Words people use that are incorrect

Daniel Schorr, from NPR, addressed some common language misuses by the US media and politicians. Thought they might be of some interest.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.p...toryId=88019864
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.p...toryId=89418330

Oh never really noticed that I thought it was the way the font was set.

wouldn't that be "you're", dammit

My keyboard doesn't look anything like that :-(

Shouldn't there be a question mark at the end of that?

nor mine. The apostophe key is down in the bottom row, took me 3 month to find it, so I was guilty of using the accent key, as I never notice it down there beside the space bar! I have a weird keyboard at work.

The fun starts when the apostrophe is used in typesetting. The amount of times I've seen a Secretary's apostrophe used instead of he proper one hurts. Oh that and double word spacing.

no. it was a rhetorical question which doesn't necessarily need a question mark.

In that case it would require a period.

Now go home and chop me an onion!

the FULL STOP seems to have been eaten by the smiley.

Well, there is a noun version of choice that refers to the object, so it actually does work. But perhaps that was adopted into the language later as acceptable, like obligated instead of obliged or *shudder* orientated instead of oriented.


I assume you're saying this because you think it's redundant and not because you think that the word 'twin' is plural. Sadly, it is possible to refer to someone giving birth to only one twin (if the other is lost).


I've only seen people write "x is begging the question" when they're actually referring to the logical fallacy. Perhaps that mistake is not very common?


...or in hospital vs. in the hospital.


I've never heard that abbreviation before. I'd guess it's only a written abbreviation, not a spoken one.


Sorry, but since it was invented in the US, our pronunciation is the proper one.

it is not acceptable in this context because it only becomes a choice in that sense once it is chosen which is clearly not what is meant by having a choice.


there is nothing wrong any of those words. They are all perfectly acceptable forms so I am not really sure I know what you are on about.

Never seen it spelled like that in English. Shouldn't it be "diagram"?

I second that.
"Programme" other than in the computer sense, yes. But "diagramme" no, "telegramme" no.

Ah, ok, I see your point. It would be acceptable, however, to say 'two possible choices'.



The words obligated and orientated are only accepted because English is an evolving language, and common mistakes become accepted over time. The past participle of oblige is obliged and likewise for orient is oriented. People make the mistake going backwards from obligation and orientation to obligated and orientated, but that would imply that the original verbs are obligate and orientate, which they are not. One may argue that there are meaningful distinctions between the words obliged and obligated (obligated has been around longer than orientated), but orientated is definitely a mistake that's become accepted.

Well I am sure this has been posted somewhere, but I can't find it (and it seems appropriate) so here goes:

Ananova
To be or not to be, innit?A British satirist has translated 15 of Shakespeare's classic plays into chav speak.

[img]http://www.ananova.com/images/web/1310958.jpg[/img]

Martin Bauam's updated version of Hamlet reveals: "Dere was somefing minging in de State of Denmark."

The Danish prince, who is re-named 'Amlet, asks: "To be or not to be, innit?", while Romeo pines for his "fit bitch Jools".

Mr Baum's other titles include Macbeff, Much Ado About Sod All, De 'Appy Bitches of Windsor, De Taming of de Bitch, Two Geezas Of Verona and All's Sweet That Ends Sweet, Innit.

Mr Baum, 48, says his versions of the Bard's classics, while abridged, remain true to the originals, retaining "the important sexist, duplicitous, cross-dressing and violent moments that made William Shakespeare well wicked."

Mr Baum's version of Romeo and Juliet sets the scene for the star-crossed lovers with: "Verona was de turf of de feuding Montagues and de Capulet families.

"And coz they was always brawling and stuff, de prince of Verona told them to cool it or else they was gonna get well mashed if they carried on larging it with each other."

If the Bard was living today, Mr Baum writes on his website, he would "still be writing in the Globe turf, getting loads of respect from the Stratford-upon-Avon massive and producing works of pure genius."

There is nothing more annoying than text message spelling in anything other than a text message (and even in a text message):

i luv u. i luv u 2. dont b l8.

I can't believe it when I get job applications written in lower case 'i's

no it fucking well wouldn't! That is the whole point. If there are only two possibilities to choose from you only have ONE choice, not two I would have expected more from you IPJ.


both words are as old as the hills, probably ca. 13th century so I really don't know what you are banging on about here. There is however a very slight distinction in meaning between the two words.

What the fuck are you on about? Choice is defined as a noun synonymous with a decision. A separate definition is as a noun referring to something that has been chosen (as in 'he was their first choice'). Where's the problem?


Source?

IPJ, let me put it simply for you.

If you have to choose between A and B, you make ONE choice. If you then go on to choose between C and D you have then made TWO choices. As I mentioned before, my issue is when people say "I have TWO choices" when they mean they have to choose between A and B, i.e. the decision has not been made yet.

In the meaning you are trying to imply, it would all have to be in the past tense and you would already have had to have chosen one option from A and B and another one from C and D to have have two choices.

As for obliged / obligated (ok, I was a bit out with the date but they are both over 400 years old):

Merriam Webster:

"Dere was somefing minging in de State of Denmark." Bloody Hell! nobody told me.

Anyway, back on topic...

I hate the incorrect spelling 'appaulled'. WTF does Paul have to do with it? I imagine he is indeed appalled.

The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility.

As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5-year phase-in plan that would become known as "Euro-English".

In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c". Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard "c" will be dropped in favour of "k". This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced with "f". This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter.

In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where! more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent "e" in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.

By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" with "z" and "w" with "v".

During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou"
and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensi bl riten styl.

Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.

Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas.

Congratulations on being the 25th person to post this one on Toytown!

And finally, I read this in the small print: "potato flavoured snack may not contain vegetable matter"

So there you have it. "Potatoe flavored snaeck"

Yes, that European commission post is getting old.

I know a lady who honestly told us that one day wished to be effluent, meaning affluent. Don't belive she has either yet

An Irish friend of ours was telling us all about the Inevitable Snowman.
The same one who said "There's always a tunnel at the end of the light".

one of my bosses came to me yesterday, perplexed with english. Last week he was at a conference in Athens, Greece, and there was new motto for one of the International Dental Implant companies - "If you lose the implant, don't loose the lesson"
He thought that was a wrong usage, but was beginning to doubt himself, as it was a big company, and thought surely they had a proper translation done. Was kind of funny, as now he understands why I want to proofread our english stuff before we send it out.

"Invented" in the US?


http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/route

1175-1255? There were only native Americans and Vikings walking around then...

The router was invented in the US not the word "route" is surely what IPJ means.


Am I being dim or should I have even the foggiest idea what that was meant to mean?

Meaning if an implant fails, learn from it, don't lose the lesson, not loose the lesson.

I know what it means, however my advice costs money and I'm not telling! Cash up front please.

Route 66? Think that was around before the first routers

Anyway, the router idea wasn't American although further developments certainly took place in the US:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Router#History