What's the distinction between "common", "stereotypical" and "popular"?

Your question should be "What are the distinctions . . . " etc. One does assume that English is your mother tongue.

Okay.

What are the distinctions between "common", "stereotypical" and "popular"?

Huge, they're not interchangeable terms at all. The sparrow is common over here, that doesn't necessarily mean it's popular or a stereotypical bird.

Stereotypes are a short hand version of categorising a group by perceived shared characteristics. There is some truth in them or they wouldn't exist but many are negative.

I'm going to talk about a positive stereotype, the Indian chemist/pharmacist. Now there are a lot of Indian people dispensing medicines so there is a lot of truth to it, but if you were casting for a soap or other piece of drama and all Indian people were only cast as pharmacists there would be a problem.

An entertainer can be very popular, but there's only one of them.

Not "between" You mean "among"

Between refers to 2 things.
Among is well, among more than 2 things.

Common, among other definitions (see what I did there), means occuring often, not unusual to find, not unique, everyday.

Stereotypical is attributing certain qualities to an entire group of things or people or behavior

Popular is something enjoyed or done by a large number of people at a given time.

Care to provide some context? This is a weird question.

Dirt and pollution is relatively common in certain places. Neither can be described as being stereotypical or popular. Oxygen is a very common element in the air we breath. Will you be calling that stereotypical or popular?

You clearly have some deeper conception formed in your mind. It's not based on my examples. Without context, no one can come close to answering this thread. Care to elaborate on why you're asking this obtuse quasiphilosophical question?

You're reading way too much into this.

I am somewhat of a grammar stickler. I just want to make sure I am using the words "common", "stereotypical" and "popular" in the right context.

So you want to know if you're using the words in the right context, but you're not telling us what the context is.

So what is the context?



If you are something (not somewhat) of a grammar stickler, you first might want to learn the meanings of "between" and "among" as well as the difference between "is" are "are"

Even someone who is not a "stickler" needs to know such basic things as that.

Tsar isn't reading too much into anything. You're unable for form a proper question using the most basic of grammar rules, or ask the question in a way that is meaningful.

Okay. I asked on Yahoo! Answers recently if "Bailey", "Brooke" and "Bridget" are common and/or stereotypical Valley Girl names.

Is it correct to say "common and/or stereotypical"?

Is this enough context?

Let's see if this helps. Over here we have Essex girl jokes, like most jokes that insult a particular demographic, they're not very funny, and I'm not here to support them.

The protagonist of Essex girl jokes is stupid, vain, shallow and over sexed. They're nearly always called Sharon or Tracey. Sharon and Tracey are stereotypical Essex girl names.

There's a reality programme over here called The Only Way is Essex, (TOWIE). This deals with real life people in Essex. Like most reality shows it's a load of crap, and I don't watch it, but certain people from TOWIE have made it on to other panel/comedy shows. One of theses is a lady called Gemma Collins.

Gemma is a common name in Essex, but it's not stereotypical, you wouldn't use it when telling an Essex girl joke like you would Sharon or Tracey.

To me, these three words are different, there is no obvious connection