Old-school prescriptivism WRT to sports

[Wilson Gray]

Olympics sportscaster:

"_The two teams_ …"

We were taught, back in the '40's, that "If, in a contest, there are
only two teams competing, then, in description, the use of 'the _two_
teams' is to be avoided, even in speech."

You really have to wonder that people have nothing better to do than
to try to make others feel that they or others are, in some sense,
ignorant. It was nearly seventy years ago and I'm *still* finding "the
two teams" jarring!

--
-Wilson
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All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

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