I notice misspellings and errant apostrophes, commas, and quotations (any reason there were two set of quotes around "even so" in the slide for "Peace Like a River" Sunday morning?) I don't think any less of the person utilizing the language, I just notice. Sometimes I notice and wonder if they are right, or the way I would do it is right and think to myself to look it up. Sometimes -- like in the first sentence in this paragraph -- I wonder if anything I have written is right. As a general rule, I don't think most of the blatant errors are a lack of intellect or education, but more of a lack of attention or thought. Saying all of this I realize full well all of the other lingual snobs (and you know who you are) will comment to tell me all of the mistakes I have not only in this post, but in the 12 previous.
I saw one recently that I simply can't get out of my head. Mainly because I need the person to explain to me how it makes sense in her head. I wandered onto a message board on the internet recently. A medical student posted that her clothing budget was really helped out because an old roommate gifted her with hammy downs. Yes, that's how she spelled hand-me-downs: hammy downs. No quotes around it to make me think that she knows that it's incorrect, but that's the way her family always writes it. No explanation of why they might be hammy -- do they come wrapped in some type of pork? Four different times she used the phrase "hammy downs." I began to wonder if she had dropped her Sunday lunch and it was hammy down.
This brings to mind one of my favorite quotes:
"We've all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true." Robert Wilensky
15 comments:
But you've promised that you overlook mine, right? It makes me a little paranoid to think about you corrreccting everyintheg!
That sort of thing puzzles me, too. For instance, I've seen people say, "For all intensive purposes." Huh? You mean "for all intents and purposes?"
I can't help myself. I notice. I wonder.
I see the mistakes too but I make them just as often.
No, you're not a snob. Rather, you're a well-educated person who CARES about proper word usage. From my geezer standpoint, I can see that the English language is going down hill - not merely steadily but rapidly. Every single day of my life I hear some slob say "me and him did something". The utter lack of knowledge of proper use of personal pronouns is absolutely appalling. It's up to people who care to do what we can.
An episode of Night Court dealt with this issue (about the only thing I remember from that show). One character, in normal conversation with another, used the phrase "for all intensive purposes". A battle over correct wordage followed.
Oh great--don't look too closely at mine...
My biggest pet peeve is when people say "theirselves." 2nd biggest is "Wal MartS." Ugh.
When we were at church and the words of the songs on the screen had the two sets of quotes, you were the first thought that popped into my head. Your thoroughness (is that a word?) has seeped into my brain. I then wondered if the two sets of quotes were actually an inclusion inside another quote, so I kept an eye out for the end quotes somewhere else, but they never appeared.
I know what you means. ;)
My biggest pet peeve is people that don't spell check. I may not always know where to put a comma, but I can at least push the button that checks for spelling! I see papers from my students that have the wrong words (our instead of out) all of the time. I often ask if they looked at their papers after they typed them! A little proofreading goes a long way!
The sad truth is probably that this person probably has no idea that the term "hammy downs" is supposed to be "hand-me-downs". I knew several people, especially on the island, who used phrases they did not understand, only to learn later that they were saying the phrase incorretly all along.
I'm reminded of an episode of Friends where ne character talks about a "'moo' point" (as opposed to a moot point).
Now I am going to lay in bed at night and wonder what mistakes I made that you will catch in my blogging! :)
hi there! i took your suggestion and followed you from my brother's (i.e. matt e.) blog. good conversation here!
it wasn't until i was in high school that i realized that the "thing" in your bedroom where you put your clothes in was actually a "chest of drawers" - my grandma had always called them "chester drawers" and so did i. she also called a refrigerator a "frigidare" - kind of like how we all refer to "xeroxing" a paper...
probably my most embarrassing moment around linguistics has to be when, fresh out of graduate school and fancying myself an intellect of some persuasion, i was talking to a colleague (an English prof) about a gal I'd seen on t.v. i said "...and she just looked so gaunt and emancipated..." at that point my dear friend broke in and quietly said..."uh, anj...i think you mean EMACIATED?". my face is red...i stand corrected!
thanks for the invite.
anj
Yet another snob here.
It is to annoying when people can not even put too words together too create a sentence.
Some of my western Oklahoma family used to talk about "old-timers" disease referring to Alzheimers.
Then there are the foreign words that create so many spelling FO-PAWS. I know it's bordering on a CLESHAY to say this, but when one of you correct my writing, I will just have to shout, "TWO-SHAY!"
I'm new here, but I couldn't resist commenting --
My pet peeve is when people -- even reputable publications! -- can't get "it's" and "its" right. "It's" is of course, always a contraction and "its" is the possessive for "it" like "The dog wagged its tail." But I'm sure you guys know that. :)
I think "Hammy Downs" is the place where you go to bet on the pig races.
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