Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
no but Route 59 is pronounce like root, as in a tree root
and roof is not rough, like its pronounced in the south, its wref
Both 'rout' and 'root' are proper pronunciations for route. It's more of a regional thing. I use both. The Merriam Webster online dictionary has audio pronunciations if you want to hear the "correct" way something is pronounced.
its pronounced Rowt when it means to force to retreat, but Root, when its a road.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!
NO ONE originally from Maine said ROUTE (like out), but now I never hear route (like root) because I guess they have all gone the way of out of staters. It's pathetic. Guess they think they are impressing someone.
A lot of grammatical mistakes don't faze me, and I have my share of stubborn incomprehensions (don't always understand the good/well rule of usage). But the following kills me, because I fail to understand how people of average intelligence make these mistakes time and time again:
People who don't understand that you only put quotation marks around something someone actually said. For instance, if a politician says, "Read my lips: no new taxes," and a person is quoting him, it drives me crazy if they write, "the politician has told us to "read his lips: no new taxes..." Who is the his in that quotation??? It is the politician! So why would the politician tell us to read "his" lips? He wouldn't. He would tell us to read "my" lips. Alteration of a quote for purposes of clarification requires the use of brackets--these things []!!--so as to reflect their true intention ("he told us to 'read [his] lips' regarding taxes.")
I just don't get paraphrasing with quotes when the two are generally mutually exclusive. Or did the people who do this miss the day that pronouns were taught in school, leading them to think 'his' and 'my' are interchangeable?
The above is the most grammatically stupefying example I have, right up there with misuse of the word 'literally' as a hyperbolic device, but that's already on the list. The 'literally' problem could be avoided ninety percent of the time if people just substituted the word 'practically' for 'literally.' ("My boss was practically foaming at the mouth when he heard those numbers.")
Something else that pains me is when someone uses an apostrophe, but without intending to convey a possessive or a contraction. I find this is most often employed with plural names: "Why didn't the McCoy's invite the Hatfield's to Christmas?" If no one is taking ownership of anything, just leave it alone! I think people are uncomfortable with slapping an 's' onto a name, so maybe they feel the need to dress it up with an apostrophe..? Crazy
I also detest redundancy. Why end a list with "etc., etc."? Did the first et cetera not fully express itself?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.