Can we PLEASE use the english language correctly?

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!
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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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Wow Ronni, did you memorize all these incorrect uses of the words or did you write them down to post here, which is a great topic by the way? If you memorized them, I want some of your genes as my memory is slowly fading :rolleyes: Genuinely curious......
 
PopsnTuff said:
Wow Ronni, did you memorize all these incorrect uses of the words or did you write them down to post here, which is a great topic by the way? If you memorized them, I want some of your genes as my memory is slowly fading :rolleyes: Genuinely curious......
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On that Zoom call, there were just too many to ignore, so I wrote them down to put in my journal, because I have a section devoted entirely to things like this. My friends call me The Grammar Nazi.

My memory has gone to @#$% in my 60's. If I didn't write stuff like that down there's no way I'd remember, other than a few pet peeves.
 

Gaer said:
I walked into a room once and said, "If I were doing this," and a lady looked at me and gasped! She said, "I was an English teacher! I haven't heard ANYONE say "were" instead of "was" for years! "I thought people stopped saying that!" That was cool! I clucked around a bit like a chicken!
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Heh, in real life I talk like most people do, using slang, incorrect grammar, etc. Also online I sometimes use shortcuts like "cuz" instead of "because." And of course the endless internet acronyms, FWIW.
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My rule: It's okay to tweak and bend the language as long as you know it's wrong, and you know what the correct way is. ;) My two lunch buddies (who I haven't had lunch with since March 16) are both good at word games and when we get going, it all sounds like nonsense to someone who just walks up. We all feed off what the other guy says and it piles up very quickly. But we all understand each other and that's all that matters.
 
Ronni said:
On that Zoom call, there were just too many to ignore, so I wrote them down to put in my journal, because I have a section devoted entirely to things like this. My friends call me The Grammar Nazi.

My memory has gone to @#$% in my 60's. If I didn't write stuff like that down there's no way I'd remember, other than a few pet peeves.
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Grammar Nazi is too funny :LOL:....I'm the same way with spotting wrong spelled words everywhere I read anything...
so I can be your Editing Nazi sister, lol....
 
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 Drawers.

The underwear choice of Gunsmoke deputies everywhere.
 
gennie said:
I blame this on too few people actually reading books anymore. Reading your phone won't replace the subliminal education value of reading a book.
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I dunno. I read a lot but get sort of dyslexic about grammar rules though English was my best subject throughout schooling. Scored above the 90th percentile on the GRE many, many! moons ago. I think some of it is my work environment where you hear most anything. Did much better during a stint working a college library.
 
"Where you at?"

Much of this could be prevented if people were forced to read a book by a competent author every once in a while. The problem is they never see the written word outside of journalistic articles (which reinforce the ignorance), they only hear colloquialisms.

I'm certain things will get better. Until then--as the forest ranger once said--"Bear with me."
 
In The Sticks said:
"Where you at?"

Much of this could be prevented if people were forced to read a book by a competent author every once in a while. The problem is they never see the written word outside of journalistic articles (which reinforce the ignorance), they only hear colloquialisms.

I'm certain things will get better. Until then--as the forest ranger once said--"Bear with me."
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Good point - competent author.
 
AnnieA said:
I dunno. I read a lot but get sort of dyslexic about grammar rules though English was my best subject throughout schooling. Scored above the 90th percentile on the GRE many, many! moons ago. I think some of it is my work environment where you hear most anything. Did much better during a stint working a college library.
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I hate to admit that I did not understand the parts of speech until I took Spanish in high school ("Oh, so that's was past/present/future participles are!!") It sure helps when things are consistent; otherwise, it's all rote (and much of English is.).
 
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!
1f641.png


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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I've never judged a person on their writing or language skills.
 
Devi said:
Also, plurals:
man => men
woman => women
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Examples of how "the correct way" should not be kicked aside in favor of "the modern way"- not sure if I mentioned this somewhere, but not long ago a client actually bawled me out and accused me of being 'sexist' because I didn't use the word 'they' when referring to one individual, gender unknown, in an article I wrote for her.
It can get tedious to write (or read) "he or she, he or she, he or she" throughout a long article- and as a former English major, I stand by the rule that if it's one individual, gender unknown, the person is referred to as 'he.' Nothing 'sexist' about it.
 
JaniceM said:
Examples of how "the correct way" should not be kicked aside in favor of "the modern way"- not sure if I mentioned this somewhere, but not long ago a client actually bawled me out and accused me of being 'sexist' because I didn't use the word 'they' when referring to one individual, gender unknown, in an article I wrote for her.
It can get tedious to write (or read) "he or she, he or she, he or she" throughout a long article- and as a former English major, I stand by the rule that if it's one individual, gender unknown, the person is referred to as 'he.' Nothing 'sexist' about it.
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I shall never refer to an "actress" as an "actor" or a "waitress" as a "waiter" or a "server." That's rude and negating.

Some of this is driven by those who reject things merely because they have "always been," with no logic or consistency. It's control and destruction, not linguistic evolution or progress or generational.
 
gennie said:
I notice this too. And that is because Amazon makes it very easy and cheap to 'self-pub' and some authors then bypass an editor or someone to proofread and correct, IMHO.
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Yes, I've been stung by this a couple of times. I've bought books (non-fiction) from Amz only to find that they are full of errors, and/or laid out poorly, rendering them unreadable.

Never again. I always check to see who the publisher is before I buy any online book.
 
A country boy is admitted to Yale and is wandering around campus on his first day, looking for the library.

He stops another student and asks, "Can y'all tell me where the library's at?"

"My dear country bumpkin," drawls the other student, "here at Yale we do not end our sentences with prepositions. Please rephrase your question correctly if you expect me to answer."

"Very well," answered the country boy, "can y'all tell me where the library's at, a$$hole?"
 
Old Dummy said:
Yes, I've been stung by this a couple of times. I've bought books (non-fiction) from Amz only to find that they are full of errors, and/or laid out poorly, rendering them unreadable.

Never again. I always check to see who the publisher is before I buy any online book.
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What amazes me is the poor quality of writing by journalists in major news organizations. It's fast food verbiage. It's not meant to be nourishing.
 
jujube said:
A country boy is admitted to Yale and is wandering around campus on his first day, looking for the library.

He stops another student and asks, "Can y'all tell me where the library's at?"

"My dear country bumpkin," drawls the other student, "here at Yale we do not end our sentences with prepositions. Please rephrase your question correctly if you expect me to answer."

"Very well," answered the country boy, "can y'all tell me where the library's at, a$$hole?"
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I was gonna tell that story, but mine involved West Point cadets.
 
Y'all do realize the English language is the whore of a number of other languages, right?
German; Go up
French; arise
even Latin...and others

And it's still evolving

Actually, I believe the only language that's stable is Latin....because it's a dead language
…..and why the medical profession uses it

(I'm just going from memory here, so correct me if I'm in error.......and I'll dig up my English prof, and give him what for)
 
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