There is some variation in the Southern U.S. regarding use of “y’all”. From my experience, it’s always acceptable as a plural pronoun – “all y’all” is never oblilgatory. I have heard some stock idioms that contain “y’all” and yet can be addressed to a single person (e.g. “Y’all come back!”). Other than usage in idioms, and in situations like the one yBeayf gives above, I’d say that the usage of “y’all” as a regular singular pronoun is fairly isolated.
I’m the OP, and I forgive you. Go and sin no more save in units of ten.
This is the first I’ve ever hear of someone defending nucular. The concept intrigues me. I could understand defending someone pronouncing it “nooclar.” That leaves all the letters i nthe right place and just changes pronounciation. But you want us to explain why the gap between the letters C and L in nuclear should not be pronounced “you”?
Well, I was in English cyoulass one day and the teacher expyoulained to me that we read the letters that are acyoutually on the page, not the ones that we imagine are on the page.
“Nucular” has been defended many times on these boards. See here for one of the better examples.
Damn, I was going to say that one. Anytime I hear a supposedly educated person say something like, “The code has less bugs now . . .” I can’t help but think to myself, “Fewer, you idiot, FEWER bugs!”
I’m not usually pendantic about grammar but I hate what I call the “loss of the great american adverb”.
It’s not “Fresh Baked”, it should be “Freshly Baked”.
It’s not “Fair Priced”, it’s “Fairly Priced”.
I practically had a snit fit every time I saw Apple’s “Think Different” advertising campaign materials.
It seems to me that that little “ly” is missing more and more.
The reason I’m defending the pronunciation is that frankly, there’s nothing wrong with it. There’s lots of words out there with two pronunciations - it’s just that “nucular” was latched onto at some point as a mark of poor education. Which it is, actually - but only because the well educated are taught to identify themselves by using the “right” version.
The spelling thing doesn’t really work when you start going through the language and noticing how many spellings are completely different from their pronunciations. Spelling - particularly so in English - is to a large degree arbitrary. After all, that’s why they give spelling tests in elementary schools - because you can’t guess the spelling from the pronunciation. Writing arose as a way of committing speech to paper, not the other way around. There’s no logical reason why the spelling of a word ought to dictate its pronunciation. Writing arose far more recently than speech as a way to encode speech on paper - speech isn’t a degraded form of writing.
I dislike the Americanisation of English (as a non-American not living in the USA - no insult intended). One that really annoys me is meter (a unit of measure) instead of meter, but it seems to be creeping more and more into everyday language. Another pet peeve I have to deal with as a teacher is the correct use of lower and upper case letters. I can not count the number of times I have told kids that (insert name of country here) starts with a capital letter, because it is bigger than they are.
“Themself.”
Not lost yet. Check back in ten years.
:smack:
That should read metre instead of meter.
By the way, am I imagining things, or did Target recently change their express checkout lane sign from “10 items or fewer” to “10 items or less”?
Other people do this? I thought it was only my husband. It drives me crazy! And I can’t make him stop! ARGHHHH!
“It begs the question” does not mean what most people think it does.
Using or omitting apostrophe’s when its not appropriate. 
It’s rampant… and I HATE it!!! You even see such mistakes in newspaper articles, public signs, etc. It’s not that hard to learn, people! Arrgghhh!
I have no cite, but I remember reading that the missing “ly” on the “Think Different” campaign was intentional. They did not want you to think differently, but to think of something that was different. As if I said to you “I will be purchasing a car for you. What general color of car should I be thinking of?” And you said “Think red.” Still perhaps not the world’s best grammar, but if it is wrong, it is wrong in a different way than what had offended you.
Unequivocably.
Nessecary.
Starring right now on the SDMB.
It’s only my personal experience, I have no axe to grind on this one, but the majority of the time I hear someone pronounce it “nyook-you-ler” is the politicians and other assorted personnel in D.C. Mostly highly educated persons. I can not figure this, except it is maybe some kind of “Beltway” in-phrase?
advice/advise picks my butt, as does fishes
The plural of fish is fish.
Unless you’re talking about different kinds of fishes, in which case it’s “fishes”.
I’ve heard that too, but I think it’s just Apple apologism. “Think Different” sounds better than “Think Differently” as a bold statement and memorable slogan; that’s why it was used. And the trend of misusing adjectives as adverbs in slogans continues. I ate a banana yesterday with a Chiquita label on it that said “Snack Healthy.”
:rolleyes: