Here’s where you can unload your pedantic language gripes. We’ll have no people here saying “this is a trivial issue”. Of course it is, but so what? I have three today, and perhaps I’ve mentioned one of these before:
1.) The duplicated “is”. It goes like this: “The thing is, is that. . . . ”
2.) “Drop” meaning “was released”. For example, “Demi Lovato’s new single dropped yesterday.”
3.) “Gifted” meaning “gave.” Example: “I gifted her a hand-knit sweater for Christmas.”
I won’t even mention “medal” used as a verb in the Olympics. . . .
Of course I importune you to add your own language beefs below.
I glance at this and go on to the next email which starts:
Hi,
Our latest article has just dropped and its quality!
“Fed up” and “all of a sudden” really grind my gears, though not nearly as bad as “going viral”.
“Can I help who’s next?”
Clearly this phrase started life as a concatenation of “Can I help the next person?” and “Who’s next?” I hear it everywhere these days. Drives me crazy.
Blame Pete Townshend.
Nothing grammatically wrong with it. It’s informal, that’s all, just a shortened form of “Can I help the person who is next?”
Some of mine:
1. “Alternate” and “alternative” do not mean the same thing.
2. Dropping the “of” when referring to a couple of something: for instance: “Today I ate a couple strawberries” as opposed to “today I ate a couple of strawberries”.
3. The usually incorrect “I could care less”, when what is meant is in fact the opposite “I couldn’t care less”.
I’ve always thought “dropped” refers to a record dropping on a turntable to be played.
Back in the 70s before cassettes and CDs and mp3s this is how you played singles.
“Learnings” as a noun, all too common in Corporatespeak.
“Let’s schedule a team meet-up to share out our learnings.”
Share out???
A propos Michelangelo and the FSM, behold a recent NYer cartoon:
https://condenaststore.com/featured/the-creation-of-static-julia-suits.html
you mean like I like it or like kind of like?
Oops,this was meant for like koppieop at 108
I wondered…it is often hard to reply to the appropriate comment on this site.
That’s it!
The innecessary but increasing misuse and overuse of “like”.
.-
My greatest irritation is the phrase “I was like . . ” instead of “I said”, closely followed by “Listen up” as opposed to “Listen”. America leads the world in the destruction of the English language, it seems.
Surely it’s not a matter of “destruction” of the language but rather its opposite. New expressions and constructions, however irksome or idiomatic or colloquial, add color and variety, particularly in informal registers.
—My greatest irritation is the phrase “I was like . . ” instead of “I said” —
This habit is also spreading fast in Spanish, at least in Argentina, where I live. The few persons I have asked why they (mis)use that word either didn’t even realize they did, or didn’t see what the problem was.
.-
Just saw a Daily Show we taped while we were away. Bill Gates was on talking about the wonderful work he’s doing with AIDS and malaria and polio but he used less instead of fewer no fewer than two times🤢
The distinction between “less” and “fewer” is less clear-cut than many believe.
“Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage” traces the objection to “less” where many might prefer “fewer” to Robert Baker, who commented in his “Reflections on the English Language”(1770):
“This word is most commonly used in speaking of a Number; where I should think Fewer would be better. No Fewer than a Hundred appears to me not only more elegant than No less than a Hundred, but more strictly proper.”
MWDEU points out that the guarded nature of Baker’s words suggests he is expressing a personal view. By the 20th century, however, that view had for many become a “rule” of usage. But, as MWDEU reminds us, the OED shows that “less” has been used for countables for more than 1000 years.
In assessing examples showing “less” used with countable nouns, MWDEU concludes: “[N]ative speakers and writers of English use “less” of count nouns in various constructions. ‘Fewer’ could have been used in many of [the examples]. At times it might have been thought more elegant, as Robert Baker thought, but in others no native speaker would use anything but ‘less.'”
It’s worth pondering why we are content with a single word, “more,” to describe both greater quantities and greater amounts. Pam Peters, in “The Cambridge Guide to English Usage” makes a good point: “[I]t was and is essentially a stylistic choice, between the more formal ‘fewer’ and the more spontaneous ‘less.’ ‘Fewer’ draws attention to itself, whereas ‘less’ shifts the focus on to its more significant neighbours.”
That notion would justify the much decried supermarket sign: ‘15 Items Or Less,’ not that it should need justification, particularly when the shopper’s basket may be considered as containing an amount.
Thanks for this, Don. I still found Gates’ use grating, but in the grand scheme of things ( at the end of the day, etc…) I guess it’s not that big a deal😬
Right you are. And I’m glad to see you did not write “I guess it’s not that big of a deal.” That one bugs me just a little. 🙂
Ooooo! {grin} At the end of the day I’m getting mighty tired of the end of the day and all the stuph that is supposed to have happened by the end of the day…
Me, too!!! And I also omitted “it is what it is”. Love your spelling of stuph🤓
And I didn’t add “in the fullness of time…” as Sir Humphrey (Humpy) was wont to do in Yes, Minister😬
I read fan fiction regularly and there are many things that show up in the stories, but what annoys me the most is, when they use ‘drug’ as the past tense for ‘drag’. It is extremely common among fan fiction authors.
In standard English, “dragged” is the past tense and past participle of “drag.” “Drug,” however, is a regional variant used in many areas of the U.S. It’s too common to be considered “wrong,” though it is stigmatizing.
“Drug” sounds incredibly uneducated to me.
Stigmatizing for sure–more so than “lay” for “lie.”
Lay for lie seems depressingly ubiquitous these days. Think I’ll go lay down and pull be covers over my head🙀
Yes, it seems that horse is out of the barn and ten miles down the pike.
Lol
English is constantly changing. Nouns becoming verbs has happened for centuries. The point is that if it serves a purpose. In some instances, the purpose is to have special language for a subclass (teenage slang, for example).
having said that my latest peeve is the use of “to try and … ” in place of “to try to …” as in “to try and prevent war.”
This is meaningless drift in the language which doesn’t benefit anyone.
Really, “try and” is fine–just colloquial (and idiomatic) speech. What’s more, as H.W. Fowler explained long ago, there is a subtle difference between “try to” and “try and”: “the latter has a shade of meaning that justifies its existence; in exhortations it implies encouragement–the effort will succeed; in promises it implies assurance–the effort shall succeed. It is an idiom that should be not discountenanced.”
And there’s this: “About the only thing that can be held against any of these combinations [try and, come and, be sure and] is that they seem not to be typical of high-toned writing, but clearly they are not out of place in informal and general prose. The judgment of ‘try and’ in Fowler 1926 remains eminently sensible today.“
–Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage
Agree that they do have different and legitimate meanings, though of course people don’t always consider shades of meaning when they talk.
I will try to win.
I will try and win.
Well, of course, the second one may have different meanings depending on whether it’s taken literally (you’re going to win) or colloquially (you’re going to try, just like the first one).
cr
My last count – at 0458 Australian Summer Daylight Time was 479 posts for this topic. Is that a record?
I guess we all just love a good whinge every now and then!