Can we PLEASE use the english language correctly?

Ronni

Ronni

Well-known Member
Location
Nashville TN
On a Zoom call, (for those of you who aren't familiar Zoom is a cloud-based video conferencing service you can use to virtually meet with others) so lots of people on the screen. In the course of that half hour video call, I heard the following:

I heard: "I could care less" (I COULDN'T care less!) "But I digest." (but I DIGRESS!) "All the sudden" (All OF A sudden!) and "A blessing in the skies" (A blessing IN DISGUISE!) Dear God, people!
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Also, while I'm on the subject, here are a few more of my "butchering the english language" irritations.

It's a dog eat dog world, NOT "a doggy dog world." I don't know what "carpool tunnel syndrome" is, unless you mean Carpal tunnel syndrome. The correct phrase is; for all intents and purposes, and not "for all intensive purposes." Supposebly isn't a word; the correct word is "supposedly" Also, it's just PIN and VIN, and NOT PIN number and VIN number....you are in essence saying Personal/Vehicle Identification Number Number.

Accept/except are in fact different words with different meanings. So are then/than, and effect/affect. And I think my all-time teeth grinder mispronunciation is "nucular" for nuclear.

This isn't rocket science, folks. If more people would read, and actually SEE these things in print, they'd probably be less likely to butcher them.

And DON'T EVEN get me started on the differences between their, they're and there! 🤬

EDITED TO ADD: I got curious, and looked up commonly misused words and phrases. A lot of these were in the few links I read. And what that tells me is that at some point, these will become so commonly misused that they will begin to replace the actual phrases, or will at least reside side by side in the dictionary. Much the way inflammable slowly fell into disuse because it was commonly mistaken to be the OPPOSITE of flammable, whereas they both in fact mean "able to burn" (and FYI the opposite of both word is Non-flammable)
 

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Oh I've been saying the same to myself for years because all of your examples are how many people write online as well... not just the younger generation either...

Not talking about people who are dyslexic, but people who are just uneducated...

One that irritates me a lot particularly on auction sites, is ''Chester Draws''..FGS how hard is it to know it's a Chest of Drawers..
 

My husband does those conference calls all the time.

I’ve got to admit that I’m somewhat anal when it comes to certain things but I’ve only just discovered over the last 2 years that I’ve got OCD.

My husband often doesn’t use correct grammar while speaking and it used to drive me nuts. He doesn’t use the word I’ve or we’ve before the word ‘got’ and I’d often correct him as well as other things.

For myself, ( not picking on anyone here ) I’ve come to realize it’s got more to do with my dysfunction than anything else so I’m working extra hard to just ‘let stuff go,’ otherwise I embarrass him needlessly.
 
hollydolly said:
Oh I've been saying the same to myself for years because all of your examples are how many people write online as well... not just the younger generation either...

Not talking about people who are dyslexic, but people who are just uneducated...

One that irritates me a lot particularly on auction sites, is ''Chester Draws''..FGS how hard is it to know it's a Chest of Drawers..
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Chester draws!! 🤣😂
 
Repondering said:
Beware of hyperbole, not one person in a billion can manage it.
Also try and avoid mixed metaphors....they're a pain in the neck so just toss them into the trash..
And then there are foreign words, always find an English quid pro quo.
No sentence fragments!
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My thoughts are sometimes fragmented and sentence fragments are the best that I can do /-;
 
I admit to using "number" after VIN and PIN and never considered that it's redundant. "Pair of twins" is likewise redundant. (It's a set of twins; a pair of twins would be quadruplets.) However, I don't correct people because it's part of the vernacular.

Language morphs daily. My father corrected me I don't know how many times when the word "gross" started to mean disgusting and when "wicked" suddenly meant "cool" which had replaced "hip." All were new definitions of words with other meanings.

I've never heard blessing in the skies, chester drawers, or but I digest. Good grief. They'd set my teeth on edge.

The confusion over flammable/inflammable is understandable. Oftentimes when "in" is used as a prefix it turns the rest of the word into a negative. Inattention and inexpensive are good examples.

Since being crystal clear about whether something might burst into flames is so crucial, I fully agree with dispensing with the possibly confusing "inflammable" and sticking with the far clearer "flammable." (Ravel and unravel mean the same thing, too, but most people have a handle on those two.)

All this said, improper use of language grates on my nerves, too. I reflexively correct my grandchildren when they say "Me and Gary are going to ride bikes." with "Gary and I" and wait for them to restate as "Gary and I are going to ride bikes." My daughter looked at me crooked early on when I did this with her three year old. I reminded her that people are judged by how we speak, and asked how she thought she came to have a good command over language and grammar - and for that matter how any of come to learn it. I was corrected by my parents, teachers, grandparents, and other adults. As was she.

Speech patterns are established early in life. IMHO, not correcting a child's misuse of language is poor parenting. We think nothing of moving their fingers from their noses, endlessly prompting them to say "please" and "thank you," but think bad grammar patterns are adorable.
I don't get it.
 
two that make me cringe are the confusing of use and utilize. Use means to engage something in the accustomed manner to achieve a goal. Utilize, on the other hand, signifies using something in a way that goes beyond normal usage to achieve a task. For example, medications prescribed successfully for purposes other than the original intended purpose can correctly be described as utilized. However, we use aspirin for headaches.

The other one that grates on my nerves has happened so frequently that it is now accepted by some (but not by me as I hate how lazy it sounds). The conjugation of sneak was sneak, sneaked, and sneaked. People have used the slang, snuck, for so long that it is now accepted even by journalists.

On a different note, to support what Ronni pointed out, I had a list of misused words that I handed out to my students at the beginning of each semester. Some of the more commonly misused words in my student papers were:

rather when they meant whether
between when they meant among
compliment when they meant complement
immigrant when they meant emigrant
farther when they meant further (this one was misused by almost all of my students)
lay when they meant lie
effect when they meant affect
good when they meant well (most people misuse that in colloquial speech, but it needs to be correct in papers)

and many, many more including the their constant confusing of to/two/too, then/than, and who's/whose.

However, one thing that provides great comic relief while grading stack after stack of poorly written papers are some of the gaffes in the papers. Here are a few that I've saved in a file to remind me that grading wasn't always boring.

In a social problems paper, one young woman who was writing on the dangers of texting and driving wrote:
Death is not uncommon. It could happen to anyone, anywhere, and at anytime. My comment: You are very observant. Since all of us die eventually, it certainly isn't uncommon
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Another young fellow who was comparing the crimes of Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer wrote: There have been many cereal killers throughout history. . . My comment: Oh my, I hope they didn't murder Raisin Bran as that is my favorite cereal :) (this was before autocorrect)

One student, obviously lacking knowledge of a few important definitions, who was writing about the Vietnam War protests wrote: A century ago, in the early 1960s. . . My comment: Wow, you have elevated my status to a centenarian. I'd better call my congressional representative to see if I'm due some sort of reward or at least a birthday card from the president, don't you think? :)

As you can see, I liked to use humor to correct them which was quite successful because it didn't frighten them away from asking questions. Some of their misguided attempts at sounding erudite kept me laughing on a regular basis, but luckily we laughed together.
 
Ronni said:
On a Zoom call, (for those of you who aren't familiar Zoom is a cloud-based video conferencing service you can use to virtually meet with others) so lots of people on the screen. In the course of that half hour video call, I heard the following:

I heard: "I could care less" (I COULDN'T care less!) "But I digest." (but I DIGRESS!) "All the sudden" (All OF A sudden!) and "A blessing in the skies" (A blessing IN DISGUISE!) Dear God, people! <SNIP>
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I'm with you all the way Ronni. I've been complaining about this problem forever. One of the dumbest ones I've seen in recent years is using "then" and "than" interchangeably.

Americans are becoming increasingly illiterate in their native language. I suspect this is the same for most people here, but I could not graduate from high school (class of '68) without passing English -- which was a required course right through 12th grade. I have no idea what's going on today, but it sure isn't like when I was in school.

Some images I've made over the years that I used to post, but people got too upset with me so I don't do it anymore. It's a losing battle:

oUWwJXz.png


MvQLFhx.jpg


grammar-piece-of-mind.jpg


grammar-advice.jpg
 
Old Dummy said:
I'm with you all the way Ronni. I've been complaining about this problem forever. One of the dumbest ones I've seen in recent years is using "then" and "than" interchangeably.

Americans are becoming increasingly illiterate in their native language. I suspect this is the same for most people here, but I could not graduate from high school (class of '68) without passing English -- which was a required course right through 12th grade. I have no idea what's going on today, but it sure isn't like when I was in school.

Some images I've made over the years that I used to post, but people got too upset with me so I don't do it anymore. It's a losing battle:

oUWwJXz.png


MvQLFhx.jpg


grammar-piece-of-mind.jpg


grammar-advice.jpg
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keep up the good fight, I say. Fight ignorance, and bring literacy back!
 
What bothered me when I just came to the US was the use of would OF, should OF. English is my second language but was the mode of instruction in private schools.

After checking, I knew I was using contractions correctly ~ should've, could've, would've. From then on, it bothered me less in online discussions when I saw those terms.
 
hellomimi said:
What bothered me when I just came to the US was the use of would OF, should OF. English is my second language but was the mode of instruction in private schools.

After checking, I knew I was using contractions correctly ~ should've, could've, would've. From then on, it bothered me less in online discussions when I saw those terms.
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Should have or could have. Not "of". You are correct.
 
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