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Old 04-20-2011, 10:29 AM
 
Location: Richardson, TX
8,734 posts, read 13,817,220 times
Reputation: 3808

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If I say "tupelware" it sounds like, toopelware.

 
Old 04-21-2011, 07:51 PM
 
Location: near bears but at least no snakes
26,656 posts, read 28,670,889 times
Reputation: 50525
to live in the manor you were accustomed to.

no comment.
 
Old 04-21-2011, 07:53 PM
 
Location: S.E. US
13,163 posts, read 1,692,498 times
Reputation: 5132
noone used to mean no one.
 
Old 04-24-2011, 09:30 AM
 
222 posts, read 419,427 times
Reputation: 633
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, STOP USING "ADVISE" WHEN YOU MEAN TO USE "ADVICE" !!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!
 
Old 04-24-2011, 11:52 PM
 
Location: Victoria TX
42,554 posts, read 86,954,125 times
Reputation: 36644
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fred314X View Post
Here's another newfangled linguistic development I find I can't stand anymore: the use of "google" as a verb.

That has been going on in the evolution of English for centuries, is hardly newfangled, and has made the language a great deal more useful. Shipping freight, shoveling coal, treeing possums, dialing telephones, roofing the house, typing a letter, phoning home, tabling a bill, shoeing a horse, grounding to shortstop, pointing north, painting by number.

Feel welcome to refuse to use any of those, but your language will sound very stilted indeed. Whenever there is a noun in English, it has always been possible to use it as a verb to mean "applying the object", and in many cases, the verb has become more widely used than the noun.
 
Old 04-25-2011, 09:30 AM
 
Location: near bears but at least no snakes
26,656 posts, read 28,670,889 times
Reputation: 50525
I'm sick and tired of hearing "invite" as a noun instead of "invitation."

Did you get an invite?

Or has it suddenly become acceptable?
 
Old 04-25-2011, 08:30 PM
 
Location: Victoria TX
42,554 posts, read 86,954,125 times
Reputation: 36644
Quote:
Originally Posted by in_newengland View Post
I'm sick and tired of hearing "invite" as a noun instead of "invitation."

Did you get an invite?

Or has it suddenly become acceptable?
English has a unique curiosity. Everything is acceptable, in casual speech, as long as the meaning is clearly conveyed and understood. Even Rasta Brophonics is acceptable, as long as all parties to the conversation are willing to use the forms. It remains English.

If someone says it to you, you may frown if you like, and even correct the speaker, according to how comfortable you feel about doing so.

You're correct when you say "invite" should not be used as a noun (yet) in formal English. But people speaking informally are still speaking English, as long as they both understand each other and don't feel compelled to correct each other, and you as an eavesdropper have no right to object.

Having said that, if they pronounce the noun "invite" accented on the second syllable, well, they are wrong. Verb/nouns are distinguished from each other by the syllable of accent, like "produce" or "reject", or "permit".

An interesting exception there. "Combine". Used as a verb, is a pair of antonyms, depending on accent. It is accented on the second syllable to mean 'put together', and on the first syllable to mean 'separate' (as a crop, using a "combination harvester", commonly called by the noun "combine", and applied out here in the boondocks as a verb). "Y'all started COMbinin' corn yet?" means separating mechanically from the stalks, not 'com-BINE', putting together.

Last edited by jtur88; 04-25-2011 at 08:46 PM..
 
Old 04-25-2011, 08:49 PM
 
Location: Boca Raton, FL
6,884 posts, read 11,240,908 times
Reputation: 10811
Smile I corrected....

a girl in my office when she said "he don't know - I said, Debbie, he doesn't know - she said, that's right, that's what I said, he don't know!!

I almost laughed and gave up.
 
Old 04-26-2011, 05:27 PM
 
Location: Las Vegas
14,229 posts, read 30,028,651 times
Reputation: 27688
How about when things go a rye....

Ran into this one the other day and I'm still laughing.
 
Old 04-26-2011, 07:11 PM
 
Location: In Denial
688 posts, read 1,247,100 times
Reputation: 557
as in "whiskey and a wry" ?
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