I'm curious as a cat so....

Is there a word or name you want to correct when a person misuses it. For me it is the word Italian, I am an Italian American so when people pronounce it Eyetalian, I just have to correct them. It just sounds so wrong to me. Have any of you come across this situation

I think that's a southern thing; eye-talian.  At least it seems that way to me.  But I grew up in an area with a large Italian American population (myself included); so maybe that helps.

The word that drives me crazy: ask.  It's not ax.   You don't ax people questions.  Axes are for chopping down trees and splitting wood and horror movies.     That one seems to be an accent related thing too.  I had several clients who moved to my area from New York City.  Not Jersey; but I forget where in the city.  They would all "ax" me questions.  My job was teaching clerical and job seeking skills.  So I'd try to work with them on pronunciation of certain words; since presenting yourself professionally is a big requirement in many clerical jobs.  

One thing I saw said that pronouncing it eye-talian is considered insulting/pejorative. I guess the people who I know who say it that way aren't exactly trying to be polite but I'm not sure they mean it to be insulting either.

For me, it's people misspelling "definitely" as "defiantly". First of all, that's a typo of a misspelling (I assume they were trying to spell it "definately" but mixed up 2 letters) :tongue2:. Secondly, that means something else entirely! Also people who say "supposably". Yeah that's not a word. It's "supposedly".

Using 'ax' for ask seems to also be very common with African-Americans,  Not all of course but I have noticed it a lot with African Americans.  Eyetalian was what I heard a lot where I grew up in Kansas.  There was no Italian American community anywhere close to where I grew up which I think may be why it was so common there.  Both bother me but I think the Eyetalian bothers me more, I think because I here it less often so I notice it more.

Spayded

Dethawed

Dewormed

Do not exist outside of a trailer park.

Nauseous instead of nauseated

The word literally does not apply to every event, nor does like.

Curse words as adjectives.

It took almost ten minutes to type this. This is why I don't post much anymore.

Oh no! I didn't know Italian was pronounced like that. I'll make sure to use the proper pronunciation from now on!

I think my biggest peeve is when people use "effect" and "affect" incorrectly and/or interchangeably. I even catch my English profs making this mistake!

Chromium Blues said:

Spayded
Dethawed
Dewormed

Do not exist outside of a trailer park.

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Now what's wrong with dewormed? I think that's a correct usage. Vets say it. The bottle of dewormer says it. It's more technically correct (de-worming would be removing worms, yes? If you "wormed" your pet, wouldn't that be putting worms in them? ). But I agree about spaded and dethawed though. Dethawed doesn't even make sense; if you de-thawed it, wouldn't that be freezing it? :tongue2: And it particularly annoys me when people say they had a male pet spaded. Um no. Wrong on 2 counts :lol3:.

Your/you're. Someone texted me today "Your doing great!". Ergh.

Misplaced apostrophes. No, you are not selling apple's. Especially bad when used by people who should know better. I saw a note from my nephew's teacher with several misspellings and misplaced apostrophes. I don't know what they're teaching them in college.

Misuse of "I" because they think it sounds smarter. "The boss met with Mark and I". No. And misuse of "myself" is even worse! "The boss met with Mark and myself". No! It's not wrong to say "me" sometimes.

I thought dewormed was okay too.  I know the medicine is called a dewormer and vets say dewormed.

Skiddish instead of skittish.

Skid is what your car does on icy roads. Or what your skittish cats does when he's running to escape from your house guests on your polished wooden floor.

There's a tongue twister in there somewhere;

"The skittish cat skidded on the shiny wooden floor."

Willowy said:

Now what's wrong with dewormed? I think that's a correct usage. Vets say it. The bottle of dewormer says it. It's more technically correct (de-worming would be removing worms, yes? If you "wormed" your pet, wouldn't that be putting worms in them?

). But I agree about spaded and dethawed though. Dethawed doesn't even make sense; if you de-thawed it, wouldn't that be freezing it?

And it particularly annoys me when people say they had a male pet spaded. Um no. Wrong on 2 counts

.

Misplaced apostrophes. No, you are not selling apple's. Especially bad when used by people who should know better. I saw a note from my nephew's teacher with several misspellings and misplaced apostrophes. I don't know what they're teaching them in college.

Misuse of "I" because they think it sounds smarter. "The boss met with Mark and I". No. And misuse of "myself" is even worse! "The boss met with Mark and myself". No! It's not wrong to say "me" sometimes.

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I don't see anything wrong with dewormed   (sorry)

Misplaced apostrophes make me spastic. I see them in ads and billboards and it does. It makes me spastic. My co-worker gave me a recycling flyer he was writing. I saw TV's and VCR's. No. It's not acceptable! Stop it! It is TVs and VCRs. Why would one use an apostrophe? It just doesn't make any sense to me. Would you write television's? No. So why write TV's? 

When Rick was working on union minutes one night, he wrote something about "So-and-so and myself...." I asked him what was so terrible about saying, "So-and-so and me"? He said he never thought about it. And I said, "START THINKING!!"

Bob and I went to the meeting. (Would you say "Myself went to the meeting?" No)

The books belong to Bob and me. (Would you say "The books belong to myself?" No. At least I hope not.)

Why is that so difficult to understand?? 

Irregardless. It's not a word. It's not. A supervisor from the paper plant  used to say that all the time. One night, we were sitting out in the smoking gazebo (we were working third shift and it was around 2:30 in the morning) and he was talking to me about something. And he said, "Irregardless.....". I said, "Jim, stop saying that. It's not a word. And you make me crazy every time you say it. Just say 'regardless' and be done with it." He honestly didn't know. About a year or so later, he told me that he never used the word again. Every time he wanted to, he thought about me telling him to stop it. 

Libary, for library.



It's like go visit one and learn!

Willowy said:

Now what's wrong with dewormed? I think that's a correct usage. Vets say it. The bottle of dewormer says it. It's more technically correct (de-worming would be removing worms, yes? If you "wormed" your pet, wouldn't that be putting worms in them?

). But I agree about spaded and dethawed though. Dethawed doesn't even make sense; if you de-thawed it, wouldn't that be freezing it?

And it particularly annoys me when people say they had a male pet spaded. Um no. Wrong on 2 counts

.

Your/you're. Someone texted me today "Your doing great!". Ergh.

Misplaced apostrophes. No, you are not selling apple's. Especially bad when used by people who should know better. I saw a note from my nephew's teacher with several misspellings and misplaced apostrophes. I don't know what they're teaching them in college.

Misuse of "I" because they think it sounds smarter. "The boss met with Mark and I". No. And misuse of "myself" is even worse! "The boss met with Mark and myself". No! It's not wrong to say "me" sometimes.

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The correct term is "wormed." Common usage doesn't make it correct.

Chromium Blues said:

 
The correct term is "wormed." Common usage doesn't make it correct.

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Interesting tidbit: Sometimes common usage DOES make it correct over time. 

There are a lot of words that are said incorrectly or thought to mean something different, that are now considered correct. Classic example is: I'm loving it. You can't be lovING it. You either love it or not. English is an ever-changing (and frustrating) language. 

But, yeah, I didn't know the original/correct term was wormed! I'm guessing people got confused since wormed sounds like the opposite of what the word's intention is. 

I can't find anything that says the correct term is "wormed" :dk:. Maybe it's a British/Canadian thing? It seems pretty counter-intuitive. I guess I never thought about it one way or the other.

Hehe, yeah, libary (I can only think of a kid's sketch show I used to watch---one sketch had a librarian who would scream "Be quiet! This is a libary!" every time someone so much as sniffled :tongue2 or Sarady for Saturday. I won't say those make me crazy, I just find them mildly amusing.

Nuclear. When people say it noocular, I tell them they sound like Dubya. (G.W. Bush)

Medical terminology. Larynx is pronounced lair-rinks, not lar-necks.   It's an end-oscopy, not an endo-scoppy.  And someone is not "a" diabetic; they're diabetic.   I don't correct anyone, though.  There are probably plenty of words I mispronounce, too.  And catspaw66, I beg of you, please don't tell me I sound like Dubya, even if I do.    

Oh my, plenty of rants from me! 

Your/you're and they're/their/there. I am really curious how this is such a common thing.

Even worse is "should of/could of/would of". Huh? 

Literally. It is now considered "cool" to insert "literally" into sentences, and they make zero sense. "I literally died laughing". Good for you, I hope you find a nice grave site to be buried in. "I literally rolled on the floor laughing". Unless I see a video of you doing that, you did not laugh while you rolled on the floor like a rolling pin. "I literally cannot believe she said that". As opposed to, what, figuratively disbelieving? That doesn't even make sense. "I literally made dinner". What else does "make dinner" mean?

These are the ones that really rile me up. When I see someone consistently misusing them, I immediately skip over everything they typed. I can't help it. I think it causes me physical pain to read them. 

Winchester said:

Bob and I went to the meeting. (Would you say "Myself went to the meeting?" No)

The books belong to Bob and me. (Would you say "The books belong to myself?" No. At least I hope not.)

Why is that so difficult to understand?? 

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I don't think I've heard these before, but I have heard the opposite one: "Me and my friend went to the party."

No, it's "My friend and I went to the party."

It's easy to figure out. Break the sentences into their roots and see if they make sense.

My friend went to the party.

I went to the party.

Therefore, my friend and I went to the party.

The books belong to Bob.

The books belong to me.

Therefore, the books belong to Bob and me.

FhiCat said:

 
Literally. It is now considered "cool" to insert "literally" into sentences, and they make zero sense. "I literally died laughing". Good for you, I hope you find a nice grave site to be buried in. "I literally rolled on the floor laughing". Unless I see a video of you doing that, you did not laugh while you rolled on the floor like a rolling pin. "I literally cannot believe she said that". As opposed to, what, figuratively disbelieving? That doesn't even make sense. "I literally made dinner". What else does "make dinner" mean?

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I literally cracked up reading that.        Okay, not "literally".   

My biggest bugbear is the misuse of psychiatric terminology. I think the most common one is 'psychotic'. Psychosis is a serious and frightening condition - both for the sufferer and the people around them. A lot of terms are misused though. It bugs me because it devalues those who are genuinely mentally ill. There's enough misunderstanding, discrimination and downright predjudice around the subject without adding to it.

I also hate most of the grammatical, language and pronunciation errors already listed too. I guess I'm not a very tolerant person :lol3:

nurseangel said:

And catspaw66, I beg of you, please don't tell me I sound like Dubya, even if I do.    

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For you, I will let it slide past.