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Deni
01-23-2007, 11:52 AM
Yeah, I think ain't is a word in the South no matter what anyone says. Everyone knows it isn't proper, but I guess it goes back to that old saying...

"Ain't ain't a word and I ain't gonna say it."

I'm not guilty of that one, but I'll admit to using y'all quite frequently. I hate having to stretch out "you all." :P

BrunetteGoddess
01-23-2007, 01:20 PM
I'm not guilty of that one, but I'll admit to using y'all quite frequently. I hate having to stretch out "you all." :P

Oh gosh, I say that and I've never really been around anyone who does either, so they all look at me funny :P

It annoys me when people can't use proper spelling, syntax, grammar, etc. too, and I know I'm usually a Nazi about it.... That's why I try to type properly at all times, even in IM where people say I'm overly proper, and could I just relax for chat?

LOL.

Nautilus
01-23-2007, 04:15 PM
panda says, "NO!"

i have to bring up 'eats, shoots and leaves' again. man, i fucking hate rogue apostrophes in business signs. it's like the use of the apostrophe was never taught.

the bastardisation of the simple plural... since when was it CD's? or banana's, for that matter.

there is a sign on my building where it looks like someone just threw their hands up in disgust, not knowing where to put any apostrophe, so they just put none.

"contact managers office"....

signmaker thinks: "hmm.. one manager or many? apostrophe inside or outside? aaargh. fuck it. i'll just put BOLLOCKS!!!!"

no apostrophe. no mercy!

Lysondra
01-23-2007, 04:30 PM
The apostrophe thing? Is mostly Australia. When I came to this country I was HORRIFIED how you guys mutilated the apostrophe!! They do in America, too, but not nearly as bad (and not on public signs as much!) as Australia.

Now let me get some CD's at Crazy Clarks Discount Bin'.

Bella21
01-23-2007, 04:34 PM
I hate people. Whenever I read in public, people always ask me what class I'm reading for. For FUN, you morons! I'm reading to make pretty pictures in my head!

I GET THAT TOO!

I have a personal problem with Toys R Us... with the "r" backwards, of course... No, that doesn't confuse any kids... I'm sure. ::)

Bella21
01-23-2007, 04:36 PM
LOL, I'm Southern! It's always been a word. When I was little, we had this obese day care lady named Ms. Gladys who used to yell at us every time she heard us saying it - she would actually yell, "Don't say AIN'T! It ain't even a word; it ain't in the dictionary!" :laughing: So finally some kid actually looked it up and showed her that it was in fact in there, and she put him in a time-out. She quit telling us it ain't in the dictionary, but she still yelled at us for saying it.

Niiiice. ;D Hahaha!

Nautilus
01-23-2007, 04:54 PM
i also think spending heaps of time online encourages weird habits. sometimes i just write in completely unpunctuated stream of consciousness type of sentence structure. lazy bitch.

or i just write the way i'm... speaking... *eyes darting*

Yekhefah
01-23-2007, 04:59 PM
An apostrophe doesn't just designate a plural; you can also use it when letters are missing. That's why contractions have them. I think the same rule makes it okay to use an apostrophe for an abbreviation - for example, my friends are AD's. To spell it "ADs" just looks like a weird misprint of "ads," like in advertisements.

Nautilus
01-23-2007, 09:08 PM
it implies that the abbreviated word would have an apostrophe

assistant directors... not director's. and to be correct using that method it would have to be A'D's... to denote the missing _ssistant and _irectors

to my mind, the missing letter rule only applies to things like aren't, isn't etc.

abbreviations down to a couple letters don't fit the pattern.

Embyr
01-23-2007, 09:11 PM
I agree with OP (well, not specifically about the DEATH penalty for illiteracy, but perhaps a limb or eyeball or something) ... and yes, it is depressing as hell. One of the many reasons I choose not to have a television. :P

VenusGoddess
01-24-2007, 12:19 AM
I agree with OP (well, not specifically about the DEATH penalty for illiteracy, but perhaps a limb or eyeball or something) ...

bwahahaaha! Yeah, if you can't read, you'd better have a good reason for it!!

AlexxaHex
01-24-2007, 06:05 AM
Literacy 101 by Miss Jackie Beat:

rozz
01-24-2007, 07:57 AM
What pisses me off is seeing people gush all over someone for being incredibly smart, writing really well, etc.--and their writing is filled with grammatical errors, bad punctuation and rotten syntax, awkward stylistic attempts at innovation, etc.

Happens all the time.

I had an argument with a coworker recently about Dan Brown, the author of The Da Vinci Code, among other works. I agree he builds a fair plot, but the man cannot write a story for love of money. He falls prey to one of the worst mistakes an author can make, in my opinion: telling, rather than showing. Very little of his books consist of conversation or action. The majority is simply him spoon-feeding and explaining meanings to his readers.

This is not to say it's a bad book. It's simply bad writing. My 9th grade English teacher would have had my head for writing in that fashion.

Yekhefah
01-24-2007, 09:30 AM
^^^ K read that book last year and had this sour expression the whole time he was reading it, because the writing style was so bloody awful. I read the first three pages but I couldn't go any further than that. I think the Beverly Cleary books that I read when I was little were more engaging than that shit! :P

PhaedrusZ
01-24-2007, 05:00 PM
I'm far from perfect myself when writing, especially when posting messages. Yet, the error which I notice the most when others are writing is: "then" vs. "than."


As to misspelling words, for what it's worth:

A Study of Some of the Most Commonly Misspelled Words (http://www.barnsdle.demon.co.uk/spell/error.html)

leilanicandy
01-24-2007, 08:53 PM
When we started cramming 30+ kids in a single classroom, and many of those kids don't speak english at home.

One of my favorite made-up words is "conversate".;D I laugh everytime I hear someone say that. I'm sure it'll be integrated into the larger langage, but for now it doesn't offically exist as an english word.

Remember when "ain't" wasn't a word?


I sooo agree with you Paris. We must not forget about the teachers. Who pass the children. When they need to stay behind, not go to the next level. Which mean we can not have a dealth penalty for people. Who have poor grammer and miss spell words. Sorry guys lets save the dealth penalty, for people who commit murders. Well I have known english to change quite a bit. The English that is spoken in Europe. Is not quite the same in the States. The english spoken 20 years ago, is not the same as now. So maybe we are going thru another evoulution of the english language.

MrChristopher
01-25-2007, 02:15 AM
Um. Okay. I won't say it. You know you're thinking it. MMkay, g'nite.

Darcy Foxx
01-25-2007, 03:57 AM
even though they didn't start the trend by any means, i'd like to nominate the Pussycat Dolls for continuing it.

it's WITH YOU NOT WIT CHU

AARRGHGH i fucking hate that so much *stabs PCD in face*

and while we're on the subject of grammatical errors that really piss me off....

people who say, "i could care less" instead of "i couldn't care less". jesus. think about what you're saying.

also, fuck you, nelly furtardo. "you don't mean nothin at all to me" is a DOUBLE NEGATIVE, and you're implying that since they do not mean nothing at all to you, they must mean something to you, dipshit.

and finally, people who mis-use apostrophes, eg "I have two cat's". You have two cat is? You have two cat has? You have two of what belonging to a cat?

RoseWhite
01-25-2007, 09:37 AM
Amen, hallelujah, and TESTIFY, my brothers and sisters, on all of the above counts.

Random points of specific interest: Apostrophes, AUGH! The misuse of quotation marks in particular makes me batty. For example: toasters on "sale" today, for "low low" prices. Soooo, are you not REALLY having a sale, it's just a pretend sale? And are you quoting someone on the low low prices? Oy.

Inventing new compound words: the bastardized non-word "Irregardless" is my biggest peeve. I feel like a horrible snob every time I hear it and cringe, but I cringe nonetheless. IT IS NOT NOT NOT A WORD! "Regardless" is sufficient for the meaning you are trying to convey. Adding "ir" at the beginning makes it either a double negative or redundant or both.

Speaking of double negatives - cheers, Darcy, on the "I couldn't care less". It's becoming so common, though . . . Anyway, I think it was Molly who cited the awesome George Orwell essay on language. I remember that he addressed double negatives in there and claimed he could break anyone of habitually using the entirely unnecessary "Not un-" prefix in particular by having the person repeat the following sentence: "The not unbrown dog jumped over the not unsmall rabbit on the not ungreen grass."

Mr.Christopher: Word.

Finally: Everybody now: "It's. It is. It's It is. It's. It is." Apply the same to "They're. They are," and "You're. You are." Rinse and repeat.

Lysondra
01-25-2007, 08:03 PM
I would like to submit this thread I started as PROOF you guys argue that British spellings are incorrect!!!

http://community.livejournal.com/thequestionclub/17105848.html?view=317228472

idreamofaislin
01-25-2007, 08:44 PM
I have a friend who doesn't understand the difference between "except" and "expect". I'm ready to send her to dictionary.com!

Lysondra
01-26-2007, 05:48 PM
I get snarked because I'm IN A COUNTRY OTHER THAN MY OWN and I should be expected to follow the spelling and rules of the country I am in.

It's like going to Japan and expecting everyone to speak English... of course the Japanese are going to be pissed at you and mock you.

I'm just being polite in correcting my spelling to reflect the country I am staying in.

----

Just Americans in general... I made a comment earlier about being snarked because I spelled 'colour'... I wasn't referring to everyone.

Christ.