Friday afternoon with the grammar goddess

[gaeta]

Utter inanity this time.

Do you say:

teaspoonsful or teaspoonfuls

passerbys or passersby

all of a sudden or all of the sudden

you've got another think coming or you've got another thing coming

nucleear or nucular

to all intents and purposes or for all intents and purposes

a historian or an historian

What other pairings can you think of?

Comments

[beledibabe]

on line vs in line

[gaeta]

Yes, that's a good one.

[amelia_eve]

I have always perceived this as a regional variation, with "stand in line" on the West Coast and "stand on line" on the East Coast. Which is different from "wait online" while your modem catches up.

In that spirit: "log on/off" vs. "log in/out"

[divinereverie]

I live on the East Coast, and I have never used "stand on line," always "stand in line."

[ellid]

teaspoonsful

passersby

all of a sudden

you've got another thing coming

nucleear

for all intents and purposes

a historian (this is correct for America, not Britain AFAIK)

[geoviki]

I do all of these too, except I learned this year that it's really "another think coming". So I'm mentally correcting myself.

[geoviki]

How about: to the manner born vs. to the manor born

[gaeta]

That's an interesting one because like "you've got another thing coming" it's a matter of how we interpret what we hear. I always said "thing" too, but when you think about it, "think" makes more sense.