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Also... the show "America's Got Talent" really should be "America Has Talent."

Apparently America does not have grammar as a talent. Maybe we should pick it up as an ability.

Reference? The dictionary at hand here says ability is simply capacity to do something, or (2nd definition) more specifically talent.

bort wrote:Also... the show "America's Got Talent" really should be "America Has Talent."

Bort, you got to Think Different™(ly).

bort wrote:
Also... the show "America's Got Talent" really should be "America Has Talent."

Apparently America does not have grammar as a talent. Maybe we should pick it up as an ability.

Edit:"Your quotes are incorrectly snipped, fwiw..." Sorry - I've fixed it.

..............
Edit: potentially political pun removed by author, to avoid fall-out

More generous snip:

dictionary.com wrote: a·bil·i·ty   [uh-bil-i-tee]
noun, plural a·bil·i·ties.

1. power or capacity to do or act physically, mentally, legally, morally, financially, etc.
2. competence in an activity or occupation because of one's skill, training, or other qualification: the ability to sing well.
3. abilities, talents; special skills or aptitudes: Composing music is beyond his abilities.

MikeW wrote:Taking the Biblical meaning...

And now the news - ditto ?

Bloke knows.

bort wrote:Also... the show "America's Got Talent" really should be "America Has Talent."

Apparently America does not have grammar as a talent. Maybe we should pick it up as an ability.

The song "I've Gotta Be Me" should properly have been named "I've Got To Be I."

Hup

and...

"You've got mail" should be "You have mail"

Rick F wrote:and...

"You've got mail" should be "You have mail"

If used carefully in this way only, this "have got" idiom expresses a useful semantic distinction. In the present case, let's review the facts - do you have mail? I certainly do, I have thousands of email messages. But of course this announcement is talking about the subset of those email messages that have recently arrived, so it properly emphasizes the verb, informing me not that I have mail, which I knew, but that I have got mail. (Using "have" to relate it to the present - "You got mail" would be an odd way to announce that and would again suggest some ambiguity about the timeline.)

If that usage has been incorrect, then we've got a more expressive language this way, a delightful development. The usage failures that deserve our hate are the ones that cost us expressive potential, such as the conflation of envious and jealous.