Posted on 07/06/2009 8:42:48 AM PDT by TChris
Please use "a lot", since those words are actually in the dictionary.
</grammar rant>
OK.
I saw a sign on an office door today that said "We will be closed untill 5:30. Sorry for the inconvience"
I just can't stand it!
And then of course once you've been "outed", people stalk you :-)
What gets me is my mother, who used to be so good at proper English (yes, she taught it along with math and history for high school).
Now it seems she has been dumbed down by the idiots out there, that she thinks her “Smith’s” is correct (it was a gift; ma and pa didn’t have it made themselves). I am flabbergasted that I am arguing about this with her now.
I do use them often in discussion on the fora. It is for me like a dangling thought, or wistfully trailing off a thought so I don’t have to say it, etc. In any case, it indicates a pause not just for me, but hopefully for all to think. Sort of as at church when we are asked by the pastor to think briefly of our sins, etc., before the formal prayer and absolution.
Oh, we all make mistakes. Often when we type our thoughts in a flurry and are in a rush to post it. And I personally have well-entrenched bad grammar that I can’t shake.
But when you see either a) a woefully poor assemblage of letters in a single post or b) the same people constantly writing the same things [believe me, I’m quite familiar with some ignorami on some fora; a couple of whose posts I have given up even bothering to read], you know it’s not just a mistake of the slip-up kind.
How about the rash of screwing up “regime” and “regimen”, and sometimes “regiment”?
Being on medical fora, I can’t tell you how many times people are now writing, “I’ve been on this vitamin and medication regime.”
“Things were nasty under Stalin’s ruthless regimen”, on a history forum.
Drives me nuts!!!!! (Sorry for the multiples; it just needs emphasis!)
Hey, Moron: a “regime” is a reign of a government, tyrant or dictator, e.g.
A REGIMEN is a procedure.
And regiments are divisions of armed forces. Or, if in verb or adjective form, meaning strict and tough.
Sounds good.
Arrrgh! They're everywhere. I, too, tend to just leave those who proudly sport such stuff alone -- don't want to start a Hatfield's and McCoy's thingie after all.......
From the Merriam-Webster Dictionary Main Entry; lot Pronunciation: \ˈlät\ Function: noun Etymology: Middle English, from Old English hlot; akin to Old High German hlōz Date: before 12th century 1: an object used as a counter in determining a question by chance 2 a: the use of lots as a means of deciding something b: the resulting choice 3 a: something that comes to one upon whom a lot has fallen : share b: one's way of life or worldly fate : fortune 4 a: a portion of land b: a measured parcel of land having fixed boundaries and designated on a plot or survey c: a motion-picture studio and its adjoining property d: an establishment for the storage or sale of motor vehicles 5 a: a number of units of an article, a single article, or a parcel of articles offered as one item (as in an auction sale) b: all the members of a present group, kind, or quantity —usually used with the 6 a: a number of associated persons : set b: kind, sort 7: a considerable quantity or extent (a lot of money) (lots of friends) synonyms see fate — all over the lot : covering a wide or varied range — a lot 1: to a considerable degree or extent 2: often, frequently 3: lots
Aye. We'll all rue the day when vitamins and medications reign supreme!
That’s something we can safely take for granite.
Then they are not really dictionaries. Who needs a dictionary that tells you that whatever people are saying is “correct.”
The last decent dictionary was the Webster’s Unabridged, 1934. The deluge began with the execrable “descriptive” Webster’s Unabridged of 1960. Or so.
To all intense and purposes, their idiots.
Their just trying to keep up with the Jone’s.
Language does evolve. Mostly, as English goes global and written English becomes more dominated by text messaging than hand-writing, it’s “devolving,” rather. Congratulations, however, for standing athwart history, yelling, “Stoppe!”
Irregardless, grammer is important.
so alotta isn’t a word either?
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