Things people say
- Thread starter AdamW
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I have noticed a local dialect one round here, a double superlative. For example:
"I have the most fastest car",
Even a triple superlative : "This is my most favouritist food."
Believe me, people saying "should of" instead of "should have" or even "should've" is the minimum of worries. I have seen legally binding documents with such errors in. When you point them out to people they don't seem to understand the problem with this!
"Well, we all know what it means" is all very well, but what if some clever bu**er uses it as a get out if they don't keep to their part of the deal?! "Sorry m'lud, but this document is worth squat because this sentence makes no sense!"
"I have the most fastest car",
Even a triple superlative : "This is my most favouritist food."
Believe me, people saying "should of" instead of "should have" or even "should've" is the minimum of worries. I have seen legally binding documents with such errors in. When you point them out to people they don't seem to understand the problem with this!
"Well, we all know what it means" is all very well, but what if some clever bu**er uses it as a get out if they don't keep to their part of the deal?! "Sorry m'lud, but this document is worth squat because this sentence makes no sense!"
but the law/justice system makes no sense anyway!?AdamW said:I have noticed a local dialect one round here, a double superlative. For example:
"I have the most fastest car",
Even a triple superlative : "This is my most favouritist food."
Believe me, people saying "should of" instead of "should have" or even "should've" is the minimum of worries. I have seen legally binding documents with such errors in. When you point them out to people they don't seem to understand the problem with this!
"Well, we all know what it means" is all very well, but what if some clever bu**er uses it as a get out if they don't keep to their part of the deal?! "Sorry m'lud, but this document is worth squat because this sentence makes no sense!"
You are right there, but if someone is being paid to write a legally binding document, they better write correctly! I was handed a very large document to check. I found that the whole way through, the author had written "Effect" instead of "Affect". And this word appeared literally hundreds of times, some incorrectly some not. So, the way to solve it was to define the incorrect use of "effect" in the definitions section. You can use words in a "non-standard" way provided you tell people, apparently. 
Could you imagine a builder being sloppy with bricks? Just putting in half bricks here and there cos he wasn't thinking? Or perhaps a spark putting a brass outlet on your wall instead of a nickel one... well... it's all metal, isn't it?
Could you imagine a builder being sloppy with bricks? Just putting in half bricks here and there cos he wasn't thinking? Or perhaps a spark putting a brass outlet on your wall instead of a nickel one... well... it's all metal, isn't it?
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I fink yur makin' summit outa nuffink!
I try very hard to keep my children on the straight and narrow with their speech, I'm sure they will apreciate it one day...
I try very hard to keep my children on the straight and narrow with their speech, I'm sure they will apreciate it one day...
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Yer - sor doo ai. I mean: So do I!
William picks up bad verbal habits and we correct him. Usually the local dialect where Manchester is pronounced Manchestoh. And most words are extended with a "uh" sound on words at the end of a sentence, ie:
I don't knowuh.
We're not snobs - I don't mind our kids picking up a local accent (which invariably they will do, even when spoken to differently at home), but I hate laziness in launguage.
As an aside, NEW is the most used word in advertising. Not surprising really.
William picks up bad verbal habits and we correct him. Usually the local dialect where Manchester is pronounced Manchestoh. And most words are extended with a "uh" sound on words at the end of a sentence, ie:
I don't knowuh.
We're not snobs - I don't mind our kids picking up a local accent (which invariably they will do, even when spoken to differently at home), but I hate laziness in launguage.
As an aside, NEW is the most used word in advertising. Not surprising really.
B
breezer
securespark said:
one that "annoys me" is the description of the "piece of glass" at the front of a car.
i quite often hear it called windowscreen, does this mean it is there to screen out any ones flying window?
A knack that my bro and sis used to have back at school was being "bilingual". At school they would "cor blimey gavnah" with the best of them, but at home they would speak Surrey.
I never picked up this talent (permanently set on Kensington now) and to this day always feel a right prat when I use the word "mate" to someone who isn't a close friend... it sounds so false from me, but I still do it.
Funniest bilingual I know is a friend from Uni: speaks broad Brummy with his family, and Kensington at work. After a few beers the mother tongue returns and he is 100% Brum!
I never picked up this talent (permanently set on Kensington now) and to this day always feel a right prat when I use the word "mate" to someone who isn't a close friend... it sounds so false from me, but I still do it.
Funniest bilingual I know is a friend from Uni: speaks broad Brummy with his family, and Kensington at work. After a few beers the mother tongue returns and he is 100% Brum!
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okay, okay, i'll join in!
Modern youth seems to have this word that is placed between almost every other word - "basically" - that' it !
One of the many misunderstandings I had with my previous wife was after we had had a barny whilst camping, she said "go and post the post-cards" - she still, to this day, maintains that she did not mean go down the pub and have a few, I am sure she got that wrong.
Modern youth seems to have this word that is placed between almost every other word - "basically" - that' it !
One of the many misunderstandings I had with my previous wife was after we had had a barny whilst camping, she said "go and post the post-cards" - she still, to this day, maintains that she did not mean go down the pub and have a few, I am sure she got that wrong.
kendor said:
The word "innit" is actually a very interesting one... whilst in English it is a contraction of "is it not" (i.e. isn't it), the word "innit" in Punjabi means the same thing.
So, this "word" has simultaneously evolved in it's use in two separate cultures, innit.
But we aren't the only ones who have words put in everywhere. In French I get annoyed with people using the word "donc". Young or old, you just put it in anywhere you feel, usually accompanied by a shrug. You know when you are just too tired to properly finish sentences? Just stick a donc in it (oo-err!) and shrug.
Heck, if you just know a few words of French, bluff it by starting off with "Je voudrais acheter... errrr... un chat, donc... errr? Oui?" and they will think "Sacre Bleu, 'ee speaks Fronsh lahk a reee-al Fronshman."
Market stalls selling ersatz products such as "Beef" and "Carrots". What, ironic beef perhaps?
The grocers' apostrophe; if in doubt, stick one in. For example, apple's.
The distressingly widespread misuses of its/it's, your/you're, there/their and other homonyms.
And Adam's quite right about it creeping into documents that ought to be grammatically perfect. Are proofreaders becoming illiterate, or are the publishers cutting corners? Making grammatical and spelling errors penalty-free in schoolwork was a truly inspired idea! Some of the written work I had to mark at college was just appalling.
Oh, it's making me ill just to think about it.
The grocers' apostrophe; if in doubt, stick one in. For example, apple's.
The distressingly widespread misuses of its/it's, your/you're, there/their and other homonyms.
And Adam's quite right about it creeping into documents that ought to be grammatically perfect. Are proofreaders becoming illiterate, or are the publishers cutting corners? Making grammatical and spelling errors penalty-free in schoolwork was a truly inspired idea! Some of the written work I had to mark at college was just appalling.
Oh, it's making me ill just to think about it.
My mum (who is a primary school teacher) told me that the literacy guidelines do in fact refer to this apostrophe as the "grocers' apostrophe"... A bit harsh on greengrocers but this is where you see it most I suppose!
Ersatz - a lovely word, I don't think I have ever seen it used in a real sentence before today! I am having trouble seeing what you mean by ersatz beef... Is this a reference to them selling poor quality meat that shouldn't really be sold as beef due to it being mainly fat?
Come on, it's late at night and I am not sure my definition of "ersatz" is correct!
Ersatz - a lovely word, I don't think I have ever seen it used in a real sentence before today!
I am having trouble seeing what you mean by ersatz beef... Is this a reference to them selling poor quality meat that shouldn't really be sold as beef due to it being mainly fat?Come on, it's late at night and I am not sure my definition of "ersatz" is correct!