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.
Not sure why you object to this, except for ending the sentence with a preposition, which even the most erudite often do for conversational clarity and succinctness. The corrected thread title would be "At what altitude do you live", which is perfectly correct, repairing only the preposition placement.
I see nothing wrong with "What town do you live in" or "What street do you live on", or "What college do you live near" or "What airport do you fly to" or "What altitude do you live at", each one using the appropriate preposition that would be fitting in the corresponding declarative sentence. In some cases, we so customarily drop the interrogative preposition that it sounds hillbilly to leave lit in, but that does not make it wrong. As in "What time do you get up (at)?", with the answer, "I get up at 6 oclock".
Because a preposition is something you never end a sentence with.
And yes, "Where y'at" does sound rather uneducated.
Wow. I thought I would read through this whole thread so I could catch up and I'm only on page 26!! And a little queasy, by the way.
I thought spell check ruined me, but reading anything published or printed these days in an act of courage. Sometimes I get dizzy (just kidding) trying to remember the correct spelling for a suspicious word and have to look it up.
Correct spelling and grammar used to be something I prided myself in-- if I may be so bold as to introduce an awkward phrase-- but I no longer can count on my memory. That and Parkinson's messing up my typing and I'm in big trouble!
Let's see. Some of my pet peeves: "could of" for "could have" as has been mentioned. (Yes, it CAN be pronounced properly with care.)
Using unnecessary apostrophies is one of the worst. I once visited a sandwich shop while shopping out of my local area only to discover a huge menu board above the counter with many, many offerings on it, all with apostrophies, like this: hamburger's, milkshake's, muffin's, etc. etc. I turned around and walked back to my car. Yuk.
Every time I see a sign, mostly in grocery stores, that uses useless punctuation like this: LOBSTER'S for sale, I want to take my mini-Sharpie and write on the bottom: FEET! Or TOMATOE'S--FEET!
Kitchen cabinets are just that. Cabinets. They are not fine pieces of air loam quality furniture pieces
That's kind of sad. It's not a typo and the person is knowledgeable enough to have opinions and express them. Yet they write "air loam." (You'd think they would have known it is "air LOOM.") lol
Good day, everyone! Last night I started a list of grammar no-nos that bother me and in a few minutes came up with 13 with one added observation. Ok, so most grammar mistakes bother me, but these are the ones that popped up:
Using flounder for founder.
Less for fewer or the other way around. If I hear someone say something like, "Less children will get this disease," I wonder if they poured the little dears into a measuring cup!
I actually saw someone type "diddent" Worse than saying "di-ent" IMHO.
Also saw written "diddo" for ditto.
I am grinding teeth on hearing "suggestable." Is that a proper word at all? I don't think so. Use "impressionable."
I have seen the discussion here about "I could care less." I always see that as pure sarcasm, not a mistake.
Using "imminent" for "emminent" or vs versa.
Never forget one lady who wrote that she was a "Babdist."
Some people say "I seen it" out of ignorance or custom or whatever. Sometimes I reply, "Oh? You have seen that??"
Some years ago, my son's middle school teacher (VA) did not know the definition of "y'all." He asked her and she just said, "You know, it's y'all!" (He was born in NY State.)
This same teacher told him that pronouncing "cupboard" was done by making use of the p and the b, CUP-BOARD. I have never heard anyone else do that. It's always changed to "cubbard."
One fellow on a commercial for Rosetta Stone translating software said he had used different "mediums." Wow.
Television commercials and ads in general are rife with errors. The Rosetta Stone ads nearly invariably have the people say the name of the product and it comes out as Rosetta STONE like it's a woman's name!!! I would like to purchase their lessons, but how much confidence could I have that it's correct?
One of my pet peeves is seeing or hearing "people that." It's people WHO!
Well, I could dig up some more today, but I'm still trying to catch up on earlier posts. Entertainment for the day!
Last edited by JoanD'Arc; 06-29-2013 at 10:38 AM..
Good day, everyone! Last night I started a list of grammar no-nos that bother me and in a few minutes came up with 13 with one added observation. Ok, so most grammar mistakes bother me, but these are the ones that popped up:
Using flounder for founder.
Less for fewer or the other way around. If I hear someone say something like, "Less children will get this disease," I wonder if they poured the little dears into a measuring cup!
I actually saw someone type "diddent" Worse than saying "di-ent" IMHO.
Also saw written "diddo" for ditto.
I am grinding teeth on hearing "suggestable." Is that a proper word at all? I don't think so. Use "impressionable."
I have seen the discussion here about "I could care less." I always see that as pure sarcasm, not a mistake.
Using "imminent" for "emminent" or vs versa.
Never forget one lady who wrote that she was a "Babdist."
Some people say "I seen it" out of ignorance or custom or whatever. Sometimes I reply, "Oh? You have seen that??"
Some years ago, my son's middle school teacher (VA) did not know the definition of "y'all." He asked her and she just said, "You know, it's y'all!" (He was born in NY State.)
This same teacher told him that pronouncing "cupboard" was done by making use of the p and the b, CUP-BOARD. I have never heard anyone else do that. It's always changed to "cubbard."
One fellow on a commercial for Rosetta Stone translating software said he had used different "mediums." Wow.
Television commercials and ads in general are rife with errors. The Rosetta Stone ads nearly invariably have the people say the name of the product and it comes out as Rosetta STONE like it's a woman's name!!! I would like to purchase their lessons, but how much confidence could I have that it's correct?
One of my pet peeves is seeing or hearing "people that." It's people WHO!
Well, I could dig up some more today, but I'm still trying to catch up on earlier posts. Entertainment for the day!
It would appear that founder vs. flounder would depend on the context:
Thanks, suzy,
Looks like I should have taken the time to check my spelling! Sorry about that. I really did not know that "suggestible" is a proper word. Even then, it just sounds wrong/ignorant. But what do I know???
Got this far: flounder: [Probably alteration of founder.] If this is how language evolves, I'm sure I am not the only one who does this:
I recently heard someone say a friend has prostrate cancer.
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.
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.
