Frustrating English

[caseydog]

Whenever I hear or read, "I seen", it makes my skin crawl...

That's not just a PA thing. Rednecks everywhere use it.

CD

 

[onedaychef]

I believe when you are pluralizing a word that ends with s, you use the apostrophe after the s to indicate plural.

That's right but I'm referring to using the apostrophe incorrectly for ALL plurals. e.g. "There are several bank's on this street."

Yes.

no, no, and thrice no!

apostrophe after S is still only for possession/ownership;

e.g.
" Jess' birthday is the same day as mine ",
not " many Jessies' will be coming to my birthday party".

please, and thankyou.

 

[taxlady]

does this help? one is an adjective the other an adverb.

"Literal" is an adjective that means "true to fact" or "actual," while "literally" is an adverb that means "in a literal or strict sense"

The problem isn't between an adjective and an adverb. The problem is that people now use literally to mean figuratively or for emphasis. I'm reminded of the father whose kid said, "Our team was great in that game of football. They literally tore the heads off the other team." Dad, "Are you sure you know what literally means?"

I suppose I could just say, "In the strict sense", but that sounds a bit pompous.

 

[Andy M.]

no, no, and thrice no!

apostrophe after S is still only for possession/ownership;

e.g.
" Jess' birthday is the same day as mine ",
not " many Jessies' will be coming to my birthday party".

please, and thankyou.

You are correct. Thanks.

 

[caseydog]

The problem isn't between an adjective and an adverb. The problem is that people now use literally to mean figuratively or for emphasis. I'm reminded of the father whose kid said, "Our team was great in that game of football. They literally tore the heads off the other team." Dad, "Are you sure you know what literally means?"

I suppose I could just say, "In the strict sense", but that sounds a bit pompous.

Yeah, people do misuse the word literally that way. But, people also say, "I'd like to kill that guy," and other exaggerations. I look at the literally misuse the same way.

CD

 

[Meryl]

We like to add emphasis to a discussion to make it more appealing, using these sort of exaggerations, which are acceptable in informal speech but obviously not in formal situations or written speech.

 

[medtran49]

How about using the word mute, when it should be moot, or vice versa? Craig did that when we first met, "it's a mute point." Drove me batty until we'd been together long enough I could gently correct him. When I was still working, I heard very highly educated people misusing the words.

Who and whom. If you can substitute he or she, it's who. Him or her is whom. As in, of whom are you speaking? Are you speaking of him?

 

[Andy M.]

It's specifically NOT pacifically!

 

[dragnlaw]

Unless you are a pacifist.

 

[In A Pickle]

It’s not quite the same thing but when people say vice a versa rather than vice versa I wince internally

 

[dragnlaw]

I think I'm guilty of that one! I know I often look it up but sometimes I'm just in a hurry .... mea culpa

 

[taxlady]

My sister told me that one of her coworkers would say something was a moo point. When he was corrected, he liked his version better. He said it was because cows are stupid, so a moo point was a stupid point.

 

[Jusa]

Unless you are a pacifist.

Or a fan of that Mexican beer...

 

[Jusa]

I used to have a neighbor who used "prolly" instead of "probably" regularly in both speech and text.

 

[Badjak]

And then there's me (or I)
Prolly making all those kind of mistake's

(Yes, they are on purpose )
And a non-native speaker

 

[caseydog]

And then there's me (or I)
Prolly making all those kind of mistake's

(Yes, they are on purpose )
And a non-native speaker

If you go back in this thread, I posted an easy hack for choosing between me and I.

Frustrating English

It’s hard enough for us native speakers, but I majored in English at school and these still frustrates me: Most/best unique Unique is a word that cannot have a quantifier. It is either unique or it is not. I used to get rapped over the finger if I used a quantifier with “unique” Lastly: the...

www.discusscooking.com

CD

 

[Badjak]

I know....
I had seen it and it definitely a good way to remember, but....
I was just having some fun
All mistakes above are on purpose

 

[In A Pickle]

I used to have a neighbor who used "prolly" instead of "probably" regularly in both speech and text.

Prolly is slang shorthand here for probably.
A total change similar to cuz or cos for because.

 

[dragnlaw]

To my way of thinking there is a vast difference between slang, dialects (local or otherwise), misunderstood idioms (mother tongue or not), grammatical and spelling errors.

Many are just out of ignorance - simply not even knowing or realizing that there is a difference in the words.

 

[Jusa]

Prolly is slang shorthand here for probably.
A total change similar to cuz or cos for because.

Yeah, I really that, but she was using it 10 years ago. For some reason I didn't like it. Maybe I'm just too old, lol.