# That makes you sound dumb. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 29, 1999, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-makes-you-sound-dumb/11658 "1999-11-29T22:37:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![beefymeg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@beefymeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beefymeg)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 1999, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-makes-you-sound-dumb/11658/21 "1999-11-30T14:46:00Z")
Ooooh, and one thing that really frosts my gourd is when people write **“Congradulations!”** You KNOW they copied it right off a graduation greeting card that was trying to be witty, but they’re just wrong. * * * Sucks to your assmar. ---
**Author:** ![Gazelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Gazelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gazelle)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 1999, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-makes-you-sound-dumb/11658/22 "1999-11-30T14:50:00Z")
**Spitting** image is correct. I don’t have a reference on that… Uke? ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 1999, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-makes-you-sound-dumb/11658/23 "1999-11-30T14:51:00Z")
It drives me crazy when people use “jive” when they mean “jibe.” This is misused so often I wouldn’t be surprised if it becomes standard. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 1999, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-makes-you-sound-dumb/11658/24 "1999-11-30T15:03:00Z")
Canthearya, I’m impressed that you’d think I’D know the answer. I must be coming off as brighter than I really am. Well, can’t let you down. I was with you, “of course “spitting image” is correct,” until I got my hands on a copy of James Rogers’ DICTIONARY OF CLICHES (Facts on File, 1985), and read the following: “SPITTING IMAGE. An exact likeness (usually said of a child’s resemblance to one’s parents). In most of its long life the phrase has been “spit and image,” which is in fact a redundancy, since “spit” means, or once meant, likeness. An old saying was that a boy resembling his father was as much like him as if he had been “spit out of his father’s mouth.” The two words seem to have been put together in the 19th century. Egerton Castle’s THE LIGHT OF SCARTHEY (1895) has the line: ‘She’s like the poor lady that’s dead and gone, the spit an’ image she is.’” * * * Uke ---
**Author:** ![MadPoet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8c91f0/32.png) [@MadPoet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MadPoet)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 1999, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-makes-you-sound-dumb/11658/25 "1999-11-30T15:06:00Z")
From the word detective: > [@](#): > > But the phrase is definitely “spitting image” or “spittin’ image,” meaning “exact likeness” and it’s based on an earlier form, “spit and image,” which first appeared around 1859 Just where the phrase came from and exactly what it means, however, is hotly debated in etymological circles. > > Most authorities accept the “spit” element of the phrase at face value, and maintain that it is a remarkably inelegant metaphor for similarity: “just as if one person were spit out of another’s mouth.” A similar saying in French, “C’est son pere tout crache” (“He is his father’s spit and image”), lends support to this theory, as do earlier English sayings with the same meaning, such as “the very spit of,” which appeared around 1825. * * * [http://www.madpoet.com](http://www.madpoet.com) The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 1999, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-makes-you-sound-dumb/11658/26 "1999-11-30T15:14:00Z")
The one I hate the most is the very pretentious (and very incorrect) “aren’t I”, as in, “I’m so pretty, aren’t I?”. So, they who use this construction, please listen up. The conjugation of “to be” goes like this: I **am** ; You are; He, She, It is; We are; You are; They are. “Are” does not go with “I”. The fact that the phrase is negative or interrogative has nothing to do with it. Hell, “ain’t I” is more correct than “aren’t I”. At least ain’t is a contraction of “am not”. But the correct phrase is “am I not?”. For those of you who share this peeve, here is a good comeback when some pretentious dweeb says, “Blah blah blah, aren’t I?” Simply answer, “Oh, yes indeed! And I are, too!” * * * “It is lucky for rulers that men do not think.” — Adolf Hitler ---
**Author:** ![PurpleCrackwhore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc348/32.png) [@PurpleCrackwhore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PurpleCrackwhore)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 1999, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-makes-you-sound-dumb/11658/27 "1999-11-30T15:26:00Z")
MadPoet… I wonder just what kind of spit they were referring to? I am far from perfect in my spelling and grammar so I won’t comment on what bothers me, only that I try to keep my dictionary handy when I post here so I don’t tend to get all the SD members’ ire up. * * * “Only when he no longer knows what he is doing, does the painter do good things.” --Edgar Degas ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 1999, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-makes-you-sound-dumb/11658/28 "1999-11-30T15:33:00Z")
How about when people overcorrect for “so-and-so and me”. When going out to lunch once, I told someone, “Hurry up. They’re waiting for you and me.” “‘You and I’, you mean?” AAARRRGGGHHH!!! ---
**Author:** ![Gazelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Gazelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gazelle)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 1999, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-makes-you-sound-dumb/11658/29 "1999-11-30T15:34:00Z")
Well, shoot. I guess I learned something new today. They’re both right! Strange but true. Gracias **Ukemeister**! ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 1999, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-makes-you-sound-dumb/11658/30 "1999-11-30T15:43:00Z")
OK, so I have to stop and think every time I need to use either _effect_ or _affect_ and come close to a nervous breakdown when I am faced with the choice of _who_ or _whom_, so I don’t have much ground to stand on. However, [pet peeve]it gives me the screaming heebie-jeebies when someone uses the word _alot_ in a sentence. Seeing that really makes me rethink their intelligence.[/pet peeve] Something “else” that gets to me is the “overuse” of quotation marks. Again, as I am far from being grammatically correct myself (I sometimes have to resort to a coin to choose between colons and semicolons) I “apologize” for my own errors, but reserve the right to think some people are idiots. ## Lastly, on the pronunciation of words - I was once stopped short in the middle of a late night dorm room conversation and told “it is pronounced nee-_chee_ when you are making a joke, nee-_cha_ when you are serious.” Neither the laughter nor the lesson has left me. Once in a while you can get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right… ---
**Author:** ![saraam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@saraam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saraam)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 1999, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-makes-you-sound-dumb/11658/31 "1999-11-30T15:45:00Z")
From one of the IT guys at work, describing who would know more about the color copiers: “These two know all the intimacies of every piece of equipment in this room.” Whoa, I don’t want to know what goes on in there in that case. Do you suppose he was thinking “intricacies”? ---
**Author:** ![pldennison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc29f/32.png) [@pldennison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pldennison)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 1999, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-makes-you-sound-dumb/11658/32 "1999-11-30T16:05:00Z")
Libertarian, along those same lines, the people who just cannot get a handle on “I” and “me” drive me nuts. Example: On some new program recently, and interviewee finished a sentence with, " . . . and then it was just she and I." “Her and me,” dammit, “her and me”! If it was just her, and it was just me, then it was just her and me! People have had the objective case bled out of them in grade school, and now think it is improper in _every_ situation. Similarly, John is not taller than me, John is taller then **I**. Taller than I am, to be more precise. * * * “Come on, Phonics Monkey–drum!” ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 1999, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-makes-you-sound-dumb/11658/33 "1999-11-30T16:32:00Z")
Arrrrrgh…. I am typing this curled up under my desk, shaking from the audacity of what I have done. I actually posted something about grammar on the net. Yeesh… I am really out of my league on this one, is demonstrated by my next question. **AWB** and **pldennison** posted on the use of ‘I’ and ‘me’. Here, from AWB’s post: > [@](#): > > When going out to lunch once, I told someone, “Hurry up. They’re waiting for you and me.” > > “‘You and I’, you mean?” I thought (and why I have thought wrong about this is the point of my question) that I could tell which to use by taking out the second party. That is, say to myself “hurry up. They’re waiting for {I/me}.” In this case, it appears that the original stands correct. Should I throw my handy little rule out the window, or have I merely been applying it wrong and it can be salvaged? ---
**Author:** ![Boris\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@Boris\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boris_B)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 1999, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-makes-you-sound-dumb/11658/34 "1999-11-30T16:42:00Z")
You guys scare me. Not cause you’re scary, but because I am. I’ve seen all these spelling and grammar errors so often since the dawn of the world wide web that I don’t even notice them any more. I didn’t even get **TennHippie** ’s post the first couple times I read it, since I have been bludgeoned into accepting all those errors. Finally when I got it, I laughed though. It’s like “grammer” is an accepted alternate spelling, or should I say an excepted alternate spelling, since that invokes a new alternate defintion of “except”. Iai! Gramhm’r Ftagn! * * * Nothing I write about any person or group should be applied to a larger group. - Boris Badenov ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 1999, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-makes-you-sound-dumb/11658/35 "1999-11-30T16:54:00Z")
**pldennison** LOL! Me hate that, too! * * * “It is lucky for rulers that men do not think.” — Adolf Hitler ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 1999, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-makes-you-sound-dumb/11658/36 "1999-11-30T17:16:00Z")
I can handle the occasional grammatical error, bad choice in words, or spelling mistake. What I CAN’T stand are business people or managers who intentionally use complex, flowery language when simple phrases work much better, just to make themselves sound smarter or more educated than we are. If you’ve ever had to suffer through a meeting with one of these clowns, you’ll know what I mean. EXAMPLE: Normal Sentence: > [@](#): > > I spoke with Bob this morning, and he says we can go ahead with the project. _Business-speak:_ > [@](#): > > Pursuant to my further conversations with Bob, I have ascertained that the project is nearing a stage of readiness such that we can begin the next phase of our readiness strategy, and commence forthwith in proceeding ahead with our goals. God forbid these people should actually have to communicate a _complex_ idea. ---
**Author:** ![KentT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a5b964/32.png) [@KentT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KentT)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 1999, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-makes-you-sound-dumb/11658/37 "1999-12-01T06:18:00Z")
AWB: > [@](#): > > When going out to lunch once, I told someone, “Hurry up. They’re waiting for you and me.” > > “‘You and I’, you mean?” Rhythmdvl: > [@](#): > > I thought (and why I have thought wrong about this is the point of my question) that I could tell which to use by taking out the second party. That is, say to myself “hurry up. They’re waiting for {I/me}.” In this case, it appears that the original stands correct. Should I throw my handy little rule out the window, or have I merely been applying it wrong and it can be salvaged? You thought right all along. AWB’s point was that he was corrected incorrectly. (Another possibility is that the rule doesn’t work and I just made an idiot out of myself.) ## BTW am I the only one who has to read each example over and over again before I find the errors? It seems I have a corrective filter somewhere. “No! You can’t take my medicine, I need every braincell blazing to outwit my invisible enemies!” ---
**Author:** ![KentT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a5b964/32.png) [@KentT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KentT)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 1999, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-makes-you-sound-dumb/11658/38 "1999-12-01T06:29:00Z")
## Naturally I did read through all the posts before replying… That was just the start of my “Ignore Boris B” campaign. “No! You can’t take my medicine, I need every braincell blazing to outwit my invisible enemies!” ---
**Author:** ![Stella\_Fantasia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/74df32/32.png) [@Stella\_Fantasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stella_Fantasia)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 1999, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-makes-you-sound-dumb/11658/39 "1999-12-01T06:37:00Z")
Grrrr. I hate it (although I don’t think it’s technically wrong) when people use “impact” as a verb. Why not use “affect”? Or “have an impact upon”? I also loathe the use of “hopefully” to mean “it is to be hoped”. * * * “All you need to be a superhero is a heart that is pure, a mind that is strong, and underwear that is fresh!” ~Dav Pilkey ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 1999, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-makes-you-sound-dumb/11658/40 "1999-12-01T06:42:00Z")
> [@](#): > > (Another possibility is that the rule doesn’t work and I just made an idiot out of myself.) Or I did. Or maybe I was starting out my “ignore the first few words of AWB’s posts” campaign. Sorry 'bout that one. * * * Once in a while you can get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-makes-you-sound-dumb/11658.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-makes-you-sound-dumb/11658.md?page=3)