Grammatical mistakes

[Paul B. Gallagher]

R. M. Cleminson wrote:

[quoting Alex Harrington without attribution:]
>> It's 'fed up with' not 'fed up of' in British English too.
>
> So "of" is a mistake within the meaning of this thread... See
> <http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/mar/09/legoland-estates-housing-minister >
> and specifically the note at the end of the article!

Just got around to reading this...

I thought I knew English, but it seems I only know American. I was 
amazed at the number of expressions I had difficulty parsing or couldn't 
puzzle out at all.

"Legoland" -- never heard this applied to human-sized residences. Are 
these cookie-cutter homes that all look alike? If so, how are they 
different from "identikits," another completely new word to me? I 
thought perhaps they were talking about "manufactured homes," but the 
photo doesn't look seamy enough for that...

"Housebuilders" -- easily transposed to our "homebuilders."

"Identikit 'Legoland' estates" -- what on earth??? Over here, an 
"estate" generally contains some palatial mansion for the upper crust. 
Is this BE for "development"?

"redundant timber beams" -- If they're redundant, they aren't needed, 
now are they? Do they mean to say the beams have been salvaged from the 
demolition of other structures?

"the Built Environment" -- what could this be? Sounds oxymoronic, like 
"military intelligence" or "jumbo shrimp."

"urging the Treasury to rip up planning controls" -- what does the 
Treasury have to do with local housing development? I seem to recall the 
British call their treasury the "Exchequer," so I'm mystified as to what 
the "Treasury" could be -- presumably it has nothing to do with national 
fiscal policy despite the name? And it sounds really bizarre to my ear 
to speak of "ripping up controls."

"bog standard" -- I would never have a clue what this meant if a British 
friend hadn't explained it to me years ago. I still see no reason to 
give this meaning to "bog" -- it would be equally reasonable to pluck 
some other word out of a hat: "toaster standard," "bluebird standard," etc.

"Grade II listed" -- completely impenetrable.

"social housing" -- no idea what this could be.

"local authority housing waiting lists" -- I think I understand "waiting 
lists," but the rest is impenetrable.

"purpose-built village" -- hunh?

"an unprecedented combination of model industrial housing" -- with what? 
How can you have a combination of one thing?

And the most amusing thing of all is that at the upper left corner of 
the page, it says "Edition: US." ;-)

-- 
War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.
--
Paul B. Gallagher
pbg translations, inc.
"Russian Translations That Read Like Originals"
http://pbg-translations.com

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