When sports people have a difficult game or event................

[10ClarionSt]

..........................................................why do they always call it A Big 4rse? That's what it sounds like on the BBC.

[jno]

a big ask? Like saying scoring 3 against Chelsea away is a big ask? If that's what you've got in mind it's just sportsspeak for a big requirement

[Lucy Thomas]

I think you've misheard. They usually say it was 'a big ask' meaning that they faced a difficult task in whatever it was they had to do.

[whiffey]

I agree, it always sounds lke ' a big ar$ehole '. I have gone so far as to complain to the BBC about it, but they accused me of nitpicking and racism. Most sport is a piece of pi$$ anyway and it's just part of the cover up.

[jno]

depends where you come from, Clarion. I'd never use the same vowel in ask as in axe; and I don't roll my Rs either. As far as I know it's British newspapers that are owned by an Australian, not the BBC.

[peppy]

I don't wish to stir up a hornets nest but that's how people in the southern part of Britain pronounce these sort of words isn't it ? As in barth ( bath ) marsk ( mask ), well you get the picture.
I'm from up north so I speak in brackets. And my mid-day meal is called dinner and not lunch !!!
All part of lifes rich tapestry and all that jazz x x

[cambus]

Its BBC English and all about maintaining standards, which are sadly lacking in the majority of people that use this site.

[peppy]

But, Cambus, what's wrong with people speaking in the natural dialect they developed in the place they originated from .
We're all deliciously different and should never be ashamed of how we speak,much less tailor our accents to suit everybody else ( an unachievable goal anyway )
Look back to the first years of the BBC when all the presenters spoke in the " Queens English " ,they all sounded so false and stilted.

[whiffey]

People up north don't speak properly. It's like trying to understand the monkeys at feeding time.

[Goodsoulette]

Exactly what is wrong with it? Most people in the west country elongate their a's one way or the other, be it with a bir R or just an extra long hard sound. At least they are understandable. I have met a few Geordies and Scotsman in my time and hadn't a clue that they were even speaking English.

[Lucy Thomas]

A friend of mine had a son who still wasn't talking properly at the age of five. She informed me one day that she 'was taking him for ferapy to learn him to talk proper'. And she wonders why the kid had problems.