and what about the double plural?
fishes?
My favorite double-plural:
Children.
My understanding is that the original plural of “child” was “childer.” However, as the language changed, that no longer looked like a plural word to people, so folks pluralized it as “children.”
Now a triple-plural is appearing. Folks don’t recognize “children” as a plural, so they’re pluralizing it as “childrens.”
Good stuff!
“Fishes,” however, is correct, according to my dictionary.
Daniel
My favorite double-plural:
Children.
My understanding is that the original plural of “child” was “childer.” However, as the language changed, that no longer looked like a plural word to people, so folks pluralized it as “children.”
Now a triple-plural is appearing. Folks don’t recognize “children” as a plural, so they’re pluralizing it as “childrens.”
Good stuff!
“Fishes,” however, is correct, according to my dictionary.
Daniel
Isn’t it ironic? Don’t you think? (pointing to DanielWithrow)
Yeah – guess I have a new favorite double-plural.
Daniel
with his double postseses.
The OP now made me wonder, who coined the phrase “To coin a phrase”?
Evel Knievel can ride on the plane, but i will ride IN the plane.
Boss: JUSTIN! Do you know the statistics regarding the lates market research?!
Justin: uuhhh … I forget. :smack:
OH and listen to all these rappers and yound up and commers when the speak. How many H’s are there in Shtreet?
and how do you spell “HEEYhh”? like “cum ober Heeyhh to muh sayde oda Shtreet!”
I swear rap music and gangsta rap are making speaking stupid sound so cool…
- “Have a nice day!”*
NO! I dont want to!!
then there are the insults:
FUCK YOU! either that means he really loves me or he’s really passionate about his gay love.
BATSHIT!! ok this is just downright funny.
MOTHERFUCKER! listen, what I do with your mom is really none of your business.
Two popular ones from my office:
Folks who want to get more details on something will say they need to “flush things out.”
Others who want to encourage someone to do something will say that they a trying to “incent” that person – as in, “How can we incent our customers to upgrade?” According to Dictionary.com, which someone referenced earlier and draws from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition (Copyright © 2000), incent is now a word. For its etymology, AHD says that incent is a “back-formation from incentive.” Whatever. Back-formations probably legitimize a number of the words discussed in this thread. My big 'ol Websters 3rd Edition, on the other hand, omits incent. I’m for leaving it out, mostly because when I hear people say, “How can we incent our customers?” I hear, “How can we incense our customers?” and I’m not sure why we’d want to do that.
And one more verbal abuse: pronouncing the word “picture” as “pitchure.”
To stay sane, I’ve learned to sigh quietly and move on.
Sometimes I swear… Perhaps you know that words have more than one related meaning?
“Jumbo: an unusually large person, animal or thing”
“Shrimp: 2. a small or unimportant thing”. Thus “Jumbo= large” Shrimp= small", thus “Jumbo shrimp” means under those definitions “large small”. I am quite aware that “Jumbo shrimp” has a perfectly acceptable meaning in the seafood packing industry. :rolleyes:
Oh, and “Fresh; 4 not preserved, as by canning, smoking or FREEZING;” Although I am also aware the FDA has a defined legal meaning for the term “fresh frozen”.
Now, better oxymorons are “a deafening silence” and “a mournful optimist”.
But in my large, fat wieghty dictionary- there is no meaning of “military” which is the opposite of “intelligence”. It’s a “joke”.
Alright, you’ve lost this battle. “alright” is now an accepted usage, “altho” 
it is still “nonstandard”. Languages evolve.
orientate as in: Let me get orientated here so I know which way to turn.
Has the same effect on me as fingernails down a blackboard.
My mother was wont to rave about some floor cloth that she bought which was very observant …
Piqued…?? Is that what it is??
Oh my goodness gracious, is my face red. heehee…
Frankenstien created a Monster because of its size. Dracula is NOT a monster. …and you cant have a little monster.
Not everything can be all right but it is alright to use this term this way and its spelled correctly as well.
Is there such a word as Vaguer, as in more vague?
Eh? You can’t have a little monster? What about Gremlins? Troll? Critters? Ghoulies?
Accepted usage but nonstandard?
The term “monster” refers to a frightening, deformed or unnatural creature. The meaning of something very large is secondary. “Vaguer” is the comparative form of “vague”.
Umm…your teacher’s right. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that usage, so far as I can see. The construction “have got” is perfectly OK, as in “have you got any change.” It’s more widely used in UK English, but Americans certainly use it, as your example shows.
X-Slayer Do you also ride in the bus, and not on the bus? Me, I get on a plane, on a bus, on a ship, in a car, in a van. So much as there is a pattern, it seems to do with size, but prepositions are a bit unpredicatable in any language, and very often defy literal interpretation.
Also, I say “shtreet” and I am neither a rapper nor a gangsta, and I have been saying it this way my whole life before the influence of said musical genre. Ya know, accents and urban dialects and all that. Get over it.
And, yes, “orientate” and “conversate” are backformations from the words “orientation” and “conversation.” I must admit, as patient as I am on these matters, these words grate on my ears a tiny bit.
“Got” is one of those words that eloquent, erudite, effusive authors who like to use thesarui don’t like to use. You know, like “thing” or “it.”
BTW, by that I don’t mean that the word is substandard or incorrect at all. It’s just that for the most part there are better words to use, so “real” authors use more precise words, that’s all.
Dave Barry.
“In extreme cases, such as ‘Ye Olde Barne Shoppe’, the owner would simply be taken outside and shot.”–Dave Barry
Grammar abuses that have been irking ME recently:
The use of quotes as some kind of mutant intensifier. A sign saying
used to make me wonder if 1) you were trying to be hip in an ironic, jaded sort of way, or 2) you were simply an idiot. These days, I don’t wonder–it’s usually the latter.
Speaking of mutant intensifiers, I’ll second the rampant abuse of “literally”. “That movie was great! I was literally glued to my seat!” “Damn kids. I thought I took AWAY the superglue.”
One I see on eBay all the time: “This item is sooooo unique!” Really? Where, on the scale of uniqueness, is it? Is it the most unique item on eBay? Is it the uniquer than the lesser items your competitor is selling? Has it reached heretofore unknown heights of uniqity?
Gah.
“Have you got any change?”
Why isn’t the “got” considered redundant?
DrDeth said:
If it is still nonstandard, then according to *Webster’s] it is:
“…not conforming in pronunciation, grammatical construction, idiom, or word choice to the usage generally characteristic of educated native speakers of a language.”
Just because a word is in the dictionary or commonly used, it is not necessarily considered acceptable (standard).
Thus, alright is not all right.
DrDeth:
No! Really?:rolleyes:
Between you & I 
I despise “Joe invited Mary & I to the party.” Pronoucing height like hythe, & etc. like eck- sett -erra.