# Gross abuses of the English language **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 13, 2003, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gross-abuses-of-the-english-language/174991 "2003-05-13T17:11:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![Belrix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed655f/32.png) [@Belrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Belrix)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2003, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gross-abuses-of-the-english-language/174991/201 "2003-05-23T21:54:09Z")
Since it’s _gross_ abuses of the English language, I nominate “nauseous”. “That makes me _nauseous_.” Nauseated! Nauseated! If it made you nauseous, you’d be the disgusting thing - which, if nothing else, is true of your grammar. I also lament the loss of adverbs. “Fresh Baked” should be “Freshly Baked”. A radio traffic reported declared traffic moving “slow” the other day. As far as “peanut butter and jelly” usage, I think that’s what the ampersand was invented for, a sort-of minimal version of a conjuction. When writing, I’m likely to do, “tuna, cheese, and peanut butter & jelly.” ---
**Author:** ![ianzin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ed655f/32.png) [@ianzin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ianzin)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2003, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gross-abuses-of-the-english-language/174991/202 "2003-05-23T22:21:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by DrDeth \* > **Say the term Oxymoron is brought up. Then some lackwit says that “Like Military Inteligence”. No- you maroon- that’s a JOKE, not an example of an oxymoron** Not so. It can be both. Oxymoron, as you are doubtless aware, is derived from the Greek for ‘bitter’ and ‘sweet’, and pertains to any noun group whose constituent elements would seem to be opposites, or (more loosely) seem to embrace a contradiction. To suggest that ‘military intelligence’ is a contradiction in terms may be done for snide or comedic reasons, but if one does believe that the terms are mutually contradictory then one could legitimately consider this to be an example of an oxymoron. As it happens, I _do_ believe they are mutually exclusive terms, and so for me it _is_ an oxymoron. I feel the same way about ‘bureaucratic efficiency’, ‘talented rapper’ and ‘religious tolerance’. From my point of view, these noun groups combine opposites, and hence are oxymorons. YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![SparrowHawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ac8455/32.png) [@SparrowHawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SparrowHawk)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2003, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gross-abuses-of-the-english-language/174991/203 "2003-05-23T22:37:38Z")
Okay, so why has my daughter been taught to put commas before “and” in sentences like “The sun had just risen, and was casting its rays on the distant mountains.” “He couldn’t help but wonder what lay beyond those mountains, and when he would get to see.” This looks totally unnecessary to me, but she insists she was told it is correct. I hate it when people use “there’s” instead of “there are”. “There’s plenty of reasons why we shouldn’t.” Argh. There are plenty of reasons. This doesn’t bother me so much in speech; I find it inexcusable in writing. Probably means I’ve done it. **Daniel** , I like, and completely agree with, your rules for quotation marks. ---
**Author:** ![Flamsterette\_X](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/41988e/32.png) [@Flamsterette\_X](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flamsterette_X)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2003, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gross-abuses-of-the-english-language/174991/204 "2003-05-23T22:52:23Z")
Just saw this in another thread: “once and a while…” It is **not** “once and a while” ! Rather, it should be “once **in a** while…” Actually, that reminds me of what I read once in a Peter V. MacDonald Book. (either _Court Jesters_, _More Court Jesters_, or _Return of the Court Jesters_… don’t remember which, hahaha) In a court document, the words **“gross and equitable”** were rendered throughout as **"gross inequitable."** F\_X ---
**Author:** ![litost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c4cdca/32.png) [@litost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/litost)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2003, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gross-abuses-of-the-english-language/174991/205 "2003-05-23T23:21:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by DanielWithrow \* > I still think that commas are the hardest aspect of written English for native English users to get right. What about non-native English users? It’s still the hardest! 🙂 Thanks for the website. It looks like an excellent source. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2003, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gross-abuses-of-the-english-language/174991/206 "2003-05-24T00:19:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SparrowHawk \* > \*\*Okay, so why has my daughter been taught to put commas before “and” in sentences like “The sun had just risen, and was casting its rays on the distant mountains.” “He couldn’t help but wonder what lay beyond those mountains, and when he would get to see.” This looks totally unnecessary to me, but she insists she was told it is correct. \*\* I’m sorry, but so far as I know, this is incorrect. If the second part of the sentence is a dependent clause, then no comma is necessary. If it’s an independent clause, then you need the comma. To wit: \*\*The sun had just risen and was casting its rays on the distant mountains[/bi] _but_ **The sun had just risen, and it was casting its rays on the distant mountains** The easy rule is that if whatever follows “and” is a sentence in and of itself, then a comma should precede the “and.” ---
**Author:** ![dataman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/838e76/32.png) [@dataman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dataman)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2003, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gross-abuses-of-the-english-language/174991/207 "2003-05-24T02:56:35Z")
WHATS THE DIFFRRENCE BETWEEN A POGRAM AND A PROGRAM?:dubious: :smack: [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE] \*\* ---
**Author:** ![SparrowHawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ac8455/32.png) [@SparrowHawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SparrowHawk)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2003, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gross-abuses-of-the-english-language/174991/208 "2003-05-24T07:30:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by pulykamell \* > **I’m sorry, but so far as I know, this is incorrect.** Please don’t apologize for agreeing! Really, it’s okay with me! I can take it, honest! I was taught the usage you explained. As for my daughter, I will see if I can teach her one of life’s great lessons: “For the purposes of writing papers for your English teacher, this is correct. At all other times, it is not.” Hmmm… it would be nice to find an authoritative cite. The **Hawklette** is constitutionally endowed with the Doper Mentality™, even if she doesn’t post much. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2003, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gross-abuses-of-the-english-language/174991/209 "2003-05-24T14:38:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by litost \* > \*\*What about non-native English users? It’s still the hardest! 🙂 > > Thanks for the website. It looks like an excellent source. \*\* You’re welcome – glad you like it! I don’t know what the hardest aspect of learning English is for non-native speakers. I do know what the hardest thing for me to teach was. I had a student come in, a very intelligent and eager Korean man. He was taking a course in experimental filmmaking and had written a fantastic paper comparing filmmaking of the early '50s to that of the early '60s (or something like that – I don’t remember all the details). But he wasn’t a native English speaker, and there were plenty of grammatical mistakes in his otherwise fantastic paper. The worst by far were the seemingly random uses of articles, of “a,” “an,” and, “the.” So he asked me, “When do I use ‘the’ with a noun?” You try answering it. Why do you say, “Give me money,” but not, “Give me cat”? How do you choose which nouns take an article? I was able to explain it to him, but I had to read a couple grammar books before I could do it. Using “the” comes naturally to English speakers, but I believe Korean has no articles, and so the concept was foreign to him. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![litost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c4cdca/32.png) [@litost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/litost)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2003, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gross-abuses-of-the-english-language/174991/210 "2003-05-24T19:48:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by DanielWithrow \* > I don’t know what the hardest aspect of learning English is for non-native speakers. I do know what the hardest thing for me to teach was. The hardest part for me was “learning” to write informally. ---
**Author:** ![CadburyAngel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c2a13f/32.png) [@CadburyAngel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CadburyAngel)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2003, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gross-abuses-of-the-english-language/174991/211 "2003-05-24T21:15:01Z")
Ugh, yes. Discrete and discreet. I recently was hired to a counseling position which, I was informed, required that I be “discrete.” So if I were a conjoined twin, I wouldn’t have gotten the position, as I could technically not be considered a entirely distinct entity? ---
**Author:** ![godzillatemple](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/49beb7/32.png) [@godzillatemple](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/godzillatemple)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gross-abuses-of-the-english-language/174991/212 "2003-05-29T19:18:30Z")
OK, here’s another one I keep running into: **slippery slope**. Now, when I took logic 101 as a philosophy major, we learned about various forms of illegitimate arguments that used false logic. One such argument was the “Straw Man” argument, by which you ascribe to somebody a position they don’t actually hold, and then proceed to “prove” why that position is false. Another such argument was the “Argument ad Hominem,” where you ignore the merits of an opposing argument and attack the character of the person proposing that argument instead. The third such illegitimate argument was the so-called “Slippery Slope” argument, whereby you argue against a position by imagining all the horrible things that could _possibly_ occur (usually in a chain, with one event causing the next) if the position argued against were to be accepted. The final event, no matter how far-fetched or removed, is then offered as “proof” that the opposing position is bad, in spite of the fact that no causal relationship is shown between the various links along the chain. More and more, though, I’m seeing “slippery slope” used to mean an inevitable sequence of events, and people actually use the term to _support_ their own argument, saying things like, “This will lead us down the slippery slope to [whatever bad thing they think is waiting for us].” I know most of you probably could care less and are rather nonplussed about the whole issue, but personally, I feel like I’m loosing my mind. And if the previous sentence makes sense to anybody here, I think we’re definitely on the slippery slope to complete linguistic anarchy and the inability to communicate whatsoever. 😉 Barry ---
**Author:** ![Flamsterette\_X](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/41988e/32.png) [@Flamsterette\_X](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flamsterette_X)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gross-abuses-of-the-english-language/174991/213 "2003-05-29T20:05:02Z")
What about people who mix up **“quiet”** and **“quite”**?? I’m not talking about a smple typo, either… I have this one acquaintance who always mixes them up. Annoys me to no end… even though it shouldn’t. Tried explaining it to him last night, and I think he got it… for now, that is. (QUIET means making little to no noise, and QUITE is an adjective!) This same person also consistently misspells “oops” as “opps”… tried telling him it wasn’t spelled like that, and all I got was a “lol” in return. (which kinda bugs me, even more so after seeing a [blogspot](http://spoz.blogspot.com) entry **Spoz** did on the subject months ago) Methinks I should continue to fight the good fight against these things encroching on the English language. (but **Spoz** ’s abuses of the English language are all right by me… it’s his own brand of personality… and he doesn’t commit any unforgivable ones, either :D) F\_X [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gross-abuses-of-the-english-language/174991.md?page=10)