Author Topic: Grammar nazi  (Read 184560 times)

BlueHouse

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #650 on: April 23, 2017, 05:41:49 AM »
People who use ellipses between sentences instead of full stops...I worked for someone who did that once...In her professional emails...I see it sometimes on Facebook too...Drives me absolutely nuts...In my head I read it out with a comically significant pause between each sentence and a meaningful "You know what I'm saying??" tone...
...oops... Sorry.

Kris

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #651 on: April 23, 2017, 08:24:31 AM »
People who use ellipses between sentences instead of full stops...I worked for someone who did that once...In her professional emails...I see it sometimes on Facebook too...Drives me absolutely nuts...In my head I read it out with a comically significant pause between each sentence and a meaningful "You know what I'm saying??" tone...

Even crazier, I regularly see people online who do this, but with commas.

So like this,,, I can't even figure out what they think this means,,, or how it ever occurred to them to start doing it,,,

Dicey

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #652 on: April 23, 2017, 08:52:48 AM »
People who use ellipses between sentences instead of full stops...I worked for someone who did that once...In her professional emails...I see it sometimes on Facebook too...Drives me absolutely nuts...In my head I read it out with a comically significant pause between each sentence and a meaningful "You know what I'm saying??" tone...

Even crazier, I regularly see people online who do this, but with commas.

So like this,,, I can't even figure out what they think this means,,, or how it ever occurred to them to start doing it,,,
,,,oops,,, Sorry,

TheBuddha

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #653 on: April 23, 2017, 03:19:45 PM »
People who use ellipses between sentences instead of full stops...I worked for someone who did that once...In her professional emails...I see it sometimes on Facebook too...Drives me absolutely nuts...In my head I read it out with a comically significant pause between each sentence and a meaningful "You know what I'm saying??" tone...

Even crazier, I regularly see people online who do this, but with commas.

So like this,,, I can't even figure out what they think this means,,, or how it ever occurred to them to start doing it,,,


FYI if you ever see multiple parentheses like that))) that's how Russians make a smiley face :) It's weird, but that's what they do))

Prairie Stash

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #654 on: April 24, 2017, 10:01:51 AM »
Haha. Sorry prariestash, I am an "urbanite" and can safely say that I have never heard anyone use the slang word "ho" as a verb and certainly not to describe how difficult their job is!  I am familiar with the slang use of the word, but that doesn't translate into another version of the saying. No, what you described really is a misuse of the phrase, coupled with an attempt to legitimize it. Really?  Have you ever heard the phrase "I'm going to go ho this road"?  Well, okay, but it's a tough one!  Ha. That is ludicrous.   I think this is an actual egg corn.
As for literally, the second definition (it's literal opposite) has already made it into the dictionary as an alternate definition!  I'm not ready to accept it yet, but as you say, language evolves and so must we.
:) You can put "ing" behind almost any noun to create a verb, that's commonly accepted. I fully believe that if someone said they "were going hoeing" while wearing a short skirt and knee high boots you wouldn't think they were gardening. Road hoe's have been hoeing their way across the USA for decades, "Road Ho's" are commonly found at truck stops. (spelling change is an indication of the spelling commonly used at American truck stops)

As for never hearing it before, that's the beautiful part of English. The next time you hear someone misuse it you can draw up the mental image of them dressed in a trashy manner going out to meet someone. Trust me, you'll thank me when you hear people say it poorly now. By infecting you with the alternate knowledge I've now contaminated your mind to understand the misuse and visualize horrible images of normal people going hoeing. You might find a few humorous situations now, you're welcome :)

As for legitimizing it, I think I just did. The threshold for making new terms in English is low, both parties need to understand the meaning. Although I still literally hate literally.

BlueHouse

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #655 on: April 24, 2017, 12:21:38 PM »
Haha. Sorry prariestash, I am an "urbanite" and can safely say that I have never heard anyone use the slang word "ho" as a verb and certainly not to describe how difficult their job is!  I am familiar with the slang use of the word, but that doesn't translate into another version of the saying. No, what you described really is a misuse of the phrase, coupled with an attempt to legitimize it. Really?  Have you ever heard the phrase "I'm going to go ho this road"?  Well, okay, but it's a tough one!  Ha. That is ludicrous.   I think this is an actual egg corn.
As for literally, the second definition (it's literal opposite) has already made it into the dictionary as an alternate definition!  I'm not ready to accept it yet, but as you say, language evolves and so must we.
:) You can put "ing" behind almost any noun to create a verb, that's commonly accepted. I fully believe that if someone said they "were going hoeing" while wearing a short skirt and knee high boots you wouldn't think they were gardening. Road hoe's have been hoeing their way across the USA for decades, "Road Ho's" are commonly found at truck stops. (spelling change is an indication of the spelling commonly used at American truck stops)

As for never hearing it before, that's the beautiful part of English. The next time you hear someone misuse it you can draw up the mental image of them dressed in a trashy manner going out to meet someone. Trust me, you'll thank me when you hear people say it poorly now. By infecting you with the alternate knowledge I've now contaminated your mind to understand the misuse and visualize horrible images of normal people going hoeing. You might find a few humorous situations now, you're welcome :)

As for legitimizing it, I think I just did. The threshold for making new terms in English is low, both parties need to understand the meaning. Although I still literally hate literally.
I'm sorry, I just really cannot accept this. 

"Ho" started as an alternate pronunciation of whore.  It was an insult not only to the prostitutes, but also to a specific segment of people who pronounced the word without fully enunciating it.   

Maybe I'm the only one, but I won't bastardize a perfectly fine, time-tested, and honored English language idiom just because yet another uneducated person heard and uses the phrase incorrectly.  Especially when the word that it is based on is cruel and culturally insensitive to begin with. 

Don't mean to be a downer but I'm just not ready to jump in to that.  Ordinarily, I would think this was an overreaction, but since we're in the Grammar nazi thread:  nope...I'm standing my ground on this one.

Prairie Stash

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #656 on: April 24, 2017, 02:46:06 PM »
Haha. Sorry prariestash, I am an "urbanite" and can safely say that I have never heard anyone use the slang word "ho" as a verb and certainly not to describe how difficult their job is!  I am familiar with the slang use of the word, but that doesn't translate into another version of the saying. No, what you described really is a misuse of the phrase, coupled with an attempt to legitimize it. Really?  Have you ever heard the phrase "I'm going to go ho this road"?  Well, okay, but it's a tough one!  Ha. That is ludicrous.   I think this is an actual egg corn.
As for literally, the second definition (it's literal opposite) has already made it into the dictionary as an alternate definition!  I'm not ready to accept it yet, but as you say, language evolves and so must we.
:) You can put "ing" behind almost any noun to create a verb, that's commonly accepted. I fully believe that if someone said they "were going hoeing" while wearing a short skirt and knee high boots you wouldn't think they were gardening. Road hoe's have been hoeing their way across the USA for decades, "Road Ho's" are commonly found at truck stops. (spelling change is an indication of the spelling commonly used at American truck stops)

As for never hearing it before, that's the beautiful part of English. The next time you hear someone misuse it you can draw up the mental image of them dressed in a trashy manner going out to meet someone. Trust me, you'll thank me when you hear people say it poorly now. By infecting you with the alternate knowledge I've now contaminated your mind to understand the misuse and visualize horrible images of normal people going hoeing. You might find a few humorous situations now, you're welcome :)

As for legitimizing it, I think I just did. The threshold for making new terms in English is low, both parties need to understand the meaning. Although I still literally hate literally.
I'm sorry, I just really cannot accept this. 

"Ho" started as an alternate pronunciation of whore.  It was an insult not only to the prostitutes, but also to a specific segment of people who pronounced the word without fully enunciating it.   

Maybe I'm the only one, but I won't bastardize a perfectly fine, time-tested, and honored English language idiom just because yet another uneducated person heard and uses the phrase incorrectly.  Especially when the word that it is based on is cruel and culturally insensitive to begin with. 

Don't mean to be a downer but I'm just not ready to jump in to that.  Ordinarily, I would think this was an overreaction, but since we're in the Grammar nazi thread:  nope...I'm standing my ground on this one.
I had to look up eggcorn, apparently its a newer word from the 21st century, in 2015 it was inducted into the dictionary. The definition of an eggcorn is that its correctly understand even though its said in a misheard way. By claiming the phrase is an eggcorn, you understand the same meaning but it has an amusing phrasing. An eggcorn apparently is an apposite, which means "highly pertinent or appropriate - Merriam Webster."

In calling "Road to Ho" an eggcorn, you're claiming that you understand and find it acceptable. I don't think you meant to use that term at all, quite the opposite. I had to look the word up and I make no apologies for looking it up for a grammar thread. It was fun to learn a new word, thank you for that.

I found an online link saying Road to Ho is an eggcorn too, I think eggcorns are meant to be taken in a positive manner. At least the way I read it; its saying something is understandable the way its pronounced and in itself pays homage to the mashing of words and phrases to create new words and phrases.

Oxford dictionary
a malapropism or misspelling arising from similarity between the sound of the misspelled or misused word and the correct one in the accent of the person making the mistake

[C21: based on the mishearing of acorn as eggcorn, which was considered to be apposite]

Further reading on eggcorn for those of us who enjoy learning a new word:
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/05/30/410504851/eggcorns-the-gaffes-that-spread-like-wildflowers

BlueHouse

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #657 on: April 27, 2017, 11:55:05 AM »

I had to look up eggcorn, apparently its a newer word from the 21st century, in 2015 it was inducted into the dictionary. The definition of an eggcorn is that its correctly understand even though its said in a misheard way. By claiming the phrase is an eggcorn, you understand the same meaning but it has an amusing phrasing. An eggcorn apparently is an apposite, which means "highly pertinent or appropriate - Merriam Webster."

In calling "Road to Ho" an eggcorn, you're claiming that you understand and find it acceptable. I don't think you meant to use that term at all, quite the opposite. I had to look the word up and I make no apologies for looking it up for a grammar thread. It was fun to learn a new word, thank you for that.

I found an online link saying Road to Ho is an eggcorn too, I think eggcorns are meant to be taken in a positive manner. At least the way I read it; its saying something is understandable the way its pronounced and in itself pays homage to the mashing of words and phrases to create new words and phrases.

Oxford dictionary
a malapropism or misspelling arising from similarity between the sound of the misspelled or misused word and the correct one in the accent of the person making the mistake

[C21: based on the mishearing of acorn as eggcorn, which was considered to be apposite]

Further reading on eggcorn for those of us who enjoy learning a new word:
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/05/30/410504851/eggcorns-the-gaffes-that-spread-like-wildflowers
Damn. I hate using the wrong word in the Grammar nazi thread!  Thanks for calling me out on that, because now I've also learned something new and interesting!  Huge Fail on my part. 

EDIT:  Fixed Quote indents after being caught by the Quote Police! 
« Last Edit: April 27, 2017, 12:43:45 PM by BlueHouse »

solon

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #658 on: April 27, 2017, 11:57:26 AM »
I think I need to start a "Quote] Nazi" thread...

BlueHouse

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #659 on: April 27, 2017, 12:44:03 PM »
I think I need to start a "Quote] Nazi" thread...

EDIT:  Fixed Quote indents after being caught by the Quote Police! 
No idea what you're talking about solon.
« Last Edit: April 27, 2017, 12:46:08 PM by BlueHouse »

solon

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #660 on: April 27, 2017, 01:16:34 PM »
I think I need to start a "Quote] Nazi" thread...

EDIT:  Fixed Quote indents after being caught by the Quote Police! 
No idea what you're talking about solon.

Good. My work here is finished.

Prairie Stash

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #661 on: April 28, 2017, 08:40:49 AM »
Damn. I hate using the wrong word in the Grammar nazi thread!  Thanks for calling me out on that, because now I've also learned something new and interesting!  Huge Fail on my part. 

EDIT:  Fixed Quote indents after being caught by the Quote Police!
[/quote]
Its a pretty fun word, I like it. I went on a huge tangent reading all sorts of eggcorns. "Spread like wildflowers" instead of "Spread like wild fire" seems much more calming. I need to find an appropriate place to use the term, something along the ideas of a beautiful idea spreading and bringing joy, instead of the violent wild fire image.

I imagine there's a lot of regional eggcorns, it seems it would be very much based on local dialects. Since we don't locally have oak trees producing acorns, this term was new. I have to spend time think of eggcorns I use without realizing it. The closest I have is when I was four I regularly said "barnure" instead of manure, we had a barn full of cows and that seemed to make sense. Kids are delightful sources for words.

solon

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #662 on: April 28, 2017, 08:43:32 AM »
Damn. I hate using the wrong word in the Grammar nazi thread!  Thanks for calling me out on that, because now I've also learned something new and interesting!  Huge Fail on my part. 

EDIT:  Fixed Quote indents after being caught by the Quote Police!
Its a pretty fun word, I like it. I went on a huge tangent reading all sorts of eggcorns. "Spread like wildflowers" instead of "Spread like wild fire" seems much more calming. I need to find an appropriate place to use the term, something along the ideas of a beautiful idea spreading and bringing joy, instead of the violent wild fire image.

I imagine there's a lot of regional eggcorns, it seems it would be very much based on local dialects. Since we don't locally have oak trees producing acorns, this term was new. I have to spend time think of eggcorns I use without realizing it. The closest I have is when I was four I regularly said "barnure" instead of manure, we had a barn full of cows and that seemed to make sense. Kids are delightful sources for words.
[/quote]

Sigh.

MDM

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #663 on: April 28, 2017, 10:05:52 AM »
A grammarian may work from sun to sun but a quotist's work is never done.

shelivesthedream

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #664 on: April 28, 2017, 11:36:23 AM »
I've thought of another thing I find bizarre.

I've seen it several times on this forum.

It's when people type in single-sentence paragraphs.

I find it intensely jarring and will usually skip over their post and not read it.

I understand that online paragraphs are often very short - maybe even two or three sentences long.

Reading long walls of text onscreen can be tiring.

But surely this is taking it too far!

Dicey

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #665 on: April 30, 2017, 10:48:32 AM »
Guilty.

As.

Charged.

shelivesthedream

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #666 on: April 30, 2017, 11:03:38 AM »

deborah

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #667 on: April 30, 2017, 03:06:33 PM »
A paragraph embodies a thought.

People sometimes just want to use up space.

White space is good.

BlueHouse

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #668 on: May 01, 2017, 11:08:37 AM »
Guilty.

As.

Charged.

But...

Why?

For me, sometimes I use unorthodox punctuation and carriage returns when I think a pause deserves longer than a comma's amount of time.   I'm pretty sure nothing I've said in the past 20 years is deserving of enough emphasis to justify newly-created punctuation, so I think I'll stop doing that. 

Unless it's VERY. IMPORTANT. 

Goldielocks

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #669 on: May 05, 2017, 11:54:52 AM »
But it's ROW not ROAD! And you hoe a row, then another... until finally the whole field is weed-free. A tough row has too many deep rooted weeds, and probably stones.

Exactly. A linguistics professor of mine wondered if the shift from the original "row" to "road" was because of our increasingly urban society. Perhaps most people have forgotten hoeing?

Maybe mixed up because it means the same as "A tough road to travel"..

Goldielocks

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #670 on: May 05, 2017, 11:55:52 AM »
Guilty.

As.

Charged.

But...

Why?

For me, sometimes I use unorthodox punctuation and carriage returns when I think a pause deserves longer than a comma's amount of time.   I'm pretty sure nothing I've said in the past 20 years is deserving of enough emphasis to justify newly-created punctuation, so I think I'll stop doing that. 

Unless it's VERY. IMPORTANT.

You are a poet.

TheBuddha

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #671 on: September 23, 2017, 12:35:20 AM »
I've noticed people starting to drop the "y" from "shitty". So instead of "He did a shitty job" they'll say "He did a shit job". It sounds awkward to me; I think the "y" form is smoother and helps transition into the next syllable.

Dicey

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #672 on: September 25, 2017, 05:35:21 AM »
In a newer thread*, the OP's greeting is "Hello wizened stash community"

*https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/ask-a-mustachian/resigning-from-my-job-to-travel-face-punch-or-will-i-be-okay/msg1706851/?topicseen#new

wiz·ened
ˈwizənd/adjective

Shriveled or wrinkled with age. "a wizened, weather-beaten old man"

synonyms: wrinkled, lined, creased, shriveled (up), withered, weather-beaten, shrunken, gnarled, aged
"their wizened faces said much about the hard lives they had endured"
Though I find the question posed interesting, I'm too put off by the insulting salutation to offer anything more than the definition of the hopefully mis-used word. No one else even seems to have noticed. Perhaps my only hope for a little righteous indignation is within the GN ranks.

shelivesthedream

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #673 on: September 25, 2017, 06:03:35 AM »
What do they think they're saying?!

RetiredAt63

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #674 on: September 25, 2017, 06:42:26 AM »
What do they think they're saying?!

I just went and asked, it was odd.

Dicey

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #675 on: September 25, 2017, 09:51:10 AM »
What do they think they're saying?!

I just went and asked, it was odd.
I thought it was weird that nobody else picked up on it. Not the OP or any subsequent posters. Perhaps they thought it was a synonym for "wise". Kind of insulting, IMO.

RetiredAt63

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #676 on: September 25, 2017, 05:44:57 PM »
What do they think they're saying?!

I just went and asked, it was odd.
I thought it was weird that nobody else picked up on it. Not the OP or any subsequent posters. Perhaps they thought it was a synonym for "wise". Kind of insulting, IMO.

I'm still the last poster, maybe OP has already taken off on the journey?

GreenSheep

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #677 on: September 26, 2017, 12:34:48 PM »
I used to be very judgmental about grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc., and for the most part I still am, but I did tone it down a bit after meeting someone who is even more of a Grammar Nazi than I am. She was in her 80s and had spent her life teaching English. She berated me for using the word "okay," saying that young people these days are too lazy to use TWO words: "all right." My response was that language changes over time, and we're not all speaking like Shakespeare anymore. (I did look up the history of "okay," which is pretty interesting.)

So I guess the question I have to ask myself now is, who am I to think that I'm the one who gets to decide what's "wrong" and what's just "new." I don't have a perfect answer, but some of the comments above have addressed this to some extent.

I also catch myself using "hopefully" in the wrong (common) way, and I hate that I do that! Unfortunately I learned the wrong use first, and I haven't found a good substitute. "With any luck" is only one syllable longer but seems more clunky.

TheBuddha

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #678 on: September 26, 2017, 11:00:09 PM »
So I guess the question I have to ask myself now is, who am I to think that I'm the one who gets to decide what's "wrong" and what's just "new."


There are gray areas of course, but fortunately (unfortunately?) most of the time it's just people making mistakes. Like when I see "you're" misspelled as "your" (and this is so common it makes me lose faith in humanity) that's not a new usage, it's just someone who can't spell.

On a different front, I'd like to anecdotally report a dramatic decrease in my pet-peeve sentence formula: "So, [...] right?" I think starting sentences with "so" and ending with "right?" just naturally played itself out and I don't hear it much anymore.

mlejw6

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #679 on: September 27, 2017, 07:59:49 AM »
So I guess the question I have to ask myself now is, who am I to think that I'm the one who gets to decide what's "wrong" and what's just "new."

There are gray areas of course, but fortunately (unfortunately?) most of the time it's just people making mistakes. Like when I see "you're" misspelled as "your" (and this is so common it makes me lose faith in humanity) that's not a new usage, it's just someone who can't spell.

My real pet peeve these days is when people write "loose" instead of "lose". At least you're and your sound the same in your head as you read it, but coming upon loose when someone is talking about losing something is like fingernails on a chalkboard for me. HOW DO YOU NOT SEE IT PEOPLE???

A Definite Beta Guy

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #680 on: September 27, 2017, 03:38:26 PM »
I've thought of another thing I find bizarre.

I've seen it several times on this forum.

It's when people type in single-sentence paragraphs.

I find it intensely jarring and will usually skip over their post and not read it.

I understand that online paragraphs are often very short - maybe even two or three sentences long.

Reading long walls of text onscreen can be tiring.

But surely this is taking it too far!


I plead guilty. Probably crosses over from business writing. Short and to the point, with lots of white space between each point so NOTHING gets missed in the "wall-of-text" syndrome.

Plus, on an email, a single long sentence looks like a short paragraph. At least when you're looking at an email in the preview pane (which everyone does).




On a side note, and the reason why I clicked into this thread...
I am studying for the GMAT, which has a number of grammar questions sprinkled in the verbal section. This section is so painful. I've managed to raise my accuracy on practice tests from 10% (worse than guessing) to 60%.

Damn grammar Nazis. :(

TheBuddha

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #681 on: October 13, 2017, 04:37:52 PM »
My real pet peeve these days is when people write "loose" instead of "lose".

I see that one all the time. I also see slamming the "breaks" in your car. I know all the cool kids these days are language Descriptivists and not Prescriptivists; but it's much easier to accept linguistic changes in the ancient past than to see it real-time, in front of your eyes. The changes are driven by the idiots who can't grammar properly. Why should they "win"? It's galling. If we all sat down and decided to change the language, that's one thing. But dumbing it down for the lowest common denominator? Yuck.

GreenSheep

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #682 on: October 13, 2017, 06:32:55 PM »
My real pet peeve these days is when people write "loose" instead of "lose".

I see that one all the time. I also see slamming the "breaks" in your car. I know all the cool kids these days are language Descriptivists and not Prescriptivists; but it's much easier to accept linguistic changes in the ancient past than to see it real-time, in front of your eyes. The changes are driven by the idiots who can't grammar properly. Why should they "win"? It's galling. If we all sat down and decided to change the language, that's one thing. But dumbing it down for the lowest common denominator? Yuck.

Idiocracy. It's happening. (Terrible movie, but worth watching nonetheless, as the premise is interesting.) Soon we'll all just be grunting at each other.

TheBuddha

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #683 on: October 13, 2017, 11:14:47 PM »

Idiocracy. It's happening. (Terrible movie, but worth watching nonetheless, as the premise is interesting.) Soon we'll all just be grunting at each other.

Oh I agree. But then again, to non-mustachians we probably come across like this.

slackmax

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #684 on: October 16, 2017, 05:52:33 AM »
So I guess the question I have to ask myself now is, who am I to think that I'm the one who gets to decide what's "wrong" and what's just "new."

On a different front, I'd like to anecdotally report a dramatic decrease in my pet-peeve sentence formula: "So, [...] right?" I think starting sentences with "so" and ending with "right?" just naturally played itself out and I don't hear it much anymore.


Just turn on NPR on the radio and listen to any interview. The answer to any question always starts with the word 'so'.  I can't stand it.  But the good news is that they don't end the answer with the word 'right'.

Goldielocks

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #685 on: October 16, 2017, 03:42:17 PM »
So I guess the question I have to ask myself now is, who am I to think that I'm the one who gets to decide what's "wrong" and what's just "new."

On a different front, I'd like to anecdotally report a dramatic decrease in my pet-peeve sentence formula: "So, [...] right?" I think starting sentences with "so" and ending with "right?" just naturally played itself out and I don't hear it much anymore.

You are right!  They should end it properly, which is  ... "So, [....]  'eh?"