Wrongly used words - a pet hate
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Kaimi Kyomoon
Kah-EE-mee
Join date: 30 Nov 2006
Posts: 5,664
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06-25-2008 23:03
From: Madhu Maruti Not possible, according to Skitt's Law. Skitt's Law, a corollary of Murphy's Law, variously expressed as "any post correcting an error in another post will contain at least one error itself" or "the likelihood of an error in a post is directly proportional to the embarrassment it will cause the poster." Named on alt.usage.english back in 1999: http://groups.google.com/group/alt.usage.english/msg/21dc5c6c8b333660Which pretty much sums up this thread I guess. Thanks for teaching me something new.
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Kaimi's Normal Wear From: 3Ring Binder i think people are afraid of me or something.
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Vampaerus Wysznik
bad lurker
Join date: 12 Apr 2008
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06-25-2008 23:10
From: Maureen Boccaccio For some reason, after reading the last few pages, this comes to mind:
How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? about 700 pounds. http://www.news.cornell.edu/Chronicle/96/2.1.96/facts.html 
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Macphisto Angelus
JAFO
Join date: 21 Oct 2004
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06-25-2008 23:48
Just a quick FYI. I am playing RL stress ball and my outburst in here was the outlet. I still have people replying here and PMing me about it (just got one in fact) so I just wanted to apologize for my language and anyone that took offense. The heart of what I said I still stand by, I would just go about saying it a bit calmer on a normal day and with less colorful words.  Thanks! |
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Johan Durant
Registered User
Join date: 7 Aug 2006
Posts: 1,657
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06-26-2008 02:03
I used to have a gif of a whole laundry list of common grammar mistakes that annoy me. For now I would just like to say:
"their" "there" and "they're" are different.
Also, "except" and "accept" are different.
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Rebecca Proudhon
(TM)
Join date: 3 May 2006
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06-26-2008 04:01
George Carlin would have liked this thread.
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Tegg Bode
FrootLoop Roo Overlord
Join date: 12 Jan 2007
Posts: 5,707
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06-26-2008 04:17
I tend to think there's no point trying to apply fickle local rules to language in a world not of our own.
The language here is International Englishbased Netspeak, and it will keep evolving and probably through phones and email evolve to be the basis of a majore world language eventually.
Worrying about "then"s & "than"s or "of"s and "have"s is like complaining about "thy" & "thus".
True English is on the decline..........................
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Drifter Dreamscape
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Join date: 30 Mar 2008
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06-26-2008 06:41
From: Rebecca Proudhon George Carlin would have liked this thread. Chaucer might have struggled to get his head round some of the posts if he'd come round again! |
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Kyllie Wylie
J-Rocker
Join date: 7 Mar 2008
Posts: 489
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06-26-2008 06:56
Is it time to bring up Engrish? http://www.engrish.com/ |
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Kira Cuddihy
Registered User
Join date: 29 Nov 2006
Posts: 1,375
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06-26-2008 09:21
Ohhh gawd, I have a headache after catching up on this thread. Thank goodness I have V-8 (eight) juice and Vodka. Brenda would you like to join me?
/me trots off to the refrigerator.
I forgot how to spell a long time ago when spell check first came out on pc's. Spell check even gets it wrong half of the time. The movers lost my dictionary, so I just do the best I can.
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Trout Recreant
Public Enemy No. 1
Join date: 24 Jul 2007
Posts: 4,873
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06-26-2008 09:42
From: Yumi Murakami Japanese has a brilliant "Buffalo buffalo" sentence too:
"There are two chickens in the back yard and two in the front yard": Uraniwa niwa ni wa niwa niwa ni wa niwatori. I don't speak any Japanese at all, but this one is a lot of fun to say out loud! Thanks, Yumi.
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Lindal Kidd
Dances With Noobs
Join date: 26 Jun 2007
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06-26-2008 10:53
From: Maureen Boccaccio For some reason, after reading the last few pages, this comes to mind:
How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? He'd chuck all day And he'd chuck all night He'd chuck away With all his might! That's how much wood That a 'chuck would chuck If a woodchuck Could chuck wood.
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Ceka Cianci
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Join date: 31 Jul 2006
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06-26-2008 17:47
From: Rebecca Proudhon George Carlin would have liked this thread. It's a shame he passed away sunday.. I loved his outlook on things..My father still has a lot of his albums on wax |
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Jig Chippewa
Fine Young Cannibal
Join date: 30 Oct 2006
Posts: 5,150
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06-26-2008 17:50
From: Alyx Sands Inconceivable. And I'm apparently the only user with a wiki page that belongs to the categories of Old and Middle English speakers. Don't any of you native speaker types learn them olden langwidges anymore? I did. But look what happened.
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Kaimi Kyomoon
Kah-EE-mee
Join date: 30 Nov 2006
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06-26-2008 19:47
From: Ceka Cianci It's a shame he passed away sunday..
I loved his outlook on things..My father still has a lot of his albums on wax I saw him live once back int he early '70's. I laughed my head off.
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Kaimi's Normal Wear From: 3Ring Binder i think people are afraid of me or something.
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Har Fairweather
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06-26-2008 20:22
From: Lindal Kidd He'd chuck all day
And he'd chuck all night
He'd chuck away
With all his might!
That's how much wood
That a 'chuck would chuck
If a woodchuck
Could chuck wood. The version I heard is shorter, but doesn't rhyme: A woodchuck would chuck all the wood he could chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood. |
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Curtis Dresler
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Join date: 6 Apr 2008
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06-27-2008 08:59
From: Har Fairweather The version I heard is shorter, but doesn't rhyme:
A woodchuck would chuck all the wood he could chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood. In any event, he probably ended up with numchuks. |
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Maureen Boccaccio
TWJKFA
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06-27-2008 09:21
From: Curtis Dresler In any event, he probably ended up with numchuks. or splinters. |
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Trout Recreant
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Join date: 24 Jul 2007
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06-27-2008 09:24
I had numbchucks once, but a course of antibiotics and some cream the doctor gave me cured it right up.
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A Trout Rating (tm) is something to cherish. To flaunt and be proud of. It is something all women should aspire to obtain!
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Kaimi Kyomoon
Kah-EE-mee
Join date: 30 Nov 2006
Posts: 5,664
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06-27-2008 10:34
From: Trout Recreant I had numbchucks once, but a course of antibiotics and some cream the doctor gave me cured it right up. Thank goodness you didn't get that new antibiotics-resistant strain that's going around.
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Kaimi's Normal Wear From: 3Ring Binder i think people are afraid of me or something.
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Maureen Boccaccio
TWJKFA
Join date: 28 Feb 2008
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06-27-2008 10:40
From: Kaimi Kyomoon Thank goodness you didn't get that new antibiotics-resistant strain that's going around. Yeah with THAT strain, not only one's chucks get numbed. (or so I've heard...) |
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Cee Edman
The Dude Abides
Join date: 2 Oct 2007
Posts: 283
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06-27-2008 21:12
From: Phil Deakins There are 2 wrongly used, very common words that I see everywhere, including in this forum. The reason it irks me is because people who are not native english speakers can easily learn them wrongly - Marcel is one such person, and I've seen others. The words are "than" and "have".
THAN (then)
Some americans, probably because of their particular accents, use the word "then" when the word is "than" - it sounds like "then" when they speak it, and I imagine they think it is the correct word, but it isn't. Example: "this item costs more then that item" - should be "this item costs more THAN that item". That's a wrong word that Marcel has managed to pick up.
HAVE (of)
I don't think this one is limited to americans, because many or most english speakers pronounce it similar to "of", by dropping the H. Example: I should of seen it coming" should be "I should HAVE seen it coming".
It may be harsh, but I tend to see native english speakers, who use those words wrongly, as lacking in education. To my way of thinking, even though people pronounce them differently to how they are spelled, and can easily start out thinking that "then" and "of" are the right words, as we grow up we should all come to know that they are not. Sir, I hate to point out to you [yeah, right!] that your message contains more than a few grammatical errors. Such, of course, is the lot of those who would correct others. Such constructions as "the reason is because", "can easily learn them wrongly", "pronounce it similar to", "differently to" and repeated failure to capitalize American and English may make one think you are lacking in education. But you are quite good at controlled ire, if that is any compensation. |
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Phil Deakins
Prim Savers = low prims
Join date: 17 Jan 2007
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06-28-2008 03:08
From: Cee Edman Sir, I hate to point out to you [yeah, right!] that your message contains more than a few grammatical errors. Such, of course, is the lot of those who would correct others.
Such constructions as "the reason is because", "can easily learn them wrongly", "pronounce it similar to", "differently to" and repeated failure to capitalize American and English may make one think you are lacking in education.
But you are quite good at controlled ire, if that is any compensation. Sir, I am happy to point out to you that my post was about 2 words that some people seem to think are the correct words, but they are not. They are as different from the correct words as 'house' and 'car' are from each other. The post isn't about grammar; e.g. 'americans' and 'Americans' are both the correct words, and much of grammar is for the user to use in sensible ways - there are no hard and fast rules. However, thank you for trying to change the subject onto grammar, but you are too late. People have been discussing it a lot in this thread. Better luck next time  |
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Alyx Sands
Mental Mentor Linguist
Join date: 17 Feb 2007
Posts: 2,432
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06-28-2008 09:50
From: Drifter Dreamscape Chaucer might have struggled to get his head round some of the posts if he'd come round again! Well Chaucer himself liked to play with language and especially with dialects and he even made fun of people with that...AND he wrote stories where people hang their naked arses out of windows... From: Senga Tsarchon No, but I've always thought a certain verb should work like this:
shit, shat, hat geshotten. In German, it's almost like that-scheißen, schiss, hat geschissen....but yes, I think the past of "to shit" is indeed "shat". (gotta love ablaut)
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