SKPhoto wrote:
Did you have a dilemna or a dilemma when you didn't know which one to choose?

If you are like millions who went to public elementary school during the late 60's and 70's, mostly in the Northeast and Midwest, you had a dilemna. Dilemma would have earned a checkmark for improper spelling.

Interesting.  I'd never heard of that.  According to Grammar Girl, the mis-teaching occurrred all over the world.

http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/is … lemna.aspx

Caustic Disco wrote:
irregardless

+1, This one irritates me a lot and it's
so much easier to say the correct 'regardless'.

One trend I've noticed in printed stuff lately is to use 'off' when describing things as 'one of a kind', i.e., 'one off a kind', and similarly constructed statements
using 'of'. Makes no sense to me at all...

Lauren Reynolds MUA wrote:
Literally - people seem to not understand its meaning...

"I literally died of laughter". Well no, you didn't ACTUALLY die, did you? Well that's what you bloody well said!

Small things...

I like to use "literally" incorrectly because I think it's hilarious.

But I try to only do it around my friends or with statements so ridiculous that people HAVE to know I'm joking.

Vivus Hussein Denuo wrote:
Interesting.  I'd never heard of that.  According to Grammar Girl, the mis-teaching occurred all over the world.

http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/is … lemna.aspx

What's interesting is that in reading the comments from your link I saw the misspelling of another word. Not a misspelling I was taught in school, but one I remember from advertisements when I was small.  I had forgotten...vacumn.

I remember I was puzzled because the word on the machine my mom had was spelled the right way - vacuum.

K I C K H A M wrote:

I like to use "literally" incorrectly because I think it's hilarious.

But I try to only do it around my friends or with statements so ridiculous that people HAVE to know I'm joking.

'Literally' always makes us laugh in our house. The best we've heard was from a athletics commentator on TV when he described a 100m sprinter as having 'literally exploded out of the block!'   ewww.

Not necessarily 'incorrectly' used but there's a certain trend currently for adding 'ha ha' and 'much' to the end of sentences that drives me 'literally' bananas:

'I didn't really enjoy it though haha.'

'You seem upset - butt hurt much?'

Drew Smith Photography wrote:

'Literally' always makes us laugh in our house. The best we've heard was from a athletics commentator on TV when he described a 100m sprinter as having 'literally exploded out of the block!'   ewww.

Not necessarily 'incorrectly' used but there's a certain trend currently for adding 'ha ha' and 'much' to the end of sentences that drives me 'literally' bananas:

'I didn't really enjoy it though haha.'

'You seem upset - butt hurt much?'

I have a friend. He is actually very intelligent and well-spoken face to face.

But online he gets into political arguments and ends EVERY sentence with "lol."

No matter how good his points are or how wrong the other person is, he almost always ends up looking like the idiot.

EvaScarlet wrote:
- snag-a-tooth (granted, I had never seen this error before a few days ago, but thought I'd throw it in regardless, because it's just weird. It was another facebook thing...an old high school classmate, posting a picture of her daughter, "My little snag-a-tooth diva!" Snag-a-tooth? Like...you snagged a tooth? Weird, dude.)

- doggy dog world (now what the fuck--? I heard this once, when someone was referring to the phrase, "dog-eat-dog world".)

These are probably my favorite.

Snag-a-tooth. That jerk stole ma tooth.
Doggy dog. Like Snoop?

K I C K H A M wrote:

These are probably my favorite.

Snag-a-tooth. That jerk stole ma tooth.
Doggy dog. Like Snoop?

Hey, fuck if I know...

(which, coincidentally, doesn't make much sense either...but it's gratifying to say, damn it!!!)

EvaScarlet wrote:

Hey, fuck if I know...

(which, coincidentally, doesn't make much sense either...but it's gratifying to say, damn it!!!)

I think that expression has a logic base.

It means that it you know, you get rewarded by sex.

And if you don't know, then no sex for you.

Drew Smith Photography wrote:
Okay, here's a couple of interesting ones, be honest and put your hand up if you misuse these, I will admit to doing so:

Enormity - meaning 'enormous' right? Nope; it means 'extreme evil'.

and

Chronic - meaning 'very bad' right? Nope; it means 'long term'.

I didn't know that "chronic" was misused that way. But I've had chronic bronchitis since I was a little girl, so maybe that's why.

I didn't know that's what enormity meant, but I also don't believe I've ever used that word. If I heard it used in conversation, I would've assumed either that it meant enormous or that the person made it up.

K I C K H A M wrote:

I didn't know that "chronic" was misused that way. But I've had chronic bronchitis since I was a little girl, so maybe that's why.

I didn't know that's what enormity meant, but I also don't believe I've ever used that word. If I heard it used in conversation, I would've assumed either that it meant enormous or that the person made it up.

I have chronic stupidity so either useage would suffice.

Monad Studios wrote:
But "paced back and forth" and "stiff upper lips" are idioms.  Perhaps when read literally they are illogical, but it would be very peculiar for a native speaker of English to say "paced forth and back" or "stiff lower lip".

Well, it was more of a good-natured jab at their illogic rather than complaining about their impropriety. But the topic is "Things that are said incorrectly so often.....  ......that they are accepted as correct," and I think those examples fit in a literal sense. One might argue that the topic calls for (I don't want to say "begs") a certain range of idiomatic sayings.

Next will you complain that people who die don't actually kick buckets?

Nah, that's more of a range of idioms that's metaphorical. If someone says, "He's three sheets to the wind," I wouldn't assume he's on a sailing ship, or if he's being "kept in the dark," it's not that someone turned the lights out.

Under the topic, I'd venture the same thing for "head over heels in love." I think most of us actually do go through life head over heels. Or "ass backwards." That's kinda (uh-oh) the natural state. If it's going 180 degrees wrong, wouldn't it be "ass forward"?

Drew Smith Photography wrote:

I have chronic stupidity so either useage would suffice.

You know what really bothers me?

People mixing accept and except.

K I C K H A M wrote:



You know what really bothers me?

People mixing accept and except.

Something you guys (Americans) seem to struggle with is 'then' and 'than':

'She's literally much prettier then I am ha ha!'

The Space Cowboy wrote:
"Wherefore art thou Romeo?" means "Why are you Romeo?"

Not "Where are you?"

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/262200.html

K I C K H A M wrote:


You know what really bothers me?

People mixing accept and except.

your vs you're

Drew Smith Photography wrote:

Something you guys (Americans) seem to struggle with is 'then' and 'than':

'She's literally much prettier then I am ha ha!'

Hate. So. Much.


This one took me a long time to figure out: tryna.

JOEL McDONALD wrote:

your vs you're

There, their, they're.

It especially bothers me when it's "you're" used for "your" and "they're" used for "their."

Seriously. You picked the longer and more complex version? Why?

Caustic Disco wrote:
irregardless

Love using this word cause it pisses people off.  Haha, funny thing is it is a word and is in Websters Mirriam Dictionary.

K I C K H A M wrote:
Hate. So. Much.


This one took me a long time to figure out: tryna.

Do you mean as in; 'tryna get to grips with the English language!'?

Although this is bordering on difficulty with pronunciation.

Try this for a perfect and hilarious example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cz2-ukrd2VQ

Drew Smith Photography wrote:

Something you guys (Americans) seem to struggle with is 'then' and 'than':

'She's literally much prettier then I am ha ha!'

We screw up just about every word like that. Then/than accept/except where/were/we're their/they're/there.

I'm used to most of it. Sometimes people will get me though, and ill just have to think... How???

Kelli wrote:
Alls I know!

Oh my god! My friend is the worst, that and "I seen" she seen, he seen. There is no "saw" in her vocabulary, everyone "seen" everything. I used to get sooooo irritated with that

ChrisFischerPhotography wrote:
I'm surprised that "ironic" has not yet been mentioned. And I blame Alanis Morissette for its widespread misuse.

I don't understand ironic. Maybe it was so misused that I was just raised to its new meaning. If you notice, I don't use it, because i don't really know what it actually means.

Whoa, logic.

Chicchowmein wrote:
I went to public school and I pronounce it like that.

I don't really know what they teach in schools anymore but it doesn't look like they teach spelling or grammar anymore.

My father's favorite pet peeve is the word forte.

You are not supposed to pronounce the e on forte if you are saying something is someone's forte but it is so commonly mispronounced that it has become the preferred "common" pronunciation.

It drives my father mad.

or·te 1  (fôrt, fôrt, frt)
n.
1. Something in which a person excels.
2. The strong part of a sword blade, between the middle and the hilt.
[French fort, from Old French, strong, from Latin fortis; see fort.]
Synonyms: forte1, métier, specialty, thing
These nouns denote something at which a person is particularly skilled: Writing fiction is her forte. The theater is his métier. The professor's specialty was the study of ancient languages. Mountain climbing is really my thing.




Usage Note: The word forte, coming from French fort, should properly be pronounced with one syllable, like the English word fort. Common usage, however, prefers the two-syllable pronunciation, (fôrt), which has been influenced possibly by the music term forte borrowed from Italian. In a recent survey a strong majority of the Usage Panel, 74 percent, preferred the two-syllable pronunciation. The result is a delicate situation; speakers who are aware of the origin of the word may wish to continue to pronounce it as one syllable but at an increasing risk of puzzling their listeners.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/forte

Huh, I didn't know that. Learned something today(:

Ps- I'd love to get English teachers to say forte, and hear it mispronounced.

Monad Studios wrote:

I don't mind "woulda", but "would of" just sounds ignorant to me.

The pronunciation I don't mind at all, spelling something that way is just, why??

M A U I wrote:
.....that they are accepted as correct.

Not accepted by everyone, but generally speaking, by the masses:

"Crank Calls"
"I could care less"

Model: "I can't make the shoot because..."

Chicchowmein wrote:

I went to public school and I pronounce it like that.

I don't really know what they teach in schools anymore but it doesn't look like they teach spelling or grammar anymore.

My father's favorite pet peeve is the word forte.

You are not supposed to pronounce the e on forte if you are saying something is someone's forte but it is so commonly mispronounced that it has become the preferred "common" pronunciation.

It drives my father mad.

or·te 1  (fôrt, fôrt, frt)
n.
1. Something in which a person excels.
2. The strong part of a sword blade, between the middle and the hilt.
[French fort, from Old French, strong, from Latin fortis; see fort.]
Synonyms: forte1, métier, specialty, thing
These nouns denote something at which a person is particularly skilled: Writing fiction is her forte. The theater is his métier. The professor's specialty was the study of ancient languages. Mountain climbing is really my thing.


Usage Note: The word forte, coming from French fort, should properly be pronounced with one syllable, like the English word fort. Common usage, however, prefers the two-syllable pronunciation, (fôrt), which has been influenced possibly by the music term forte borrowed from Italian. In a recent survey a strong majority of the Usage Panel, 74 percent, preferred the two-syllable pronunciation. The result is a delicate situation; speakers who are aware of the origin of the word may wish to continue to pronounce it as one syllable but at an increasing risk of puzzling their listeners.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/forte

It is fortuitous that you told me that just now!

K I C K H A M wrote:

I like to use "literally" incorrectly because I think it's hilarious.

That is ironic, irregardless of what others may think!