Jump to content
Linguaholic

Misuse/Abuse of words - That is So Wrong!


Recommended Posts

One of my friends consistently writes dosen't instead of doesn't.

She is a native speaker of English and has completed full secondary education, and some form of tertiary education, so I do not really understand how that came about.

When I first noticed, I pointed it out to her but she remained adamant: in her view, it is the right way to spell doesn't ...

She is a speaker of Caribbean English. Could that be the reason?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes most people fail to consider checking their grammar. For me normal people who are not highly educated are okay to make these kinds of mistakes but for professionals who think they're intelligent and who misuse words and have terrible grammar, that's when I get annoyed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A common thing in the South Eastern USA is to add "s" to the end of department stores.  So instead of "I'm going to Barnes and Noble" it's "Noble's".  Same for any and every other store.  AAAhhhhHHHH!!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One popular author who has sold an enormous number of books despite his frequent inability to use the English language correctly is Dan Brown (the Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons, Inferno and other block-busters). If you search online you will find many critiques of his novels that point out his misuse of many common words and phrases, in addition to his overdone descriptions, apparent misinterpretation of accepted historical facts and theories, and frequent lack of fact-checking, period.

To me, his books read as if they were published before being edited, but that doesn't seem to have hurt his sales, and he does (like J.K. Rowling, who does, in contrast, know how to write) deserve some credit for getting a lot of people to read books at all.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A phrase which I always find irritating when it is said incorrectly is 'to all intents and purposes'. Many people think it is 'to all intensive purposes' which just lacks meaning. I'm from the UK, if this makes any difference.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"Irregardless Used by people who ignorantly mean to say regardless. According to webster, it is a word, but since the prefix "ir" and the suffx "less" both mean "not or with" they cancel each other out, so what you end up with is regard. When you use this to try to say you don't care about something, you end up saying that you do. Of course everyone knows what you mean to say and only a pompous,rude asshole will correct you."

This made me laugh. In all honesty, I've never heard someone use the word "Irregardless", but as soon as I read it on this page, I knew there was something wrong. It's like double negatives in one word, like "Never don't" and "Don't have none". I am a grammar fanatic and things like these just.. bother me.

UGH.

:angry:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In America, I hear irregardless all the time.  It is so often misused I think it keeps getting passed around and it sounds familiar.  It bothers me too each time I hear it.  If you do bring it up, often you will end up in a debate so I usually grit my teeth and ignore it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

"For all intensive purposes" and "could care less" drive me crazy. The first one is a mispronunciation that somehow became a typo complete rubbish phrase, I can maybe understand the mispronunciation but not the spelling change, that just doesn't make sense! Unless you're talking about something that is meant to used rigorously. The second one just means that you could actually care less, in other words you actually care about whatever it is that you are trying to say you do not care about. Arrrgh.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am arriving late to this discussion, but still answering to the first post I have to say that TV love to invent new words, they probably think they are entitled to it or simply they don't know better and they cause a lot of impact because they say it on TV.

Fluffy, could care less meaning could not care less right? Yep, it's a total different meaning!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I cannot stand it when words are purposely mispelt. Like "coolz" instead of cools. I find myself wanting to correct the error also I dont think its helpful to children.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...