Offensive Language

AD1184 said:

You do not have a relevant point to make. 'To leverage' is a to-infinitive form of 'leverage' (verb). It makes no sense for leverage to be a noun here.

The problem with that headline is clearly that the person who wrote it is using the word leverage in place of the word use (in its verb form). If you do not see that is the case, or that there is anything wrong with that, then I can't help you. The existence of prepositional phrases is completely irrelevant to everything.

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"Sigh" please reread the post.

A prepositional phase functions as an adverb or adjective.

You keep arguing grammar points incorrectly.

CasualBystander said:

"Sigh" please reread the post.

A prepositional phase functions as an adverb or adjective.

You keep arguing grammar points incorrectly.

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*Yawn*.

You re-read everything with care, because it is you who is confused about grammar concepts. You mention, correctly, that a prepositional phrase must include a noun. "How to leverage" is not forming a prepositional phrase because the author is treating "leverage" as a verb, not as a noun with which to form a prepositional phrase.

In the headline, "leverage" is an imperative because it is instructional, and thus takes no subject, except an implied one (the reader). The words [KPI's, Soft Assets and Technology] are not the subject of the sentence, but the object, acted on by the verb "leverage".

You obviously do not know what a predicate is, either, so go read this as well (it cannot simply be a noun and must contain a verb):

Predicate | What Is a Predicate?

I am not a grammar expert and am not professing to be. I know enough, however, to see that you are not actually a scholar of English grammar but are pretending to be one. Go and ask someone who knows what they are talking about if you will not take it from me.

In the meantime, why don't you bore off?

at some point almost every noun gets verbed
it is just how english works, even if the grammar police don't like it.

I`m probably the worst when it comes to the proper use of grammar. It was my hardest subject during school.

AD1184 said:

There is something I need to get off my chest.

In recent months I have become aware of an explosion in the use of the word leverage. It is in what I read, and it is in what I hear at work. I work in computing, and it would not surprise me to learn that this word's newfound popularity originated within that field. I read it a lot in articles in the industry press, and in business articles. I hear it at work, often used by managers (I work for a large corporation).

The trouble is, this modern usage is not correct. I looked in my printed dictionary from the 1990s and, sure enough, the word leverage is specifically a noun. That is, it is something you can have, but it is not something you can do. The modern way of using it is like this:

How To Leverage Strategic KPI's, Soft Assets And Technology To Drive Decisions In Family Offices
Dr M: Malaysia able to leverage 5G within next three years - Nation | The Star Online
Tutorial: How to Leverage IBM Watson Media's Latest Interactive Webcasting Features

leverage - Google Search

It grates on my nerves every time I hear it uttered. There is another, simpler, word that would do perfectly in its stead, and that is use. Or utilize, or employ, if you're not into the whole brevity thing.

It is similar to how times (a plural noun) has become a synonym of multiply (a verb) among people who sadly never learned any better, at least in this country. They have heard things like "six times seven equals forty-two" and come to the conclusion that "timesing" is something that six is doing to seven in this sentence. rather than that you take seven six times to get forty-two. So you hear these people saying, of a number, "times it by four".

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The word that drives us Brits crazy is the word 'obvious'

The times I have had enough of that word and hve said to the person talking to me, to just explain themselves. As many have stormed off.

You ask a question and the reply will normally be:- "obviously this is due to the hysteresis or the accumulation of......."

Then it crops up again after every two sentences. "Obviously this and obviously that...."

Then you get the feeling that you are darn right stupid and what they are trying to say is to shut your mouth because your questions are too hard to answer and that you should not be asking as the result is obvious!

It gets to a point when I start becoming bit rude because they eventually tell you to b*gger o*f to the *Internet to find what you are looking for.

When you go back to say that the information contained was inaccurate, they get nasty by saying that it was not their fault as they did not write it!

The mind boggles.

Other phases are:- "You know what I mean!" Strange....

Or "I have places to be"

You see it is all down to latter day teaching tactics. The lecturer just cannot be bothered to explain and the kids think they show that they are clever even if they don't know the answers?

It is like:- "I know so go read a book"

They usually get the proverbial boot from college and think they are too educated to talk to someone?

coubob said:

I`m probably the worst when it comes to the proper use of grammar. It was my hardest subject during school.

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Hello coubob,

I am not the most literate in English, but Ia m not that bad either.
As I get some posts asking if English is my second language?

Mainly because my English is British and not American. Some words like 'skip' (dumpster) or pavement (walkway)
flick knife_ (Switch blade) are some of the words. Or twitchel meaning a jitty.

Coming from Nottingham, there is a lot of Nottingham slang.

Like:- "it's a bit black over Bill's muvvers"

Meaning it looks like rain.
Or:- "are you nesh?" meaning are you cold
"Have you mashed" Did you make the tea?

"Shut you gob" (yer...you know that one...lol)

Someone even wrote:- "You lot have a reputation of being crazy....it is about time you tried to make up for them"
(impossible...lol)

So I asked the girlfriend as she does the cryptic crossword in The Times newspaper if my writing is that bad (present tense)

She said:- "No...of course not"

I began thinking that it was perhaps that I may be upsetting their beliefs and upbringing... as it may not be how I write...but what I write?

So being a researcher, I wanted to know and joined this social forum as 'George Amigos' and to tell them the truth when it was all over.

George Amigos was about 45 stones and his dog weighed about 7 stone. He had come to Britain as an immigrant (they hate immigrants) His wife weighing twenty five stones had left him for prostitution (don't laugh) and George Amigos had spent 5 years in a mental hospital in Spain thinking he was Napoleon.
He lost an arm and wanted a job in England as a carpenter. Being an alcoholic he also had no money.

Well...let us say he was worse off than me..so I wanted to know how they would react. As he grovelled his way through often cursing in Spanish.

They LOVED him!!!





The point that I am making is that it all relates to people accepting you as a low down individual in most cases. As they want to show to others that they have pity for the 'down and out' In reality if you show that you have something different, they will always down grade you.

I do not lie and this time, I wanted to know the reality of the way the human mind worked. My intention was to make it so daft and obvious that they could see that this was just harmless banter. They could not because their minds were preconditioned to think that way.

They really hate your guts and I put into this post everything bad and derogatory to allow rejection.

It did not work. As long as you were down on your knees, it made them feel good because they felt bigger.

All my posts are true, but obviously this one (that word again) was not. I learned that it was not the way that I spelt thing but what I tried putting across that caused the unrest.

I admit that most there were genuine people who had a hard time. Others were not and they seethed with anger deep down with remarks like:- "Now you have learnt your lesson- let that teach you"

Yes I do have a persecution complex because I am human.

Regards

George

PS They love dogs--so this even tares them more apart

The dog's name was 'Mortifio' meaning death if it bit you.