Grammar 101
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What two words do you find used incorrectly the most? Two that come to mind immediately for me are these: Noxious: "I feel noxious." This is incorrect, because fumes are noxious and make a person feel nauseated. Irregardless: "Irregardless of what you may think, this sentence is incorrect." Regardless is already negative and does not need the prefix “ir” to make it more negative. "Regardless of what you may think, this sentence is correct." --- I bought a Dell XPS gaming system, started a fan site, and never looked back.
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What two words do you find used incorrectly the most? Two that come to mind immediately for me are these: Noxious: "I feel noxious." This is incorrect, because fumes are noxious and make a person feel nauseated. Irregardless: "Irregardless of what you may think, this sentence is incorrect." Regardless is already negative and does not need the prefix “ir” to make it more negative. "Regardless of what you may think, this sentence is correct." --- I bought a Dell XPS gaming system, started a fan site, and never looked back.
can and may It bugs me to hear someone say something like "Can I have a piece of pie?" If it is one of my children, I will usually reply with "I don't know, can you? Gary Kirkham A working Program is one that has only unobserved bugs He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. - Jim Elliot Who you are in Christ
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can and may It bugs me to hear someone say something like "Can I have a piece of pie?" If it is one of my children, I will usually reply with "I don't know, can you? Gary Kirkham A working Program is one that has only unobserved bugs He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. - Jim Elliot Who you are in Christ
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Yeah that bugs me too. People on the phone saying things like "Can I please talk to ... " "I believe I referred to her personality as a potential science exhibit." - Elaine, about Ellen, in "The Dog"
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What two words do you find used incorrectly the most? Two that come to mind immediately for me are these: Noxious: "I feel noxious." This is incorrect, because fumes are noxious and make a person feel nauseated. Irregardless: "Irregardless of what you may think, this sentence is incorrect." Regardless is already negative and does not need the prefix “ir” to make it more negative. "Regardless of what you may think, this sentence is correct." --- I bought a Dell XPS gaming system, started a fan site, and never looked back.
"If and when something happens", it should either "If something happens" (uncertain) or "when something happens" (certain).
"If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him, for an investment in knowledge pays the best interest." -- Joseph E. O'Donnell The Second EuroCPian Event will be in Brussels on the 4th of September Can't manage to P/Invoke that Win32 API in .NET? Why not do interop the wiki way!
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"If and when something happens", it should either "If something happens" (uncertain) or "when something happens" (certain).
"If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him, for an investment in knowledge pays the best interest." -- Joseph E. O'Donnell The Second EuroCPian Event will be in Brussels on the 4th of September Can't manage to P/Invoke that Win32 API in .NET? Why not do interop the wiki way!
Or, I think the meaning of that phrase can be accurately conveyed as "Should something happen ..." since I think the speaker is trying to say "I doubt that will happen but in the unlikely even that it does .. " "I believe I referred to her personality as a potential science exhibit." - Elaine, about Ellen, in "The Dog"
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Or, I think the meaning of that phrase can be accurately conveyed as "Should something happen ..." since I think the speaker is trying to say "I doubt that will happen but in the unlikely even that it does .. " "I believe I referred to her personality as a potential science exhibit." - Elaine, about Ellen, in "The Dog"
I don't agree. The speaker is already trying to puff themselves up to sound more important by saying more words, in which case they would use the longer form that you indicated. I think all they are trying to do is expand "if this happens" or "when that happens" by introducing two extra words.
"If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him, for an investment in knowledge pays the best interest." -- Joseph E. O'Donnell The Second EuroCPian Event will be in Brussels on the 4th of September Can't manage to P/Invoke that Win32 API in .NET? Why not do interop the wiki way!
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Yeah that bugs me too. People on the phone saying things like "Can I please talk to ... " "I believe I referred to her personality as a potential science exhibit." - Elaine, about Ellen, in "The Dog"
Ramanan Sivan wrote: People on the phone saying things like "Can I please talk to ... " That was me back when I was dating my wife. I would call and ask if I could speak with her. Her dad would say "Yes" and continue to hold the phone. It wasn't until I said "May I..." that he would say "Sure, I'll go get her." I now do the same thing!
"When I was born I was so surprised that I didn't talk for a year and a half." - Gracie Allen
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What two words do you find used incorrectly the most? Two that come to mind immediately for me are these: Noxious: "I feel noxious." This is incorrect, because fumes are noxious and make a person feel nauseated. Irregardless: "Irregardless of what you may think, this sentence is incorrect." Regardless is already negative and does not need the prefix “ir” to make it more negative. "Regardless of what you may think, this sentence is correct." --- I bought a Dell XPS gaming system, started a fan site, and never looked back.
How about when someone is expressing their complete dislike about something by saying "I could care less...?" To me, that indicates they still have a small amount of "like" left. If they totally disliked something, it should be "I couldn't care less..."
"When I was born I was so surprised that I didn't talk for a year and a half." - Gracie Allen
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I don't agree. The speaker is already trying to puff themselves up to sound more important by saying more words, in which case they would use the longer form that you indicated. I think all they are trying to do is expand "if this happens" or "when that happens" by introducing two extra words.
"If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him, for an investment in knowledge pays the best interest." -- Joseph E. O'Donnell The Second EuroCPian Event will be in Brussels on the 4th of September Can't manage to P/Invoke that Win32 API in .NET? Why not do interop the wiki way!
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What two words do you find used incorrectly the most? Two that come to mind immediately for me are these: Noxious: "I feel noxious." This is incorrect, because fumes are noxious and make a person feel nauseated. Irregardless: "Irregardless of what you may think, this sentence is incorrect." Regardless is already negative and does not need the prefix “ir” to make it more negative. "Regardless of what you may think, this sentence is correct." --- I bought a Dell XPS gaming system, started a fan site, and never looked back.
I think that half the stuff posted in the programming forums would count. Although, to be fair, most of these people don't speak English as their first language. But I do think that when people make statements rather than phrasing a questions it is inexcusable - I mean the first or second lesson anyone takes in any foreign language contains questions, even if they are basic ones like "How are you?" or "What is your name?" etc. (Curiously one of the first questions I learned in Spanish was "¿Puedes grabarme un CD, por favor?")
"If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him, for an investment in knowledge pays the best interest." -- Joseph E. O'Donnell The Second EuroCPian Event will be in Brussels on the 4th of September Can't manage to P/Invoke that Win32 API in .NET? Why not do interop the wiki way!
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What two words do you find used incorrectly the most? Two that come to mind immediately for me are these: Noxious: "I feel noxious." This is incorrect, because fumes are noxious and make a person feel nauseated. Irregardless: "Irregardless of what you may think, this sentence is incorrect." Regardless is already negative and does not need the prefix “ir” to make it more negative. "Regardless of what you may think, this sentence is correct." --- I bought a Dell XPS gaming system, started a fan site, and never looked back.
GISnet wrote: Irregardless: Yeah, that bugs me a bit. But it's usually ingorance, and so I don't much care. I'll correct people if it's appropriate and doesn't break the flow of the conversation, which is the important part of the exchange. Nothing ruins a conversation worse than an interjected "Hey, idiot, you've made an error, and I'm calling you on it. Now, what were you saying?" BW The Biggest Loser
"Farm Donkey makes us laugh.
Farm Donkey hauls some ass."
-The Stoves -
What two words do you find used incorrectly the most? Two that come to mind immediately for me are these: Noxious: "I feel noxious." This is incorrect, because fumes are noxious and make a person feel nauseated. Irregardless: "Irregardless of what you may think, this sentence is incorrect." Regardless is already negative and does not need the prefix “ir” to make it more negative. "Regardless of what you may think, this sentence is correct." --- I bought a Dell XPS gaming system, started a fan site, and never looked back.
Another one (yes, you've hit one of my pet subjects - you'll regret it soon ;P ) Split infinitives. Actually, I didn't used to pick up on it until I was rereading something that I wrote a few weeks ago and it just didn't sound right. When I reordered the words I realised that I had corrected a split infinitive.
"If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him, for an investment in knowledge pays the best interest." -- Joseph E. O'Donnell The Second EuroCPian Event will be in Brussels on the 4th of September Can't manage to P/Invoke that Win32 API in .NET? Why not do interop the wiki way!
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What two words do you find used incorrectly the most? Two that come to mind immediately for me are these: Noxious: "I feel noxious." This is incorrect, because fumes are noxious and make a person feel nauseated. Irregardless: "Irregardless of what you may think, this sentence is incorrect." Regardless is already negative and does not need the prefix “ir” to make it more negative. "Regardless of what you may think, this sentence is correct." --- I bought a Dell XPS gaming system, started a fan site, and never looked back.
The following: From an American news report many years ago, the interviewer asked this question: * "How do you view the situation judgementallywise?" Huh?? you mean "How do you judge the situation?" A couple from TechEd: * "You can colorize the various elements of the source code." Please most of the people in this room don't have English as their first language, please keep it simple: "You can colour the various elements of the source code" * "In this dialog you can choose the colorization of the text." Same comment as before. How about: "In this dialog you can choose the colour of the text". * "The woman was burglarized while she was out shopping". You mean "The woman was burgled while she was out shopping". What is it with trying to lengthen words? Are these people trying to sound more self important because they can use words of greater than two syllables? Yes, okay - I realise these are probably quite acceptable in American English, but they all seem to come into the category of using lenthier words where a shorter one will be quite enough.
"If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him, for an investment in knowledge pays the best interest." -- Joseph E. O'Donnell The Second EuroCPian Event will be in Brussels on the 4th of September Can't manage to P/Invoke that Win32 API in .NET? Why not do interop the wiki way!
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The following: From an American news report many years ago, the interviewer asked this question: * "How do you view the situation judgementallywise?" Huh?? you mean "How do you judge the situation?" A couple from TechEd: * "You can colorize the various elements of the source code." Please most of the people in this room don't have English as their first language, please keep it simple: "You can colour the various elements of the source code" * "In this dialog you can choose the colorization of the text." Same comment as before. How about: "In this dialog you can choose the colour of the text". * "The woman was burglarized while she was out shopping". You mean "The woman was burgled while she was out shopping". What is it with trying to lengthen words? Are these people trying to sound more self important because they can use words of greater than two syllables? Yes, okay - I realise these are probably quite acceptable in American English, but they all seem to come into the category of using lenthier words where a shorter one will be quite enough.
"If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him, for an investment in knowledge pays the best interest." -- Joseph E. O'Donnell The Second EuroCPian Event will be in Brussels on the 4th of September Can't manage to P/Invoke that Win32 API in .NET? Why not do interop the wiki way!
Colin Angus Mackay wrote: probably quite acceptable in American English Colin Angus Mackay wrote: judgementallywise Colin Angus Mackay wrote: colorize Colin Angus Mackay wrote: burglarized I don't believe it!! Please tell me that's not true. "I believe I referred to her personality as a potential science exhibit." - Elaine, about Ellen, in "The Dog"
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What two words do you find used incorrectly the most? Two that come to mind immediately for me are these: Noxious: "I feel noxious." This is incorrect, because fumes are noxious and make a person feel nauseated. Irregardless: "Irregardless of what you may think, this sentence is incorrect." Regardless is already negative and does not need the prefix “ir” to make it more negative. "Regardless of what you may think, this sentence is correct." --- I bought a Dell XPS gaming system, started a fan site, and never looked back.
Number one for me : the word at as in, "where are you at ?" I hear this so often that it is very, very annoying. Number two : got with a contraction of have as in, "I've got three computers." The correct phrase is, "I have three computers." I hear those two words used incorrectly far more often than I hear them used correctly. Frequently by educated people too. :rolleyes: This reminds of another common mistake - incorrect use of adverbs such as, "he write bad," when it should be badly. __________________________________________ a two cent stamp short of going postal.
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Hmm, perhaps you're right. "I believe I referred to her personality as a potential science exhibit." - Elaine, about Ellen, in "The Dog"
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What two words do you find used incorrectly the most? Two that come to mind immediately for me are these: Noxious: "I feel noxious." This is incorrect, because fumes are noxious and make a person feel nauseated. Irregardless: "Irregardless of what you may think, this sentence is incorrect." Regardless is already negative and does not need the prefix “ir” to make it more negative. "Regardless of what you may think, this sentence is correct." --- I bought a Dell XPS gaming system, started a fan site, and never looked back.
One I never knew until pointed out to me: Flounder vs. Founder Flounder is a fish. Founder is to run aground. "My business is beginning to founder" - my business isn't doing too well. "I like to fish for flounder" - and then grill it or stuff it. "Fish and guests stink in three days." - Benjamin Franlkin
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What two words do you find used incorrectly the most? Two that come to mind immediately for me are these: Noxious: "I feel noxious." This is incorrect, because fumes are noxious and make a person feel nauseated. Irregardless: "Irregardless of what you may think, this sentence is incorrect." Regardless is already negative and does not need the prefix “ir” to make it more negative. "Regardless of what you may think, this sentence is correct." --- I bought a Dell XPS gaming system, started a fan site, and never looked back.
"I have a doubt." when they mean "I have a question." And while I notice misuse of Can and May I find correcting it to be a lost cause, normally responded to with a rather obnoxious saying; "Whatever!" regards, Paul Watson Bluegrass South Africa Ian Darling wrote: "and our loonies usually end up doing things like Monty Python." Crikey! ain't life grand?