I often see printed words which make me cringe.
Being exceedingly old but still of very sound mind and having studied English and Use of English to A level standard, I find there are some words I cannot stand.
This is one of my pet hates :
Wanna !
-What does it mean? Why use it instead of the correct ‘Want To’ ,?
-Does it save ink, a microsecond in the life of a gel finger nail?
-Was it written by a 15 year old for a teenage audience ?
Anyone else have any hated words or phrases (don’t please get me started on ‘should of ! ) ?
“Y’all” is the one for me. I cannot for the life of me stand it at all!. I used to watch a couple of American card makers and in the end I stopped, as “y’all” is every other word they said. I really hope it will not become popular here, it really gets in my nerves
I’m afraid I’m a stickler for ‘proper English’ even in texts and WhatsApp messages. A family member sends me messages asking “r u2 OK? “ and I have to bite my tongue!
I dictate the majority of the text messages that I send to my friends and family. There have been some amazing amazing bloopers but they all know what I mean.
They are used to it now and just read between the lines!
I actually just dictated this. You can see that it put amazing twice there! I would normally just go back and edit that bit out. I’m leaving it there so you can see what can sometimes happen.
If I do not enunciate properly, it sometimes types gonna instead of going to and wanna instead of want to.
Today, I sent my friend a dictated message and I was talking about a cowgirl outfit I had as a kid. The message that I actually sent said ‘coy girl’’ outfit! Something quite different.
Even though it’s sometimes grammatically incorrect and very often doesn’t make complete sense, I keep dictating messages because it saves me so much time and the errors amuse me
I do dictate my Instagram posts too but I usually proof read before posting. That doesn’t mean the odd clanger doesn’t sneak in though.
“C u 2m”, “spk lata”, “sumfin” are only a few examples of my husband’s writing on WhatsApp. At the start, I sometimes had to put on google his message to find out what he meant. He is dreadful for that, but when I ask him to help me with my descriptions, (English is not my first language so I get stuck sometimes), he actually sounds like an AI, or even worse, with fancy words and rhymes. You wouldn’t think it is the same person
I agree with Sue @SueTrevor …I hate Americanisms …particularly Math and someone saying “I have knit something”
I also wonder why when we say maths, if there should be an apostrophe…as surely it is short for mathematics, so should it technically be math’s?..
Also, why isn’t “won’t” , Willn’t ?? …it is short for “will not” and not “wo not” isn’t it? ha ha.
it is “maths” because is in plural, not “math’s” because it belongs to math. It comes from the Greek “mathematics” which means in very simple terms “everything mathematical”. This is how we use the term (mathematics) in Greek when speaking for “all things mathematical”. You would use it in singular form more as an adjective, e.g. “He has a very good mathematical knowledge”, “mathematical brain” “mathematical symbols” etc. Hope it helps x
I’ve no particular example but I loathe mistakes in published material, such as newspapers. There is NO excuse. Standards have slipped and, especially on local papers, a sad grasp of written communication, spelling and grammar, as well as the ability to construct a coherent sentence, tells me how little the author and editor must read. It’s pitiful.
I have to say I rather like ‘y’all’ - UK English has mostly lost its 2nd person plural apart from the Scouse and Scots ‘youse’. I’d much rather have ‘y’all’ than ‘you guys’ anyway!
As a former proofreader I admit I do cringe a bit at some of the written things I come across! Although it also feels liberating to throw the rules out of the window occasionally and use constructions that are ungrammatical, at least in my (admittedly very old) book. My favourite is ‘because [noun]’ and so long as the meaning is clear, why not? I also love the American ‘that was SO FUN’ and have adopted the word ‘yeet’ and its past participle ‘yote’. Because reasons
) ?
