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Is this something new, or do some people actually talk like this?
"Rather you like it or not or rather it's illegal or not, people are going to continue to get behind the wheel inebriated. "
I have to admit that I have never seen or heard that particular mistake, but nothing would surprise me at this point when it comes to murdering the English language.
In a similar vein, I have seen a fairly large number of people write, "once in the while", instead of, "once in awhile".
For the life of me, I just can't understand how such commonly-used expressions become distorted like that.
I went to many small shops today, and all of them used 's for plural words!
I wanted to tell the shop owners that you don't need an apostrophe for plural words!
It's killing me. It's happening so much I can't stand it.
Other things I spied on CD today were "one in the same" instead of "one and the same", and "It's a world-wind project." The latter came from a poster whose posts are usually pretty intelligent, so I was surprised by that one.
It's killing me. It's happening so much I can't stand it.
Other things I spied on CD today were "one in the same" instead of "one and the same", and "It's a world-wind project." The latter came from a poster whose posts are usually pretty intelligent, so I was surprised by that one.
I came to this thread to report "world-wind project" but you beat me to it.
I usually try to bite my tongue and stop myself from correcting people. Today, however, I heard someone say "passer-bys" three times and I couldn't stop myself. I mentioned, kindly, that the plural of "passer-by" is actually "passers-by."
She wrinkled her brow and said she didn't get it. I tried to explain by saying, "It's like mothers-in-law. You wouldn't say, "mother-in-laws."
I usually try to bite my tongue and stop myself from correcting people. Today, however, I heard someone say "passer-bys" three times and I couldn't stop myself. I mentioned, kindly, that the plural of "passer-by" is actually "passers-by."
She wrinkled her brow and said she didn't get it. I tried to explain by saying, "It's like mothers-in-law. You wouldn't say, "mother-in-laws."
She said, "Why not?"
When somebody has heard a word mispronounced or misused innumerable times, that mispronunciation/misusage takes on a life of its own, and the correct pronunciation/usage actually begins to sound like it is wrong. I can tell you from personal experience that this is the case, as illustrated by the following incident.
Many years ago, at our high school's annual awards assembly, a very large number of awards were being presented by a member of the local Board of Education.
For every presentation, he said the same words when announcing the award: "Mr. X (actually, a badly screwed-up pronunciation of the principal's name), da reciprient of dis heah award is______________." (You have to understand that this took place in Woodbridge Township, NJ, where school board members seem to be chosen on the basis of how little education they have had.)
After hearing this school board member slaughter the English language for...perhaps 20 minutes...when the next presenter spoke, she actually sounded like she was mispronouncing things when she said, "the", instead of, "da", and when she said, "recipient", instead of, "reciprient". And, I was not alone in this reaction. One of the other teachers, who apparently was dieing a thousand deaths at the same time as me, later stated that the litany of bad pronunciations actually made the presenters who followed sound like they were mispronouncing things, even though they were enunciating their words correctly.
When somebody has heard a word mispronounced or misused innumerable times, that mispronunciation/misusage takes on a life of its own, and the correct pronunciation/usage actually begins to sound like it is wrong. I can tell you from personal experience that this is the case, as illustrated by the following incident.
Many years ago, at our high school's annual awards assembly, a very large number of awards were being presented by a member of the local Board of Education.
For every presentation, he said the same words when announcing the award: "Mr. X (actually, a badly screwed-up pronunciation of the principal's name), da reciprient of dis heah award is______________." (You have to understand that this took place in Woodbridge Township, NJ, where school board members seem to be chosen on the basis of how little education they have had.)
After hearing this school board member slaughter the English language for...perhaps 20 minutes...when the next presenter spoke, she actually sounded like she was mispronouncing things when she said, "the", instead of, "da", and when she said, "recipient", instead of, "reciprient". And, I was not alone in this reaction. One of the other teachers, who apparently was dieing a thousand deaths at the same time as me, later stated that the litany of bad pronunciations actually made the presenters who followed sound like they were mispronouncing things, even though they were enunciating their words correctly.
I usually try to bite my tongue and stop myself from correcting people. Today, however, I heard someone say "passer-bys" three times and I couldn't stop myself. I mentioned, kindly, that the plural of "passer-by" is actually "passers-by."
She wrinkled her brow and said she didn't get it. I tried to explain by saying, "It's like mothers-in-law. You wouldn't say, "mother-in-laws."
She said, "Why not?"
That one is more common than we'd like, I'm afraid. But points to you for trying to educate somebody!
I saw a shirt that said, "GRAMMAR POLICE" and then in smaller letters, "To serve and protect."
Perfect!
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