HuwG: I'm concerned that you say:
Or too many of the schoolteachers I remember, who could come out with long-winded constructions such as "What you've got to do, is you've got to take etc". What was wrong with, "You must take", or "You take". (Or even "Take", though perhaps that's getting a bit too peremptory, if used consistently.)
Schoolteachers using 'you've got' twice in one sentence. Even one use is tautologous.
'you've got' = you have got. the 'got' is superfluous (I almost typed 'totally superfluous', but stopped myself in time.)

I couldn't understand why my children (ten years ago or so) were describing a simple doubling of a number as "times it by two". It was only at a parent teacher meeting that I was told by a teacher "we mark the tests out of fifty, then times it by two to get a percentage!"


Nigel (proud to be a pedant!)