Vocabulary 101

[rhondarubin]

We all have our pet peeves. For beckycochrane , it's apostrophe abuse. For me, it's vocabulary abuse. Today has been a stereotypical Monday, from this morning's dog gauntlet all the way to the coffee stain that I didn't know was on my cleavage...until someone else pointed it out. Crap. So I'm a little ultra-sensitive, and earlier I saw something in print that

Comments

[rhondarubin]

In the case of #3, my old boss was from W. Va. So it could be regional. It's still wrong, but it's regionally wrong.

I, of course, have no room to talk. I come from a state where we can turn a sentence into one word. Example: If you come to Texas and someone asks, "Jeet?" You can translate that to "Did you eat?" If you say "Not yet," and they follow up with "Jontu," they're asking if you want to (go eat).

You want redundant? Did you know we actually have a plural for "y'all," which is already, technically, plural?

[marikanola]

I have no problem with Jeet or Joo ot Jontu ... because that is the language of my people, and I understand. What I hated in the north was "YINS" AND "YOUSE"

[davidpnyc]

My pet peeve is "a lot." Whenever I see it written as "alot" I hear my fourth grade teacher, Sr. Joan of Arc, banging her ruler on the chalkboard. "A! LOT! A! LOT! A! LOT!"

Even funnier? Here are the suggestions from LiveJournal for my misspelling of "a lot."

alot alto, al ot, al-ot, allot, alt, aloft, slot, Lot, lot, aloe, Alon, blot, clot, plot

That had me laughing al-ot.

[rhondarubin]

That's nothing. Most spell checkers believe my last name should be "Ruin." Actually? I know people who would agree with that.

[patrickjw]

Oddly, my 4th grade English teacher could not answer the question "is 'a lot' one word or two?" It was vitally important at the time as I had a minimum quota of words necessary to complete a writing project.

That was before the "writing switch' turned on in my head.

[geb1966ky]

2. "He should of stayed in bed." No, he should've (contraction for "should have") paid attention in English class. Come on, people. I know you're hooked on phonics, but "should of" doesn't mean anything. The two words do not belong together.

This is the one I find most often in my freshman and junior writing classes, as well as "must of."

[rhondarubin]

Yep, almost all of the contractions for "have" wind up as "of." These are things I learned well before college. I've only seen this in the last few years.

[marikanola]

What no "I seen it?" That one makes my blood curdle

[rhondarubin]

I'm going to make this a series. Damn. There goes Part 2. And I agree with you.

[marikanola]

Then I'm glad I axed the question. I have great difficulty with then and than ...I know the differene, but when I type...then then then...

[sappho_love]

The mute/moot point is funny. My spell check in outlook didn't know moot and would suggest mute. It made me think I didn't know what the fuck I was talking about.

[rhondarubin]

I can almost forgive "spell check." It's handicapped by Microsoft.

[beckycochrane]

I think you're crazy. As Joey Tribbiani taught us, it's moo.

[rhondarubin]

True, but he also taught us, it's "supposably." I wonder if that gets by spell check.