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Grammar and the Peeves that Pet It

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    patpat Member Posts: 10,421
    You can care about "drift" over grammatical form; that's your prerogative. I don't, and that's mine.

    "A SUV" is wrong if you sound it out, as in ESS YOU VEE. If you read SUV as Sports Utility Vehicle then "a" would be correct. I sound it out and therefore use "an" and I believe that to be correct. I don't really care what my friends and neighbors think, btw, I know exactly what I was taught and why and how it makes sense. :P

    If these are not peeves that pet your grammar, you don't have to worry about them. I was just stating some of mine. :shades:
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    xwesxxwesx Member Posts: 16,798
    If these are not peeves that pet your grammar, you don't have to worry about them. I was just stating some of mine.

    Funny that you mention this, Pat. I was scratching my grammar behind the ear yesterday and that damn thing bit me! How is that for appreciation?! :mad:
    2018 Subaru Crosstrek, 2014 Audi Q7 TDI, 2013 Subaru Forester, 1969 Chevrolet C20, 1969 Ford Econoline 100, 1976 Ford F250
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    xwesxxwesx Member Posts: 16,798
    My new peeve is "has/have got" as in, "I've got to go to the kitchen" or "he has got to be kidding!" :confuse: Why is the word "got" even used there? How about, "I have to go to the kitchen," or "I need to go to the kitchen," or "I want to go to the kitchen." Likewise, "he has to be kidding" or "he must be kidding."

    The word "got," to me, means "received."

    Get it?

    Got it.

    Good!

    :P
    2018 Subaru Crosstrek, 2014 Audi Q7 TDI, 2013 Subaru Forester, 1969 Chevrolet C20, 1969 Ford Econoline 100, 1976 Ford F250
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    sky23213sky23213 Member Posts: 300
    Even the accepted rules of English are contradictory, causing ESL speakers much grief.
    No kidding.
    I used to be confused a lot when I came to the United States. The language spoken here and The King's English taught in school had plenty of differences. Now, we had enough lectures on those - American vs British English. But for us it was ingrained that a native speaker trumped any English Philology Major anytime. :sick:
    I started getting the clue when my local co-workers started asking me to proof memos*.

    I personally can't stand the incorrect use of there-their-they're, with a close second the apostrophe abuse in it's-its and whose-who's. That would be forgivable slip for a street vendor abroad, but not on a sign in a rural store in the US, no matter how far in the hicks.
    Many people I've seen write here would not get past 9th grade in my high school. (That's when the subject would change from English to English and American Literature.)
    The grading was pretty strict - a quarter of a grade point for a spelling error, half for a grammar error. On a page and a half essay or a dictation (no spell check) that was a speedway to Fail if you write the way I mentioned above...

    The most difficult to overcome here was to start using "I don't have"... Half a grade point right there :blush:

    At least I don't fear any Sequence of Tenses slips anymore.

    *I really, REALLY wanted to say memoranda :P
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    qbrozenqbrozen Member Posts: 32,950
    Memoranda? I know her. Nice girl.

    '11 GMC Sierra 1500; '08 Charger R/T Daytona; '67 Coronet R/T; '13 Fiat 500c; '20 S90 T6; '22 MB Sprinter 2500 4x4 diesel; '97 Suzuki R Wagon; '96 Opel Astra; '08 Maser QP; '11 Mini Cooper S

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    sky23213sky23213 Member Posts: 300
    :D
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    patpat Member Posts: 10,421
    Oh yeah? You've been read the Memoranda Rights? :P
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    patpat Member Posts: 10,421
    Was it the peeve or the fleas? ;)
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    jlbljlbl Member Posts: 1,333
    Memos? Stupids? Bobos? Idiots?
    :P
    (You should not take me seriously; I now I meshing around with Languages.)
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    kyfdxkyfdx Moderator Posts: 237,266
    I had the break rotors replaced...

    That bugs me almost as much as the extra periods bug Pat.... ;)

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    mac24mac24 Member Posts: 3,910
    .........and those are the breaks you work with a peddle (or occasionally a petal), right?

    (Sorry Pat, but the extra periods are typos).
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    tmarttmart Member Posts: 2,242
    Wrong! You work the brake pedal with your foot, not the break pedal. Hope you don't break your brake pedal.
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    patpat Member Posts: 10,421
    No, no, no, no. It is the break peddle. What's wrong with you? ;)
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    PF_FlyerPF_Flyer Member Posts: 9,372
    We all know it's the braik pedle... come on. you know... the thing that if you overuse it can really hurt your milliage
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    210delray210delray Member Posts: 4,721
    "have got"

    That reminds me: PA had as a slogan on their license plates a decade or so ago, "You've got a friend in Pennsylvania."

    My mother, a retired teacher, despised it.
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    PF_FlyerPF_Flyer Member Posts: 9,372
    English may be an ever-evolving language, but some of these twists just confound me. I heard this one the other day, and have seen it online (THE source of the destruction) many times.

    Someone was relating how they were being given a hard time by someone by saying:

    Yea... he really gave me a lot of slack about it.

    Makes me just want to bang my head against the nearest wall :sick:
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    steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    Sounds like a typo evolved from trying to say flack. On the other hand, I'm always asking my sailing buddy to give me some slack on the jib downhaul when I'm trying to raise the sail. I'll ask him to give me a lot of slack tomorrow. :shades:

    It sort of has that "give me enough rope to hang myself" connotation to it.
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    PF_FlyerPF_Flyer Member Posts: 9,372
    See... there ARE places where it COULD be appropriate. But to hear "I took a lot of slack over it" just makes my head spin.

    My brother in law is a physician and did his ER rotation in Philadelphia. Among the patients he took histories from were a gentleman with a cough who told him he had "two buckets of locusts" (your puzzle for the night), and a woman, who when asked about her menstrual flow replied, "I think it's linoleum" :surprise:
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    steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    Locust - that would be mucus from way down deep; a low chest cold?

    This is getting a bit too clinical. :P
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    PF_FlyerPF_Flyer Member Posts: 9,372
    tuberculosis
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    fezofezo Member Posts: 10,384
    Just ran across about the 10,00th (this week) use of the word good when the word they want is well.

    I don't know why but that one is one of my top irritants. It's right up there with using less when fewer is correct.
    2015 Mazda 6 Grand Touring, 2014 Mazda 3 Sport Hatchback, 1999 Mazda Miata 2004 Toyota Camry LE, 1999.
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    xwesxxwesx Member Posts: 16,798
    The misuse of those words is rampant - as bad, I would say, as "have got!"

    I have nearly given up hope of it ever becoming better. People are always shocked/amazed when they ask my son (now, 3, but responding this way since 18 or fewer months) how he is feeling and he says, "quite well!"

    A few months ago he was derailed by all the "good" around him and started using it in place of 'well.' I would stop him right on the spot and correct his response. My wife thought I was being a little over the top about it, but he is back on track now. ;)
    2018 Subaru Crosstrek, 2014 Audi Q7 TDI, 2013 Subaru Forester, 1969 Chevrolet C20, 1969 Ford Econoline 100, 1976 Ford F250
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    mac24mac24 Member Posts: 3,910
    Just ran across about the 10,00th (this week) use of the word good when the word they want is well.

    Well...good grief!
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    tidestertidester Member Posts: 10,059
    Don't you just love the "izing" of words?

    If we actualize something, do we make it more real? Now I don't really mind people suffixizing words but they can get carried away with oversyllabization.

    I wouldn't agonize over someone failing to alphabetize but overuse will brutalize the language. Someone will certainly be inclinized to classisize all the misspokenized words and would probably cinematize the whole thing to help us visualize it.

    A marginalized soul hung up on such issues would be inclinized to decimalize the full list of mischaraterized and overutilized words and all would realize just how totalized and universalized the linguistic incursionization has become.

    I hope I have substantivized the concept without overdramatizing it. The person who reharmonizes the English language will not be penalized but most certainly deserves Nobel Prizification. :)
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    PF_FlyerPF_Flyer Member Posts: 9,372
    IZE-ing is sort of like GATE-ing. Ever since Woodward and Bernstein, any "scandal" has had to have a GATE attached.

    Guess the media is suffering from Scandlegate :sick:

    To quickly veer this one away from ANY political possibilities...

    Here's one you don't see too often now with cable TV, but when there was a signal problem and no show was on, a local station here would put up a message that said something like:

    The problem is not with your set. There is a signal problem betweeen the origination and station

    uhhhh??? Isn't origination something they do with loans?

    I know what they meant, but it ain't what they said! :shades:
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    mac24mac24 Member Posts: 3,910
    Origination is a word that's in my normal vocabulary.
    While a lending institution may charge an origination fee at the start of a loan, the word isn't peculiar to the financial industry.
    Origination means genesis or starting point. If the station has said "There is a signal problem between origination and station", they would have been correct (assuming that they were telling the truth and that their credit was still good with their program supplier :) ).

    P.S. Though quite a common word, origination isn't in the spell check.
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    jlbljlbl Member Posts: 1,333
    Is not then 'origination' replacing the original 'origin'?

    Jose
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    mac24mac24 Member Posts: 3,910
    Possibly, though in my perception origination adds the implication of an act of creation, as well as a point in time or space.

    The origination fee is created at the time of the start of the loan. The origination of the signal is its creation at the point of orgin.
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    jlbljlbl Member Posts: 1,333
    OK. In Latin-derived languages, origin means both, the act of creation and the point in time or space at which the act happens. Origination is a neologism, taken from (business) English language. :)

    Jose
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    Kirstie_HKirstie_H Administrator Posts: 11,148
    marvel at how a guy called "Jose" knows more about English grammar & usage than our average native-speaking poster?

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    madmanmoomadmanmoo Member Posts: 2,039
    /shrug

    We're lazy. :P

    -Moo
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    jlbljlbl Member Posts: 1,333
    I love languages. And I would like to improve my English in this forum. May be it is not too late! I thank you all.

    Jose
    ;)
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    mac24mac24 Member Posts: 3,910
    Unfortunately, I'm not as amazed as I feel I ought to be. :(

    It rather ties in with greater knowledge that the foreign tourist has of our national history, or the prospective naturalized citizen has of our political history and process of government.

    As moo said, laziness, and additionally in my opinion, apathy.
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    kyfdxkyfdx Moderator Posts: 237,266
    What's a bigger problem today? Ignorance or apathy?

    I don't know... and I don't care.. :)

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    jlbljlbl Member Posts: 1,333
    One of the many good things on learning another language is that it obliges you to rethink your own tongue. It is rather exciting, because one discovers hidden relationships, impossible acquaintances, and illogic structures that suddenly become clear. In the case of English and Spanish, there are much more idiom resemblances than those one can recognize at first sight. It is not difficult to understand why. Both become adult in the Seventieth Century. Shakespeare and Cervantes, and the rest of the gang, knew very well each other: their works used to be immediately translated into the other language.

    Jose
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    steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    "Canoers made a grizzly discovery in the Boise River near 44th Street Sunday morning ...."

    Nice try, but we don't have any grizzly bears here. What a grisly error.
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    Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    It could've escaped from the zoo!
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    xrunner2xrunner2 Member Posts: 3,062
    When did "going forward" become the way of expressing "in the future"? I really dislike the former and hear and read it nearly every day.

    Also, how about, "...on a going forward basis, we expect 4th quarter profits to be....". Why don't they just say, "we expect 4th quarter profits to be..".
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    PF_FlyerPF_Flyer Member Posts: 9,372
    It's all about syllables ;)

    George Carlin has a bit about it, how things over time are described by using more syllables, as if that makes them more important or impressive.

    During WWI it was known as:
    Shell shock

    Along comes WWII and it's:
    Battle fatigue

    What do we have now?
    Post-trumatic stress disorder
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    jimbresjimbres Member Posts: 2,025
    Good one!

    I wish I could go a day without hearing "...on a [daily/weekly/monthly)] basis." It's needlessly wordy.

    For example: "We perform this routine on a weekly basis" instead of "We do this every week".
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    xrunner2xrunner2 Member Posts: 3,062
    A few years back on weekly PBS tv show, host Gwen Ifill used the term "Funeralized" when referring to some national figure's funeral. With satellite tv, do not watch PBS much these days. Wonder if she still uses the term.
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    patpat Member Posts: 10,421
    I certainly hope not!
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    fezofezo Member Posts: 10,384
    "It's a question of whether we're going to go forward into the future, or past to the back. " - Dan Quayle
    2015 Mazda 6 Grand Touring, 2014 Mazda 3 Sport Hatchback, 1999 Mazda Miata 2004 Toyota Camry LE, 1999.
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    xrunner2xrunner2 Member Posts: 3,062
    NFL regular season starting soon. When will we ever hear an announcer or play-by-play guy say that a runner has gained x amount of yards today rather than "On" the day.
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    Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    Who's that comedian who imitates John Madden so well? Hysterically funny. He captures all the grammatical chaos.
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    kyfdxkyfdx Moderator Posts: 237,266
    Frank Caliendo (sp?)

    EDIT-- Ironic.. questioning my own spelling in a grammar forum.. :)

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    steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    Next we'll have a thread about ellipses. :D
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    patpat Member Posts: 10,421
    Why not? Their overuse, misuse and just plain dumb use drive me nuts! :P
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    cdnpinheadcdnpinhead Member Posts: 5,506
    Next we'll have a thread about ellipses.

    There has already been one. Go back to message #9 and enjoy (if that's the word).
    '08 Acura TSX, '17 Subaru Forester
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    patpat Member Posts: 10,421
    Yah, but we could repeat it over... and over... and over... and over... again... and... again... and... again!

    :shades:
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