# The most horrific mangling of the English language my ears have ever heard **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 15, 2011, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-horrific-mangling-of-the-english-language-my-ears-have-ever-heard/603071 "2011-11-15T23:56:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2011, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-horrific-mangling-of-the-english-language-my-ears-have-ever-heard/603071/101 "2011-11-21T16:30:47Z")
> [@Koxinga](#): > > :mad: Y’all. Is. Not. SINGULAR. ..and I’m not a sir. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2011, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-horrific-mangling-of-the-english-language-my-ears-have-ever-heard/603071/102 "2011-11-21T16:37:15Z")
> [@OpalCat](#): > > ..and I’m not a sir. I beg your pardon, Ma’am. 🙂 This forum requires that you wait 60 seconds between posts. Please try again in 9 seconds ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2011, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-horrific-mangling-of-the-english-language-my-ears-have-ever-heard/603071/103 "2011-11-21T16:51:16Z")
I’ve heard “Ya’ll” used as both a singular and a plural term. ---
**Author:** ![coolbyrne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bc79bd/32.png) [@coolbyrne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coolbyrne)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2011, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-horrific-mangling-of-the-english-language-my-ears-have-ever-heard/603071/104 "2011-11-21T19:41:22Z")
Didn’t have too much problem with a co-worker saying things like, “That storm prednear scared me half to death”- until I noticed she spelled it that way, too. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2011, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-horrific-mangling-of-the-english-language-my-ears-have-ever-heard/603071/105 "2011-11-21T20:47:51Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > I’ve heard “Ya’ll” used as both a singular and a plural term. [Language Long agrees](http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=2009): > [@](#): > > But T & B also list (pp. 272-275) a baker’s dozen examples of apparently unequivocal singular yall from recorded sources, starting with this conversation between Bob Wills and Tommy Duncan from a 1937 recording (“Oozlin’ Daddy Blues”, Vocalion 03693): > > Bob: Lord, Lord, Tommy. > Tommy: What’s the matter? > Bob: You got your dictionary with you? > Tommy: What yall want with a dictionary? > Bob: I want to look up this new word, this here ((word …)) > Tommy: What word’s that? > Bob: That word oozlin’, boy. The rest of the article is pretty interesting. I certainly haven’t noticed people using y’all as singular, and I don’t think I do. Consider two different things I might say to a waiter: “Can y’all bring the appetizer with the entree?” “Do you know Jake?” In the first case, I’m asking the waiter if he **and the rest of the restaurant employees** can work together to comply with this request. In the second case, I’m asking the waiter whether he **and he alone** knows Jake. In both cases, it might look to a casual observer as though I were using the singular, but it’d only really be true in the second case. “All y’all” is an intensifier. I might ask my class two questions: 1. “Do y’all want to go to the park for recess?” 2. “Do all y’all want to go to the park for recess?” In the first case, if the majority of the class wants to go, the answer is “yes.” In the second case, the answer is only “yes” if it’s unanimous. Edit: That said, the apostrophe NEVER appears after the “a.” That’s just wrong, Elendil’s Heir. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2011, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-horrific-mangling-of-the-english-language-my-ears-have-ever-heard/603071/106 "2011-11-21T20:55:22Z")
Oops. I knew that. I hope y’all’ll forgive me. ---
**Author:** ![Chris2011](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Chris2011](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chris2011)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2011, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-horrific-mangling-of-the-english-language-my-ears-have-ever-heard/603071/107 "2011-11-21T21:05:49Z")
My grandfather always told us “that’ll learn you”. Yikes!! ---
**Author:** ![missbunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/76d3ee/32.png) [@missbunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missbunny)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2011, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-horrific-mangling-of-the-english-language-my-ears-have-ever-heard/603071/108 "2011-11-22T00:04:21Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Just out of curiosity, because I mistakenly said that I never use “anymore” in the positive, but realized from the dictionary examples that I do use it at least in one type of construction. For those of you for whom “Gasoline is so expensive anymore” sounds awkward, does “Pizza is all I eat anymore” sound weird, too? I find the first construction weird, but not the second, so I’m wondering if this is usual, or some dialectical quirk of mine. Notice that all the constructions where “anymore” sounds right are negatives, or somehow subtractive. (I am not sure what the actual grammatical term is.) For instance: Gasoline is so expensive anymore = weird. Gasoline isn’t so expensive anymore = fine. Pizza is my entire diet anymore = weird. Pizza is all I eat anymore (i.e., it’s the only thing I eat anymore; I don’t eat anything else anymore) = fine. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2011, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-horrific-mangling-of-the-english-language-my-ears-have-ever-heard/603071/109 "2011-11-22T02:16:35Z")
I believe that I may very well have been geeky about everything of any possible interest except English grammar. It is why I did so badly in the German class. Ich habe es in der schule gelearnt. Hote abend, or something. ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2011, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-horrific-mangling-of-the-english-language-my-ears-have-ever-heard/603071/110 "2011-11-22T03:45:50Z")
> [@Cryptic\_C62](#): > > Jive ass fools don’t got no brains anyhow. More properly, “Jive ass fools gon’t got no brains _nohow_.” The double negatives (the “don’t got no” naturally elide into “gon’t” ) cancel each other, making the statement positive, thereby leaving room for the “nohow” to make the required negative. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2011, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-horrific-mangling-of-the-english-language-my-ears-have-ever-heard/603071/111 "2011-11-22T04:54:03Z")
Golly! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-horrific-mangling-of-the-english-language-my-ears-have-ever-heard/603071.md?page=5)