One that I find very annoying (and it’s common here) is the phrase “the thin *edge * of the wedge” instead of “the thin *end * of the wedge”.
Thanks Usram and Cardinal! It makes sense now. I’m pretty good with language, but that has always eluded me for some reason.
And once again, a member walks away from the SDMB a little more educated!
Now I’m going to go lie down before I lay some carpet. ;j*
- Smiley added for no reason.
Speaking of Greek singulars vs. plurals, I had a boss who used to say “parenthese” (pronounced pa-REN-thuh-see.) I guess he figured that if more than one of the things are called parentheses, one must be a parenthese.
Reminds me of an exchange I had on this board (forget which thread). I gave someone a “kudo” and got jumped on. Now I was actually trying to be funny and clever and give a kudo because the perceived accomplishment wasn’t big enough to deserve a full kudos. Yes I do know it wasn’t actually funny but lets not go there. After I got slammed for my purposeful missuse of the word I decided to look it up. To my surprise I found this:
The word is being adapted into English and kudo is a proper singular form of the word now. Another expample of the language changing in spite of the language police.
Sorry, in my above post this:
should have been in quotes from the post by KarlWinslow.
It drives me crazy to see “I would of gone,” “She could of had that” or “We should of picked that one”. Just one of my big pet peeves.
Quick poll: Comfortable: Comf-ter-bull or com-fer-ta-bull?
I know its allowed, but tacking “wise” onto the back end of a word should not be allowed. As far as I can see, this is just people being lazy.
I must be completely clueless on this one. I go with com-fort-a-bull.
Well I did stick the “t” in the wrong spot, but most of the time I hear it either “comf-ter-bull” or “com-fert-a-bull” (as opposed to “com-fort-a-bull”, assuming you mean: rhyming somewhat with “affordable”)
I can’t find it now, but yesterday’s L.A. Times had a small headline that used an apostrophe to make a plural noun. Every time I see that, I ask, “Didn’t this person go to fourth grade?”
media/medium
“Media” is plural; it takes a plural verb. It has a singular form, medium, which should be used when referring to a single means of communication or news organization.
I have no problem with the use of “media” to mean the various news gathering and reporting organizations. As such, it has a useful meaning that cannot be precisely conveyed with any other word. However, when used in this manner, it shoud always refer to more than one form, and should take a plural verb:
“The media have not been covering the convention extensively enough.”
If one is referring only to one form of communication, the singular form “medium” should be used:
“The newspaper medium is better suited to in-depth coverage, while the television medium is better for on the spot reporting.”
Or, if you mean the news organizations that use newspapers and television as their means for reporting the news:
“The newspaper media are better suited to in-depth covereage, while the television media are better at on the spot reporting.”
A subtle, but useful distinction.
data/datum
The data show. (not shows).
criteria/criterion
A single standard for judging something is a criterion, standands for judging are criteria.
The use of “agenda” with a singular verb is a lost cause, and it no longer bothers me to hear or read it used that way. However, and I realize this is entirely irrational, it still grates to hear “agendas”. The word is already plural; adding an -s is unnecessary.
Summary:
Agenda as a plural has long been a lost cause, and it doesn’t bother me in the least.
Data and media as plurals are fading fast, but I will persist in using them as plurals myself, even if such usage does earn me strange reactions.
I hold out a possibly irrational hope that the distinction between criteria and criterion can be saved, and will campaign vigorously to do so. I propose that we should set aside 1/10 of the federal budget for a massive educational campaign, that teaching this distinction should be a required, semester long course in every high school in this country, that federal laws should be passed requiring stiff fines and possibly censure for television stations or print media that do not observe this distinction, that all media should clear and provided prime ad space for public service announcements extolling the virtures of having one’s subjects and verbs agree, and that grammar police be appointed with the power to issue summons to and levy fines on those who use the wrong verb in everyday speech.
Doing so will no doubt eliminate the misuse, just as the archaic and seldom heard “ain’t” has all but been eradicated from common use in both speech and print, and has been relegated to being used only in the lowest form of English language usage–country music lyrics.
If that is successful, we should move on to teaching that fantastic, incredible, and ultimate are not extreme forms of excellent, that comprise does not equal compose, and that fortuitous and fortunate are not synonyms
— I despise “tow the line”, too. But, the way I always understood it, toeing the line goes back to the days on one-room schoolhouses. When a class was called on to recite or whatever, they were supposed to stand in a row along a line on the floor. Good students kept their toes right up against the line. If not, they got switched, I guess.
Meanwhile, lines in the sand are drawn when someone challenges someone else to a fight. You either cross the line and accept the challenge, or back away entirely. Or, do the “toe” thing by staying just on your side of the line and continuing to taunt the other person. But that’s hardly compliance, and not what’s implied by “toeing the line”.
And that’s not even taking into account the people who don’t use the phrase properly, regardless of how they spell it. Like saying they’re “really toeing the line.” No: you’re either cooperating or you’re not. Or using it to mean working hard, or long hours or something. But of course it’s easy to misinterpret the phrase when you use “tow”, which implies effort rather than obedience.
— It’s rein in, not reign in.
— “I’m starting a new diet regime.” No, you are starting a regimen. Atkins might be classified as a diet regime, but if you’re on the Atkins diet, you are following a regimen.
Well, it actually has nothing to do with thinks coming or going. The literal translation of “Da sind Sie auf dem Holzweg…” would be “Then you are on the logging path…”. So I guess it can’t really be used to confirm “another think coming”, other than the fact that that translation is given on the page you cited.
A closer match would be “Wenn du denkst dass …, denk lieber noch einmal nach.” Which would translate as “If you think that …, then think again.” In my opinion “another think coming” is just a quainter or more colloquial way of saying “think again”. That’s why I think “another think coming” is correct and “another thing coming” is incorrect.
Let me see if I have this right:
I laid my money down; the money lay there.
After I have laid my money down, then Sarah will lie down, and then I will lie down.
Then the money, Sarah, and I will all have been laid.
If your interest in something has peaked, then at some point you reached your moment of maximum interest in it, after which your level of interest waned.
However, if something has made you want to learn more about a subject, your interest has been piqued.
My personal favorite, and I seem to be fighting a losing battle on this one, is “try and …”.
“I will try and come see you on Saturday.” No, NO, NO!!!
You can “try to come see me on Saturday”, as in attempt to come see me. “Try and” makes no sense, at least to me.
Who else HATES this one???
On the interminable “another thing/think coming”, put me down for “thing” The “thing” in question is an outcome. i.e. “If you expect that outcome, you’ve got another (different) outcome coming”.
Having lived in 8 US States spread well across the country I can say I’ve never heard a single human being say this idiom with “think” and I’ve only ever read it with “think” on threads on this board whose purpose is to discuss the thing/think controversy. IOW, the “think” version is apparently held to be correct by some, but actually used by none.
I’ll grant that if the first part of the phrase is included: “If you think that …”, then the “think” version of the predicate phrase makes at least a little sense.
But where & when I grew up (Southern California 40 years ago) the usual usage was just the second half of the idiom, wherein “think” is particularly inappropriate. e.g. something like this:
He: I’m going to play poker with the boys on Friday night.
She: No you’re not; we’re going to the movies together!
He: I’m playing poker, period. You can go to the movies with Sally.
she: Just keep treating me that way; you’ve got another thing coming.
In that setup, without the first part of the idiom even said, putting “think” in the final sentence would be truly weird, at least to my eyes/ears.
The title of thisthreadHurt my brain. Maybe he was using a laptop from the hospital to post the thread?
Bring/take took/brought. Its always seemed so simple to me… I guess not.
Now I suppose you’d like me to use punctuation and spaces? :smack:
Just because you hear “thing” doesn’t mean that’s what people are saying. Which is how this whole mess got started in the first place. There is little doubt that the original phrase was “think” (see my cite early in this thread). You’ve probably heard “think” more often than you know.
It’s ‘think’, dammit!
Just to avoid joining the controversy, I’ll mention a peeve of mine I saw in the breakfast thread: “wheat bread” (as opposed to “white bread”). Almost all bread is made of wheat, so “wheat bread” is just about meaningless. I’ll have “whole wheat”, please!
In context, ‘thing’ makes no sense.
I agree. It’s near impossible to distinguish between whether someone is saying “thing coming” or “think coming” and so you’ll tend to hear whichever it is you’re expecting to hear. I have never “heard” anyone say “…another thing coming”, but clearly someone has likely said it to me.
I just find it amusing that there can be cites up the wazoo showing that it’s “think” and it can still be hotly contested.