The English language is funny, don't you think? It is so easy to make up your own words by adding -ish, -ing, -ly or whatever suffix you wish.
However, some people use the English language thinking they are correct, but missing the boat completely. Here are a few choice words/phrases/pronunciations:
"Supposebly"- This is used by the people who are just confused. However, the people who use this word are certain that their variation on this word is correct.
"Irregardless"- Though this is technically a word, it is misused and makes a person sound stupid.(Usage Note: Irregardless is a word that many mistakenly believe to be correct usage in formal style, when in fact it is used chiefly in nonstandard speech or casual writing. Coined in the United States in the early 20th century, it has met with a blizzard of condemnation for being an improper yoking of irrespective and regardless and for the logical absurdity of combining the negative ir- prefix and -less suffix in a single term. Although one might reasonably argue that it is no different from words with redundant affixes like debone and unravel, it has been considered a blunder for decades and will probably continue to be so.-Dictionary.com)
A lazy tongue: Pronouncing the word "Sale" as "Sell." Also pronouncing the word "Seal" as "Sell." For instance: "Did you see the sell they had at wet sell?" No joke, Andy and I heard this sentence actually spoken at Gateway mall. Yikes.
Dropping the 'T'- Usually found in Utah, this speech anomaly is also due to a lazy mouth. Words such as mountain and fountain mysteriously are rewritten as someone puts them into a sentence. "That fou_ain is right below the moun_ain...You know, just east of Lay_on?
"But at the same time"- I worked with a person who used this phrase countless times in one day (every day). Though she used it with confidence I very much doubt that she ever thought about the meaning of what she was saying. She would throw two thoughts at random into a sentence and link them with 'but at the same time'. "I like to drive to work, but at the same time, I could really go for a bologna sandwich."
Please feel free to add your own stories and examples. I'd love to hear them!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
13 comments:
Literally. Most of the time it's not meant literally. "Literally, I died!" Well, no, literally you did not die as you are still living to say this really ridiculous phrase which makes me literally want to kill you...
I love it. :) Good one.
How about "aint no"? Even if you accept aint as an appropriate contraction for am not, which I don't (but do love to use), following it with "no" just further condemns you as a retard. My guess is, however, that anybody that says that without being ironic probably doesn't care much about grammatical accuracy. I also doubt they read, much less read your blog. There, I said it.
-Brett-
I love you, Brett. I just do. May I commend you for reading the blog in the first place? Well done!
You got me thinking here Candace. I have another one for you - Bat-tree. Yes, as in battery but they say bat-tree like it's where bat's live or something. Example: "I need to swing by Home Depot (this person might well say dee-poT, annunciating the T) to get some double A bat-trees."
By the way, April, what are you afraid of posting here, get on it!
Should have went.
OK here are two that make me cringe! "Losengers" (pronounced Loz-in-gers) when people are atempting to say losenges!!! I get this alot at my work, which makes oh such a happy place to be! :) Ps your blog is as always a delight to read!
Haha I I forgot to write the second before I posted the last comment. Here it is: "Un-thaw" as in "I'm going to un-thaw the chicken for dinner tonight". Yum nice frosty chickem! And all this time I thought you were supposed to defrost and cook it! Silly me!
"axe" instead of "ask" as in: "can i axe you something?" HELL NO you can't axe me anything! i hate that. the literally one is good too. i'm sure i'll come up with some others..
ewww I hate those! Jon (the dear hub) and his whole family say Exspecially.....gggggggrrrrrrrrrrrr. end.
how about "I could care less" technically the phrase should be "I couldnt care less" as in What you are saying right now is something so irrelivant that I don't care, in fact I don't care so much that not an ounce of my body could even fathom caring any less than I do right now, as opposed to "I could care less, right now I care a little about this, not a lot but if you keep talking there is a possiblility I could care more..."
I probly hear people say "pacifically" every day. Alls you have to do is listen carefully, expecially when at a mall or junior high. Proper English is something a lot of us take for granite.
Post a Comment