You Are the Teacher

[babycart]

Shit's just got real. My wife has been marking her student's exams on the subject of car boot sales.

She asked me "Is this right?"

Student had written "At car bootsales you can buy old clothes, antiques, vinyls, CDs and sport equipment."

Tick or cross? Pass or fail? YOU ARE THE TEACHER.

[Grim Lounge Cowboy]

English exam? Let's accept that the term is becoming more common. Has it reached the stage of being accepted in formal writing? Seems unlikely.

A cross from me.

[eclectiktronik]

Vinyl records. Or what's wrong with just bloody 'records'? Vinyl is either an adjective or an uncountable /mass noun. Pay no heed to this stupid 'vinyls' plural bastardization!

[amidar]

I argued with one of my sons teenage friends a few years back and I ended up being made to feel wrong which still smarts. Will it become the accepted term as Lounge Cowboy alludes I agree it's unlikely so it's a spiteful cross from me with an extra Bah and harumphth for good measure.

[SirSlim]

There used to be a fair few teachers (and the odd head teacher) on this site - where are they when they're needed eh?

[eine]

I teach a course called 'English for writers, editors and publishers', all about copy-editing.

As babycart's question suggests, we are in the midst of language change.

Until it is absolutely clear that the language use has changed unambiguously for everyone, we have to assess this on the basis of context.

What is the context of the exam? If it is an English exam in Spain... I personally think 'vinyls' would be fine. Tick.

If it is testing more formal English for publication in non-fiction/research then it's wrong, it should be 'vinyl records' or just 'records'.

What do we see in journalism? That's usually a good barometer of change. I suspect 'vinyls' will be acceptable in some chatty pieces in broadsheets. If not now, then soon.

I also don't think that this is a thing that people should get angry about. Nouns, verbs and adjectives change their meaning and appearance over time: that's what they do.

Vinyl(s) is present as a term because it stresses the physicality of the recording format in a time when this is what people see as important.

If the student had written 'At car bootsales you can buy old clothes, antique's, vinyl's, CD's and sport equipment.' then that would be a much more serious error. Big cross.

Finally, I would question 'car bootsales' — 'car boot-sales' surely?

[Skip]

I'd go for car-boot sales if anything.

A google trends search suggests the use of the word vinyls in searches has not increased significantly in recent years. In fact it's usage has tailed off. I think it's still a stand worth taking.

[Aggie]

Shit's just got real. My wife has been marking her student's exams on the subject of car boot sales.

She asked me "Is this right?"

Student had written "At car bootsales you can buy old clothes, antiques, vinyls, CDs and sport equipment."

Tick or cross? Pass or fail? YOU ARE THE TEACHER.

Funnily enough it is quite common in Greek; we say "vinylia" or "diskoi" instead of records and it's perfectly acceptable. But in English it's wrong, isn't it? It's a cross from me as well.

[Melter]

This image is on my phone case so I can keep people in check at all times!

[babycart]

A google trends search suggests the use of the word vinyls in searches has not increased significantly in recent years. In fact it's usage has tailed off. I think it's still a stand worth taking.

That's pretty interesting. Australia leads, UK second, Europe seems to be strong on vinyls and the US is quite far down the list.
I like the way the searches peak at christmas in recent years.
You'd have to take streaming and d/ling into account to explain the high early results, I guess.

[Grim Lounge Cowboy]

I like "vinylia". Shame it doesn't mean anything in English. 'Vinyl related paraphernalia', perhaps? Would anyone care to start that ball rolling?

[Sonovox]

Student had written "At car bootsales you can buy old clothes, antiques, vinyls, CDs and sport equipment."

Tick or cross? Pass or fail? YOU ARE THE TEACHER.

I would be inclined to point out the potential repercussions of not inserting an Oxford comma. Cross.

[Shere Khan]

Can you not buy styrenes at boot-sales, or shellacs?