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What are your pet peeves re English usage?

 
 
McTag
 
  1  
Reply Mon 16 May, 2005 01:08 pm
smorgs wrote:
me thinks you look quite fetching McTag :wink:


Well I wasn't looking for compliments but thank'ee ma'am. Embarrassed
0 Replies
 
JTT
 
  1  
Reply Mon 16 May, 2005 04:11 pm
Setanta wrote:
Despite having added to your original response, you have not eliminated the misanthropic character of this riposte. As has been noted again and again since you began stomping all over this thread, this is as much a social venue as it is anything else. People try to be sociable with you, and in return, we get your ill-concealed sneers. I consider you not to be worth any responses in future.


If you don't read into my replies what you want to see there, then you can appreciate them in the spirit they are meant. Lighten up, Setanta.
0 Replies
 
JTT
 
  1  
Reply Mon 16 May, 2005 04:13 pm
smorgs wrote:
me thinks you look quite fetching McTag :wink:


I quite agree. One of the best avatars here.
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Clary
 
  1  
Reply Tue 17 May, 2005 02:39 am
But McT, admit you stole the fetching look from Terry Pratchett
http://www.tameside.gov.uk/libraries/childrens/pratchett.jpg

at least he has the excuse of being bald underneath.
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Virago
 
  1  
Reply Wed 18 May, 2005 12:07 pm
I agree the avatars are really nice. Nice to see a photo, or an image, with the name. I tend to be a little... reserved... about adding those things, though. Rolling Eyes

Virago
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Piffka
 
  1  
Reply Sat 21 May, 2005 01:21 pm
Apostrophes
One of my pet peeves -- the incorrect use of apostrophes. I was pleased and amused to find a comrade-in-arms while reading the morning's paper. David Grimes wrote this column: To apostrophe or not to apostrophe

Quote:
The Apostrophe Protection Society in England (Piffka note: Where else?) collects photos of publicly displayed misuse... for example:

Your all fool's.

0 Replies
 
Setanta
 
  1  
Reply Sat 21 May, 2005 02:13 pm
Yo mama . . .
























































. . . what about "Yo mama," does that bother ya?
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McTag
 
  1  
Reply Sat 21 May, 2005 02:18 pm
I hate all that stuff too. I enjoyed Lynn Truss's book...in this country, our greengrocers get the worst press for their handwritten signs; "Caulie's cheap today", "New Potatoe's", and so on. Ms Truss covers this in her excellent and humorous book, of course.

It struck me that the Minnesotans had the choice of naming their street Scholar's Walk, Scholars' Walk or Scholars Walk. With a name, who knows which is best.
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Piffka
 
  1  
Reply Sat 21 May, 2005 02:50 pm
And in the end... they decided against an apostrophe because anything else would be going "down that ol' slippery slope." Wink



Set... I don't mind "Yo Mama" as long as it is not directed at me. I guess if there were an apostrophe stuck in there, I wouldn't care much for it, though it would probably be correct if used this way:

You mindin' yo' Mama?
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Setanta
 
  1  
Reply Sat 21 May, 2005 02:58 pm
Aw shucks . . . y'all ain't no fun . . .


(Did i get the apostrophes right?)
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Piffka
 
  1  
Reply Sat 21 May, 2005 03:50 pm
Setanta wrote:
Aw shucks . . . y'all ain't no fun . . .


(Did i get the apostrophes right?)



Did you ever notice if you say apostrophe too many times quickly, it quits making sense and the syllables slip?
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Setanta
 
  1  
Reply Sat 21 May, 2005 03:51 pm
When i was a wee lad, i tried that with just about every multi-syllabic word i could think of . . . it works with them all . . .
0 Replies
 
Piffka
 
  1  
Reply Sat 21 May, 2005 04:06 pm
Very Happy Yup.

And in thinking about it a little more, I 'magine that the more multi the syllabics, the bigger the confusion.
0 Replies
 
ehBeth
 
  1  
Reply Sun 22 May, 2005 10:05 am
<spitting>


Listening to a radio feature interview about the end of the run of Mamma Mia :


"I've seen it between 25 times plus."
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Piffka
 
  1  
Reply Sun 22 May, 2005 12:43 pm
LOL

Well, that sounds like a lot. Wink
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booman2
 
  1  
Reply Sun 22 May, 2005 12:49 pm
"Deju vu all over again"....ARRGGHHH!!! Mad
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Setanta
 
  1  
Reply Sun 22 May, 2005 12:52 pm
Oh wow, my man, Yogi . . .

If you come to a fork in the road, take it.

If the fans don't come out to the ball park, you can't stop them.

You should always go to other people's funerals; otherwise, they won't come to yours.


and the clincher:

I didn't really say everything I said.
0 Replies
 
booman2
 
  1  
Reply Sun 22 May, 2005 04:26 pm
The problem with the most famous of the Yogisms is that fifty years after he said it, people in responsible public speaking jobs, use it like it's proper, rather than explaining to impressionable youngsters who may be listening, "I am repeating a fifty year old malaprop' don't try this at home kids", or wherever.
0 Replies
 
Setanta
 
  1  
Reply Sun 22 May, 2005 04:27 pm
Good point, Boss . . . and they may themselves not even be aware that they are uttering malapropisms . . .
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annifa
 
  1  
Reply Sun 22 May, 2005 04:34 pm
The word "lads" infuriates me. And "blatently", and "basically" (when overused) ... grrr.

Also, using "would of". Oh it would of, would it of? I should of known, shouldn't of I?

Have (now isn't that a good word?) probably moaned about that ^^ before on a2k, oh well, likes to make me point I does.
0 Replies
 
 

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