malapropisms and other misusage

[CurtSibling]

People who are too lazy to hold down the 'Shift' key when typing 'I' to refer to themselves, should be summarily shot!

People who use 'U' in lieu of 'You' should be dumped in space.

Heh! Just two of my little pet dislikes!

 

[ejday]

Originally posted by jpowers
Here are some pointers on how we could try to save some semblance of Anglophone Civilization

And thank God you're here to do that, otherwise people might think this was a casual forum. Shame on them.

 

[cgannon64]

Originally posted by CurtSibling
People who are too lazy to hold down the 'Shift' key when typing 'I' to refer to themselves, should be summarily shot!

People who use 'U' in lieu of 'You' should be dumped in space.

Some more internet slang I hate:

Using lmfaorotfl. Thats just too long.

LEAVING CAPS LOCK ON

Purposely misspelling things.

Teh instead of the.

Uzing zs in mizappropaite spaces juzt becauze its r0x0rz.

CG

 

[Grisu]

Originally posted by CurtSibling
People who use 'U' in lieu of 'You' should be dumped in space.

y r u so angry? j/k

no seriously, I have great problems with these abbreviations since the letters sound entirely different in german: y is ypsilon, u sound more like oo and r is er, so posts with many of these often don't make too much sense to me.

another mistake that occurs fairly often here is to instead of too (or the other way around).

but I probably should be very quiet since I'm making lots of mistakes myself (even if writing in german).

 

[onejayhawk]

Why can't the English teach their children to speak. The Frenchmen learn their French; the Grecians learn their Greek. Actually it doesn't matter what you say in French, as long as you pronounce it correctly. My Fair Lady,Learner and Loewe

J

 

[WillJ]

And in case your life will ever depend on it, "inflammable" does NOT mean "not flammable."

I dislike people using u, r, y, o, and b on the Internet instead of you, are, why, oh, and be, although most other things I can live with.

Originally posted by Maj
I remember at one time the NBA was promoting literacy with TV advertisments. They had their slogan all nicely displayed in the center with these smaller words below it: "Brought to you by the National Basketball Association and it's partners".

And here in Southern USA, the most common bad English forms are double negatives and using "fixin'" instead of "about to" (example: I'm fixin' to go get dressed). Of course, that's what makes us us.

 

[Perfection]

Everyone I know uses this sentance, "Can you borrow me a pen" AAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

 

[Czarina]

While reading this thread I was having flashbacks to senior year in high school; I had AP English and we covered ALL misuses, but my two pet peeves are:

Written--"kewl" instead of "cool" (it's the same amount of letters, so why bother?)

Spoken--"Liberry" instead of "Library" I just want to whack that person upside the head when I hear "li-berry", then they would have a good reason to mispronounce it.

 

[yaroslav]

Originally posted by Dralix


The problem with spell checkers is that they will only check that the collection of letters is a valid word. So the phrase "nothing to loose" would pass the spell check. A grammar check on the other hand, may or may not catch this. I've seen Word's grammar check flag homonyms and say basically "are you sure you have the right word."

As a matter of example,

"nothing to loose"

has sense on Spanish. So, it is very, very difficult for me to think that

"nothing to loose"

has not sense. I apologize for any mistake that I had commit, but I want to say that English is sometimes very difficult for me. It's not a fault of English language, but mine. That's the reason I ask all native-english posters to point out me any fault that I could commit!

 

[tpasmall]

Originally posted by jpowers
...If English is your second (thrid, fourth, whatever) language, ...

It's third.

 

[cgannon64]

Don't mean to sound like an old man, but I just despise some of these new slang words. "That is tight." How did that even come up? How did "cool" become "phat" become "tight"? Do you follow that logic???

CG

EDIT: I sympathsize with all people who are learning English. It IS a damn hard language to learn!

 

[cromagnon]

Don't forget the New York favorite: I'm not 'axing' you a question!
And of course, a good Archie Bunkerism: That's not 'german' to the situation! (Archie is FULL of these malapropisms)

Ah, young cgannon, shows his naivetee: It's always been changing; "groovy," "wicked," and "the beans" come to mind. Every generation rebels against its predecessor in many social aspects, whether it's dress, hairstyle, or language. Sorry, but it's inevitable. It's just hilarious to hear you sound like an old fart already!

@jpower, I take it you're a teacher...

 

[Sparrowhawk]

"That is tight." How did that even come up? How did "cool" become "phat" become "tight"? Do you follow that logic???

If that logic follows as I think it does, I understand very well. You'll learn about that when you get older cgannon *condescending pat on the head*

j/k

 

[Sultan Bhargash]

ATTN: President Bush and others:

There are no nukular weapons.

ATTN: my brother and others:

And no refujerators.

 

[Switch625]

Originally posted by nixon



Actually, there is. It's a nonstandard word, though, meaning that regardless should be used instead.

The travesty of the English language known as "irregardless" makes me want to fight. Really it does. I know some boneheaded dictionary editors thought because of widespread usage it should be included, but COME ON! It's a self-contained double-negative! Broken down into it's components, it means "not without regard." SHEESH!

 

[Sultan Bhargash]

Irregardless, Switch, it's in the dictionary so it ain't wrong.

Did someone mention it's? You never need to put an apostrophe on its unless you are contracting the phrase "it is". I had a big problem coming to terms with this rule and its ramifications.

 

[ejday]

Originally posted by Switch625
...COME ON! It's a self-contained double-negative! Broken down into it's components, it means "not without regard." SHEESH!

But this is English! We Americans contributed with a bluesy "aint no," but we can't hold a candle to speakers of the King's English, the guys that invented the instant tepidizer "not un--"!

 

[Furry Spatula]

Originally posted by Pillager
Any others?

Yes:


"Alot" is not a word.

Sorry pillager, Alot is a word. It doesn't mean many though. "A lot" means many.

Alot means to give out. I alotted the food. I alot candy to the little kids on halloween.

 

[ejday]

Originally posted by Sultan Bhargash
ATTN: President Bush and others:

There are no nukular weapons.

There are more nukular weapons than noo-clee-ar weapons. Heck, there are more noo-klar weapons than there are noo-clee-ar weapons, but those dang syllables just don't want to roll off the tongue. Maybe that's a good thing.

***

I remember standing in an elevator 10 or so years ago at the University of New Mexico. I heard two EE (electrical engineering) students talking about the poll that had been taken in the Engineering Department trying to find the two hardest courses on campus. Know what crumbled these math geniuses? English 101 and 102.

***

Heck, I used to be a real snob about English use myself until I realized that language evolves with society. The process has been going faster lately but it's really par for the course. If the language snobs always had their way, we'd be walking around sounding like we'd stepped out of the Canterbury Tales. Charming, maybe, but not very useful.

Who cares? These posts aren't legal briefs, nor are they technical documentation. Nobody is going to pick up instructions on how to operate a noo-ku-lar plant here. As long as people can express themselves in a fashion that others can understand, mission accomplished. Communication has taken place. Whoopee.

Not that I have an opinion on it or anything.

 

[Pillager]

Originally posted by Furry Spatula


Sorry pillager, Alot is a word. It doesn't mean many though. "A lot" means many.

Alot means to give out. I alotted the food. I alot candy to the little kids on halloween.

No, you 'allot' candy.