Some common departures from STANDARD ENGLISH

Loose instead of lose, as in I will loose the race.

Phase instead of faze, as in It doesn't phase me.

Cease instead of seize, as in my calves ceased up.

The first two occur more and more these days,

and the latter two appeared in the same issue of NER two years ago.

I guess Fitzy is carefuller now.

And another one I don't get;

Impact, as in How will this impact us?

As a verb, impact means constipate.

And the right word is already there: Affect.

And you-unses who haven't learned to care about your mother tongue,

which structures your thoughts,

well, it's not too late.

This is my new favorite thread.

Let's not forget: mastErbate and grammEr.

The infamous "Duel Meet" as the Brojo's love to write. Then in that "Duel Meet", the athletes "dual" to the finish line.

Does this mean I can't say something needs done anymore?

Some additional ones:

1. Farther vs. further - Farther is for distance, further is for degree

2. Adverse vs. Averse - Adverse = bad, averse = reluctant

3. "Try and" instead of "try to"

Younse cannot pass judgement on my wife and myself for talking funny just cause we come from PA. (PA is Pennsylvania for younse outta staters.)

Now if I can just find my pop and hoagie cause I'm gonna hunker down and watch the greatest sport in the world is coming on - football. Too bad the Stillers aren't in it.

Why is it that when you play defense you defend the player on the other team but when you stick up for a buddy you are defending him, too? Is defending someone helpful or hurtful to them?

And do you have to put the question mark in the quotes? For example, who said something like "We are a united people separated by a common language?" or is it "...by a common language"? Note the placement of the question marks. Why should the question mark be in the quotes? The guy who originated the quote wasn't asking a question, was he? Isn't my question the bigger point than the quote, so the question mark should be outside the ending quotation mark.

anudder PA'er wrote:

And do you have to put the question mark in the quotes?

In American usage, the little punctuation marks (period and comma) go inside the quotation marks and the larger punctuation (question mark, semicolon) goes outside. A lot of people think that's stupid, but that's American usage.

In the case you posited, the question mark would go inside the quotation marks only if it were part of what you were quoting.

" You know what I'm saying"

nh native wrote:

another subtlety: WW II lasted from 1939 to 1945.

sorry, couldn't resist.

Errrmmmm, for the PRINCIPAL players it was 41-45.

Of course you could always backdate the start to the plebiscite in the Sudetenland or the Saarland or maybe the occupation of the Ruhr or even the Versailles Conference...

Wow, that's really impressive. You must be really smart.

I'm impressed.

The whole message board is impressed.

Really smart or just entirely too much time on his/her times.

Of course you could always backdate the start to the plebiscite in the Sudetenland or the Saarland or maybe the occupation of the Ruhr or even the Versailles Conference...

Or you could backdate it to 1937, when Japan invaded China--assuming those two countries would count as "principal" players. ("But how could they? They're Asian!")

how about when people say "these ones." gets me every time.

To "Red" up a room or clean it uo is short form for ready. As in - let's ready this room before our dinner guest arrive (set things strainght in the room). It almost makes sense in this context.

Average_Joe wrote:

Yes, that is common usage in Pittsburgh. I came from there, way back when. Another oddity from the area is "Read". Not as in "read a book" but pronounced like "Red" and meaning (to Pittsburgh natives) to clean or tidy. A person from Pittsburgh when telling you to clean up your room, might say, "Read it up".

Odd.

anudder PA'er wrote:

Younse cannot pass judgement on my wife and myself for talking funny just cause we come from PA. (PA is Pennsylvania for younse outta staters.)

Now if I can just find my pop and hoagie cause I'm gonna hunker down and watch the greatest sport in the world is coming on - football. Too bad the Stillers aren't in it.

Ah, music to my Pittsburgh ears!

Thales wrote:

Phase instead of faze, as in It doesn't phase me.

Not quite, hot shot...

Look at the context of the rest of his post, that was clearly his point.

Pamela Anderson's Left Nipple wrote:

Not quite, hot shot...

Even the best of us have occasional synaptic malfunctions.