Actually, I'm a homophonophile.  If that's a thing.  If it isn't a thing... it is, now.  I made it a thing.

I'm Aries but we don't believe in all that superstitious rubbish.

This thread is now well and truly derailed.

Quote - It's superfluous in most cases.  I guess it would be acceptable to use at the beginning of a sentence as a rejoinder, otherwise it's merely a noise with no reason to be there.

On the subject of noise with no reason to be there, my pet hate is putting "go-ahead-and-..." in front of every verb. It's a spoken thing, and seems to be uniquely American, a typical video tutorial is full of "I'm gonna go ahead and select, then I'm gonna go ahead and move it, then I'm gonna go ahead and hit C for copy..."

I'm gonna go ahead and place an apostrophe in de'railed  looks much better with the apostrophe, yes ?

One of my biggest peeves...

When someone says "supposably" rather than "supposedly". Seems to be unique to the New England states. And, perhaps my biggest peeve, when it's said that someone has "plead or pled" guilty rather than "pleaded". There is no such thing as pled...lol. The judge doesn't ask "How do you plea". He or she asks "how do you pleaD" ;o). Even television shows about forensics make this error and it bugs the crap out of me...lol.

Laurie

how do you plead

"Plead judge, don't send me to dat prison".

Wow.  People actually say "supposably"?  I thought that was just a Simpsons gag.

Or maybe it was Coupling.  Hmm.  I can hear Steve from Coupling going on about it, for some reason.

Merriam-Webster acknowledges "pled".  If enough people do it, it can become a thing.  Supposably, anyways.  :unsure:

Quote - Wow.  People actually say "supposably"?  I thought that was just a Simpsons gag.

Or maybe it was Coupling.  Hmm.  I can hear Steve from Coupling going on about it, for some reason.

Merriam-Webster acknowledges "pled".  If enough people do it, it can become a thing.  Supposably, anyways.  :unsure:

Remember The Girl with Two Breasts?

I didn't need the translation to understand what she said!

Quote - Wow.  People actually say "supposably"?  I thought that was just a Simpsons gag.

Or maybe it was Coupling.  Hmm.  I can hear Steve from Coupling going on about it, for some reason.

Merriam-Webster acknowledges "pled".  If enough people do it, it can become a thing.  Supposably, anyways.  :unsure:

 

Somehow, a sentence such as "She pled for her life" doesn't even sound correct, but "She pleaded for her life" does.

I guess it's been misused for so long that now it's correct grammar. Ugh.

You should have been at my job the day that, as a proofreader, I spent nearly 20 minutes trying to explain to another proofreader that it's not Ice Tea, but rather Iced Tea and that it's Brussels Sprouts and not Brussel...lmao.

I don't claim to always use my punctuation perfectly, but I catch a lot of it and unfortunately a lot of what I catch is in a printed book or an advertisement. Shameful ;o).

Laurie

hmmm ... she pled, pled, and pled and pled somemore, but no number of pleds mattered to her wouldbe killer. Until .. lo and behold, this guy walked up and pleaded with him to ket her go. I plead the 5th.

Then there was the time while I was working as a graphic artist for a TV listings newspaper, that I submitted my completed ad for the movie Beetlejuice and had it returned to me to correct to Beetle Juice. I nearly popped a vein. The editor at the time was a woman with a Masters in English. I had to explain to her that in this particular case, Beetlejuice was a proper name and not a concoction resulting from squishing bugs. She wouldn't budge and I refused to change it. Finally, my boss dug the VHS out of the library and showed it to her at which point she finally relented...lol.

Interestingly, Merriam-Webster likes "supposably", too.  But only as the adverbial form of "supposable".

Okay, maybe not that interestingly. There are times when one thinks 'Rosity should still have an OT forum.  Currently we're OT in an OT thread, which is OT to the second power, or plenty of OT.  Which makes me feel kind of bad. 

But not so bad that I won't post this link to Hyperbole and a Half, where the rant about "ALOT" is on-topic for the off-topic topic which has overtaken the thread....

http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/04/alot-is-better-than-you-at-everything.html

There are a lot of bastardized words in the dictionary...lol.

wonder if I should use the language tag....nah...

Laurie

bah. to serious!

Gastronomy – to be bombarded with gas

Superintendent – trying to cover her with soup

Dostoyevsky – old English for “Do I have to ski?”

Garibaldi – Gary’s gone bald

Pusillanimous – dismay at the stench of a seal’s soul

Gelatine – to get the product and the packaging the wrong way round in hair care

Ballistic – a damnable lump of wood

Indubitably – to competently undo something

Valedictorum – when things are torn by a twat from Wales

Banister – to outlaw ogling

@LaurieA:  Your Beetlejuice story reminds me ... back in 1965 or so my HS dramatics group presented "Raisin in the Sun".  One of the English teachers insisted on calling it "Rising in the Sun", because raisin' was ungrammatical.

The crux of the bisquit .....

is the apostrophe.

LOL, 3 pages already!

It's mostly when it's in an article or some other type of formal or semi-formal context that the grammatical bugaboos really bother me a lot. I've seen a few articles on supposedly big-name media sites with these exact problems, and the coupon announcement here was the last straw. Hopefully, whoever wrote the copy for it won't feel that I was singling them out, because that wasn't my intent. I think they may not even be a native speaker, in which case there should have been someone to proofread it before publishing took place.

Re: Supposably.  Many people here in the UK say it, too.  One which seems to be unique to here is "disorientated".  That makes me pop a vein.

Re: Noise without meaning.  Favourites over here seem to be "obviously" and "at the end of the day".  A lot of people misuse "literally", too.  They make me want to get my gat.

Oh yeah, "alot" is another one which gives me the heebie jeebies.  I see that here quite a lot, along with "nevermind".

While I'm on the subject, there seem to be many useless, badly thought out or plain stupid phrases kicking around, such as "round circle" (as opposed to a triangular one?), "reverse back" (didn't know you could reverse in any other direction) and PIN Number (Personal Identification Number Number).  We also had a bank over here called TSB Bank (Trustee Savings Bank Bank).

And finally...

Why can't anyone pronounce "kilometre/kilometer" correctly?  It's not a device for measuring kils, it's a unit of distance, ie, kilo and meter.  Christ on toast!

Pardon me while I go worsh my car.

"Disorientated" does make its way into many BBC productions.  I've heard Neil from the Young Ones, Wendy Padbury, and Elisabeth Sladen all use it, IIRC.  Not all at once, mind you....

I used to get worked up about "irregardless", until I looked it up and found that it's now accepted.  Apparently.  It means the same as "regardless", so that prefix is redundant, at best.  A wretched mutant of a word.  Grumble.

My grandfather hates the "kill-OM-itter" pronounciation for "kilometer".  "There's no such thing as a "kill-OM", he says.  KEE-loh-meeter.  KEE-loh-meeter.  But they routinely get that wrong on NPR, so I suspect kill-OMs will one day be legitimate.

I have two relatives (different sides of the family, from different parts of the country) who say "worsh".  They can't hear the difference if you correct them, or so they claim.  One of them can't hear the difference between "nuclear" and "nuke-yoo-ler".  Craziness.

Redunant like a hot water heater. Shouldn't that be, um, a water heater? I really wouldn't want to heat water that's already hot...LOL

;o)

Laurie

"Comprising of".  Aaaaaagh!

http://grammar.about.com/od/words/a/redundancies.htm

personally I think we should stick to the classics when it comes to words....

ahem

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cz2-ukrd2VQ&feature=related

How To Use An Apostrophe The right way to use an apostrophe (in illustrated form).

Am I the only one who's jealous of Bob's hat of jelly beans, and his lightning pants?

Thank you, Dave-So!  Those are informative and fun!  :thumbupboth:

Remember folks, education is 50% pronunciation, and 50% aggravation :-P

Quote - Re: Supposably.  ... and PIN Number (Personal Identification Number Number).  We also had a bank over here called TSB Bank (Trustee Savings Bank Bank).

Examples of RAS syndrome (Redundant Acronym Syndrome) - though actually, TSB isn't a nym at all.

I think pled, like burnt and learnt, is the original correct form - it's just that the past tenses have been regularised to the more common -ed form (mostly it seems to be American usage to go for the -ed for, while English tended to retain the old form - as with jail vs gaol - but pled is marked as Scottish and American rather than English).

My sister-in-law is one of those that say "Ex-pecially" instead of "especially",and here's the kicker...She teaches the forth grade.

Quote - My sister-in-law is one of those that say "Ex-pecially" instead of "especially",and here's the kicker...She teaches the forth grade.

 

Oh for the love of....

Laurie

you want some kassup wit dose fries?

My pet hate is the use of the word 'momentarily' in place of the phrase 'in a moment'. I see it used more and more often. Especially by BBC newsreaders who used to epitomise the correct use of the English language.

So when I hear on the news something like, "We expect to see the Prime Minister momentarily," I damn well want to see him leap out of the door at 10 Downing Street and then vanish back inside immediately.

Dave-So, that is completely awesome - jelly bean hat, lightning pants and all.  lol  :)

Some examples might be:

Kih-ehn  (for kitten)

Dih-int…( for didn’t)

Buh-in… for (button)

I once heard a female newscaster say “Stay tuned for Conan after the evening new with his guest Billy Bob Thor-ehn”. (for Billy Bob Thornton)

It’s not unlike a Cockney Accent, but that accent doesn’t bother me…there’s a difference between an “Accent” or regional dialect and a deliberate mispronunciation of specific words.

Does anyone know what this “peeve” of mine is called?..lol

Tom

Quote - ...Does anyone know what this “peeve” of mine is called?..lol

Valid? ;o)

Laurie

"Valid ;0)"

lol...yeah...I was thinking  "annoying".

Quote - "Valid ;0)"

lol...yeah...I was thinking  "annoying".

That too ;o)

Laurie

btw..i didn't invent that apostrophe cartoon..y did you think i were that talented? I never even learnded American in school.

I think it's called a "Glottal Stop"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnjGNJ5JL8w&NR=1&feature=fvwp

So...Now that we know what it's called, how do we STOP the selective use of It?...lol 

Quote - I don’t even know what one of my more recent peeves is called, but I can only describe it as “Baby Talk”.  As far as I know it’s deliberate, and done mostly by American girls of college age and under although I’ve even heard young guys do it too.

Some examples might be:

Kih-ehn  (for kitten)

Dih-int…( for didn’t)

Buh-in… for (button)

I once heard a female newscaster say “Stay tuned for Conan after the evening new with his guest Billy Bob Thor-ehn”. (for Billy Bob Thornton)

It’s not unlike a Cockney Accent, but that accent doesn’t bother me…there’s a difference between an “Accent” or regional dialect and a deliberate mispronunciation of specific words.

Does anyone know what this “peeve” of mine is called?..lol

Tom

Ah.  Don-I know all too well. 

(Correction)

Don't I know all too well.  I tend to hear it a lot from most television commercial.  The one of which is from a Kool-Aid ad where one said "Oh no he dih-int".  It was later changed to "Oh no he didn't".  So, I know where you're coming from.

@ hawkfyr:

Yep, it's a glottal stop and it seems to have been adopted by some American youth around the time Brit accents started to become fashionable again in the US.  Oddly enough, it's been re-adopted by Brit kids wanting to sound American.  The usage has its origins in the south of England, around London and Essex.

In my part of the UK the word "the" is often dropped in favour of a glottal stop.  You'll often see Sheffield dialect written thus:

"Ah went dahn ter t'bus stop but they were nowt theer."

Which equates to "I went down to the bus stop but there was nothing there."

The way it's written (as t') is incorrect and misleading, which is why non Northern people have difficulty impersonating a Sheffield accent.  The dropped "the" is pronounced as t' in Lancashire, though.

Thanks Sam,

BTW…I hope nobody thinks I’m slamming a Cockney accent…I actually think it’s kinda cool. I suppose it’s the selective use of it here that kinda bugs me. In other words…If someone is going to adopt an accent…adopt the whole thing…not just the glottal stop…lol

But I love accents…I’ve been told I have a very generic “newscastery” accent and most folks can not place where I hail from. I lived  in the American Mid-West (Ohio…and a short stint in Michigan) until I was about 15, then moved to the Mid-Atlantic region for about 25 years (Worshington D.C./Ballimore)..

I now live in the South-East. (North Carolina) but rarely does anyone pin my accent down to either the Mid-West or the Mid-Atlantic. They can better tell where I’m Not from than where I AM from…lol

I love some of the Southern/Elegant accents down here (Not so much the Red-Necky accents though).

I like the way they will take a one syllable word and make into a two syllable word… For example: “Boy” becomes “Bow-wee” or “Their” becomes “They-yer”

My friend will tell her grandson.“Bow-wee...You bettuh getta way from They-yer”… lol

Oh well…sorry for the thread drift but for real…how long can we talk about apostrophe’s before migrating to something else?
Tom

Quote - The one that gets me every time is writing "would have" the way it's pronounced "would of" :)

As in, I would of been on time if I had woken up earlier.   Come on people, it's have been, not of been!!  "Of" is a preposition, not a verb!

I've caught myself doing that before, and am fully aware of the difference.  I can only guess that my brain is sounding it out before typing and forgetting what it knows.

Being from WV, I can tell you that people around here love their extry apostrophes.  My least favorite signs are for places that deal in used CD's, TV's, and/or VCR's.

The superfluous apostrophe is sometimes known as the Greengrocer's Apostrophe over here, since they seem to be the ones who misuse it the most.  

Quote - @LaurieA:  Your Beetlejuice story reminds me ... back in 1965 or so my HS dramatics group presented "Raisin in the Sun".  One of the English teachers insisted on calling it "Rising in the Sun", because raisin' was ungrammatical.

Sounds like a person whose arrogance was a sad match for their ignorance.

Quote - The superfluous apostrophe is sometimes known as the Greengrocer's Apostrophe over here, since they seem to be the ones who misuse it the most.  

Seems to be the same here, though I think that term went out of fashion about 50 years ago.  Their descendents pop in here from time to time looking for help remapping their UV's and importing their OBJ's.

I think it is a habit for them, expecially the ones that use those lighted signs with the all-caps plastic letters, to use the apostrophe to separate the "S" from the rest of the acronym.

I always want to use the apostrophe in the one place that it doesn't belong but should, and that's to form the posessive of it.  Why can't a thing have a possession?  I hate words that are lone exceptions to every other rule!

Its is to it as his is to he - it's a pronoun, with a possessive form of its own.

I've just discovered this thread.

The "errant apostrophe" is a pet peeve of mine, as well as the various misspelt words.

I have an email penpal from Estonia whose written English is flawless. What is the excuse of those of us who have English as their first language ?

only can be 2 excuses ..lazy or unlearnded