Please state in which country your phrase tends to be used, what the phrase is, and what it should be.
Example:
In America, recently came across “back-petal”, instead of back-pedal. Also, still hearing “for all intensive purposes” instead of “for all intents and purposes”.
“per say” vs “per se”
Yeah /yĕ′ə, yă′ə, yā′ə/ is a different word than Yea /yā/
Having made some of these mistakes, I tend not to be rigid about them. But here are some fun ones.
- on line vs in line
- to graduate vs to be graduated
- antivenom vs antivenin
All of the above have been normalized, but at one time was not.
Another quirk, we used to not call former Presidents President So and So. We used to call them by their highest position before president. So it would be Senator Obama and not President Obama.
Idiots misspelling lose as loose drives me up the wall. Even had someone defend themselves claiming it’s just the common spelling now and to accept it. There, their, and they’re get honorable mention. Nip it in the butt as opposed to correctly nipping it in the bud.
“that begs the question”. I wish people would just use the more correct “raises the question”, especially people doing educational/academic content. I hear it across the English-speaking internet
Please state what country your phrase tends to be used
Please state in which country your phrase tends to be used…
Casey Point
Touché
This reply deserves to be put on a peddle stool
Interchangeable then/than, or using ‘on accident’.
Big 🤡 energy.
I
couldcouldn’t care lessHold
downthe fortThe proof
is in the puddingof the pudding is in the eatingelon muskTwatOn accident, it is by accident. 🤬
“If worse comes to worst…”
In British English, they often say the phrase as “if worst comes to worst,” which is based on archaic grammar.
In the US, there’s a mix of verb tenses. The only one that make sense in this day and age is “if what is worse comes to be the worst,” or “if worse comes to worst.”
This point can be argued, but I will be severely wounded (maybe not so much as dying) defending this hill.
I feel like the vast majority of people online use “yay or nay” instead of “yea or nay”.
Because English is inconsistent and ass
People’s names. I think it’s dismissive/disrespectful to mispronounce someone’s name.
I have a rare last name (for the US anywa), and the pronunciations I get are amazing. My favorite was Mr. Tubbo, at the bank. I’ve also gotten Tugboat. My name has no G in it.
Whenever I go somewhere where I know I’ll have to spell my name (like the bank, gov offices, et cetera) I always offer them a dollar if they can pronounce it. I’ve had to pay a dollar one time in 30 years, and that’s only because she was involved with a French company. It never really bothers me when people can’t pronounce it. What bugs me is when I tell them how to say it and they still can’t get it. It’s spelled all fucked up and French, but it’s only 2 syllables, and a very, very simple name to pronounce. But they can’t get the spelling out of their head, and fuck it up every time
Thibault? That’s the first 2 syllable French name that comes to mind that I could see people mangling to Tubbo or Tugboat
Almost!
You can’t really blame people for mispronouncing a rare or foreign name. It would only be a problem if it was done repeatedly with the intent to offend.
I do get irritated when they have 2 different pronunciations of a name that’s spelled the same. And they assume the less common one.
Absolutely. It’s not fair to blame people for honest mistakes. If I implied it was, then that was a mistake!
Capitalizing black mid-setence. It’s an absolutely ridiculous convention, and something only the American Left could take seriously.
Sincerely, Everyone else
“addicting”
“The proof is in the pudding.”
The actual phrase is: “The proof of the pudding is in the eating.”
It means that your dessert might look and smell delicious, but if you fucked up the recipe, say by using salt instead of sugar, then it will taste bad. You won’t know for sure until you eat it. So, a plan might look good on paper but be a disaster when implemented.
“The proof is in the pudding” doesn’t mean anything.
Unless you bake some incriminating evidence into it.
I feel that this one is slightly pedantic because, strictly speaking, “the proof is in the pudding” is also technically correct. After all, the proof of the pudding is in the pudding. Yes, the more correct form is much more clear as to what it means, but that doesn’t invalidate the mis-phrasing.
So weird, I just heard this phrase in its entirety from Dr. Smith, of the classic Lost in Space series.
It’s such a goofy show but the dialogue can be shockingly eloquent.
“Proof is in the pudding” always got to me too… Thought it was some old weird Baker-farmer-ism or something Lol.
