Word use that drives you up the wall!

[G26ster]

Speaking of ATMs...

Why do the drive-up ATMs have all the buttons labelled in Braille?

I guess for the same reason my last employer was required to label ALL classrooms and training bays in Braille, and we only trained pilots and mechanics.

[strider67]

Gooder.

[jimlongley]

Speaking of ATMs...

Why do the drive-up ATMs have all the buttons labelled in Braille?

I guess for the same reason my last employer was required to label ALL classrooms and training bays in Braille, and we only trained pilots and mechanics.

Nah, it's because there is some slim chance that someone will drive through an ATM lane in a right hand drive car with a blind passenger to do the transaction.

BTW, I label my harmonicas in Braille so that I can reach in my pocket and grab the right key without hunting.

[Abraham]

"Yepper" or the more intensely cloddish "Yeppers" - so beloved by bumpkin wags.

Of course, the incoherence noted above isn't English, but some diseased word garble...

[pancho]

roger that

[Dadtodabone]

"Yepper" or the more intensely cloddish "Yeppers" - so beloved by bumpkin wags.

Of course, the incoherence noted above isn't English, but some diseased word garble...

Careful Abraham, users of "Yeppers" are becoming militant.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/i-love-t ... 0483387485
We don't want to see them self-radicalize, or escalate their aberrant word usage!
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=nopers
Too late...

[Abraham]

Thanx and kewl, ugh...especially awful when posted by middle aged white guys desperately seeking hipster status..

[Dadtodabone]

Thanx and kewl, ugh...especially awful when posted by middle aged white guys desperately seeking hipster status..

I agree with the kewl. The usage of thanx though, began as an expression of faith on Usenet back in the 80s, one which I have indulged in a time or two. Due to its hijacking by the urban and hip, I've eliminated it from my lexicon.

[TLE2]

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.

[The Annoyed Man]

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?"

[jmra]

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]

No less a master of the English Language than Winston Churchill brilliantly illustrated the ridiculousness of the "never end a sentence with a preposition" rule when upon being "corrected" for doing so, replied "that is an outrage up with which I shall not put!"

In English, it is perfectly grammatically sound to end a sentence with a preposition. The "rule" against doing so does violence to the way the language is structured, and the way it is used. It was invented by prissy little old-maid schoolmarms (the kind who wear cargo pants, Birkenstocks and a sour face these days) who were trying to force English (a Germanic language) grammar to conform to the rules of Latin because it was seen as the language of the "educated."

Consequently, people twist up the most bizarre and awkward contortions of the English language in an attempt to abide by this silly "rule."

The way the language is used precedes its grammar, not the other way around.

Music theory is not a set of rules a composer must adhere to, it is a way of explaining how the composer did what he did. Similarly, grammar is properly an explanation of how the language is actually used by its practitioners.

Yes, there is such a thing as good and bad grammar. But it's really not that hard. Basically, if it sounds wrong, it is wrong. Just like Winston's riposte I quoted above.

Language changes and evolves over time. English is no exception. Just look at the differences from Shakespeare and the King James Bible to the Victorians to Today.

[Abraham]

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.

[BigGuy]

Stop light rather than traffic light.
Over used for "faster than," or "more than."

[The Annoyed Man]

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.