# Little facts people get wrong **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 15, 2016, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-facts-people-get-wrong/768575 "2016-10-15T02:48:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/it_s_not_rocket_surgery/32/312_2.png) [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/It_s_Not_Rocket_Surgery)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2016, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-facts-people-get-wrong/768575/61 "2016-10-16T16:22:57Z")
There are some recurring errors that make no sense, but happen anyway. A good (actually bad) example is one that only started popping up in the last ten years - for some reason people started abbreviating the term “et cetera” as **ect.** instead of **etc.** And the error has picked up momentum. Blech. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2016, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-facts-people-get-wrong/768575/62 "2016-10-16T16:23:02Z")
> [@mixdenny](#): > > I owned 2 roundies from new. A '69 2002 and a -70 2002A. But nobody called them by the series back then that I can remember. It’s a recent thing, probably shortly after 9/11, but with nothing to do with terrorism. Probably an effort to avoid “Abbot and Costello” type exchanges with parts and service people. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2016, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-facts-people-get-wrong/768575/63 "2016-10-16T16:23:53Z")
> [@Nawth\_Chucka](#): > > Turtle when it’s a tortoise and vice versa. Different animals and only a turtle can survive underwater for long. _Come, crown my brow with leaves of myrtle; I know the tortoise is a turtle. Come, carve my name in stone immortal; I know the turtoise is a tortle._ – Ogden Nash ---
**Author:** ![Bumbazine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bumbazine/32/362_2.png) [@Bumbazine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bumbazine)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2016, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-facts-people-get-wrong/768575/64 "2016-10-16T18:11:08Z")
It annoys me when people say “I’m going to try _and_” do something when what they should say is “I’m going to try _to_” do something. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2016, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-facts-people-get-wrong/768575/65 "2016-10-16T18:35:18Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > And while we’re at it, “coining a phrase” doesn’t just mean USING a phrase, it means inventing a new one. I’d been enjoying this thread, snorting with derision, until I saw this. Busted me. > [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](#): > > There are some recurring errors that make no sense, but happen anyway.A good (actually bad) example is one that only started popping up in the last ten years - for some reason people started abbreviating the term “et cetera” as **ect.** instead of **etc.** And the error has picked up momentum. Blech. I think “ect.” would make perfect sense to the knuckleheads who pronounce it “eck-set-ruh.” ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2016, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-facts-people-get-wrong/768575/66 "2016-10-16T19:09:23Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > And there’s no second “n” in “pundit”; no such word as “pundint”. Two men tried to succeed in the field of political commentary. Pundit and pundint. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2016, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-facts-people-get-wrong/768575/67 "2016-10-16T19:37:25Z")
People that use stay for live. I stays at a house on Elm Street. :eek: No you don’t. You live in a house on Elm Street. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2016, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-facts-people-get-wrong/768575/68 "2016-10-16T20:11:28Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > People who ask “can you borrow me 5 bucks” rather than asking if I’ll loan them 5 bucks. (either way the answer is no! 😉 ) People who ask “can you loan me 5 bucks” rather than asking if I’ll lend them 5 bucks. (Still no.) ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2016, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-facts-people-get-wrong/768575/69 "2016-10-16T20:24:42Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > People that use stay for live. I stays at a house on Elm Street. :eek: > > No you don’t. You live in a house on Elm Street. I always notice that - it seems to be a feature of Black Engkish Vernacular, like “here go” for “here is” - but I see nothing wrong with it. There’s no reason that “stay” cannot describe the action of occupying a dwelling just as accurately as “live”. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2016, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-facts-people-get-wrong/768575/70 "2016-10-16T20:28:04Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > People that use stay for live. I stays at a house on Elm Street. :eek: > > No you don’t. You live in a house on Elm Street. Are these the sort of folks who skip out on 6 months unpaid rent roughly every 6 months? Or do a lot of couch-surfing between stable living arrangements? Or perhaps go through one live-together BF/GF after another? Even if they don’t live that way now, did they perhaps live that way growing up? If so, “I stay at Elm street” might be more appropriate than you give it credit for. ---
**Author:** ![Corry\_El](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecae2f/32.png) [@Corry\_El](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corry_El)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2016, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-facts-people-get-wrong/768575/71 "2016-10-16T20:44:10Z")
The DEFCON scale is an example of something people actually get wrong. The scale has a direction, and it’s not determined by popular usage. However a lot of the other ‘wrong facts’ given so far are questions of English usage, which in the long run _is_ determined by popular usage. You can say you don’t like the way for example disinterested has come to mean ‘having no interest’ when at one time it only meant ‘not influenced by considerations of personal advantage’, but the toothpaste is out of the tube. Same with ‘belie’, ‘beg the question’ etc where what used to be viewed as common but wrong usage has now found its way into dictionaries alongside the formerly exclusive right usage. And if dictionary writers are the people ‘getting little facts wrong’ that seems to me a different category than getting the DEFCON scale backwards. Insisting on ‘gull’ rather than ‘seagull’ is in yet another category, just an affectation, with due respect. Maybe seagull is wrong in a serious discussion of birds, but not in every day general use. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2016, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-facts-people-get-wrong/768575/72 "2016-10-16T21:39:44Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > I always notice that - it seems to be a feature of Black Engkish Vernacular, like “here go” for “here is” - but I see nothing wrong with it. There’s no reason that “stay” cannot describe the action of occupying a dwelling just as accurately as “live”. More accurate, I’d say, except for shut-ins. Is none of your _life_ outside your home? ---
**Author:** ![purplehearingaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@purplehearingaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehearingaid)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2016, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-facts-people-get-wrong/768575/73 "2016-10-16T21:56:30Z")
> [@Nawth\_Chucka](#): > > Turtle when it’s a tortoise and vice versa. Different animals and only a turtle can survive underwater for long. This remind me of a fish tank I saw , there were snails trying to climb out of tank and when they almost got the top a woman pushed them back. I asked her where she got the snails from and she said from the garden. :smack: Poor snails were being drowned and trying escape , I told the woman she had the wrong kind of snails in the tanks Most people don’t like to be corrected in public or on line . I do have a neighbor that would drive you nutty ! She calls wild animals ‘foreign animals’ and think rabbits eat rats and that bees only like to get pollen from apples tree. ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2016, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-facts-people-get-wrong/768575/74 "2016-10-16T21:58:27Z")
Algae, larvae, antennae, vertebrae: all plural, and all properly pronounced with a long E sound for the last syllable! Also, meiosis is properly pronounced my-oh-sis, NOT me-oh-sis! Cite- any print dictionary in the U.S., and all my bio profs back in college. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2016, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-facts-people-get-wrong/768575/75 "2016-10-16T22:08:14Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > . . . And yet you anti-“seagull” people are fine with the red-breasted American bird being called a “robin”. This one is new to me. Why isn’t a robin a robin? (There was a fun Batman comic where the Joker was teasing Robin about being of the genus Turdus…) ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2016, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-facts-people-get-wrong/768575/76 "2016-10-16T23:09:15Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > This one is new to me. Why isn’t a robin a robin? This is a Robin: [European robin - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_robin) Actually, anything that is named a Robin, is a Robin - again, it’s a common name, not a scientific label. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2016, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-facts-people-get-wrong/768575/77 "2016-10-16T23:13:15Z")
As your own link says, when they were named both the UK/EU robin and the US/NA robin were believed to be species of thrush. So cousins of a sort. Later evidence shows them to be much less related than originally thought. Oh well; names are inherently arbitrary labels with just enough underlying logic to confuse us. ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2016, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-facts-people-get-wrong/768575/78 "2016-10-17T00:21:52Z")
> [@rsat3acr](#): > > saying buffalo when it is a bison Well, it has been the vernacular for 200 years. Ever hear of a bison hunter, or a bison rifle or a bison gal? Or Bison Bill? :rolleyes: Dennis ---
**Author:** ![rsat3acr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@rsat3acr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsat3acr)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2016, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-facts-people-get-wrong/768575/79 "2016-10-17T00:42:35Z")
still wrong though ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2016, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-facts-people-get-wrong/768575/80 "2016-10-17T00:59:16Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > “Is the glass half empty or is it half full?” Neither, it’s both. The hidden fact in that false dilemma is the glass is irrelevant as it’s too damn big. Makes me crazy when people claim this is some kind of test of optimism. My response is always “If you are filling the glass, it’s half full. If you are pouring or drinking out of it, it’s half empty.” > [@purplehearingaid](#): > > This remind me of a fish tank I saw , there were snails trying to climb out of tank and when they almost got the top a woman pushed them back. I asked her where she got the snails from and she said from the garden. :smack: > Poor snails were being drowned and trying escape , I told the woman she had the wrong kind of snails in the tanks > > Most people don’t like to be corrected in public or on line . I do have a neighbor that would drive you nutty ! She calls wild animals ‘foreign animals’ and think rabbits eat rats and that bees only like to get pollen from apples tree. Woman sounds about as bright as the mother of a client who thought there was some kind of law that anything on TV had to be true, so if she saw a documentary about how the moon landing was faked, well, then, the moon landing was faked, and that was the end of it. Also, anything on a commercial was true. There was a law that they couldn’t lie. I realize there are regulations about things like food that has to be faked to hold up under lights (like ice cream that is really potato flakes) not being made to look _better_ that the real thing, but that’s not what she’s talking about, although it may be the source of her confusion. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-facts-people-get-wrong/768575.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-facts-people-get-wrong/768575.md?page=5)