Words that people commonly use incorrectly ...

[AwayWeGo]

Alexander Pope, John Donne, Graham Greene, T. S. Eliot, Geoffrey Chaucer, Etc.

Do you really mean a degree in English, or a degree in American? Cuz they ain't the same as far as we're concerned.

Don't know about Cindy's sheepskin, but the folks who handed out mine called it English. Oh, there were 1 or 2 courses featuring works by Americans (Mark Twain, Cotton Mather, e e cummings, Walt Whitman, etc.). But mostly it was English. Would be nice if I remembered part of what I learnt, but not much of it stuck. So it goes.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​

 

[jlwquilter]

Popular Hannah Montana had one on her aired show yesterday:

Virile vs. viral

I use "alot" so I must be young! Yeah! I'll take it, wrong word or not

Now that my vocabulary is up to snuff, I guess I'll start on my typing skills! (I just had to correct "quess" into "guess"). Right after I sew some muslin for some Muslums I know :whoopie:

 

[Blondie]

I hate the noun "loan" being used as a verb when the actual verb is lent. Another favorite is "aksed" for asked. One I sometimes hear is "incredulous' for incredible. Geekette took all my favs!!

 

[neash]

How about this? "Canceled' and 'Cancelled' are both correct according to all dictionaries that I have referred to.

It's annoying to read documents that use both versions of the spelling, and annoyingly both are correct.

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

I hate the noun "loan" being used as a verb when the actual verb is lent. Another favorite is "aksed" for asked. One I sometimes hear is "incredulous' for incredible. Geekette took all my favs!!

Loan is both a noun and a transitive verb. As a verb it is synonymous with "lend". "Lent" is the past form of "lend". The past form of "loan" is "loaned".

 

[MULTIZ321]

Alan,

If you ever make it up to Boston and walk the Freedom Trail - Just before you
cross the Charles river near the Old North Church, there's a cemetary that's part of the Freedom Walk trail, Copps Hill Burying Ground. Cotton Mather is buried there along with other members of the Mather family. This link has a picture of the Mather family burial plot (scroll down)

Other notables that are buried in the Copps Hill Burying Ground are Shem Downe, the weathervane maker who crafted the grasshopper atop Faneuil Hall; Robert Newman, best known for placing the signal lanterns in the steeple of the Old North Church on the eve of the Battle of Lexington and Concord; and Prince Hall, the anti-slavery activist who was also founder of the Black Masonic Order.


Richard

 

[Kal]

Do you really mean a degree in English, or a degree in American? Cuz they ain't the same as far as we're concerned.

I know it's all about the tea bags.

 

[AwayWeGo]

Tea Bags, Shmee Bags.

I know it's all about the tea bags.

You mean Ye Aulde & Honourable Bagges Of Ye Tea ?

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​

 

[pbenham]

"I would just assume" instead of "I would just as soon"

Though I must admit I said it wrong for most of my life until I was corrected a few years back...

 

[AwayWeGo]

Surprise !

So this woman walks into the house & catches her language maven husband Jerome in bed with the maid.

"Jerome ! " she says, "I'm surprised ! "

"No, no, my dear," Jerome says. "We are surprised. You are astonished."

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​

 

[trishpmc]

I have a degree in English, so I notice many, many blunders in both spelling and grammar here, but no big deal. There was a discussion a while back about Hawaii, which I am sure Denise remembers. You are in Hawaii, but you are on the island of _________. Some people say "on Hawaii," which may be that you are on the Big Island, or you are somewhere on Hawaii, but we have no idea where. I picture you as lost on Hawaii, rather like that crew on Oahu.

I grew up on Long Island in New York.

Do you say "stand on line" or "stand in line?"

 

[MULTIZ321]

I'm sure these lists will bring back some memories, depending on where you were born and raised

Regional Vocabularies of American English (from wikipedia)


Richard

 

[Keitht]

I know it's all about the tea bags.

Don't get me started on the subject of tea. A cup of luke warm water and a tea bag is not a proper cuppa. It seems the civilised world really does stop at the shores of the UK. Whether it stops on arrival or departure is the subject for another topic

 

[ctreelmom]

lie vs. lay
sequence vs. sequins (probably limited to the costume world)
orientated vs. oriented
principal vs. principle

I do have to admit I have a list of made up words I use regularly: I tell my kids to "smallify" letters when I edit their papers, for example, but that's a whole nother story

 

[AwayWeGo]

If This Is Coffee, I'll Have Tea. If This Is Tea, Bring Me A Cup Of Coffee.

Don't get me started on the subject of tea. A cup of luke warm water and a tea bag is not a proper cuppa. It seems the civilised world really does stop at the shores of the UK. Whether it stops on arrival or departure is the subject for another topic

I'm wondering what extent -- to the Brits -- that coffee is like tea.

Over here coffee is like sex. When it's good, it's good. When it's bad, it's still good.

Same with tea back in the Old Country ?

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

preventive vs. preventative. Preventative is never correct.

 

[Joe L]

Further & Farther

The university is little farther down the road where you may further your education.

Farther means to go a greater distance
Further means to advance

 

[AKFisher]

medium for median

 

[CarolF]

gotten

Is it a new word or an American word? I have not seen or heard it used in Australia.

 

[AwayWeGo]

Made In The U. S. A.

gotten

Is it a new word or an American word? I have not seen or heard it used in Australia.

We Yanks are big on gotten.

Sheesh.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​

 

[DaveNV]

Here are a couple I haven't seen mentioned:

"Mischievous" misspelled or misspoken as "mischiev-I-ous." There are only two I's in the word.

"Expresso" instead of "espresso."

And what is probably more grammatical than anything else: Using unnecessary words in a sentence or speech:

"I would like to take this opportunity to say that I'm happy to be a TUG member" would be much easier to read as "I'm happy to be a TUG member." The speaker already has the opportunity to say what they want. We already know they'd like to take that opportunity, since they're the one speaking. And the needless use of the word "THAT" in places it needn't be would make my deceased English teachers turn over in their graves.

Now, having all the judgment in the world doesn't mean I'm not just as guilty of it as everyone else. Verbose is as verbose does... On TUG (and many other social places online, I set aside most grammatical errors because I think of it as a typed conversation, not an English test. If I can figure out what the speaker/writer meant, that's generally good enough.

Dave

 

[X-ring]

What the heck is the word "Vetted"? That's just made up!

Vetted is the past tense of the verb vet, which is defined by the O.E.D. as "to examine, scrutinize, test".

 

[X-ring]

That just doesn't "jive"

I always get a mental image of dancing whatnots when I hear "that doesn't jive".

Of all the times I've heard the intended expression to mean that something isn't in agreement, I've heard the correct usage (i.e. it doesn't jibe) maybe 1-5% of the time.

 

[X-ring]

The non-existant month of Febuary

*** deleted ***

 

[X-ring]

The non-existent month of Febuary

It's the month of February (i.e. feb-ROO-ary), not feb-YOU-ary.