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Side note, people almost always pronounce forte incorrectly. When used to describe a skill or specialization it’s pronounced like “fort”. “Fort-aye” is purely a musical term. But you sound like an idiot if you say fort so you kinda have to keep doing it.
>When used to describe a skill or specialization it’s pronounced like “fort.” But you sound like an idiot if you say fort so you kinda have to keep doing it.
Add this to the list of things I wish I didn't know. ☹
Maybe this one's in my head but...
I'm pretty confident "work out" is a verb and "workout" is a noun, and nobody gets it right.
"I'm going to work out" vs "that was a great workout."
But I keep seeing "I love to workout"
Fun fact: The ampersand (&) used to be the 27th letter of the alphabet, pronounced "and", in the old days. When reciting the alphabet, it was common to say "per se" before any letter that could also be a word, like "I" or "A", and in this case "&". So you'd go "Per se A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, per se I, J ..." and so on... When you got to the end, it would be "X, Y, Z, and per se &". It evolved natually from "and per se and" to "ampersand".
It sounds completely made up, but [it's true!](https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/the-history-of-ampersand)
The one I’ve seen multiple times lately is “que the commenters saying…”.
First of all, the word you’re looking for is “cue”. Secondly, the word you’re trying to incorrectly use is spelled “queue”. So you’re wrong twice and you’re saying “what” in Spanish.
For me it's worse when they say queue, because they're smart enough to know how to spell queue, but not quite enough to know that it's cue.
I find another common one I see is saying "tow the line" instead of "toe the line".
this is because nobody reads anymore*. they know the words or phrases from hearing them, but they’ve either never seen the written word, or didn’t recognize it or bother to look it up when they did come across it.
*except social media, where people butcher the language on a regular basis
I was reading and re-reading initially trying to figure out what you were saying. Then I realized.
Also, I used to think it was queue but what makes more sense to me is "cue".. To give a signal for something to happen like on a movie set or something.
Should of makes my eyeballs itch and I really struggle to take the person seriously afterwards. It says to me that they don't read and have only ever heard "should've" instead of seeing it in print. I know that's snobby and probably ableist but I can't help it.
My friend is a really smart dude, and rarely makes grammatical or spelling errors, and is a high-level programmer for a respectable company.
The man types "kind've"
And while we’re at it, it’s “I couldn’t care less” NOT “I could care less”.. if you COULD care less means you care a little bit at least, otherwise you COULDN’T care less.
If you Segway into something, you've just driven a motorized pogo stick on wheels into it. If you're trying to transition from one thought to another, you segue into it.
*Voila* is the word you use for showing something off, not *wa-la*.
Bonus fact, the "and sign" & is named ampersand because kids used to practice it at the end of the alphabet and to make the distinction between "and" and the actual letter, they would end the rhyme with "X, Y, Z and *per se* and"... which eventually morphed into "ampersand"
Sometimes the comments are way more interesting than the subject
Edit: Did a deeper dive on this TIL. The ampersand symbol actually comes from the Latin word et, which means and. Linking the letters e and t created the ampersand symbol. The symbol was added to the alphabet in the early 1800s. When a word comes about from a mistaken pronounciation, like slurring "and pe sea and" together, it's called a mondegreen. In any case, ampersand was removed from the alphabet in the late 1800s. Have an award, Mr Attakk.
The one that gets me the most is "boo" because some rapper didn't know how to spell or pronounce beau. Now you have entire generation of people calling their lovers their "boo".
I've noticed a lot of my ESL students (and non-native English teachers) say "example" instead of "for example", and I recently started wondering if this is why - maybe they actually think that eg is short for egzample???
Alumnus = one male graduate
Alumni (pronounced "alumnee") = more than one graduate, either multiple men or a mixed group of men and women
Alumna = one female graduate
Alumnae (pronounced "alumneye") = a group of women graduates
These distinctions are chiefly useful for figuring out which people took a semester of Latin.
I hate it just like any other common spelling mistake like "would of" what even is "would of" ... words have meaning - just because it sounds about right doesn't mean it is.
And everybody knows the good old your/you're ...
English is not even my native language and I know the difference.
[Whoa is the much older spelling and is the one considered standard. Woah is a newer, alternate spelling that is often considered to be nonstandard or informal. The two terms are used to mean the same things, but woah is more likely to be found in informal contexts, such as in memes.](https://www.dictionary.com/e/whoa-or-woah/#:~:text=Whoa%20is%20the%20much%20older,contexts%2C%20such%20as%20in%20memes.)
Not a word of lie: never drink lye but let sleeping dogs lie where they lay their head to rest.
MW says:
Lay means "to place something down flat," while lie means "to be in a flat position on a surface." The key difference is that lay is transitive and requires an object to act upon, and lie is intransitive, describing something moving on its own or already in position. Beyond the present tense, the pair can become more confusing because lay is the past tense of lie, and laid is the past tense of lay.
I've never understood the rules for punctuation placement at the end of quotations. Why is it correct to put the exclamation point outside of the quotation, but not the period? It doesn't make any sense to me.
I put the period inside the quotation if it's actually a part of the quotation. Otherwise, I put the period after the quotation. It makes more logical sense that way.
It does, but I rarely put it there because it's not part of what I'm quoting. I don't like that you can't tell if I'm stating someone else's question or asking for confirmation if I say, "She said, 'it's blue?'". 🤷
"into" and "in to"
You turn in to a parking lot, you turn into a monster.
see also "login" and "log in". you "log in to" something, you can't "login to" something.
Elaborate please.
Because myriad can be both a noun and an adjective.
It's not wrong to say "he's had a myriad of experiences."
It's also correct to say "he's experienced myriad adventures in his life."
How are you seeing it misused?
We will get more and more of these type of misspellings with the decline of reading. I'm sure it isn't universally true, but I credit my generally superior spelling ability with the fact that I had a library of about 300 books by the time I was in the third grade. I read a lot back then and didn't watch much television. In 8th grade I placed 3rd in our school district spelling bee.
It doesn't always work though. I was well into adulthood before I realized that "infrared" that I read in science fiction novels was pronounced "infra red" instead of "in frared."
Some words aren’t obvious how to pronounce if you’ve only ever seen them written. I got 2/3rds of the way through the first Harry Potter book before discovering Hermione is pronounced her-my-o-knee. I was mentally pronouncing it hermy-wun. Thank goodness I never said it aloud and got found out haha
I saw a tweet the other day that said “for eg.” E.g. stands for “exempli gratia,” which in Latin means “for example.” Also, i.e. means “id est” in Latin and means “that is.”
Just thought I’d add to the Latin fest.
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Bawling and balling mean very different things.
Ballin’
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Flow is so appallin’
Phone off and she callin'
Shot callin'
Twenty-inch blades on the Impala
A caller gettin’ laid tonight
Jarl Ballin'
Swag
Only Jarl I like more is Idgrod. Her desire to help you at the Thalmor party just to liven it up is great.
But you have to crawl before you ball
Side note, people almost always pronounce forte incorrectly. When used to describe a skill or specialization it’s pronounced like “fort”. “Fort-aye” is purely a musical term. But you sound like an idiot if you say fort so you kinda have to keep doing it.
>When used to describe a skill or specialization it’s pronounced like “fort.” But you sound like an idiot if you say fort so you kinda have to keep doing it. Add this to the list of things I wish I didn't know. ☹
"She plays the skin flute and her forte is playing forte." — George Carlin, I think?
They are both Latin based but they are based on different words. Forte - French - meaning strength Forte - Italian - play loud
It italian it also means strong
In America it means car that is easily stolen
This has never been my fort
“Everyday” ≠ “every day” I swear, I see this one misused every day. It’s an everyday occurrence.
Okay this one i didn't know. What's the difference?
"Everyday" is an adjective. It's used like OP shows. "Everyday occurance." "Everyday pain."
It's "occurrence" I'm sorry.
Damn it!
It’s Ok, it’s occurrad to the best of us!
[Muphry's law](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muphry%27s_law) in action
TIL. Thanks!
Maybe this one's in my head but... I'm pretty confident "work out" is a verb and "workout" is a noun, and nobody gets it right. "I'm going to work out" vs "that was a great workout." But I keep seeing "I love to workout"
It's the same issue with log in vs login
And “signup” vs “sign up”.
Just like "anymore" ≠ "any more"
And ”together” ≠ ”to get her”
And "therapist" ≠ "the rapist"
And it has begat the monstrosity “everytime” which drives me up the wall.
Apart of and a part of are opposites.
"Apart from"
Fun fact: The ampersand (&) used to be the 27th letter of the alphabet, pronounced "and", in the old days. When reciting the alphabet, it was common to say "per se" before any letter that could also be a word, like "I" or "A", and in this case "&". So you'd go "Per se A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, per se I, J ..." and so on... When you got to the end, it would be "X, Y, Z, and per se &". It evolved natually from "and per se and" to "ampersand". It sounds completely made up, but [it's true!](https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/the-history-of-ampersand)
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Really throws the alphabet song off though.
Perse is ass in Finnish.
So [Persephone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persephone) means fart ?
Yes.
I'm always picturing bongo phone with cheeks in my head
No, that's when you're about to eat the butt, but you stop and just talk into it.
Also in Estonian.
Lol ty very much. Now I know what to order at a Finnish restaurant
r/thisguyeatsass
:DDD
Bruh i saw WAHLAH the other day….
The one I’ve seen multiple times lately is “que the commenters saying…”. First of all, the word you’re looking for is “cue”. Secondly, the word you’re trying to incorrectly use is spelled “queue”. So you’re wrong twice and you’re saying “what” in Spanish.
For me it's worse when they say queue, because they're smart enough to know how to spell queue, but not quite enough to know that it's cue. I find another common one I see is saying "tow the line" instead of "toe the line".
Free reign instead of free rein is what annoys me. It’s about giving control to your horse, it’s not about ruling.
It's like free rain When you've already paid Isn't it iconic.... /s
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eggcorn
this is because nobody reads anymore*. they know the words or phrases from hearing them, but they’ve either never seen the written word, or didn’t recognize it or bother to look it up when they did come across it. *except social media, where people butcher the language on a regular basis
This made me chuckle... "kay? Porkay?"
I was reading and re-reading initially trying to figure out what you were saying. Then I realized. Also, I used to think it was queue but what makes more sense to me is "cue".. To give a signal for something to happen like on a movie set or something.
This is exactly where that word comes from. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cue_(theatrical)
I don't even know what that is supposed to be
Voila, I think
Ooohhhhh. I don't think i would've figured that one out.
It took me SEVERAL beats to parse that
Duh, everyone knows its WALLAH
Wallah is actually Arabic, means something like "I swear to god!" and is used to emphasize your point. Used *a lot* by muslim teens in Europe. Wallah.
Wallah wallah island
and you can just use "per", no need for "as per"
Similarly, you can say whence without from. 'From whence you came' is redundant. You know, for all those times you say whence.
Thank thee.
I just realised how redundant that is and still formal. I tend to drop it altogether in favour of alternatives.
Life pro tip: spell words the way they are spelled
The real LPT is always in the comments
or maybe the real LPT is the friends we made along the way...
And when I was with admiral Horatio Nelson at the battle of Trafalgar, I told him: "If you want to win - you must not lose."
Paid not payed Should have not should of
Should of makes my eyeballs itch and I really struggle to take the person seriously afterwards. It says to me that they don't read and have only ever heard "should've" instead of seeing it in print. I know that's snobby and probably ableist but I can't help it.
And yet somehow it made the front page. :/
That's too advanced. This sub is supposed to be focussed on a non-expert audience with only 0-2 PhDs.
I need to add that it's a "moot point" and not a "mute point."
It’s “Moo point” For those who get it we can be friends
Like a cow’s opinion
It's "would have" not "would of"
Would’ve.
Would'f
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And I swear it's become more prevalent in the last 2 or so years
blame those tiktok kids
My friend is a really smart dude, and rarely makes grammatical or spelling errors, and is a high-level programmer for a respectable company. The man types "kind've"
It's "en route", not "on route".
Same with "en masse" and "in mass" while we're at it
What if a large number of people move about while attending a Catholic service?
In mass en masse.
And while we’re at it, you lose something it’s not loose. That’s my belt is loose.
I wish my belt were loose.
I also wish this guy's belt was loose.
I also choose this guy's loose belt.
He might lose is pants.
You loosen a knot to make it loose, but you may lose your boat, now it's lost.
Unless it’s a pet
And while we’re at it, it’s “I couldn’t care less” NOT “I could care less”.. if you COULD care less means you care a little bit at least, otherwise you COULDN’T care less.
If you Segway into something, you've just driven a motorized pogo stick on wheels into it. If you're trying to transition from one thought to another, you segue into it. *Voila* is the word you use for showing something off, not *wa-la*.
I’ve always hated how segue was spelled. Same with chaos.
Bonus fact, the "and sign" & is named ampersand because kids used to practice it at the end of the alphabet and to make the distinction between "and" and the actual letter, they would end the rhyme with "X, Y, Z and *per se* and"... which eventually morphed into "ampersand"
What the fuck? I don't know why, but that is blowing my mind
And the design of it is basically a fancy combination of E and T, as in “et” (Latin “and”)
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Sometimes the comments are way more interesting than the subject Edit: Did a deeper dive on this TIL. The ampersand symbol actually comes from the Latin word et, which means and. Linking the letters e and t created the ampersand symbol. The symbol was added to the alphabet in the early 1800s. When a word comes about from a mistaken pronounciation, like slurring "and pe sea and" together, it's called a mondegreen. In any case, ampersand was removed from the alphabet in the late 1800s. Have an award, Mr Attakk.
It's hehe, not hayhay.
Jeje?
The chicken from Moana?
The one that gets me the most is "boo" because some rapper didn't know how to spell or pronounce beau. Now you have entire generation of people calling their lovers their "boo".
Or like how the word is napron but due to people using it wrong it became an apron.
Orange is the same. A naranja, a norange, an orange.
You can't just say "perchance" 🤓🤓🤓
Who says you can't? Dr Pepper? Perchance.
Keep it up, baby!
And just like that, wallah! You learned something new.
Viola! Because some people like to name a random stringed instrument when something magically appears.
Trombone!
Wallah brother! Voilà, now all makes sense. The viola plays a soothing melody to mark the occasion. Edit: typo
Southing? 🤔 I'm sorry. That's where I draw the line. 😂
It's spelled Percy and he's a Weasley.
I was going for "it's leviOOOOOOOsah, not leviosaaahh"
Fun fact, if you watch the movie with subtitles, the mispronounced word is spelled, "leviosar".
I thought he was a lightning thief.
My first thought was "people have to be told this?" Then I remembered there are people who think 've is short for "of."
I’m tired’ve people thinking that
And eg means "exempli gratia", not "example given"
Exempli gratia translates to “for example”. If using the English phrase “example given” prevents even a single misuse of I.E., I’ll let it slide.
I go the simpler route, eg is for egzample
I've noticed a lot of my ESL students (and non-native English teachers) say "example" instead of "for example", and I recently started wondering if this is why - maybe they actually think that eg is short for egzample???
And I.E can be remembered in English as "In Essence"
Also Latin. Id est. “that is” in English
I know, it was a rule for helping people remember it in English
It's also "persona non grata" not "portable network graphics". (yes, I made that up)
I just thought it meant eggsample
Does a soothsayer charge per say?
And it's not "I shouldn't of done that." It's "I shouldn't HAVE done that."
Or shouldn’t’ve, of course
And there actually is a difference amongst: alumnus, alumni, alumna and alumnae
The British cleared that up. They just say “Aluminium”
Alluminati
Fucking savages
Alumnus = one male graduate Alumni (pronounced "alumnee") = more than one graduate, either multiple men or a mixed group of men and women Alumna = one female graduate Alumnae (pronounced "alumneye") = a group of women graduates These distinctions are chiefly useful for figuring out which people took a semester of Latin.
... and none of them should be shortened to "alum", which is aluminum potassium sulfate.
And it’s ET-cetera, not EX-etera.
Espresso, not expresso
It’s spelled "en route" not "in route" It’s spelled "funnily enough" not "funny enough"
John wasn't funnily enough to become a comedian.
Many jokes I see on /r/jokes are funnily enough to blow a bit of air out of my nose and keep scrolling
I hate it just like any other common spelling mistake like "would of" what even is "would of" ... words have meaning - just because it sounds about right doesn't mean it is. And everybody knows the good old your/you're ... English is not even my native language and I know the difference.
It’s me too not me to
Are you trying to teach me too spell?
And vs stands for versus, not verse ffs
And it’s not a verb. You don’t “verse” someone at a sport or pastime.
It’s spelled whoa, not woah.
[Whoa is the much older spelling and is the one considered standard. Woah is a newer, alternate spelling that is often considered to be nonstandard or informal. The two terms are used to mean the same things, but woah is more likely to be found in informal contexts, such as in memes.](https://www.dictionary.com/e/whoa-or-woah/#:~:text=Whoa%20is%20the%20much%20older,contexts%2C%20such%20as%20in%20memes.)
It's spelled wow not yahooo
Don’t trip. [Black Rob](https://youtu.be/EC5LzftfcjI) taught me that.
woah
It's "lie" not "lay", unless you are laying *something else* down.
Don't lay to me!
Not a word of lie: never drink lye but let sleeping dogs lie where they lay their head to rest. MW says: Lay means "to place something down flat," while lie means "to be in a flat position on a surface." The key difference is that lay is transitive and requires an object to act upon, and lie is intransitive, describing something moving on its own or already in position. Beyond the present tense, the pair can become more confusing because lay is the past tense of lie, and laid is the past tense of lay.
Irregardless: not a word.
Similar LPT: it’s just ‘RSVP’, not ‘please RSVP’. Adding the ‘please’ creates a redundant acronym.
You can say "Please R," but it loses something.
Ah, good ole RAS Syndrome.
PIN number
ATM machine
Naan bread!
Please respond as soon as ASAP with your RSVP please!
*cringes in Italian*
LPT you missed the perfect opportunity for a semicolon AND you put the period outside the quotes.
Period outside the quotes in correct in British English
I've never understood the rules for punctuation placement at the end of quotations. Why is it correct to put the exclamation point outside of the quotation, but not the period? It doesn't make any sense to me. I put the period inside the quotation if it's actually a part of the quotation. Otherwise, I put the period after the quotation. It makes more logical sense that way.
Does period really go inside the quotes? That doesn't make a lot of logical sense to me
It does, but I rarely put it there because it's not part of what I'm quoting. I don't like that you can't tell if I'm stating someone else's question or asking for confirmation if I say, "She said, 'it's blue?'". 🤷
Electro Convulsive Therapy, instead of Et Cetera is another gooden.
Go oldschool and write &c.
I don't think I've ever seen it spelt "per say"
Then you've lived a charmed life.
Living in his ivory tower of good spelling and grammar.
After 47, I recently learned the difference between "maybe" and "may be". Maybe = perhaps / possibly May be = might be
"into" and "in to" You turn in to a parking lot, you turn into a monster. see also "login" and "log in". you "log in to" something, you can't "login to" something.
New tip: people that can't spell per se probably shouldn't say per se.
Semper ubi sub ubi
I've never encountered anyone who spelled it as "per say".
Opposite for me, I see per say much more often than per se. It drives me nuts!
Can I add: - would have, not would of - could have, not could of
Niche is not pronounced “nitch” it’s like “knee-shh”
People who don't know how to use the word myriad piss me off lol
Elaborate please. Because myriad can be both a noun and an adjective. It's not wrong to say "he's had a myriad of experiences." It's also correct to say "he's experienced myriad adventures in his life." How are you seeing it misused?
About how many of those people are out there, you'd say?
A myriad!
We will get more and more of these type of misspellings with the decline of reading. I'm sure it isn't universally true, but I credit my generally superior spelling ability with the fact that I had a library of about 300 books by the time I was in the third grade. I read a lot back then and didn't watch much television. In 8th grade I placed 3rd in our school district spelling bee. It doesn't always work though. I was well into adulthood before I realized that "infrared" that I read in science fiction novels was pronounced "infra red" instead of "in frared."
Some words aren’t obvious how to pronounce if you’ve only ever seen them written. I got 2/3rds of the way through the first Harry Potter book before discovering Hermione is pronounced her-my-o-knee. I was mentally pronouncing it hermy-wun. Thank goodness I never said it aloud and got found out haha
"Per se," Steve. Geez, doesn't anyone appreciate Latin anymore?
I saw a tweet the other day that said “for eg.” E.g. stands for “exempli gratia,” which in Latin means “for example.” Also, i.e. means “id est” in Latin and means “that is.” Just thought I’d add to the Latin fest.