But, to be fair, looking at the name of the thread, wouldn't it be a semantic error, rather than a grammatical/spelling error?
I'd call it a diction error, since it's utilizing the wrong word in a certain turn of phrase. I suppose it's a little of both though, because if more people were actually aware of the meaning of 'literally', the diction issue would probably cease as well.
It's very much a "you keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means" sort of situation.
And yes, I've been waiting this entire thread to use that Princess Bride quote. That's how sad I am.
Ooh, also, I have an ironic one! A couple of times this past week, I have seen people misspell 'grammar' as 'grammer'... That is one word that you do not want to misspell, especially if you are accusing someone of having bad grammar.
A couple of times this past week, I have seen people misspell 'grammar' as 'grammer'... That is one word that you do not want to misspell, especially if you are accusing someone of having bad grammar.
I've seen that sort of fail on youtube fairly regularly. It's pretty funny to watch two people with terrible spelling skills arguing over grammar....I'd equate it to two armless people trying to have a slapfight.
Ooh, also, I have an ironic one! A couple of times this past week, I have seen people misspell 'grammar' as 'grammer'... That is one word that you do not want to misspell, especially if you are accusing someone of having bad grammar.
Actually, it's a variant of the spelling, much like colour and color.
Um...no it's not. I just punched it into the Oxford English Dictionary and when spelled as 'grammer' the word refers to Latin or the latin language. Also, the examples of that spelling are from the 1300s to the 1500s, before spelling itself was standardized meaning that, by that argument, re-using a form such as 'gramayre' is also a correct spelling for the word.
Too lazy to read this all.
My list of hated things people say:
- "He was hung on the gallows" HE WAS HANGED, GOSH DARNED IT!
- "It was the funnest day ever" I don't care that everyone says it, it's wrong.
- "I'm more faster than you" Pick one and stick with it. Are you more fast, or faster? Which brings me to my next point...
- "I am more fast than you" You are also more good at English.
- "Me and Susie really liked it" Me and Jill really like how you talk.
- "It was fun and fast and awesome" And you really are fond of and and you don't believe in commas and...
- (CHATSPEAK) Nononononono. Never EVER use ChatSpeak. Which brings me to my next point....
- "Ell oh ell! You're so funny! Lawl" Did you say lol? Don't do it again. I will hit you.
- and many more that make me cringe when I hear them, but can't think of right now.
Too lazy to read this all.
My list of hated things people say:
- "He was hung on the gallows" HE WAS HANGED, GOSH DARNED IT!
- "It was the funnest day ever" I don't care that everyone says it, it's wrong.
- "I'm more faster than you" Pick one and stick with it. Are you more fast, or faster? Which brings me to my next point...
- "I am more fast than you" You are also more good at English.
- "Me and Susie really liked it" Me and Jill really like how you talk.
- "It was fun and fast and awesome" And you really are fond of and and you don't believe in commas and...
- (CHATSPEAK) Nononononono. Never EVER use ChatSpeak. Which brings me to my next point....
- "Ell oh ell! You're so funny! Lawl" Did you say lol? Don't do it again. I will hit you.
- and many more that make me cringe when I hear them, but can't think of right now.
Also, I remembered another one. I can't remember whether or not it's already been posted, but I'll post it anyway. It's when people don't use 'too' where appropriate; they use 'to' instead. It gets really frustrating after a while. "I'm to tired", "I've eaten to much", "that is to funny" etc. makes me want to tear my hair out.
While correcting someone who had written the word "hypocracy" ("What did you think it meant, 'the lowest form of government'? Hahaha... Oh, wait, that would kinda fit, wouldn't it?") I went into the etymology of "hypocrisy". I knew "hypo" (which means "under", "below"), but was wondering about "crisy". And that's when it dawned on me: "hypocritical" means someone who isn't critical enough!
I've spotted a grammatical error on the TTG website. In the little greetings box on the right side of the 'Forums' button, is sometimes reads "What's up, Hayden!" (or whatever your username is). Surely it should be "What's up, Hayden?", should it not?. An exclamation mark and a question mark are two very different things and are not interchangeable.
I'd give artistic license for dialogue, and that's "dialogue", in a way. An exclamation mark could simply mean it's pronounced as an exclamation rather than a question.
Well, it's not really a grammatical error (although it should be), but I believe that everyone who says "epic win" on the Internet and especially IRL should be impaled on a flaming stake in the middle of town. Fuck everything about "epic win." The same goes for the word "fail" as an exclamatory phrase.
I sometimes doubt people are aware of what the acronyms stand for though, so perhaps it's less redundancy and more ignorance.
There is a chain of stores in France called FNAC. It's rather awesome, selling pretty much anything you might want for entertainment (books, movies, music, electronics, games, concert tickets...). I once asked an employee at the register "Hey, what does FNAC stand for?"
She opened her eyes wide and said she didn't think it stood for everything. Then she asked other cashiers and floor employees and none knew. How can you work there and never ask anyone? How are they not told what it means in their employment paperwork? It beats me.
Also, it stands for "Fédération Nationale d'Achat pour les Cadres".
That's probably the biggest for me, but probably because I encounter it on nearly a daily basis. I think one of the reasons it bugs me, is because it is one that is much easier to get right than something like "there, their, and they're" or "too and to." If you can't substitute in "you are", it is "your." Simple.
Although "its and it's" are fairly frequent as well, that one doesn't get under my skin nearly as much due to it being a tad more confusing. It only bothers me when I see it in the professional world. (My mom told me she once saw the mistake in an Ovaltine commercial. How do they not have people that proofread that?)
When people say "PIN Number or ATM Machine". It's redundant!
Those amuse me. It gets even better when you start mixing languages. When I lived in Texas, a big one was "the Rio Grande river", where "rio" just means "river", so you are literally saying "the big river river."
"I could care less." You could? Thanks for letting me know!
Just to give you an idea of how much linguistics amuse me, I spent several hours one day looking this up. I could never remember which one was the correct one to use, because, well, we have a lot of stupid stuff in our language when it comes to slang, like how "bad" can mean "good" in certain circumstances. Given how much you hear it either way, I was fairly confused.
From what I found, both are actually correct. Why? "I couldn't care less" was the original saying for obvious reasons. However, given every generations need to change what the previous generation did, the next adopted "I could care less", but it was sad in a sarcastic manner. Over time, however, the two sort of got mixed together to the point where they are now used interchangeably despite lack of sarcastic inflection or intent.
It's not like this is the only thing in our language like this though. When you say, "Tell me about it!" you don't actually expect the person to sit down and give a detailed explanation to you.
As interesting as it all is, I just feel sorry for people who have to pick up this language.
Ah! Found another one I hate!
PIN is an acronym, yes. But ATM is an intitalism! Acronyms are pronounced, initalisms are spelled... "Pin" "Ay-Tee-Em"
Dude, I got my B.A. in English and in all four years of that I'd never even heard of an initialism. Not that I'm saying you're wrong, but I'm saying that term is either dropped out of common grammatical usage or acronym has just become a cultural blanket term.
Dude, I got my B.A. in English and in all four years of that I'd never even heard of an initialism. Not that I'm saying you're wrong, but I'm saying that term is either dropped out of common grammatical usage or acronym has just become a cultural blanket term.
He's right. Kind of. If it's composed of initial letters, technically it ca be called an initialism regardless of how it's pronounced.
Words like "sonar" though, that have some non-initial letters, can't be called initialisms as far as I know.
Dude, I got my B.A. in English and in all four years of that I'd never even heard of an initialism. Not that I'm saying you're wrong, but I'm saying that term is either dropped out of common grammatical usage or acronym has just become a cultural blanket term.
Despite my only college degree being an honorary B.A. for being a B.A. (from the University of the Church of Tom Pravetz), I know my English. :P (Wasn't meaning to offend anyone. Just pointing another thing that bothers me. Sorry if I did.)
Despite my only college degree being an honorary B.A. for being a B.A. (from the University of the Church of Tom Pravetz), I know my English. :P (Wasn't meaning to offend anyone. Just pointing another thing that bothers me. Sorry if I did.)
You didn't offend, I was just sort of surprised that there was a division between the two terms and that I hadn't heard of it.
Also, there are so many instances in everyday life when I hear someone say 'a' where it should be 'an'. For example, "It's a awesome movie" - every time I hear someone say something like this, I always think in my head "an! AN, damn it!".
This also reminds me, I remember watching an episode of True Blood and hearing one of the women speak the line "I'm not a idiot". Ummm.... yes, you are.
I agree with Comrade Pants, but 'fail' and 'epic win' aren't as bad as using 'gay' as a negative adjective. I remember I was in class once and this girl came in an said "This room is gay".
Comments
I'd call it a diction error, since it's utilizing the wrong word in a certain turn of phrase. I suppose it's a little of both though, because if more people were actually aware of the meaning of 'literally', the diction issue would probably cease as well.
It's very much a "you keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means" sort of situation.
And yes, I've been waiting this entire thread to use that Princess Bride quote. That's how sad I am.
I've seen that sort of fail on youtube fairly regularly. It's pretty funny to watch two people with terrible spelling skills arguing over grammar....I'd equate it to two armless people trying to have a slapfight.
Same here. I actually own both an "Inconceivable!" shirt and a "Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die" shirt.
Haha! That's the funniest image that's entered my mind all day
Hell, even as an amputee; I laughed my ass off.
Actually, it's a variant of the spelling, much like colour and color.
You're an amputee?
Yeah, totally. Ask Dashing about it. Or me. Whatever. Point is, I lol'd.
My list of hated things people say:
- "He was hung on the gallows" HE WAS HANGED, GOSH DARNED IT!
- "It was the funnest day ever" I don't care that everyone says it, it's wrong.
- "I'm more faster than you" Pick one and stick with it. Are you more fast, or faster? Which brings me to my next point...
- "I am more fast than you" You are also more good at English.
- "Me and Susie really liked it" Me and Jill really like how you talk.
- "It was fun and fast and awesome" And you really are fond of and and you don't believe in commas and...
- (CHATSPEAK) Nononononono. Never EVER use ChatSpeak. Which brings me to my next point....
- "Ell oh ell! You're so funny! Lawl" Did you say lol? Don't do it again. I will hit you.
- and many more that make me cringe when I hear them, but can't think of right now.
Also, I remembered another one. I can't remember whether or not it's already been posted, but I'll post it anyway. It's when people don't use 'too' where appropriate; they use 'to' instead. It gets really frustrating after a while. "I'm to tired", "I've eaten to much", "that is to funny" etc. makes me want to tear my hair out.
Oh no, now you don't have an ass either! That's unfortunate.
I know. I'm losing my head over the matter. OH GOD NO!
This reminds me of a song.
We now return to our regular schedule.
Fix'd
Wow, etymology is so much fun.
I'm quite certain it is, Avi.
You should tell them to stop. Not safe to drive nuts. Especially when squirrels are near.
I sometimes doubt people are aware of what the acronyms stand for though, so perhaps it's less redundancy and more ignorance.
There is a chain of stores in France called FNAC. It's rather awesome, selling pretty much anything you might want for entertainment (books, movies, music, electronics, games, concert tickets...). I once asked an employee at the register "Hey, what does FNAC stand for?"
She opened her eyes wide and said she didn't think it stood for everything. Then she asked other cashiers and floor employees and none knew. How can you work there and never ask anyone? How are they not told what it means in their employment paperwork? It beats me.
Also, it stands for "Fédération Nationale d'Achat pour les Cadres".
Ah! Found another one I hate!
PIN is an acronym, yes. But ATM is an intitalism! Acronyms are pronounced, initalisms are spelled... "Pin" "Ay-Tee-Em"
That's probably the biggest for me, but probably because I encounter it on nearly a daily basis. I think one of the reasons it bugs me, is because it is one that is much easier to get right than something like "there, their, and they're" or "too and to." If you can't substitute in "you are", it is "your." Simple.
Although "its and it's" are fairly frequent as well, that one doesn't get under my skin nearly as much due to it being a tad more confusing. It only bothers me when I see it in the professional world. (My mom told me she once saw the mistake in an Ovaltine commercial. How do they not have people that proofread that?)
Those amuse me. It gets even better when you start mixing languages. When I lived in Texas, a big one was "the Rio Grande river", where "rio" just means "river", so you are literally saying "the big river river."
Just to give you an idea of how much linguistics amuse me, I spent several hours one day looking this up. I could never remember which one was the correct one to use, because, well, we have a lot of stupid stuff in our language when it comes to slang, like how "bad" can mean "good" in certain circumstances. Given how much you hear it either way, I was fairly confused.
From what I found, both are actually correct. Why? "I couldn't care less" was the original saying for obvious reasons. However, given every generations need to change what the previous generation did, the next adopted "I could care less", but it was sad in a sarcastic manner. Over time, however, the two sort of got mixed together to the point where they are now used interchangeably despite lack of sarcastic inflection or intent.
It's not like this is the only thing in our language like this though. When you say, "Tell me about it!" you don't actually expect the person to sit down and give a detailed explanation to you.
As interesting as it all is, I just feel sorry for people who have to pick up this language.
Dude, I got my B.A. in English and in all four years of that I'd never even heard of an initialism. Not that I'm saying you're wrong, but I'm saying that term is either dropped out of common grammatical usage or acronym has just become a cultural blanket term.
He's right. Kind of. If it's composed of initial letters, technically it ca be called an initialism regardless of how it's pronounced.
Words like "sonar" though, that have some non-initial letters, can't be called initialisms as far as I know.
Despite my only college degree being an honorary B.A. for being a B.A. (from the University of the Church of Tom Pravetz), I know my English. :P (Wasn't meaning to offend anyone. Just pointing another thing that bothers me. Sorry if I did.)
You didn't offend, I was just sort of surprised that there was a division between the two terms and that I hadn't heard of it.
This also reminds me, I remember watching an episode of True Blood and hearing one of the women speak the line "I'm not a idiot". Ummm.... yes, you are.