English Pet Peeves, or the Recovering Grammar Nazi Support Group

[mangxema]

Regarding the pronunciation difference, I think it's mainly that Britain is a lot closer to France, and so they know instinctively how to pronounce it. In contrast, very few people in the US speak French. As a result, sometimes people use French words to sound classy but often fail spectacularly... messed up accents, made up words, you name it. It drives me nuts. Plus, 'ou' is one of those vowel combinations that can mean just about anything, so hearing an unusual pronunciation isn't likely to throw you off.

 

[Swedishguy]

As for me, my pet peeve is the increasingly common pronunciation of coupon in my area as /kjupɒn/ instead of the standard /kuɒn/. (or, for those who hate IPA, basically, "cyupon instead of coopon" It doesn't make any sense from a spelling or etymological point of view. You don't pronounce coup d'etat as cyup d'etat!

Why not just say "kupong" and "statskupp" like cool people?

 

[Masquerouge]

Why not just say "kupong" and "statskupp" like cool people?

kupong?

KUPONG?

Probably the funniest word I've seen in a long time.

But I've yet to understand why everybody is using the French root. Especially when they're not that common in France.

 

[warpus]

As for me, my pet peeve is the increasingly common pronunciation of coupon in my area as /kjupɒn/ instead of the standard /kuɒn/. (or, for those who hate IPA, basically, "cyupon instead of coopon" It doesn't make any sense from a spelling or etymological point of view. You don't pronounce coup d'etat as cyup d'etat!

Oh man.. my friends have totally convinced me that cyupon is the only proper way to pronounce this word.. I have pronounced it .. well.. COUPON.. ever since I set foot in Canada.. and I have been corrected here and there, always ignoring it.. thinking that there are 2 ways to pronounce it.. and then, eventually, I gave up, going with QUEPON..

Goddamit! I'm going on a coupon jihad.

Well, first, in American punctuation you do write things such as "Araby," no matter how wrong that would be in standard punctuation.

I refuse to do this! I think it looks silly For reference, I was brought up in Poland and Germany, but have been in Canada for 15 years now.

 

[Plotinus]

Regarding the pronunciation difference, I think it's mainly that Britain is a lot closer to France, and so they know instinctively how to pronounce it. In contrast, very few people in the US speak French. As a result, sometimes people use French words to sound classy but often fail spectacularly... messed up accents, made up words, you name it. It drives me nuts. Plus, 'ou' is one of those vowel combinations that can mean just about anything, so hearing an unusual pronunciation isn't likely to throw you off.

I think a lot more British people speak French than Americans do; at least more will have been taught it at school. Until recently everyone had to learn a foreign language at school, and until recently that was usually French (I understand that German has since overtaken it). But I don't think being close to France makes French easier to pronounce; English and French are pronounced very differently no matter where you are. I cannot pronounce French at all - indeed I can hardly speak it - even though I can (or at least, I used to be able to) read and write it fluently. On the other side, I've heard that the French often find a Scottish accent easier to understand than an English one - in fact they sometimes have less trouble understanding a Glaswegian than the English do. Yet Scotland is further from France than England is.

 

[Rossiya]

Regarding the pronunciation difference, I think it's mainly that Britain is a lot closer to France, and so they know instinctively how to pronounce it.

"So they know instinctively how to pronounce it"? That's a stupid argument.

 

[Huayna Capac357]

I once read a research report at my school that won an award, and I was so mad at the grammar I couldn't get past the first two sentences. I AM A GRAMMAR ( I won't say Nazi, how 'bout.....authoritarian?) AUTHORITARIAN!!!!!

 

[mangxema]

I think a lot more British people speak French than Americans do; at least more will have been taught it at school. Until recently everyone had to learn a foreign language at school, and until recently that was usually French (I understand that German has since overtaken it). But I don't think being close to France makes French easier to pronounce; English and French are pronounced very differently no matter where you are. I cannot pronounce French at all - indeed I can hardly speak it - even though I can (or at least, I used to be able to) read and write it fluently. On the other side, I've heard that the French often find a Scottish accent easier to understand than an English one - in fact they sometimes have less trouble understanding a Glaswegian than the English do. Yet Scotland is further from France than England is.

I meant more that in Britain there's much more likely a French-speaker, or a French person, available to correct them. My neighborhood has two streets named Dreux and Chatou, which look like there supposed to be French, but I can't find either in a dictionary. And in the many years I've lived there, I haven't met a single person who had noticed the gibberish.

Rossiya: Yeah... that came out terribly...

 

[Rossiya]

My neighborhood has two streets named Dreux and Chatou, which look like there supposed to be French, but I can't find either in a dictionary. And in the many years I've lived there, I haven't met a single person who had noticed the gibberish.

Old French? French dialect?

 

[Plotinus]

I meant more that in Britain there's much more likely a French-speaker, or a French person, available to correct them.

I'm still not convinced by that; I don't know how many French people there are in Britain but I've not met very many at all. And I'm from the bit of Britain that's as close to France as you can get! Also, it's hard enough to imagine many British people speaking French in front of French people in Britain, let alone the French people correcting their pronunciation. It just wouldn't be done!

 

[Bill3000]

I meant more that in Britain there's much more likely a French-speaker, or a French person, available to correct them. My neighborhood has two streets named Dreux and Chatou, which look like there supposed to be French, but I can't find either in a dictionary. And in the many years I've lived there, I haven't met a single person who had noticed the gibberish.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatou

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreux

Both towns in France.

 

[Erik Mesoy]

Extreme annoyance of the day: People who have somehow gotten the idea that "niche" is spelled "nitch". (And ditto "cache", I suppose.) I mean, honestly, what happened? It's neither pronounced nor written that way, so I'm wondering if they read the word, then say it wrong, then forget that they read it, then transcribe what they said...

Also, I'm still unhappy about people who say "of" for "have" and mung up sentences that I'm trying to parse.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Is it: "None of them work" or "None of them works"?

Accoording to Stephen Fry in Quite Interesting it's the second since he claims the phrase is from: "Not one of them works". But it's become a bit of an argument elsewhere

The clip

 

[Stolen Rutters]

Extreme annoyance of the day: People who have somehow gotten the idea that "niche" is spelled "nitch". (And ditto "cache", I suppose.) I mean, honestly, what happened? It's neither pronounced nor written that way, so I'm wondering if they read the word, then say it wrong, then forget that they read it, then transcribe what they said...

Also, I'm still unhappy about people who say "of" for "have" and mung up sentences that I'm trying to parse.

Where I'm from, "niche" IS pronounced "nitch" (though cache is pronounced "cash", not catch), and have IS pronounced "of" (uhv?). It's just a migration to how it actually sounds in real life. (For the record, I dislike the misspellings you mentioned. They somehow look wrong.)

[local stereotype]Only fancy people from New York say "neesh" when trying to say niche. [/local stereotype]

 

[Rossiya]

Is it: "None of them work" or "None of them works"?

Accoording to Stephen Fry in Quite Interesting it's the second since he claims the phrase is from: "Not one of them works". But it's become a bit of an argument elsewhere

The clip

It's "none of them work" or "not one of them works". Not "none of them works". I don't think.

 

[Plotinus]

Sorry, but it is definitely "None of them works." "None" is always singular. People often use it as if it were plural, but that is wrong.

 

[Mirc]

Sorry, but it is definitely "None of them works." "None" is always singular. People often use it as if it were plural, but that is wrong.

Question: Why did you use were and not was? I have no idea when I am supposed to use was and when I'm supposed ot use were...

Normally, it would seem that "it was" is the correct version, like "he was" and "she was", but I'm pretty sure the mistake is on my part.

 

[Rossiya]

Question: Why did you use were and not was? I have no idea when I am supposed to use was and when I'm supposed ot use were...

Normally, it would seem that "it was" is the correct version, like "he was" and "she was", but I'm pretty sure the mistake is on my part.

It's the conditional tense I believe. Used with the "if" preposition.

If I were a bum...

If you were a bum...

If we were bums...

If you were bums...

If they were bums...

 

[Mirc]

It's the conditional tense I believe. Used with the "if" preposition.

If I were a bum...

If you were a bum...

If we were bums...

If you were bums...

If they were bums...

Thanks! Guess I was misinformed then!! I thought it was:

Spoiler :

If I was a bum...

If you were a bum...

If he was a bum

If we were bums...

If you were bums...

If they were bums...

 

[Plotinus]

No, Rossiya's right. "Were" is the conditional form for first, second, and third persons, and for singular and plural. Conditionals don't decline at all in English, I think.

Note that many people don't know how to use conditionals (or indeed what they are), and do say things like "...as if it was plural". This is incorrect but pretty common in colloquial English.