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The Wall wrote:The word basically, and like are very common when it comes to misuse. Think this came from one of the California lingo's. Basically, I think it's like, kinda groovy like basically.

Word.

Orientate.........which is as ignorant as "conversate".

I hate whenever anyone in the administration uses the phrase "fact pattern". The automatic inference is that they can 1) see a pattern in an array of facts, 2) draw some sort of bromide from the pattern, and 3) engineer society to eliminate the pattern. The administration's flack-catchers most assuredly deserve to be "mau-maued" (REFERENCE).

budroux2w wrote:

The Annoyed Man wrote:THEIYR'RE

GrammarPolice.jpg

That ought to satisfy everyone.

May I axe where you found that?

A Facebook friend of mine shared it today.

THEIYR'RE That ought to satisfy everyone.

Dadtodabone wrote:

WildBill wrote:Many of these have already been posted, but ...I couldn't think of any on my own.

[ Image ]

Google(yes, it's a verb now) lack toast and tolerant.

I did exactly that. Jesus wept.

For your entertainment: http://grammargeddon.com/?p=364

Dadtodabone wrote:

Jaguar wrote:

Abraham wrote:Apparently, you're unaware that synergy means pillaging...

I sort of came to that conclusion. I can look back and laugh now.

Synergy has many meanings.
At one point, for me, Synergy meant providing short term (90-120 days) interest free loans equivalent to 100% of sales to multiple synergistic partners(Fortune 500 companies)while trying to deal with Byzantine bureaucracies, continue operations, and provide capital to expand plant and staffing.

http://whamproductions.com/homepage/our ... ement.html

"We have committed to progressively pursue exceptional value in order to appropriately leverage existing maintainable technology while maintaining the highest standards."

or.....

"It's our responsibility to authoritatively build economically sound total linkage to exceed customer expectations."

or.....

"Our challenge is to synergistically fashion interactive strategic theme areas and continue to intrinsically customize stand-alone internal or "organic" sources to allow us to continually empower high-quality leadership skills to delight the customer.'

There are others. Have fun.

Abraham wrote:Rather than employing the root word it seems most would rather add "ness".

As an example, the word "Precision" is avoided and instead we see or hear "Preciseness" and there are many other examples...

Yes, preciseness is a word, but c'mon adding "ness" rather than using the proper word for the situation is lazy...

Well there you go, insisting on a degree of precision in a person's speechifyin'..........

Dadtodabone wrote:

urnoodle wrote:YOU'INS..... what is the origin of that I must ask?! Made popular by those I work with in Missouri. Is it really difficult to say "all of you". I'd even take a y'all at least I understand what is being said.

Probably shares the etymology of the beloved Pittsburgh regional dialect "Yinz" or "Yunz".
You might review the info provided at http://www.pittsburghese.com/ to aid your understanding of the Irish/Scot/English/Appalachian hybrid pronunciations and usage. Always good for a laugh and will allow you to order at Primanti Brothers http://primantibros.com/home.html before a "Stillers" game without drawing undue attention.

I'm reading a fascinating book right now called "Black Rednecks & White Liberals" by Thomas Sowell, and he addresses the distinctive patterns of southern speech, as well as southern culture, and he traces it back to the specific regions the white settlers came from in Scotland, Ireland, and the British midlands; as well as, WHEN they came from there....because other white northern settlers, coming from the same regions but at a different time in Britain/Scotland's history lack those traits......and how those cultural traits were transferred to the slave population they oversaw. He denies the influence of African culture as having anything more than a passing affect on blacks because, by the time of the revolution, the vast majority of slaves in the U.S. had been born here. Even in the minutiae, things like jumping over a broom handle as part of a black wedding ceremony was handed down from white Scottish immigrants, where the practice was an old pagan practice, predating Christianity. I could go on, but it is a really interesting book.

Abraham wrote:Never wavering from using "I" (akin to sticking out one's pinky when sipping tea...) instead of "Me" - when "Me" would be appropriate.

The word "Me" is often treated as a snaggle-toothed hillbilly.

Incorrect: "Me 'n the missus went over yonder to visit my cousin Cletus. Him an' me went a'huntin' over in the holler."

Correct: "My wife and I visited my cousin Cletus in the next town over. He and I went hunting together over in that old hollow. He is such a terrible bore that I killed the old boy and left him there, buried in a shallow grave. What?"

Now see that? That first example has all kind of problems with it. The second one is right as rain.

TLE2 wrote:Decimate means to kill 10%, not all: the proper word would be annihilate.

My pet peeve is the dangling participle: "Let's go to the place we last went to"

My mom was an English major, so I was born into the word Nazi brigade.

I think you mean a preposition, not a dangling participle. It reminds me of the joke about a Texas country boy who heads off to college at Harvard. On his first day of school, while trying to find his way around campus, he accosts an upperclassman and asks him, "Say pard, can you please tell me where the library's at?" The upperclassman looks down his nose at the young bumpkin and says, condescendingly, "Young man, this Hahvahd Univussaty; and at Hahvahd Univussaty, we do not end owah sentences with a preposition!"

The young Texan replies, "Oh! Please forgive me! Say, can you tell me where the library's at, butthead?"

bdickens wrote:Imply and infer.

One implies to and infers from.

But what really drives me up the wall is when people can't seem to understand the plain meaning of simple, basic English phrases like "shall not be infringed" and "the right of the people."

That one's simple. If you're a collectivist (in all things), then "The People" is a collectivist term. Therefore, The People may be armed through the agency of appointed enforcers and bureaucrats and armies, but not individually. The People's this. The People's that. The People's Republic of Californiastan. If you're a conservative/libertarian, then you properly understand the rights of the people as individual rights.

One of my latest bugaboos...... "Pivot," which from Obama has come to mean "more of the same."

Texas_Blaze wrote:really?. Heard this around the house from the kids. They picked it up from kids at school. Told them to leave it at school. I don't want to hear it.

Right? Don't ever come at me with "Right?"....

karder wrote:over the past couple of years I have started hearing people say "countless" when they mean "many". Somethings are countless, like the stars in the universe, but most things can be counted if one is so inclined. Where it drives me crazy is when people say "countless" to describe something that can be very easily counted.

Case in point, just yesterday a somewhat annoying chap at work complained dramatically to his supervisor "I have gone back to engineering countless times today".
I happened to be walking down the hall and chimed in "three".
Annoying Chap "What?"
Me: "you came back to engineering three times"
Annoying Chap stares back silent
Me: "I'm just helping you count it"
Annoying Chap to his supervisor "You see! THIS is what I have been dealing with all day!"

Priceless!

I know, I know......... "priceless" is irritating....

Redneck_Buddha wrote:

G26ster wrote:

Redneck_Buddha wrote: You mean, "Howston" Street?

"Howston" is correct. Two different people with two different names and pronounciation.

Houston Street (/ˈhaʊstən/ HOW-stən) is a major east-west thoroughfare in downtown Manhattan, running crosstown across the full width of the island of Manhattan, from Franklin D. Roosevelt East River Drive (FDR Drive) and East River Park on the East River to Pier 40 and West Street on the Hudson River.

Despite the spelling, "Houston" is pronounced "HOUSE-ton", and is therefore not pronounced like the city of Houston, Texas.[2] The street was named for William Houstoun, whereas the city was named for Sam Houston.

Ha! I thought they were doing that from spite 'cause the Rockets beat the Knicks in the 1994 NBA Finals.

Nah. It was pronounced "Howston" when I lived there in the 1st half of the 1970s.