asked. I genuinely wanted to know whether some people regularly used the verb “to forecast” in the way Josh did in his post, or whether this was just—as it seemed to me at first reading—a mistake, with the subject and object of the sentence in the wrong place.

By: Will Baude

Will Baude — Sun, 23 Jan 2005 17:15:20 +0000

It still amazes me when someone with a blog says this about a blog post by someone else. Especially someone who has just posted about how many gas stations there are in the US and what the largest shark is. There is a difference between criticism (which I didn’t intend) and genuine puzzlement (which I did). We each post about whatever tickles our fancy, to be sure, but if there is some point to this post that I am missing, and you don’t mind sharing it, I’d love to be let in on the game. If not, that’s fine too.

By: jet

jet — Sun, 23 Jan 2005 15:46:28 +0000

Kieren, Maybe you meant “regular” instead of “irregular”? “Nitpick” is an irregular verb of course. “I attend to details, You focus on minutiae, He nitpicks.” How do you conjugate “nitpicks”?

By: Uncle Kvetch

Uncle Kvetch — Sun, 23 Jan 2005 15:15:45 +0000

I found the “New Haven is forecast” construction somewhat odd. I think of “forecast” as functioning pretty much identically to “predict,” syntactically speaking, and I can’t get my head around “New Haven is predicted for 15 inches of snow.” Weather this week is forecast for normal temperatures Now that’s even weirder.

By: Kieran Healy

Kieran Healy — Sun, 23 Jan 2005 14:11:58 +0000

Whoops, that’s fixed now.

By: Jim Miller

Jim Miller — Sun, 23 Jan 2005 12:31:06 +0000

I can’t be the only person who chuckled on seeing “Chaftez” in that odd “forecast line. And, no, I won’t claim that I always avoid awkward sentences and misspelled names in my own work.

By: David Weman

David Weman — Sun, 23 Jan 2005 08:57:37 +0000

They do, at least that’s what they teach us budding Swedish journalists.

By: P.M.Lawrence

P.M.Lawrence — Sun, 23 Jan 2005 04:27:04 +0000

I’ve heard that journalese checklist too. I’ve often wondered why they only use five of Rudyard Kipling’s “serving men” and don’t care about the question “why”.