Supposably and Expecially (excetera, excetera, excetera)

[iguana_tonante]

I'm guilty of misspelling it "expecially". Also, I never remember where to put the fucking h in width, strength and length (God bless orthographic correctors). And, "text" instead of "test".

Firstable--Oh, if only I had a nickel for every time I've seen this in a paper. It's FIRST OF ALL. Firstable isn't even a word.

Oh wow. I was thinking "something or someone that is able to become or be made first"...

Textses are what Hobbitses send on their phoneses, preciousssss......

It irks me when people confuse "affect" with "effect" or use "that" instead of "who."

I was told that you can use "that" in informal conversation. "It was me that made it". I know it's not the formal, but is it wrong?

 

[UssGlenn]

"Expresso" for "espresso."

There's a coffee shop on the UT campus that did this on purpose as a play on words. It's in the Alumni Center and UT Alumni are known as Texas Exes, hence "Texas Expresso"

 

[RJDiogenes]

So you fight infractions with "infractions" in the end. And here I was thinking two wrongs don't make a right...

Warning for Infractionating. Commentate to PM.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

So you fight infractions with "infractions" in the end. And here I was thinking two wrongs don't make a right...

Warning for Infractionating. Commentate to PM.

 

[trampledamage]

It irks me when people confuse "affect" with "effect" or use "that" instead of "who."

I was told that you can use "that" in informal conversation. "It was me that made it". I know it's not the formal, but is it wrong?

According to Chambers (UK dictionary) no - not in that context:

pronoun used instead of which, who or whom, to introduce a relative clause which defines, distinguishes or restricts the person or thing mentioned in the preceding clause • All the children that were late received detention.

 

[ThankQ]

It irks me when people confuse "affect" with "effect" or use "that" instead of "who."

I was told that you can use "that" in informal conversation. "It was me that made it". I know it's not the formal, but is it wrong?

According to Chambers (UK dictionary) no - not in that context:

pronoun used instead of which, who or whom, to introduce a relative clause which defines, distinguishes or restricts the person or thing mentioned in the preceding clause • All the children that were late received detention.

Not that we need to make it more complicated, but in the spirt of the thread:

It was I who made it.

 

[snakespeare]

"That" instead of "who" is acceptable. If you insist, I will look it up.

We all hear "who" for "whom" almost every day. Although they are as different as "he" and "him" and "she" and "her", people just can't seem to use "whom" when it is expected. You are with whom?

What about "comfterble", as in "Comfterbly Numb"? It's like a contagious disease! One rock song with Eliza Doolittle pronunciation, and the whole world starts saying it! Good thing they didn't all start stuttering after "My Generation".

The man that hath no music in himself,
Nor is not mov’d with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils.

 

[iguana_tonante]

Not that we need to make it more complicated, but in the spirt of the thread:

It was I who made it.

Good point. I think I will have to play the "foreign language" card and crawl away shamefully from the thread...

 

[Omnius]

There's no such thing as aluminum!

 

[snakespeare]

^ buzzer!

Since 1925, the American Chemist Society has spelled it the ORIGINAL way that Davys spelled it in 1807: Aluminum.

 

[SiorX]

Not a malapropism, but I find "tad bit" deeply annoying.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

To "sure up" a gap instead of "shore up". I heard this a lot listening to a new financial advisor confirm his appointments. He's out of the business now. Wonder why.

That could just be an accent difference. I pronounce sure and shore the same.

There's no such thing as aluminum!

Now that's just not true. Aluminum was the original spelling, it was changed afterwards.

 

[mimic]

I once had an off-task student inform me that she was "conversating" with her friend when I asked her why she was not doing her work. I got a kick out of that.

Also, in central PA there is a weird habit of saying things like: "The car needs washed" or "these papers need graded" or "the computer needs fixed." They have no idea that the "needs/wants ____ed" construction is not widespread across the US.

 

[TorontoTrekker]

And, perhaps the one the I see the most often, is Conversate. It's a back-formation of "converse." Apparently, this is a common slang term now but it drives me up a wall when I see it in one test paper after another.

I first heard this about a year and a half ago. I was on the bus on my way home from work, sitting in the back reading the paper when a bunch of teenage thugs got on and surrounded me. And I'm not exaggerating when I say "thugs" - they spent the next half hour bragging about the various assaults and home invasions they'd committed, the ones they were planning to commit, and the people they were planning to beat up.

Anyway, at one point one of them asked someone else if I was with them, and he stupidly said yes. The first one then said, "Then why the $%@! isn't he conversating with us?" (At that point, the incorrect response was corrected, and they left me alone for the rest of the trip. But I didn't dare take out my iPod, as much as I wanted to listen to music to drown them out, in case one of them decided that he wanted it.)

 

[auntiehill]

^Oh....lovely. There are certain moments when the language and speaker fit each other perfectly. *shakes head*

I get a particular kick out of hearing some of my husband's friends talk in "sound effects." They are all at LEAST 40 years old, but when they get together, they sound like teenage girls. Their stories dissolve into nothing but descriptions of various sound effects.

Guy 1: So, like, was she all "Eek?!"
Guy 2: Well, she was like "Eek" and then her mom goes "Jesus!"
Guy 1: I would be like, "click-click" (his shotgun loading noise).


One could probably find a more intelligible conversation by reading a page from an 8th grader's "Mad Libs."

 

[iguana_tonante]

Also, in central PA there is a weird habit of saying things like: "The car needs washed" or "these papers need graded" or "the computer needs fixed." They have no idea that the "needs/wants ____ed" construction is not widespread across the US.

I knew I've heard that from somewhere. Apparently, it's an usual variant in Scottish English. Maybe they brought it to the US from there.

I get a particular kick out of hearing some of my husband's friends talk in "sound effects." They are all at LEAST 40 years old, but when they get together, they sound like teenage girls. Their stories dissolve into nothing but descriptions of various sound effects.

Guy 1: So, like, was she all "Eek?!"
Guy 2: Well, she was like "Eek" and then her mom goes "Jesus!"
Guy 1: I would be like, "click-click" (his shotgun loading noise).

Oh good Lord. I have a friend that talks like this, all the time. He's a great guy, buy it makes me want to strangle him.

 

[ThankQ]

I've never understood the need to say, "etcetera, etcetra, etcetera" when one "etcetra" is all you'll ever need.

A little different, but...

"Very unique" and "mostly certain" make Q cry.

 

[ThankQ]

DUH!

I can't believe I forgot this one, and I don't think anyone else has mentioned it.

I use to go to church on Sundays.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

I've never understood the need to say, "etcetera, etcetra, etcetera" when one "etcetra" is all you'll ever need.

They probably think they're the King of Siam.

 

[sbk1234]

I can't stand when people want to "ax" a question.

I also can't stand people using double negatives.

It also bugs me when people say they "can care less" about something they don't care about at all. To say you can care less would indicate that you have some degree of caring. That's the opposite of the intended message of not caring.