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Author | Topic: Linguistic Pet Peeves | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tony650 Member (Idle past 4060 days) Posts: 450 From: Australia Joined: |
I'm hardly a grammatical genius, myself, but yes, some of those do get to me.
Rrhain writes: "I could care less." Really? How much less could you care? It's: "I could not care less." Yup, that one gets me, too. Sure I know what they mean, but argh! Personally, I don't use "could not" either; I say, "I couldn't care less." Yeah I know; minor quibble.
Rrhain writes: "Alot." What is this word? Did you mean "a lot"? I also see that one quite alot (sorry, I couldn't resist ). It makes me wonder if people are just slack in hitting their space bar or if they actually mean to spell it that way. Sometimes it reminds me of eighth-grade French class, as I instinctively want to pronounce it "ah-loh." I'm not sure what to add but one that comes to mind is the possessive form of "it." My understanding is that, if there is an apostrophe, it is always read as "it is." For example, "It's beauty was enchanting" is grammatically incorrect as, technically, it would read as "It is beauty was enchanting." The correct form would be "Its beauty was enchanting." Of course, some things are fun to use simply because they are so grammatically wrong. I recall a guy in high school, for example, who frequently said, "Does I gotta?" and yet another who enjoyed saying, "I'm doin' me some book-learnin'." I'm just as guilty, of course. Whenever I hear someone use a double-negative, I admonish them with, "Don't never use no double-negatives." I then point out that mine is exempt because, technically, it's a triple-negative.
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Tony650 Member (Idle past 4060 days) Posts: 450 From: Australia Joined: |
Nighttrain writes: It hasn`t crept into Aussie lingo yet, but I find a real teeth-grinder (is that good English? :-))in the expression 'my bad'. My bad what? Bad humour? Bad English? Bad breath? Don't quote me on this, but I believe that, in this context, "bad" is supposed to be a noun, not an adjective. In other words, "My bad" = "My fault," "My mistake," "My error," etc. Yes, it's terrible grammar, but I think that's what it's supposed to mean.
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Tony650 Member (Idle past 4060 days) Posts: 450 From: Australia Joined: |
purpledawn writes: I have noticed lately the use of "an" before a vowel or vowel sound has been used incorrectly. There are some words (usually beginning with the letter "H") that I've seen used both ways and I've never been sure which is correct. For example, "I have a hypothesis" vs. "I have an hypothesis" or "It's a historical fact" vs. "It's an historical fact." Can anyone tell me which of these is correct?
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Tony650 Member (Idle past 4060 days) Posts: 450 From: Australia Joined: |
crashfrog writes: I hate comma overuse. I blame leigons of English teachers who said "don't worry about the comma rules; just put a comma where you'd naturally pause." Yeah, that's what I was always taught. To be specific, I was told that a comma "denotes a point where you would take a breath." To be honest, comma usage is one thing that still somewhat baffles me. I think I have some idea how it's used but I'm still not that clear on it. Does anyone know of a good, online source that explains this?
crashfrog writes: Why? You can do that in English - retask words just by shuffling them around in sentences. Heck, I did it just now. Hmm...that's a good question. I never gave it much thought. I suppose I assumed it was grammatically incorrect as the word "bad" isn't generally used that way. I don't think I've ever seen the dictionary show "bad" as a noun, but I guess there's a first time for everything. As I said, I'm no English major so don't take my word for anything.
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Tony650 Member (Idle past 4060 days) Posts: 450 From: Australia Joined: |
Lam writes: Does god has free will? Does god have free will? Does God have free will? And thanks for your answer regarding "a" vs. "an." How ironic that someone whose first language is not English knows it better than those for whom it is.
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Tony650 Member (Idle past 4060 days) Posts: 450 From: Australia Joined: |
crashfrog writes: On the other hand, the h in "herb" is silent, so the proper use is "an herb." That's odd because I've always said, "a herb" (fully pronouncing the "H"). I'll have to ask around and see if this is an Australian thing or if I'm just weird.
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Tony650 Member (Idle past 4060 days) Posts: 450 From: Australia Joined: |
Oops. Sorry, I misunderstood.
I'm afraid I'm not familiar enough with the formal rules of English to say. For what it's worth, though, here is how I would break it down. As a question ("Does God have free will?"), the word is "have." As an affirmative statement ("God has free will."), the word is "has." As a negative statement ("God does not have free will."), the word is "have." I wish I could explain why this is but I'm afraid I don't really know. I only know that this is how I've always used the words. Sorry. And yes, in my experience, it's not at all uncommon to come across "non-native English speakers" who know it better than native speakers. To be honest, it doesn't surprise me any more.
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Tony650 Member (Idle past 4060 days) Posts: 450 From: Australia Joined: |
Mr Jack writes: You've stumbled on my big pet hate in speech. Double negatives. The idea that double negatives are 'wrong' or amount to a positive is an utter invention, an ugly convention forced on language by academics with their heads far too far up their own bums. In natural English grammar a double negative, like a double positive is an affirmation or strengthening of the statement. Double-negatives are grammatically correct? I didn't know that. Well, if that's what you're saying. I'm afraid you kind of lost me but I think that's what you meant. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
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Tony650 Member (Idle past 4060 days) Posts: 450 From: Australia Joined: |
Hi purpledawn.
Yes, this is similar to what I was taught. For some reason, though, I also recall being taught "an hypothesis" and "an historical." I'm not really sure why. For these words, it doesn't seem to make sense but I can understand others, such as the case of "herb" mentioned earlier. I've always assumed that it's just an Australian thing but I don't know for sure. Anyway, I noticed at a very early age (thank you, Sesame street ) that Americans pronounce the letter H "eytch," whereas I was taught that it's "heytch," with the actual H sound (as it sounds at the beginning of "house," for example) pronounced. This obviously affects the way I pronounce certain words, like the aforementioned "herb." Americans say "erb"...I say "herb" (with the H sound. As such, an American would say "an herb" but I would say "a herb." I'm interested to hear from the other Aussies on the forum. Is this the correct Australian pronunciation or was I taught incorrectly? How were the other Aussies taught to pronounce the letter H; "eytch" (no H sound), or "heytch" (with H sound)?
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Tony650 Member (Idle past 4060 days) Posts: 450 From: Australia Joined: |
Nighttrain writes: Thanks for clearing that up, Tone. No problem, Nighttrain. Happy to help.
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Tony650 Member (Idle past 4060 days) Posts: 450 From: Australia Joined: |
Ah! Thank you, schraf! I thought so, but I wasn't sure. Heh, I should have read to the end of the thread before replying to purpledawn. Anyway, thanks for the confirmation.
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Tony650 Member (Idle past 4060 days) Posts: 450 From: Australia Joined: |
Mr Jack writes: I challenge you to find a single native english speaker who doesn't understand "I didn't do nothing wrong". I'm not questioning whether or not people understand it, I just wondered if it conforms to the correct formal English grammar. I honestly don't know, that's why I was asking. As I said, I'm really not that well versed in the formal rules of English. That's why I could only give Lam my own personal experience regarding his question of "have" vs. "has." I could tell him what I believe "sounds right" but I couldn't actually tell him why they're used this way. Sorry if I came across the wrong way.
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Tony650 Member (Idle past 4060 days) Posts: 450 From: Australia Joined: |
Oh, you mean the common usage of grammar? Alright then. Thanks for clarifying. Sorry about my confusion.
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