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What English Pet Peeves do You Love to Hate?
OneHourSelfPub.com ^ | Sep 4, 2014 | Dave Bricker

Posted on 09/08/2014 6:29:29 AM PDT by PeteePie

Discus­sions of English Language pet peeves pro­vide an enter­tain­ing forum for the expres­sion of ire. In fact, if a “pet” is some­thing we cher­ish, and a “peeve” is some­thing that annoys us, “pet peeves” are what we love to hate. Here’s a col­lec­tion of com­mon English solecisms—guaranteed not to lit­er­ally blow your mind:

(Excerpt) Read more at theworldsgreatestbook.com ...


TOPICS: Books/Literature; Chit/Chat; Education; Reference
KEYWORDS: education; grammar; language; writing
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To: Joe Marine 76
Well, I never declared a major in English, but I think it's:

Present/Imperative: dive

Past: dove

Perfect: dived

Pluperfect: had dived

Subjunctive: would/could have dove

161 posted on 09/08/2014 5:17:53 PM PDT by Brass Lamp
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To: informavoracious

>> I also hate “conversate.” <<

That’s a new one for me. Thanks!


162 posted on 09/08/2014 6:06:46 PM PDT by Hawthorn
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To: luvbach1; .45 Long Colt

Re: Ask vs. Aks (Axe)

My understanding is that this pronunciation has been the norm in some English dialects for hundreds of years. Nothing new or recent about it.

Moreover, the “reversal” of consonants here is a common sort of happening not only in English but in many other languages. The phenomenon is known as “metathesis” by linguists.

(Nothing to do with cancer! That would be “metastisis.”)


163 posted on 09/08/2014 6:13:56 PM PDT by Hawthorn
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To: Hawthorn

When I was 20, I worked one summer with a young British girl. She had married a GI and came to America when he was discharged. Very nice, very shy and reserved.

One Monday morning someone asked me if I had done anything exciting with my weekend. Being Southern, I said, “No, just piddled around the house.”

My British friend turned beet red in the face. When she recovered, she explained that in her version of English ‘piddled’ meant something like going wee wee in the corner.

As Churchill said - two peoples; separated by a common language.


164 posted on 09/08/2014 7:33:10 PM PDT by FirstFlaBn
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To: Hawthorn
My understanding is that this pronunciation [axe for ask] has been the norm in some English dialects for hundreds of years. Nothing new or recent about it.

If so, does that make it correct?

165 posted on 09/08/2014 7:49:08 PM PDT by luvbach1 (We are finished. It will just take a while before everyone realizes it.)
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To: Brass Lamp

Excellent.

Check out the other posts: It seems “dove” for us Americans and “dived” for the Brits.


166 posted on 09/08/2014 8:03:07 PM PDT by Joe Marine 76 ("Honor is the gift a man gives to himself." ~ Rob Roy MacGregor)
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To: maine yankee
should be ‘could have’

Unless you're down south. There it's written as 'coulda'.
Like coulda, shoulda and woulda.

167 posted on 09/08/2014 8:13:23 PM PDT by uglybiker (nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-BATMAN!)
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To: raccoonradio

I hear this one all the time at work. It’s easy. The miss was a miss. It was near as opposed to wide. That’s all.


168 posted on 09/09/2014 7:56:27 PM PDT by HartleyMBaldwin
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To: Hawthorn; lurk

You’re exactly right. It was impossible to end a sentence with a preposition in Latin (or to split an infinitive) because the preposition was given by the form of a single word (and an infinitive verb was also a single word). Thus, the early English grammarians said that one should not do these things in English, because they were not done in Latin.

Sometimes it works better to end a sentence with an infinitive, and sometimes splitting an infinitive just sounds better in English.

I learned this from a book called “Woe is I”, author forgotten.


169 posted on 09/09/2014 8:08:52 PM PDT by HartleyMBaldwin
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To: PeteePie

I know I’m late to the thread, but my own top pet peeve is the misuse of the phrase “beg the question”. It does not simply mean to raise or call for a question. The meaning is to reason from a point which has been assumed, not proven. Too many people have heard the phrase somewhere, and think they’ll sound all intellectual by using it, but have no idea of its actual meaning.

(Oh, and another peeve is putting an apostrophe in the possessive of “it”.)


170 posted on 09/09/2014 8:17:42 PM PDT by HartleyMBaldwin
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To: HartleyMBaldwin

“(Oh, and another peeve is putting an apostrophe in the possessive of “it”.)”

Laughing here. I used to do it until a Freeper straightened me out.

My pet peeve-—people who say “3:00 A.M. in the morning”.

.


171 posted on 09/09/2014 8:21:46 PM PDT by Mears
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To: Mears

Yeah, that one’s annoying too. Another peeve is using “moot” to mean “irrelevant”, when it actually means “open to debate”. Not the same thing at all.


172 posted on 09/09/2014 8:53:57 PM PDT by HartleyMBaldwin
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To: FirstFlaBn

>> My British friend turned beet red in the face. When she recovered, she explained that in her version of English ‘piddled’ meant something like going wee wee in the corner. <<

I used to live across the hall from a British chick. One day she volunteered to drive me over to the mechanic’s shop to pick up my car. She said, “Just come over and knock me up whenever you’re ready.”


173 posted on 09/10/2014 5:43:13 AM PDT by Hawthorn
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To: HartleyMBaldwin

Better late than never. It’s been a great little thread and I learned beyond the contents of the article, thanks to the higher intelligence factor of our FR collective.


174 posted on 09/10/2014 5:49:41 AM PDT by PeteePie (Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people - Proverbs 14:34)
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To: PeteePie

Maybe I was out that day, but what is a “price point”?


175 posted on 09/10/2014 6:12:54 AM PDT by HandyDandy (Started out with Burgundy but soon hit the harder stuff....)
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To: PeteePie

One that really irks me and gets my ire up is when the pimple-faced cashier says, “that’s gonna be $9.40”. I always want to say, “that’s fine, but I want to know what it is NOW!”


176 posted on 09/10/2014 6:21:00 AM PDT by HandyDandy (Started out with Burgundy but soon hit the harder stuff....)
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To: HandyDandy

“price point.” I hate all these euphemisms and weak-a$$ metaphors born out of corporate speak; “touch points,” “at the end of the day,” “buyer experience,” “purchasing decision journey,” I could go on but am irritating my ulcer.


177 posted on 09/10/2014 8:41:16 AM PDT by PeteePie (Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people - Proverbs 14:34)
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To: PeteePie

Ahhh, I see. “Corporate speak”. We used to call that “business lingo”. Yes, I did miss that class. So tell me, is “purchasing decision journey” a euphemism for shopping or hunting?


178 posted on 09/10/2014 9:36:08 AM PDT by HandyDandy (Started out with Burgundy but soon hit the harder stuff....)
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To: HandyDandy
supposedly it is a "trail" that someone may follow through a web site from the page they start on to the page where they decide to buy. Business jargon is probably the more common term, as in the following: Forbes, Annoying Business Jargon
179 posted on 09/10/2014 10:12:55 AM PDT by PeteePie (Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people - Proverbs 14:34)
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To: PeteePie

Thank you. Link was fun, too.
I suppose “purchasing decision journey” could then relate to the hunter following the trail of the shopper.


180 posted on 09/10/2014 10:30:34 AM PDT by HandyDandy (Started out with Burgundy but soon hit the harder stuff....)
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