More language peeves

Well, we’ve covered mispronunciation and spelling issues before but how about idioms or phrases.

I’ll start with these:

Every so often
Would of
Self for filling prochecy

I’ve come across these on the boards and out in real life.

What’s wrong with “every so often?” I’ve heard this phrase, and its cousin, “every once in a while,” all my life. I’m generally as nitpicky as the next person about improper usage, but I’ve never heard anyone complain about these phrases.

It’s not “ever so often”, which is the original form.

Hey, FatBaldGuy. It’s actually “ever so often” which means “a lot.” Most folks confuse it with “every now and then” or “every once in a while” which mean “rarely.”

Ever so often is also a common phrase, but not quite the same meaning as every so often. FWIW, Google shows 811,000 hits on “every so often” and only 44,000 on “ever so often.”

Um, I looked this up in my Oxford Canadian, and they had an entry for “every so often” but not “ever so often.”

This makes sense – think about it. The phrase isn’t used to mean “very often;” it means “once in a while.” If people did use it to mean very often, “ever so often” would be right, as in “he’s ever so clever” or “it’s ever so dreadful.”

But analyze “every so often.” It’s a use of “every” as in “at intervals of.” “So often” would mean “some frequency” (“so” here means “thus,” not “very,” as in “a piece of wood about so big” – so “so often” is “as often as specified.”)

So “every so often,” when you analyze it, means “at some given interval,” which is what the phrase means.

I’m a USAer, and I’ve never heard “every so often” before, but “ever so often” is pretty common down here. Maybe it’s a regional thing.

Anyway, you have two very similar phrases with completely different meanings. That’s a recipe for confusion, and knowing the way things go here, exasperated pit threads.

“Not for nothing…”

“At the end of the day…”

You’ve never heard “every so often”? How about “every once in a while”? I’d never heard “ever so often” before.

As the original poster I’ll concede that "ever so often " and “every so often” may be acceptable in different situations and regional usage may be a factor as well.

I’m a USAer, too, and I always use (and hear) “every so often.”

I’ve heard people use “ever so often” sometimes, but always figured it was just lazy speech, like dropping the “g” off words ending in “ing.”

“Cliche,” “bias,” and “prejudice” as adjectives. Cliched. Biased. Prejudiced. Respect the D.

“I really miss not seeing you.”

Fine! I’ll leave.

Yup.

Nevermind. Should of have read it better.:smiley:

Good one!

‘I could care less’ … when they mean ‘I couldn’t care less.’

It is okay to mention peeves here too, isn’t it?

Instead of “every now and then”, I have always said “Every now and again”. Both of my parents said it, so that’s what I grew up with. It makes my newspaper editor husband want to smack me.

“For all intensive purposes” … ugh!!!

Those who insist that the phrase is “You’ve got another thing coming.”