“…belief in the innate benevolence of an elected government towards its people is a tenant of liberalism…”
“…I don’t see you can call yourself a Christian when you reject the ** tenants ** of Christianity…”
“…‘don’t be a jerk’ is the primary tenant of the rules of the board…”
<ahem> Consider this your eviction notice. Kindly note for future reference that these elements are TENETS, not TENANTS.
Future transgressors will be arrested for trespassing.
May I toss in my pet peeve? The past tense of the verb “to lead” is spelled l-e-d, not l-e-a-d. (My guess is that some of our young friends are confused by the existence of the homophonic word “lead”, meaning the metallic element.) Thank you.
I originally read your thread title as “The Elements that Compromise Your Beleifs DON’T PAY THE RENT.” I thought it was going to be some kind of rant about selling out (sort of a convoluted “everyone is a sellout out of necessity” kind of rant). Boy was I surprised.
Wellwhen it’s a rant over spelling or grammer it’s pretty week and I do what I must to end the debate, even if I have to suffer the effects of calling someone a spelling or grammer Nazi. Just for the record, AHunter3 has made some very entertaining and informinitive post… but this definatlly deserved the spelling Nazi award.
AHunter, you are rapidly becoming one of my favorite posters. After that insightful biography of Jesus the man, you take arms against one of my pet peeve misusages.
And use “comprise” correctly in the bargain.
Thank you for wisdom and sound English usage, and for being yourself.
The problem is, this isn’t a question of spelling. This is a question of using the correct word based on its meaning, not its phonetic pronunciation. When someone types “definately” (or “definatlly”) instead of “definitely”, the correct spelling, they are making a simple (if not infuriating) spelling mistake. It’s not as bad as pronouncing “nuclear” as “nuke-ya-ler”, but it’s pretty damn close.
However, the issue raised by the OP is even worse than that. If you’re trying to make a point, especially one important enough to bring up “tenets” of something or another, you’d better get the confounded word right.
Actually, that seems highly appropriate, given that when people use “regime” in its proper sense, they usually mean it with the unspoken subtext “a government that we don’t like and that isn’t really legitimate.” So maybe these people are chafing under the burden of their exercise, and would rather cast it off as soon as possible!
I got into this argument with my mother. “Regimen!” I screamed. “REGIMEN!” We took it to the dictionary. Damned if they didn’t have a definition for regime (definition number two: “same as REGIMEN”) that won her the argument. Technically, that is. I still think using regime when you mean regimen makes the Baby Strunk & White cry. The dictionary is not to be trusted. I found out today that “effectuate” is actually a word. Know what it means? “To effect.” I can’t decide whether it’s more likely that a self-help guru or some random vice-president of sales is to blame for that useless word. Possibly a college basketball coach.
Grumbling . . . damn, deadbeat Elements, never on time with their payments. . . Why, I oughta. . . Stupid loud parties, always having those damn undesirable Beliefs over. . . consarn it. . . smelly ass cats everywhere, leavin’ shit in the halls. . . grumble, grumble.
