Lingusitics Language fails that make you angry

[Dembadon]

I wish we could get rid of a few more noun-to-verb conversions, such as "to gift."

My signature!
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[zoobyshoe]

Not really. You don't say I's, you's, he's, she's, we's, or they's either. Possessive for pronouns never followed the apostrophe-s rule.

Because all the other pronouns have a distinct genitive form. "It" doesn't. "Its" is a fake genitive, adopted just to distinguish it from the contraction "it's".

 

[zoobyshoe]

My biggest peeve is spelling not grammar. Specifically, US computer programmers writing spell checkers, who think British English words end in -ise not -ize. They should check the Oxford English Dictionary some time. The "-ize" spelling goes back hundreds of years in the UK, apart from a few exceptions.

You ought to write a British English spell check program and sell it over there.

 

[zoobyshoe]

A word that irritated me when first here was 'awesome!' Vivid and witty first time, then becomes a tiresome cliché that devalues a word. However I think it has worn off now and seems not to be heard so often.

There's always a current word for what is meant by "awesome". When I was a kid it was "groovy". Any remotely positive reaction was rendered as "groovy". There have been a few others in the years in between. "Fly" and "phat" didn't have such long runs. I can't think of the others.

 

[turbo]

There have been others, but groovy was a good one.

 

[Ben Niehoff]

The apostrophe s was originally an abbreviation for "his", i.e "John his book" (or more likely "John hys boke") became "John's book". But I don't think a book was ever described by saying "it his cover is red".

This is a common myth, invented in the 17th or 18th century. It is completely false.

The -s ending for the genitive has been around for thousands of years, and has cognates in Germanic, Norse, Latin (Old Latin, as in pater familias), Sanskrit and Proto-Indo-European.

There is no good reason for the possessive case to have an apostrophe at all. Genitives in German add -s with no apostrophe, and there is no difficulty understanding the meaning. Perhaps in English we have become too uncomfortable with case endings, so we pretend we don't actually have them.

 

[lisab]

There's always a current word for what is meant by "awesome". When I was a kid it was "groovy". Any remotely positive reaction was rendered as "groovy". There have been a few others in the years in between. "Fly" and "phat" didn't have such long runs. I can't think of the others.

Bad. Sick. Trick. Wicked.

 

[turbo]

Boss and Cool had good runs in certain circles.

 

[DaveC426913]

Wicked.

Oh god. My kids were wicked this and wicked that for years...

 

[turbo]

Wicked had a long solid run in Maine, and is still current in some areas. "Wicked Good" is still really popular when describing food, music, or other intangibles when words fail.

 

[1MileCrash]

Every time my roommate says "supposably," I kill one of his siblings.

 

[Evo]

Good things were "cool" or "fine", as in "she's so fine", far out.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Bad. Sick. Trick. Wicked.

Boss and Cool had good runs in certain circles.

Good things were "cool" or "fine", as in "she's so fine", far out.

Yeah, these.

Growing up in NH, we used "wicked" more as a modifier meaning "extremely" : "It was wicked cool!", "That's a wicked fast car!" I still use it that way sometimes.

 

[Ben Niehoff]

Has "hella" spread beyond California yet?

 

[zoobyshoe]

Has "hella" spread beyond California yet?

Yeah, "hella". I didn't start hearing that till about 4 months ago. How far has it gone?

 

[epenguin]

There's always a current word for what is meant by "awesome". When I was a kid it was "groovy". Any remotely positive reaction was rendered as "groovy". There have been a few others in the years in between. "Fly" and "phat" didn't have such long runs. I can't think of the others.

There have been others, but groovy was a good one.

Bad. Sick. Trick. Wicked.

Boss and Cool had good runs in certain circles.

Good things were "cool" or "fine", as in "she's so fine", far out.

Now this all reminds me that in English English 'magic' had a run not long ago.
There is another recent one struggling to get out of the back of my mind, I will let you know when it escapes.
Which in turn reminds me that 'struggle' is another recent one - anything you doubt, disagree with etc, you 'struggle' to see.

 

[Chi Meson]

Bad. Sick. Trick. Wicked.

Wicked had a long solid run in Maine, and is still current in some areas. "Wicked Good" is still really popular when describing food, music, or other intangibles when words fail.

Yeah, these.

Growing up in NH, we used "wicked" more as a modifier meaning "extremely" : "It was wicked cool!", "That's a wicked fast car!" I still use it that way sometimes.

I was going to say, "Wicked," properly used is a New England, or more specifically, a Boston thing. It's a set part of the vernacular in the way Zooby describes it, not passing, but multigenerational.

Moving to another idiom, during the 80s, did anyone else experience the term "FACE!" of "FACIAL!" which was then the equivalent of today's "OWNED!" or even "PWNED!"

 

[Fredrik]

The one that really used to bug me is its vs. it's. Now I've become numb to it.

I think this is usually a typo. It is when I do it.

 

[Saladsamurai]

Yeah, "hella". I didn't start hearing that till about 4 months ago. How far has it gone?

I'm in Massachusetts and hear it a lot. I'd like to uppercut the person who sent "stoked" our way. I mean, seriously brah?

 

[turbo]

Hella-good is still around up here, but is fading. Wicked-good is still pretty strong.

Of course we still have dump-ducks (seagulls) and swamp-donkeys (moose) scattered through the vocabulary, but mostly in rural areas, or in the routines of comics that want to pretend to be rural Mainers.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

You left out keen and kiewl (mispronounciation of cool).

 

[turbo]

Very regionalized... "Don't that nice!" instead of ain't that nice or similar. You've got to live in the woods up here to pick up some of these.

 

[Dembadon]

Yeah, "hella". I didn't start hearing that till about 4 months ago. How far has it gone?

Four months ago!?

People started saying that when I was in middle school¹ (late '90s).

¹ Northern California

 

[FtlIsAwesome]

A word that irritated me when first here was 'awesome!' Vivid and witty first time, then becomes a tiresome cliché that devalues a word. However I think it has worn off now and seems not to be heard so often.

*points to username*

 

[Ben Niehoff]

Four months ago!?

People started saying that when I was in middle school¹ (late '90s).

¹ Northern California

Nobody in SoCal says "hella", by the way, unless they're recent transplants.

 

[Dembadon]

Nobody in SoCal says "hella", by the way, unless they're recent transplants.

"Hella tight," or even "tight" by itself, made me doubt our species' ability to survive for much longer. It sounds absolutely ridiculous.

 

[dacruick]

"Hella tight," or even "tight" by itself, made me doubt our species' ability to survive for much longer. It sounds absolutely ridiculous.

I'm 21 and from the mean streets of Toronto so all of this slang is pretty normal to me. I can see easily how it might sound absolutely ridiculous but I'll take the stance that it's just efficient language that "all yall are trippin' on". #Haters

 

[zoobyshoe]

I was going to say, "Wicked," properly used is a New England, or more specifically, a Boston thing. It's a set part of the vernacular in the way Zooby describes it, not passing, but multigenerational.

This makes sense. Someone pegged me as an East Coaster last year when I blurted it out.

Moving to another idiom, during the 80s, did anyone else experience the term "FACE!" of "FACIAL!" which was then the equivalent of today's "OWNED!" or even "PWNED!"

I never heard this one. "Own", I was aware of.

Four months ago!?

People started saying that when I was in middle school¹ (late '90s).

¹ Northern California

Nobody in SoCal says "hella", by the way, unless they're recent transplants.

Seriously, I just started hearing some of the younger people I know start using "hella" about four months ago (in San Diego). They're not transplants and I'd never heard the expression before. It could be they picked it up from transplants, or that it was brought back from a trip North.

 

[Ben Niehoff]

Oh, maybe it's picking up in SoCal, then. I live in LA, I hardly ever hear it...but then again, I'm a physics grad student, so I stay in my cave most of the time.

 

[Fredrik]

Seriously, I just started hearing some of the younger people I know start using "hella" about four months ago (in San Diego). They're not transplants and I'd never heard the expression before. It could be they picked it up from transplants, or that it was brought back from a trip North.

Maybe they just watched the episode of South Park where Eric Cartman uses it a lot (and his friends find it annoying).

 

[zoobyshoe]

Maybe they just watched the episode of South Park where Eric Cartman uses it a lot (and his friends find it annoying).

That would explain it. I think the people I'm speaking of are no strangers to South Park.

 

[epenguin]

There is another recent one struggling to get out of the back of my mind, I will let you know when it escapes.

It jumped out.

Ace!

 

[Pythagorean]

When people use fail as an event, instead of failure; it's even harder to read when it's plural.

 

[Fredrik]

Doesn't the new usage of "fail" give it a different meaning than before? I would guess that it's used almost exclusively for public failures.

If you put on your T-shirt backwards, you have failed, and it's a failure, but if you correct it before anyone sees it, it's not a "fail". I actually like the idea of using "fail" to mean "a failure documented for the world to see".

 

[Ben Niehoff]

I see "fail" (in the context of Fredrik's pic) as a deliberately ungrammatical joke, along the lines of "I can has cheezburger" and "I know that feel, bro". I think the vast majority of people exclaiming "fail" are aware that it is not correct to use it that way, and in fact this is part of the joke. I would not say such a phenomenon has entered common usage yet as an acceptable grammatical construction.

 

[DaveC426913]

I would agree with Fredrik. Fail as a noun is a new word with a distinct meaning. It is not a misuse of an existing word; it is the evolution of a new use of the word.

Failing a math test is not "a fail". They're different.

Evolution of the language (as opposed to mere mangling of it) is an inevitable and noble principle.

 

[Fredrik]

Evolution of the language (as opposed to mere mangling of it) is an inevitable and noble principle.

Unfortunately it sometimes evolves through mere mangling. I've been told that it's now considered acceptable to pronounce nuclear "nucular". I blame George W. Bush and Jack Bauer.

 

[dacruick]

I've been told that it's now considered acceptable to pronounce nuclear "nucular".

Someone lied to you!

...I hope

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

Best I can tell it's supposed to be nukier. Watch at about 2:05.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhwBLE2bpnw

 

[Fredrik]

Turns out there's a Wikipedia page titled Nucular, that quotes several dictionaries, and also mentions both George W. Bush and Jack Bauer.

Dictionary.com appears to be saying that the "nucular" pronunciation is OK "by metathesis". Apparently that means to change the order of sounds. That doesn't make sense to me, since the dumb pronunciation adds a "you" sound.

 

[Galteeth]

"Fail" is a perfectly cromulent word.

 

[Ben Niehoff]

Metathesis is a pretty common linguistic process. It created the modern English words "bird" and "bright" from "brid" and "beorht". Probably lots of other examples, too.

I wonder if the people who invented these pronunciations a thousand years ago were personalities similar to G.W. Bush or Homer Simpson...

 

[Fredrik]

Turns out that the picture I linked to is a fake. Not surprising when you think about it. It's a real screenshot, but the question asked for another name for the trachea. She answered it correctly and won 32000 GBP.

 

[DaveC426913]

Unfortunately it sometimes evolves through mere mangling. I've been told that it's now considered acceptable to pronounce nuclear "nucular". I blame George W. Bush and Jack Bauer.

Agreed. Which is why I was making a distinction between evolution for the efficacy of the language (to express a new idea), and mere sloppiness.

 

[Char. Limit]

Jumping into this thread after reading just the first post!

I really hate it when people misspell words like "socialize" and "aluminum". They do it ALL THE TIME. Don't you guys just hate that?

 

[KingNothing]

Among the people I hang out with, "fail" is really, really commonly used as a noun. It's probably a generational thing. I notice a lot of people around 18-25 use it that way.

I think I get most annoyed by words being mispronounced when a person could easily sound them out by looking at them. Jewelry, nuclear, "etc.".

 

[Evo]

Agreed. Which is why I was making a distinction between evolution for the efficacy of the language (to express a new idea), and mere sloppiness.

This reminds me of an episode of I Love Lucy where she is pregnant and decides that she and Ricky should learn proper English, so she hires a tutor.

The tutor tells her that there are two words she should never use, one of them is swell and the other one is lousy. So she tells him to tell her the lousy one first.

 

[Char. Limit]

Among the people I hang out with, "fail" is really, really commonly used as a noun. It's probably a generational thing. I notice a lot of people around 18-25 use it that way.

*Looks at post*

*Looks at identity of original poster*

*looks at thread title*

You're trolling, right?

 

[Pythagorean]

Char limit, you missed the part where I was heckling him. He was justifying his use in the title, not saying it makes him angry.

KingNothing, I was just heckling, I'm really not that picky about English use as long as I can understand the message.

 

[KingNothing]

I wasn't bothered. If anything it puts it into perspective - we all probably unknowingly do things that bug others. I never said such annoyances were rational. :)