Linguisting or Semantic Pet Peeves

[HenryBHough]

"Half to"

 

[DGS49]

Can I get an "Amen" on HIGHLY?

"This person is highly qualified!"

Highly? How about VERY?

What is the antonym of highly? Lowly?

In almost every instance, the word "very" would be better. Highly is one of those words like, "methodology." The speaker thinks it makes him sound more intelligent, but to me it is just pompous and poorly chosen.

 

[Cassy Mo]

"reoccur"

 

[Montrovant]

Nothing is worse (in the written word) that superfluous apostrophe's.

Simplest concept in the world. Why would anyone say "at it is best"?

I sympathize with that one. You wouldn't write, "That is Harrys baseball.". Apostrophes denote possession, so using one with its seems correct at first blush.

Or was the whole post a joke? You did, after all, use an apostrophe in apostrophes.......

 

[Montrovant]

"ATM machine." Automatic Teller Machine machine.

"He got the shaft."

Grammatically correct. Quite often, though, one hears the grammatically incorrect, "He got shafted".


The mistake I hear the most which grates on my nerves is when someone uses me in place of I. "Me and Bob saw a good movie the other day." I even hear on-air journalists make this mistake frequently.

You wouldn't say, "Me saw a good movie."

Also, using us in place of we. "Us customers got shafted by this malfunctioning ATM machine."

PIN or VIN number are also fairly common.

 

[rightwinger]

I dont get two upset over grammar

 

[Montrovant]

Reverse racism or reverse discrimination are phrases that annoy me. No matter who is doing it, it is racism or discrimination. Adding the word reverse implies that racism or discrimination can normally only be characteristics of a particular group of people, which is just silly.

 

[Cecilie1200]

"Less" when you should use "fewer". Fewer applies to things that can be individually counted; otherwise, you use less. Therefore, you would have less water, but fewer drops of water.

And yes, the misuse of "literally" drives me batshit. "I literally died when it happened!" Oh? So are you the Messiah, or a zombie?

 

[Pogo]

Nothing is worse (in the written word) that superfluous apostrophe's.

Simplest concept in the world. Why would anyone say "at it is best"?

I sympathize with that one. You wouldn't write, "That is Harrys baseball.". Apostrophes denote possession, so using one with its seems correct at first blush.

Or was the whole post a joke? You did, after all, use an apostrophe in apostrophes.......

Yes, "apostrophe's" was a joke. I have to force myself to type that.

Possessive is one thing but it's is always "it is". The possessive never occurred to me. I was taught the 's - possessive only goes onto nouns, not pronouns. And to just reinsert the letter the apostrophe stands for (i) and if it doesn't make sense it doesn't get used. Hence my guffaw when I read signs saying "USED TIRE IS"

Which reminds me -- Strunk & White must die. On first glance at that manual they at least wasted no time making an enemy of me with their insistence, right there on page 1, that the possessive of "something belonging to Jesus" would be Jesus's. I shit you not.

 

[Pogo]

Saw this road sign in a highway construction zone in Texas - it read exactly thus:

SPEED
FINES
DOBLES​

 

[Montrovant]

Nothing is worse (in the written word) that superfluous apostrophe's.

Simplest concept in the world. Why would anyone say "at it is best"?

I sympathize with that one. You wouldn't write, "That is Harrys baseball.". Apostrophes denote possession, so using one with its seems correct at first blush.

Or was the whole post a joke? You did, after all, use an apostrophe in apostrophes.......

Yes, "apostrophe's" was a joke. I have to force myself to type that.

Possessive is one thing but it's is always "it is". The possessive never occurred to me. I was taught the 's - possessive only goes onto nouns, not pronouns. And to just reinsert the letter the apostrophe stands for (i) and if it doesn't make sense it doesn't get used. Hence my guffaw when I read signs saying "USED TIRE IS"

Which reminds me -- Strunk & White must die. On first glance at that manual they at least wasted no time making an enemy of me with their insistence, right there on page 1, that the possessive of "something belonging to Jesus" would be Jesus's. I shit you not.

Other pronouns tend to have entirely different words used for the possessive; he becomes his, she becomes her, they becomes their. Offhand I am not coming up with an example analogous with it.

I actually was looking at a site regarding apostrophes and possessives earlier and the advice it gave was to just be consistent when it comes to apostrophes and proper names. This site had no problem with Jesus's rather than Jesus' so long as the person did the same with all names.

 

[Roadrunner]

What is so difficult about the concept of twelve o'clock NOON? Everywhere I look I see people referring to "12 pm." Even on the Weather Channel!

"p.m." stands for "post meridiem," which, in latin means, "after mid-day (noon)" So saying "12 o'clock pm" is like saying "noon, after noon." For some reason, it drives me nuts.

"I could care less." Total nonsense, yet it is used all the time. To have any rational meaning whatsoever, one should say, "I couldn't care less." To say, "I could care less," is to say that you DO care, which is the OPPOSITE of what is intended.

"He got the shaft." This unfortunate expression refers to anal rape. Same for "He got screwed." Used all the time in casual conversation, but clearly it should be abolished from the current American lexicon.

"This is truly a QUALITY product!" Quality is a NOUN, not an adjective; it cannot properly be used to describe anything. To use it as an adjective is idiotic. The proper expression would be, "This is a high quality product." To say that it is a quality product is like saying, "Manute Bol was a very height basketball player."

Feel free to add your own.

The use and abuse of the word "absolutely".

 

[Roadrunner]

Whoa is me.

Centerfuges for centrifuges.

 

[Pogo]

Nothing is worse (in the written word) that superfluous apostrophe's.

Simplest concept in the world. Why would anyone say "at it is best"?

I sympathize with that one. You wouldn't write, "That is Harrys baseball.". Apostrophes denote possession, so using one with its seems correct at first blush.

Or was the whole post a joke? You did, after all, use an apostrophe in apostrophes.......

Yes, "apostrophe's" was a joke. I have to force myself to type that.

Possessive is one thing but it's is always "it is". The possessive never occurred to me. I was taught the 's - possessive only goes onto nouns, not pronouns. And to just reinsert the letter the apostrophe stands for (i) and if it doesn't make sense it doesn't get used. Hence my guffaw when I read signs saying "USED TIRE IS"

Which reminds me -- Strunk & White must die. On first glance at that manual they at least wasted no time making an enemy of me with their insistence, right there on page 1, that the possessive of "something belonging to Jesus" would be Jesus's. I shit you not.

Other pronouns tend to have entirely different words used for the possessive; he becomes his, she becomes her, they becomes their. Offhand I am not coming up with an example analogous with it.

I actually was looking at a site regarding apostrophes and possessives earlier and the advice it gave was to just be consistent when it comes to apostrophes and proper names. This site had no problem with Jesus's rather than Jesus' so long as the person did the same with all names.

Sure, consistency matters. But you just don't peg an 's after and s, on any name. It would make an unvoiced s followed by a voiced one, or else a glottal stop. I am grateful to Stunk & White for discrediting themselves right on page 1. It's like the criminal that wanted to be caught and left clues.

I'm reminded that for all the passion with which we inveigh our spleen in Politics, it's nothing compared to a good newspaper editorial meeting shootout over whether paragraph 3's 23rd word should be italicized or not.

 

[rightwinger]

I hate when people say

You are a stupid fuck

Instead of the more proper

You are a stupid fucker

 

[Pogo]

I hate when people say

You are a stupid fuck

Instead of the more proper

You are a stupid fucker

For that matter --- "fuck you" makes no grammatical sense.
At best it's a wish for good fortune.

 

[Cassy Mo]

Statue in place of statute...

 

[Roadrunner]

I hate when people say

You are a stupid fuck

Instead of the more proper

You are a stupid fucker

For that matter --- "fuck you" makes no grammatical sense.
At best it's a wish for good fortune.

Nah, when I say "Fuck you" I am wanting D4 to fuck 'em.

 

[featherlite]

To me, the phrases that people use these days like "cray cray", "bestie", and "selfie" for example sound like things that a three year old would say.

God bless you always!!!

Holly

Whats a cray cray? crayfish lol. Selfie should be changed to "narci"
What about "bae" that totally annoying abbreviation for baby.. pretty soon it will be just b' come here b' grrrr

 

[JOSweetHeart]

^^^ When people say "cray cray" about someone, they are meaning that the person is crazy.

God bless you always!!!

Holly