Ah, if we’re ranging into pronunciation issues, it’s been years since I’ve heard a newscaster call a meteor shower anything other than a “meatier shower.”
A dear friend of mine says it always makes him think of a Sumo wrestlers’ locker room.
“Woman doctor/lawyer” made me think of this:
“Female” used as a noun makes me think of all those old movies where the men refer to all women as “dames.”
How about “mirror” pronounced “meer”? Also “drawer” pronounced “droor.”
When there is a hanging, afterwards one says he has been hanged, not “hung,” correct? Being “hung” can mean either of two things to me – one being a cute way of saying someone has a hangover – but not that someone has been executed.
I absolutely adore Medea’s Child as she knows, but the way she spells, she’s NOT entitled to any pet peeves.
“Alot” doesn’t annoy me–as a matter of fact, some of my friends here still do that. But I’ll NEVER knowingly do that, thanks to Mrs. Morganthaler (god rest her soul), my fifth and sixth grade teacher.
Apparently a lot of students were making that very mistake, and she walked over to the left blackboard (our classroom had two blackboards side by side) and wrote “A” on the left side. Then she walked all the way over to the other side of the right blackboard (on the other end of the front of the class), wrote “Lot” and said, “Get the picture?”.
I’ve never, EVER forgotten that.
I hate redundant phrases/sentences such as “The color of his eyes are blue.” Just say “His eyes are blue.”
I hate useless words like “basically”.
And I really, really hate overused exclamation points. I once read somewhere (and I’ve been trying to find where) that a person is only entitled to five exclamation points in their entire lifetime…and you might as well use them all at once to get them out of your system.
First of all, “a lot” is a place to park your car. That it’s become acceptable to casually use it to mean “much” or “many” doesn’t make it correct. Therefore, if you’re going to use the phrase at all, you don’t get to complain.
Beyond that, I think everyone’s hit on every pet peeve of mine. I find sign misspellings and poor punctuation the worst though. If I were a sign maker and had the faintest question of proper spelling or usage, I would look it up. This stuff goes in the public domain, for criminy’s sake! I refuse to buy anything from a stor with poorly written signs.
There’s also excessive use of acronyms (I use acronyms to make myself seem smart)…IMHO.
My sister says “also, too” all the time. To wit: “I bought a pair of pants. Also, too, I bought a top.” Grrrr.
Ahhh! STORE. And that “First of all” didn’t need to be there. Geez. I humbly apologize.
[nitpick for the hell of it]
One “really” will suffice, otherwise it is redundant. Practice what you preach.
[/nitpick for the hell of it]
Present tense: Drownd
Past tense: Drownded
In the imortal words of Charlie Brown: “AAAAUUGGGHH!”
I must differ with you here. ‘Lot’ has meant ‘a group of things’ since before it was ever applied to land. Sure, it’s often considered an informal usage, but it is quite correct.
sheepish grin
Yeah, ok, ok. I was trying to emphasize my…ah, whatever. You got me.
As in, “a lot of the time”? “She says ‘seen’ a lot”? as opposed to, “We just received a lot of widgets today”? Still incorrect, in my opinion.
God, I hate it when people do that to me. I’m generally not a nit-picking dink.
Oh well.
“There’s nothing more exhilarating than pointing out the shortcomings of others, is there?” - Courtesy of Kevin Smith.
Here in Columbia, SC, we get the ubiquitous “John Boy and Billy Big Show” in the mornings. They break for local news and weather, and the–DJ? Reader? Whatever she is–person who does these mispronounces at least 4 words a day. The other morning she was talking about a couple of guys who spent three days on a disabled boat, after they had departed from (and I swear that this is an exact quote), “O-hoo-hah…Hoo-wah-hah…Oo-ha-ha…that island in Hawaii.” But the one that drives me crazy, the one that makes me want to email-bomb the station manager (along with a fax-loop that says, “Who hired this moron?”) is when she says that, “The car was traveling at 100 mile an hour.” Fucking miles! More than one! Plural! I still have two more exclaimation points to use! Just one more; fire the moron!
I worked at their corporate office when that particular bit of brilliance was forged. My response: “What the hell is that supposed to mean? It sounds stupid.”
I don’t work there anymore.
Their old slogan, “Your branch office,” was also stupid, but at least it made some kind of sense.
Gundy re. LOT or A LOT
According to Merriam-Webster,
1 lot
noun
Pronunciation: 'lät
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English hlot; akin to Old
High German hlOz
Date: before 12th century
1 : an object used as a counter in determining a
question by chance
2 a : the use of lots as a means of deciding
something b : the resulting choice
3 a : something that comes to one upon whom a lot
has fallen : SHARE b : one’s way of life or worldly
fate : FORTUNE
4 a : a portion of land b : a measured parcel of land
having fixed boundaries and designated on a plot or
survey c : a motion-picture studio and its adjoining
property
5 a : a number of units of an article, a single article,
or a parcel of articles offered as one item (as in an
auction sale) b : all the members of a present group,
kind, or quantity – used with the
6 a : a number of associated persons : SET b :
KIND, SORT
7 : a considerable quantity or extent <a lot of
money> <lots of friends>
synonym see FATE
- a lot 1 : to a considerable degree or extent <this
is a lot nicer> 2 : OFTEN, FREQUENTLY <runs a lot
every day> 3 : LOTS
Your dislike of it is one thing, but it does not seem to be “incorrect” as you suggest.
My favorite mispronunciation of all time was when Amy What’s-her-name on “Democracy Now!” was going out of her way to be all literary and dramatic about some supposedly-innocent man on death row, and she dropped an allusion to the apostles in the garden of GETH-sa-main. Gee, would that be near JER-oo-SA-lem?
"For all intensive purposes." --> “For all intents and purposes.” (What, exactly, is an “intensive purpose?”)
Overused cliches and cute acronyms, particularly in business: “FYI: We need to get all our ducks in a row so we’ll all be on the same page, because they’ll eat you alive if you don’t CYA. Don’t sweat the small stuff, just think outside the box and look at the big picture. We’re playing hardball here, so take no prisoners. There’s blood in the water already and we’ve got to circle the wagons. Make sure we’re apples to apples so we don’t get caught like a deer in the headlights, or we’ll end up DOA.”
People who begin talking to you with, "Okay, listen …"
IPATA (Internet posters addicted to acronyms): OMG, OMFG, IIRC, AFAIK, ROFL, ROTFL, ROTFLMAO, IMHO, WTF?
I was listening to a man being interviewed on NPR - can’t remember the topic at the moment - and one of his comments was about a “pa-RID-dig-gum”. From the context, he knew what a paradigm was - just couldn’t pronounce it. Is it that difficult a word??
Ladies and gentlemen (especially ladybug and her detractors), the AP Style Manual is not the supreme arbiter of correct or incorrect use of our language. As its title implies, it is meant to be used by AP reporters to ensure conformity of style.
Said style is simple, clear to the average person, and non-literary. While there is much good and useful information in the book, that does not mean that a usage rejected by the Style Manual is necessarily incorrect.
Therefore, while it makes perfect sense the AP would frown on the overlapping meanings of “entitle” and “title,” (on the grounds that they might confuse their readers), it doesn’t mean we have to discard those valid meanings in our non-journalistic writing.
Thank you.
Five: Well said! May I buy you a drink, sir?