I can't take it anymore. (meaning, song, quote, similar)
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It's also because I notice things like that, and others might not.
I live in New Jersey. We have a lot of people from other parts of the world here, so that could account for a lot of it.
Maybe yes, maybe no.
I say that because I consistently observed that my foreign-born students (from both Asia & Africa) were able to pass the NJ High School Proficiency Test with flying colors w/in 2 years of their arrival in this country--many without having spoken English prior to their arrival.
Additionally, these same students were the overwhelming majority in our AP classes, where they excelled. If you read their essays, you would have seen an incredible contrast with the barely-intelligible English that we comment about in this thread.
The students who had the most difficult time passing the graduation test were those who transferred to NJ from Louisiana, and to some extent, from Florida. I am not kidding when I say that the kids from Louisiana were worse-off educationally than kids from Third-World countries.
I haven't read the past few pages so I hope I'm not repeating anyone. A few years ago we had a good-bye card for a co-worker who was leaving.
Someone wrote "chow".
:/
Were there **** derves? (I saw that on another thread recently.)
Quote:
Originally Posted by PJSinger
It drives me nuts when retail stores' express checkout lanes have signs indicating the lanes are for those with "10 items or less."
I'm tempted to write the word "fewer" on a whole bunch of large Post-Its and stick them over the word "less" on each incorrect sign.
I would happily lend (not loan) you one of my markers.
I've only seen one chain store's express lane signs written correctly. Menards' signs say, "10 items or fewer." Good for them.
.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Retriever
In my neck of the woods, the only supermarkets that seem to know the difference between, "less", and, "fewer", are Stop & Shop (operated by a Dutch company) and Wegman's. I agree with you, but--in all likelihood--very few of the customers know the difference, anyway.
And theynever will know the correct one when seeing it incorrectly so frequently.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rob Allen
"Gonna" is by far the more common, widespread corruption of "going to". It's in the titles of songs and movies. Google gets 279 million hits on "gonna". "Gunna" gets fewer than 9 million, and many of those are proper names. Even the spellcheck as I write this post flags "gunna" as incorrect but leaves "gonna" alone (interesting - it also flags "spellcheck").
It seems that a large portion of the English-speaking world has accepted "gonna" as correct, albeit informal. It may not suit you and others who like the old standards, but as some of your New Jersey neighbors might say, "whaddaya gonna do?"
Actually, the ones who say that are the "Brooklyners" who moved to Jersey. (Yes, I know it's correct to say "Brooklynites" but that was my way to annoy my friends from Brooklyn.)
Quote:
Originally Posted by old_cold
When you can't figure out which wrong word to use, use both.
"Most everyone thinks their healthy, until there not."
Actually, in the above rule, it should read 2 (out of 3) since there are more than 2, ergo both (limiting to only 2) is incorrect.
I must give you credit for not saying "the both". It screams at me and makes my eye twitch.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dale Cooper
....
It makes me crazy when people spade their female pets.
It is worse when someone is going to have their pet "spaded".
I have a friend I grew up with from kindergarten through high school who now works for a major network as a producer of one of the soap operas. She is known, as am I, for her attention to detail and correct grammar; yet I have not once watched a soap opera episode without hearing "the both". This is the same person who who made a comparison that (correctly) ended with "as we."
Nope. Your correction is incorrect. I am the author and I choose to have it stated the very same way that I stated it. I don't conform to those boundaries that you do.
Well, why stop there? Why even add punctuation or bother to even attempt to spell words correctly? Wouldn't want to be a conformist now, would you?
My SIL wrote on FB, "I sprang my ankle", WTH? I wrote, "what happened, did you step on a spring and it sprung?" Her daughter always says, "I'm gonna go to the store an buy some stuff an goin yard selling." I try not to be annoyed, but I am. My SIL got a lot of grief for her "sprang" comment and corrected it to sprained
Maybe yes, maybe no.
I say that because I consistently observed that my foreign-born students (from both Asia & Africa) were able to pass the NJ High School Proficiency Test with flying colors w/in 2 years of their arrival in this country--many without having spoken English prior to their arrival.
Additionally, these same students were the overwhelming majority in our AP classes, where they excelled. If you read their essays, you would have seen an incredible contrast with the barely-intelligible English that we comment about in this thread.
The students who had the most difficult time passing the graduation test were those who transferred to NJ from Louisiana, and to some extent, from Florida. I am not kidding when I say that the kids from Louisiana were worse-off educationally than kids from Third-World countries.
Good points. My coworkers from India are generally very good with written English.
It is worse when someone is going to have their pet "spaded".
It screams ignorance like nothing else!
I read a forum for crafters. Posters frequently ask how "sells" were, or question how much someone "sales". One poster often asks for new "ideals".
And someone is "bias" instead of "biased"?
The list is endless.
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