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Speaker 1: You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack team podcast

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Speaker 1: from News Talks'd be.

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Speaker 2: The moment the syllables spilled from my mouth. I knew

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Speaker 2: I'd screwed up and a repeat offender, I said, verse

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Speaker 2: a detective dog. Verse. It was the opening few stanzas

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Speaker 2: of last night's one News, the part of the show

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Speaker 2: where we tease a few of the evening's top stories.

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Speaker 2: And as the opening credits played, with my microphone fader

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Speaker 2: pulled down, I called out to my producer in frustration

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Speaker 2: with myself. Verse I said, versus versus. The emails flooded in.

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Speaker 2: I knew they'd be waiting for me just as soon

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Speaker 2: as the bulletin finished, polite but gently critical messages, kindly

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Speaker 2: informing me that due to myriad inadequacies in the New

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Speaker 2: Zealand education system, I had used a term more appropriately

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Speaker 2: associated with Shakespeare or Keats than that of the cunning

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Speaker 2: pest control dog starring in the Evening Bulletin. There is

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Speaker 2: a difference between verse and verses, But hey, did you

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Speaker 2: notice there how I used myriad. I don't know about you,

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Speaker 2: but it drives me crazy when I hear people talk

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Speaker 2: about a myriad of something and it shouldn't. It really shouldn't,

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Speaker 2: because apparently a myriad of is actually perfectly correct. Myriad

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Speaker 2: started its English language life in noun form, and yet

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Speaker 2: anytime someone opt for myriad of instead of the adjective usage,

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Speaker 2: the snooty language snob in me can't help but curl

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Speaker 2: his toes. It's the same. Unfortunately, when people say less

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Speaker 2: instead of fewer, there are not less than thirty days

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Speaker 2: until the new year. There are fewer than thirty days.

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Speaker 1: Duh.

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Speaker 2: And I hate to add, but I'm not fussed whether

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Speaker 2: you are a stranger, a colleague, or my long suffering wife.

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Speaker 2: I am that miserable sod who can't help but wait

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Speaker 2: fewer than a few split seconds before pretentiously correcting your mistake.

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Speaker 2: The other one that really gets my goat, and yes

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Speaker 2: it gets my goat, it doesn't get up my goat

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Speaker 2: is when anyone observes that the proof is in the pudding.

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Speaker 2: The proof is not in the pudding. The proof of

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Speaker 2: the pudding is in the eating. Makes sense when you

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Speaker 2: actually think about it, doesn't it. Speaking of mastication, my

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Speaker 2: dad was recently spun into a state by the repeated

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Speaker 2: insistence of a prominent sportsperson that they were chomping at

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Speaker 2: the bit for an upcoming contest. Chomping at the bit

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Speaker 2: rather than champing at the bit. I suppose that really

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Speaker 2: would be a remarkable level of excitement. Look, I know

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Speaker 2: that language is alive, right, I know that language morphs

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Speaker 2: and evolves. But for those of us who care to

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Speaker 2: conserve usage principles and don't mind putting others right from

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Speaker 2: time to time, there is nothing like erring while reading

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Speaker 2: the news before seven hundred thousand people for a rude

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Speaker 2: taste of one's own medicine. How quickly the corrector becomes

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Speaker 2: the correctid. Myriad grammar and usage errors might get my goat,

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Speaker 2: but I've learned the hard way. There are plenty of

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Speaker 2: other grammar and usage tyrants out there positively champing at

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Speaker 2: the bit to correct every error. Who knows if my

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Speaker 2: cautionary tale will have any impact. The proof of the

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Speaker 2: pudding is in the eating. But if you have learned anything,

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Speaker 2: maybe you will make fewer errors rather than less. After

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Speaker 2: listening to this verse verse you know, as opposed to verses.

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Speaker 1: For more From Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live

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Speaker 1: to news talks. He'd be from nine am Saturday, or

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Speaker 1: follow the podcast on iHeartRadio