Poll: The Misuse of English

[RanD00M]

... I asked for examples dumbass, I wasn't flaming about how language evolves...

Don't use personal attacks against others.It is a big no-no.And he was just stating his opinion of the English language and the way that it is evolving.If you don't like what someone says,just ignore it.But don't go off and call him/her a dumbass.

 

[Sebenko]

Verbing nouns is common practice where I'm from.

I'll verb your noun!

But yeah, some "modifications" to language are very irritating.

 

[Capt. Crankypants]

Get used to it.

Ahh yes! My thanks.. "get used to it" a great example of one being trumpt up; thinking yourself above others and displaying an air of grandeur. Yes.. "get used to it" the ability to show your disagreement without supporting arguements. Indeed "get used to it"... I asked for examples dumbass, I wasn't flaming about how language evolves... read past the first paragraph.

Hehe, I like you already Tadd.

O.T. I like my English just how it is, and 'gangsta' or any other mutilation of the language can bite the big one. One of my most hated? "Word", or "say word".

 

[kingcom]

In my field of work as a translator, I often come across a great deal vocabulary, sayings, idioms, expressions and proverbs that are quite difficult to change from English to Chinese and vice-versa. Over here in China I've made several American friends and I often find myself enjoying and musing on the adaptation of how the English language has... (for lack of a better word) "evolved".

BUT, there are just some evolutions of the English language that are simply wrong.. wrong, wrong wrong. When I hear them, I end up gritting my teeth in frustration or biting my tongue to stop myself from correcting and coming across as a pompous asshole... examples:

"I could care less". What they are trying to say: "I couldn't care less".
"I could care less" means that you COULD care less!!! So, in that light it shows that you possibly care! By saying "I couldn't" it means you really have no care at all and it's impossible for you to care any less.

Well actually when you say "i chould care less" you are being sarcastic in saying that you care. So it makes complete sense.

 

[Nikolaz72]

... I asked for examples dumbass, I wasn't flaming about how language evolves...

Don't use personal attacks against others.It is a big no-no.And he was just stating his opinion of the English language and the way that it is evolving.If you don't like what someone says,just ignore it.But don't go off and call him/her a dumbass.

'

I say that this person came up with quite the thread so he wouldnt be the only one to be a bit pissed if the first post was half-arsed noneffort from a guy that obviously didnt really care for it.

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

It's not so much a misuse of the language (such as verbs as nouns, etc) but it does annoy me: people who put 'izzle' at the end of words. I'm pretty sure it started out as an easy way for lazy rappers to rhyme (surely the only thing they have to do, they sure as hell don't write the music!), but now half the bloody world is doing it.

Oh yeah, and chavs with their constant uttering of 'innit'. Although I'm less sure that this is a misuse of the English language - I'm fairly certain it's just some new kind of nervous twitch.

 

[Smilas]

I hate it when people confuse 'you're,' 'your,' 'their' and 'they're'
IT PISSES ME OFF GODDAMNIT.

Not everyone on the forum has English as their first language...

 

[siebje]

OT: I definately agree with the could/couldn't care thing.

People spelling "definitely" with an 'a'.

 

[Inarticulate_Underachiever]

When people use fail instead of failure.

 

[Smilas]

I hate it when people confuse 'you're,' 'your,' 'their' and 'they're'
IT PISSES ME OFF GODDAMNIT.

Not everyone on the forum has English as their first language...

Non-native English speakers very rarely make that particular mistake, because they mostly work with text and pay attention to spelling of such basic words.

Might be true.

Anyway i think it's lousy to get pissed by that :--) I rarely recognize if people make such a mistake, i just read on.

 

[Smilas]

I hate it when people confuse 'you're,' 'your,' 'their' and 'they're'
IT PISSES ME OFF GODDAMNIT.

Not everyone on the forum has English as their first language...

I know but most browsers these days have a built in spell checker...

Yeah, but a spell checker wont edit gramma fails

 

[Eleuthera]

OT: I definately agree with the could/couldn't care thing.

People spelling "definitely" with an 'a'.

What? Like dafanatala?

Yes, I know I did that wrong, I can't seem to get my brain to accept the correct spelling. At least at home the spell checker fixes it...

 

[siebje]

Oh, and U.S. english in general.

There is a difference between "practice" and "practise" you lazy bastards
The same goes for all words ending in -ize (recognize vs recognise).
What is the fascination with the 'z'?

edit: and "color". Ugh, there is a 'u' in colour guys
edit2: I may have estranged many a person with this comment.
Ah, who am I kidding, nobody reads language threads.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

snip

I also can't keep myself from exaggerating, so while I wouldn't use "conflagration" in such a situation, I do use the (in my opinion) most appropriate word for whatever it is I'm trying to say, and more often than not that means using "a rare and long word".

Entirely fair point, accepted.

As for US english, while I don't have a problem with pract-ise-ice, or ized/ised, I personally prefer to see a u in colour,flavour, etc, it's just glaringly wrong to me, when I see it on US food packages.

Then I find myself in agreement with both Americans and Eddie Izzard on 'thru' (and tho, if that's US and not just lazy net speak), where on earth did we get 'through' from?

It's a crazy spelling of a simple word, and just makes teaching english a nightmare, through,though,bough,rough,cough, all spelled similarly yet all sounding different, with no real 'rule' to make learning them easier.

 

[siebje]

And to preempt any comment about ending a sentence in an emoticon:

I find that ending a sentence with "lazy bastards" makes it sound hostile, even when it's meant as a harmless playful nickname. Hence the emoticon.

 

[siebje]

It's a crazy spelling of a simple word, and just makes teaching english a nightmare, through,though,bough,rough,cough, all spelled similarly yet all sounding different, with no real 'rule' to make learning them easier.

Someone once told me you might just as well spell "fish" as "ghoti":
"gh" as in "tough", "o" as in "women", and "ti" as in "nation".

 

[headphonegirl]

I hate walking past chavs and chavettes and hearing them butcher the English language.

I agree, it's really annoying.

 

[boholikeu]

In my field of work as a translator, I often come across a great deal vocabulary, sayings, idioms, expressions and proverbs that are quite difficult to change from English to Chinese and vice-versa. Over here in China I've made several American friends and I often find myself enjoying and musing on the adaptation of how the English language has... (for lack of a better word) "evolved".

BUT, there are just some evolutions of the English language that are simply wrong.. wrong, wrong wrong. When I hear them, I end up gritting my teeth in frustration or biting my tongue to stop myself from correcting and coming across as a pompous asshole... examples:

"I could care less". What they are trying to say: "I couldn't care less".
"I could care less" means that you COULD care less!!! So, in that light it shows that you possibly care! By saying "I couldn't" it means you really have no care at all and it's impossible for you to care any less.

Smth is "whack". What they are trying to say: "Terrible" "Bad" "Out of order" etc
Whack is a verb.. what idiot made it a noun?

So... is there any misuse of English that drives you up the wall? Any words used in the wrong context that makes you want to scratch somebody's eyes out? I'd love to hear your examples so I can make a nice collection of them.

Since you're a translator I'm assuming you took at least one course in linguistics. In that class you would've learned that all evolutions of a language are "correct" so long as the receiving party still understands the speaker's meaning. This holds true for any phrase, no matter how illogical (I could care less) or irritating (whack) that phrase may be.

Also, I'm sure someone already pointed this out, but "whack" is still not a noun. In the example you give above it acts as an adjective.