Thursday, November 27, 2008

At Least, Not More Than ...

I suffered the captain of the B Black Stars this morning, on Joy FM’s sports news, coolly declare that they would beat the B Super Eagles by ‘at least not more than 3 goals.’

Now, if you would permit me to go and make breakfast (by frying the egg that ought to be on his face) while you flounder at decoding his most-confusing cipher, I’m sure your high logic would gather my pain.

I’ve heard too many people deploy words, but especially phrases, that they don’t understand. I hear many say ‘at least’ when they clearly mean ‘at most’. But, ‘at least, not more than 3 goals’ is surely a medal-winning gaffe.

‘At least’ being a floor, and ‘at most’ a ceiling, I do not think the B Black Stars really intend to play in that match. What they seek to do is simply impossible for footballers ... or even politicians.

6 comments:

  1. Nana Yaw you are so right!

    Lots of us are fond of using words and expressions we don't really understand.

    A little bit of education is indeed a dangerous thing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ha! my twelve year old brother has adopted the nasty habit of appending "of course" to all his responses. I asked him what he thinks of course means, and he couldn't say. So told him to quit doing that. His response? Yes, of couse!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Posekyere, thanks. I realise that many people like to blame their (lack of good) basic school education. While they sit on their haunches and put the feet in their mouths, others will continue on the path of self-improvement. We all know what a good Oxford dictionary and a little BBC can do!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Dear Woarabae,

    Of course, your bruv has to stop saying 'of course' as a matter of course!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Or maybe the captain is of such high intelligence that he's found his own way of sentence-building which the rest of us are yet to apply? After all they did win with at least three goals and yet they beat the Nigerians with no more than three goals?

    Darn, even I can see that here there's no way of playing devil's advocate, it is simply another of many, many examples of poor English grammar.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Yeah, the captain jinxed his own team. From what I heard on Joy FM this morning, they should have scored more than 4.

    ReplyDelete

After writing your comment, please select the Name/URL box below, and write your name in the box, before submitting your comment.