Comments on: Creatively Speaking: June Casagrande

By: nick

nick — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 18:02:19 +0000

what about people that , instead of saying ‘have you ever’ just choose to say ‘ever’? they are the worst.

By: Lindsey

Lindsey — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 15:37:50 +0000

This is probably more of a pronunciation thing than a grammar thing, but lately I’ve heard the word “spiel” pronounced “spill” a lot lately.

Why must we mess with the Yiddish?

By: Cat

Cat — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 17:54:09 +0000

To expand on the incorrect phrases thread, I remember in high school when my friend explained to me how “all intents and purposes” is the only correct form of the phrase. “All intensive purposes” is not.

In addition, being from the South, we all say the phrase “a-whole-nother,” which I have tried to take the effort to avoid. But “another whole” is just not southern enough, y’all.

By: Celeste M.

Celeste M. — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 02:48:26 +0000

michael – I’m the same way anytime someone writes the (incorrect) phrases “to make due” or “so-and-so wasn’t phased” (among others). It’s not just the misspelling that bothers me, it’s the fact that it’s obvious the person doesn’t understand what the phrase actually means but is just parroting its use in a particular situation.

By: Pointy-Hatted Geek

Pointy-Hatted Geek — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 19:57:22 +0000

jimmywags-

I thought the exact same thing.

By: michael

michael — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 17:37:20 +0000

I die a little inside every time homophones are written incorrectly. I had a previous boss who ALWAYS wrote in emails “it only makes since to do it this way”. It drove me insane and I got to where I would talk to other employees and say “does that make any s i n c e?” and have to verbally spell it out real quickly like it was a new word. I’ve always wondered if he spelled it the other way when it would represent a delineation of time…I never had the opportunity to witness though. I had something else to mention, but have long sense forgotten. Oh well.

By: BassMan

BassMan — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 17:33:09 +0000

Richard Lederer is, by far, the most sensible and realistic linguist out there.
Language grows by being open to new words and new constructions. This is what has made English the modern lingua franca. It has also made it the greatest language for word games and expression.
On the other hand you can’t just go adopting new ways of speaking willy-nilly. There remains an informal vetting process to weed out the garbage. Without it communication would be made more difficult.
There is still no excuse for the OED adopting “bling.”

By: jimmywags

jimmywags — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 14:50:40 +0000

Sweet post.

Now I’m going to be a typographical snob. In June’s second-to-last response, the hyphen should go after the prefixes rather than before; “bi-” instead of ”-bi”.

By: nutmeag

nutmeag — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 14:40:45 +0000

I’m glad someone else is interested in making a law over the bi/semi thing. When it’s used, people always have to ask for clarification. Why not just be as clear as possible from the beginning. We should start a petition . . .