32 Most Commonly Misused Words And Phrases (meaning, grammar, quote)

[Ohiogirl81]

Originally Posted by Rob Allen

forums (fora?)

Forii?

[Magnolia Bloom]

On outgoing voice mail messages-

"Please leave a message and I will call you back at my earliest convenience." In other words- I don't care about you, when it it convenient for me, I'll return the call.

[Fred314X]

Originally Posted by Ohiogirl81

Forii?

Yes! We were discussing octopii and hippopotamii in the forii, weren't we?

[Champion Willis]

for all intensive purposes = for all intents and purposes

[jdavid93225]

Originally Posted by Champion Willis

for all intensive purposes = for all intents and purposes

Maybe we need to create an acronym for this phrase: FAIAP.

If we do so, perhaps those who use the former term will realize they've missed a word and will look it up and realize their mistake.

[CJFinnegan]

"bessed" instead of "best."

"Leant" instead of "lent."

[kodaka]

Originally Posted by Magnolia Bloom

On outgoing voice mail messages-

"Please leave a message and I will call you back at my earliest convenience." In other words- I don't care about you, when it it convenient for me, I'll return the call.

How is this a misused phrase? It may be overused, and you may find it rude, but that doesn't mean it's an error of word usage.

[Osito]

I'll never forget the time my uncle sent me an email and in it he'd meant to say "voila" and he said "whallah" spelled just like that. I was ROFL that was too much. I don't think I ever told him either.

[jtur88]

Congeries. The word is correctly used as a singular ("A congeries of bricabrac was collecting dust"). And it is pronounced with a soft G, accented on the second syllable. con-JEER-eez. There is no "congery", as one might suspect to be the singular form. Similar in form to "series" or "species", which are singular themselves.

If you're speaking of a disordered collection of a species of large marine eels, they are pronounced with a hard-G: CONG-erz. "A con-JEER-ies of CONG-ers is lurking about the buoy". (We'll discuss 'buoy' and 'fluorescent' tomorrow.)

[Copanut]

Originally Posted by Osito

I'll never forget the time my uncle sent me an email and in it he'd meant to say "voila" and he said "whallah" spelled just like that. I was ROFL that was too much. I don't think I ever told him either.

I see that one ALL THE TIME, drives me nuts. Doesn't anyone read anymore?