What are your pet peeves re English usage?

@Setanta,

Staying "on topic", the Canucks pronounce "been" correctly because a double vowel says its own name.

@Letty,

However, they can't say schedule properly, nor spell center, color, honor, etc. . . . and they don't know the name of the last letter of the alphabet.

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@Setanta,

zed.

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Some Ontarians, including those who are well educated, have odd pronunciations. Many of them say eye-run for iron, and any word ending in -own gets an extra syllable--grow-wen for grown, ow-wen for own, un-know-wen for unknown. I think it is only middle-aged and older Ontarians who are descended from native English speakers.

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@Setanta,

Setanta wrote:

If you know what an icon is, then you'll understand. Iconic is used these days as some sort of intensifier of praise. I routinely hear someone's first music album or motion picture being described as iconic. Not compared to a genre and said to be iconic; not compared to a body of work (there is none to compare to when it's the first) and described as iconic--just described as iconic because the speaker wishes to praise it.

Iconic has become meaningless--rather like awesome was rendered meaningless in the 1960s and -70s, when it was used without regard to whether the product or person referred to actually inspired awe. Same thing with iconic these days.

Thank u.

David

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@Setanta,

Quote:

Iconic has become meaningless--rather like awesome was rendered meaningless in the 1960s and -70s, when it was used without regard to whether the product or person referred to actually inspired awe. Same thing with iconic these days.

Meaningless piffle from one of the A2K masters of piffledom. "X has become meaningless" - now where have we heard that before? And no attribution.

If all these words have become 'meaningless', how is it that people still use them, frequently and those that hear them understand?

Quote:

If you know what an icon is, then you'll understand.

I do, know, that is. I have a bunch of them on my desktop and I don't get the least bit confused when the word is used in different contexts.

The advent of [desktop-computer] icon hasn't made the other meanings meaningless. All it has done is add one more meaning to the list for 'icon'.

Any English speaker with half a brain knows that words can have many meanings. This doesn't cause puzzlement for five year olds but it confuses the hell out of Setanta.

Quote:

Iconic is used these days as some sort of intensifier of praise. I routinely hear someone's first music album or motion picture being described as iconic. Not compared to a genre and said to be iconic; not compared to a body of work (there is none to compare to when it's the first) and described as iconic--just described as iconic because the speaker wishes to praise it.

Why is it that there is a decided shortage of examples from this guy who "routinely" hears what will, in all certainty, be the death knell for the English language?

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@McTag,

Quote:

And even tire like tyer, tho' I probably shouldn't.

I deserve a good spanking for not rolling my rrr's and another one when I do.

My preferred dictionary is very strict like parliament.

Muchly mocking when 'local accents' embrace dialects.

If only others could speak as I.

1 Reply

@laughoutlood,

laughoutlood wrote:

Quote:
And even tire like tyer, tho' I probably shouldn't.

I deserve a good spanking for not rolling my rrr's and another one when I do.

My preferred dictionary is very strict like parliament.

Muchly mocking when 'local accents' embrace dialects.

If only others could speak as I.

OK, but spell fonetically.

Do u have the Scotch accent??

I like the Scotch accent.

The English accent gets on my nerves.

I wish the English woud speak normally.

David

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@OmSigDAVID,

I'm with you, I hate accents, and cliches are like a red rag to a bull to me.

I love brogues trippingly stepping out together.

Och aye the noo

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@Setanta,

Setanta wrote:

However, they can't say schedule properly, nor spell center, color, honor, etc. . . . and they don't know the name of the last letter of the alphabet.

...I was going to reply, but oh why bother! (I'm not Canadian but follow British English, if that's the correct term. England English, er..., well you know what I mean!)

Setanta wrote:

Many of them say eye-run for iron

Which reminds, one of the most irritating of American pronunciations is "a-LOO-mnm" for aluminium. Gaah it gets on my nerves!

And I agree with Setanta about the degrading of the words "awesome", "iconic" and many others.

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@Quincy,

Perhaps you haven't noticed that Americans pronounce aluminum differently because they also spell it different.y.

1 Reply

@Quincy,

You don't like Quincy Jones?

I really love the differences in languages. The purpose is to communicate, so if one does that effectively, we have been successful.

1 Reply

@Letty,

And of course, language differences can be very entertaining--a good play on words can be pungent . . .

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@Setanta,

Setanta wrote:

Perhaps you haven't noticed that Americans pronounce aluminum differently because they also spell it different.y.

That doesn't excuse you lot, in fact it makes it worse. Not only do you give 'aluminium' an aweful pronunciation, you also spell it wrong!

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@Quincy,

Clown

1 Reply

@OmSigDAVID,

"I wish the English woud speak normally"

Hadaway an' shite.

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@Setanta,

Setanta wrote:

Clown

http://us.123rf.com/400wm/400/400/rjlerich/rjlerich0903/rjlerich090300037/4475674-middle-aged-man-in-thought-handsome-good-looking-senior-inquisitive-look.jpg

1 Reply

Tell me something, oh fount of orthographic wisdom. You spell the common noun center as centre, no?

When you put a weight on a fishing line to draw the bait down into the water, do you call that a sinkre?

If you use a machine to thresh your grain, do you call that a threshre?

The English ought never to crow about the excellence of their spelling.

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@Quincy,

Ha! Looking at the properties of that pic, I see it is entitled "middle-aged-man-in-thought-handsome-good-looking-senior-inquisitive-look"

Tell me Q, did you put that in to the search engine?

Not blushing now are you?

1 Reply

@Old Goat,

Old Goat wrote:

Ha! Looking at the properties of that pic, I see it is entitled "middle-aged-man-in-thought-handsome-good-looking-senior-inquisitive-look"

Tell me Q, did you put that in to the search engine?

Not blushing now are you?

Actually, I searched for 'inquisitive' with google images. Try it.

Setanta wrote:

Tell me something, oh fount of orthographic wisdom. You spell the common noun center as centre, no?

When you put a weight on a fishing line to draw the bait down into the water, do you call that a sinkre?

If you use a machine to thresh your grain, do you call that a threshre?

The English ought never to crow about the excellence of their spelling.

Oh Setanta. I'm tired of having these debates. They're everywhere on the internet. Anyway, I'm sure someone else is willing to pick it up with you. In fact, there must be a thread (or several) somewhere that already deal with this.

1 Reply

What are your pet peeves re English usage?

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