There is no such word as "alot" in the English language. Anyone who uses it is amoron.
There is no such word as "alot" in the English language. Anyone who uses it is amoron.
Affect vs effect
corrections wrote:
Should of, rather than Should have
Same with could of, rather than could have. I also see than/then a lot on Letsrun. He is better than, not he is better then...
I can't stand it when people mispronounce "bruschetta."
almost always? wrote:
Yanqui wrote:"Penultimate" is almost always misused, .
One example please?
The lap before the last lap of the race would be the penultimate lap.
Usage: During the penultimate lap of the 2005 World Championships 1500m Alan Webb made a huge move on the backstretch to string the field out.
I just described that suicidal move Webb made using penultimate because it occurred on the lap covering 700m-1100m of the race.
not wrong wrote:
agh wrote:I personally am tired of hearing people say "Asian" when (usually) they mean EAST Asian. Asia covers a lot of ground--Arabs and Persians and Israelis and Siberians (in all their flavors) and people from the Subcontinent, etc., are all Asians; if you mean just people from Japan/China/Korea, say *East* Asian. (Or--*gasp*--"Oriental," which MEANS Eastern and would eliminate a lot of potential confusion.)
Using a less specific word isn't wrong. Despite the fact that not all Asians are East Asian, all East Asians are Asian.
Using the less specific word *is* wrong, if the speaker means only people of a type that used to be called "Oriental." Just a random (made-up) example: "Asians have never done very well in Olympic heavyweight wrestling." Really? There are some large people from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan and Siberia (Alexander Karelin ring a bell?) who might want to dispute that.
In any case, I see that now *I'm* the one beating a dead horse. I will cease and desist.
Just saw this in another thread (and I've seen/heard it plenty, of late): "cut and dry."
No, the phrase is "cut and DRIED."
.. wrote:
^The whole point of using the word humble is to imply that their ego is NOT swelling. That is why it is exactly the right word.
No, it's NOT the right word. You humble yourself if you ask for help from someone you think you are smarter than. You are humbled if you think highly of yourself and someone makes you realize you aren't as great as you thought. You are NOT humbled if you are given a great honor. That is not in any way a humbling experience. A humbling experience puts you in your place or makes you feel less of yourself. Being inducted into the Hall of Fame cannot possibly make you feel you aren't as good as you thought you were.
In a thread about nursing, a guy here criticized someone else's "bedside manners" when he meant "bedside manner". Not sure how common that mistake is, but I laughed out loud.
But penultimately, I could care less.
Most Americans I know frequently begin sentences with 'I feel like.'
For example, A professor says X is Y. An American student will raise their hand and say 'No, I feel like X is Z.'
You cannot feel a thought. You may believe/think/know something to be a certain way, but you do not feel like it is.
I feel like may people get confused with grammar - incorrect.
illiterutt wrote:
Been in the US a few years, and have truly yet to meet someone here who knows how to spell / pronounce 'voila'. I've seen Walla, Wha-la, Wala. Fantastic! Not seen this anywhere else. Yes, I am easily amused.
What are others' faves out there?
Yeah, that really is amusing. I love it when people mispronounce French words or phrases. My fave: Piece of Resistance.
People say, "it begs the questions." They use if as if it means, "it raises the question" when reality the phrase means you are arguing your conclusion with you conclusion rather than providing statements to prove your conclusion.
ie, Bill: "God must exist."
Jill: "How do you know."
Bill: "Because the Bible says so."
Jill: "Why should I believe the Bible?"
Bill: "Because the Bible was written by God."
But fock, i'm a philosopher, i'm a linguist, and honestly i couldn't* care less about how people *misuse* language. if everyone knows what you mean when you say something, then the word or phrase is serving its purpose. Their vs there. When have you ever read something that you did not understand because it had the wrong spelling of there in it.
So ultimately, if the rest of the world uses the phrase begs the question to mean raises the question rather than its original meaning, who am i to care.
i meant to say i'm not a philosopher.. i'm a linguist
asaccc wrote:
i meant to say i'm not a philosopher.. i'm a linguist
I knew what you meant.
not kilgore wrote:
asaccc wrote:i meant to say i'm not a philosopher.. i'm a linguist
I knew what you meant.
Oh, how very cunning.
A lot of women mispronounce "yes" in a way that makes it sound like "no." These same women often pronounce "that feels so good" as "HELLLLLP!" and "thank you" as "I'm calling the police." I can't figure out why all the cute college girls these days have such poor grammar.
Girls these days wrote:
A lot of women mispronounce "yes" in a way that makes it sound like "no." These same women often pronounce "that feels so good" as "HELLLLLP!" and "thank you" as "I'm calling the police." I can't figure out why all the cute college girls these days have such poor grammar.
Yeah, I LOLed (literally).
A personal favorite: using "heal" to mean "heel"
almost always? wrote:
Yanqui wrote:"Penultimate" is almost always misused, .
One example please?
"He ran the Penultimate Relays in 4:01."