British Legalese?

[Andromeda]

Hello, everyone!

The following is found in an email from a law office in Herefordshire in the UK:

Please allow me to apologise to you for my, twice, not having made good on my promise to email you the details of the expenses.

Is this British legalese?
[h=3][/h]

 

[5jj]

No. It is unnatural English.

 

[Andromeda]

Thank you, 5jj.

But what is he trying to say? That he had failed to email the recipient twice?

 

[5jj]

It's fairly clear what he meant. On two occasions he has promised to email his client the details of the expenses. He had not emailed them on either occasion.. He wishes to apologise for this.

 

[Andromeda]

It's fairly clear what he meant. On two occasions he has promised to email his client the details of the expenses. He had not emailed them on either occasion.. He wishes to apologise for this.

Thank you, 5jj.

In your first reply, you said that it is "unnatural English" : is it because of the register or word order?

 

[5jj]

You are a native speaker of English Andromeda. Do you find such wording as Please allow me to apologise to you for my, twice, not having made good on my promise to ... natural?

 

[Andromeda]

You are a native speaker of English Andromeda. Do you find such wording as Please allow me to apologise to you for my, twice, not having made good on my promise to ... natural?

In my field of work, I have seen people speaking and writing that way. I cannot find anything wrong with their grammar, however.

 

[jutfrank]

I don't find it that bad at all. I can't see how it isn't natural English. The unnecessary commas around twice, which I assume are used to emphasise the word, make the sentence slightly awkward to read on the page perhaps, but if read aloud, the sentence sounds fine to me.

There's nothing legalese about it.

 

[5jj]

I don't know anyone today who would say either Please allow me to apologise to you or for my not having made good on my promise ...