It's wrong, but I say it anyway

[Eureka]

A couple of times recently I found myself turning to someone else and saying “I have an alumni on the phone who wants to know X”.

Alumni is plural- as I know even if the young lady on the phone did not. Alumna would ( I think) be the better word to describe each of these young ladies (with alumnus reserved for the young men who make similar phone calls- though somehow I never answered calls from males referring to themselves as alumni).

It is my conviction that we are moving towards a society that doesn’t bother with these distinctions and the word “Alumni” will be used as both singular and plural- unless the truly stupid start adding an “s” to make the new plural. This is partly due to the fact that there are many occassions when simply using the plural makes more sense than using the singular. (“Services for Alumni”, “Alumni Weekend” vs. “I am an alumn(whatever)”-- heck, I think I have heard people use “alumn” as the singular form before).

[Queen_Tonya]

@Rysto

I also don’t have a problem with ending a sentence with a preposition, so long as there’s no way around it.(not to pick on Queen Tonya or anything, but what’s wrong with “with me”?)

Nothing at all.

Somehow I get more satisfaction out of saying it wrong, though.

[susan_foster]

Way too many dashes and exclamation points in my internet writing. I must sound like an excited puppy dog.

Susan

[GorillaMan]

@phouka

I insist on saying “FOR-tay” because I took music and learned the Italian word/pronunciation long before I came across the French word/pronunciation.

What I can’t get my head around is the idea that the musical term isn’t the main reason for this word having found its way into common English use. Why should a French origin be considered the ‘correct’ one, whereas the familair-to-many Italian pronunciation be shunned as incorrect?

[Lisa-go-Blind]

French “forte” = “strength”
Italian “forte” = “loud”

[Patty_O_Furniture]

The period goes outside of the quotation marks “unless it’s part of the quoted material”.

Period.

[yBeayf]

The period goes outside of the quotation marks “unless it’s part of the quoted material”.

Not in American usage.

Being a product of not-quite-northern/not-quite-southern Iowa, I occasionally still find myself saying such hoary old rusticisms as ain’t it the truth, quite a little, I wisht I was, get a holt of, and my all-time favorite, where’s it at?

Wow. I know that these are technically non-standard English, but it still startled me a little to see them in this thread, being as they’re such a natural part of my dialect.

I proudly use the word “ain’t” to form double negatives, and I’ll continue to do so until the day I die.

[Johnny_L.A]

@yBeayf

Not in American usage.

I’m American, and that’s the way I do it.
yBeayf said, ‘Not in American Usage’.

**yBeayf said ‘not in American Usage’.

[yBeayf]

I’m American, and that’s the way I do it.

Then you’re doing it British/Commonwealth style.

[Ruby]

I am a linguistics barbarian. Hang out with me long enough and I’ll likely break a rule or two and never miss a beat. I hear the mistakes of others, though, and sometimes it drives me crackers.

I use the word anxious to mean “excited, eager”. (ie. I’m anxious to see you again) I recently read that anxious only means anxiety; however, in checking m-w.com, it can also mean eager as well. Now I don’t know if I’m anxious or only eager…<sigh>

[Ruby]

Oh, and I agree with yBeayf on the proper punctuation with quotes. I was taught that the period always preceeds the quote marks.

[Hyperelastic]

I say “samwich” or “sanwich” or something in between, or even “sammich” if I’m feeling frisky.

[Johnny_L.A]

@Ruby

Oh, and I agree with yBeayf on the proper punctuation with quotes. I was taught that the period always preceeds the quote marks.

I don’t remember how I was taught in school, but most of my literature has it the way I use it.

[Miller]

@Patty O'Furniture

The period goes outside of the quotation marks “unless it’s part of the quoted material”.

But it looks so lonely out there all by itself!

[Patty_O_Furniture]

@yBeayf

Not in American usage.

Just a friendly reminder that this thread is all about things that we “know” are “wrong” but we do them “anyway”.

But thanks for pointing out that we’re doing it wrong.

But it looks so lonely out there all by itself!

I like to think it enjoys the space, or in some cases a double-space.

[NardoPolo]

@Sal Ammoniac

I just found myself writing “The data is…” and I left it, even knowing it was wrong. So shoot me.

Data is like water: if you add more data, you still have data. You take some data away, and you still have data. This theoretical singular “datum” is quite elusive and pointless; if you have one person’s birth date is that a datum? But you can divide it up into a birth month and date and year - so really it’s data. And even the year can be divided up into century and… well you get the idea. “Data” should be a collective noun.

@Patty O'Furniture

The period goes outside of the quotation marks “unless it’s part of the quoted material”.

I’ll give a hearty round of applause for that one. Sorry, grammer-police, but your arbitrary style is illogical and sometimes misleading, and it’s time to change.

So there!

[Malacandra]

You used “data” as a singular noun? Those are good news!

[yBeayf]

Just a friendly reminder that this thread is all about things that we “know” are “wrong” but we do them “anyway”.

But thanks for pointing out that we’re doing it wrong.

But I thought you were saying you quoted American style, and the British one was correct… or something… nevermind.

<drinks more coffee>

[Amok]

I always say/write “anyway” as “anyways”. I (now) know it’s incorrect, but I’ve said it that way my whole life, and the right way just feels wrong to me.

[calstateworker]

I have to admit, I’ve been known to say “this is a whole nother thing”, rather than another whole thing. Looks silly in print, but that’s how it comes out in talking.