Commonly mispronounced words

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Jaguar, my very silly dear easily patronized fellow, if you're going to be so ignorant of Latin that even I can do it better than you can, what is to be done with you?

Ignorami if I want it that way. If it's nonstandard, well, it's nonstandard, with all the caveats appertaining thereunto.

You're trying too hard, kid.

[richlevy]

On a related topic, I would like to express my frustration with the substitution of two similar words, not just in speech but in writing.

I have seen at least two different posts by two allegedly different Cellar users in which the word 'loose' is substituted for the word 'lose'.

While not of earth shattering significance, this still upsets me.

I have noticed the tendency to switch around homophones. For example, I have seen people substitute "your" for the contraction "you're" a lot, as in "I think your going too far." I have grown to accept this as a natural mutation of the English language.

In the case of loose and lose, the words do not even sound the same when pronounced correctly. They are not homonyms, synonyms, antonyms, or any other kind of -nym. They have no relationship to each other except for sharing a subset of letters in the same order.

I realize that if this is the most troubling thing I have seen recently, then I am leading a charmed life, but for some reason it annoys me. One hope for the Internet is that it would return the world to the age of letter writing, when 'a stern letter to the Times' and the keeping of journals left a historical record of the thoughts of generations.

Unfortunately, the sloppiness people use in speech has crossed over into writing. I am not talking about typos, or even using slang like typo instead of typographical error. I am not even talking about poor sentence structure with concepts like dangling participles. Everyone breaks those, including a huge number of authors. My second grade English teacher would be appalled at the structure of most of my posts.

If it turns out that the people who are doing this are ESL, than I am very sorry that I brought this up. If I was in a forum writing in Spanish and I substituted perro for pero and someone ranted about it, I could honestly say I was trying my best.

Still I figure I should bring it up before it ends up on a resume or application letter.

Now that I think about it, I might have ranted about this a few years ago about the same two words. It might be time to search the Cellar archives.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Hang lose, Rich......you've nothing to loose.

[Spexxvet]

Originally Posted by richlevy

On a related topic, I would like to express my frustration with the substitution of two similar words, not just in speech but in writing.
...

I hate when people say try "and" do something. You try "to" do something, not try "and".

[Happy Monkey]

You'd better hope so, especially dogs.

[richlevy]

Originally Posted by Happy Monkey

You'd better hope so, especially dogs.

I see you found the old post. Well, maybe it's not the end of civilization and just one guy using three different Cellar accounts.

Of course, back in the old days, mistakes like that could get you a switching from the schoolmistress, with her hair in a tight bun....and her cheeks all flushed and......

[wolf]

Today, I signed a commitment warrant for a woman who wrote that her son had "tryed to cute my throuathe."

I finally figured it out, and her son really was crazy, but the whole idea of her being barely able to express herself in written English was more frightening than her son's behavior.

[richlevy]

Originally Posted by wolf

Today, I signed a commitment warrant for a woman who wrote that her son had "tryed to cute my throuathe."

I finally figured it out, and her son really was crazy, but the whole idea of her being barely able to express herself in written English was more frightening than her son's behavior.

Well, another explanation would be that the woman was 300 years old. In the 1700's there were almost no dictionaries and words legitimately had different spellings.

I visited Franklin's Post Office and exhibit and reading the samples of writing there required some translation.

[wolf]

I honestly don't think this lady was having a purfuit of happineff moment.

[richlevy]

Originally Posted by wolf

I honestly don't think this lady was having a purfuit of happineff moment.

The whole f/s thing made it tough to read some of the manuscripts there. Think about how tough it must have been visiting a brothel back then and trying to figure out exactly what they were offering on the price list for 5 shillings.

[Griff]

Originally Posted by wolf

I honestly don't think this lady was having a purfuit of happineff moment.

[wolf]

I always loved that Stan Freberg bit, but the opportunities to use it in conversation are few and far between, even for me.

[wolf]

I know someone who does the crime scene clean up gig in one of the Carolinas. There's a lot of money in that.

[mrnoodle]

How do you pronounce a sentence like, "It isn't going to matter one way or the other?"

I'm horrible about diction in some cases -- when I say that, it sounds like "Iddingonma'er one wayathothr".

If I try to pronounce it correctly, I don't like the way all the "s" and "th" sounds feel in my mouth -- it makes my teeth itch.

Neuroses, I've got a few.

[richlevy]

Originally Posted by mrnoodle

How do you pronounce a sentence like, "It isn't going to matter one way or the other?"

I've never been sure if the expression is "It isn't going to matter one way or the other?" or "It isn't going to matter one way or another?". I'm not even sure there is a difference meaning between the two, except that maybe the first implies that there are only two 'ways' and the second implies that there are 'more than one'.

The question mark is probably wrong, however, if it is a statement. However, according to this link, it is grammatically correct to place a question mark on an interrogative statement.

Sometimes, an interrogative statement may be followed by a period instead of a question mark. A writer's choice of end mark is based upon both meaning, i.e., the main idea expressed by the sentence, and also upon emotional content. Look at some examples below.

You liked the movie. --or-- You liked the movie?

How about that guy. --or-- How about that guy?

When a sentence is only mildly interrogative, as in the examples above, either a question mark or a period is grammatically appropriate. A writer, by his or her choice of end mark, has the ability to affect the sense of the sentence. One test for an appropriate end mark is to read the sentence aloud. Does the inflection of your voice rise or fall? If it rises, the sentence should probably end with a question mark; if it falls, a period is perhaps the better choice.

This goes to show that -

A) I fact check before posting on the Cellar.
B) Even guys with English degrees forget or never bothered learning all of the rules.
C) The first rule of 'proper English grammer' is that there are too many exceptions to rules. In the end, punctation is more about conveying inflection or pace than applying strict structure.

E. E. Cummings was right.