Friday, October 1, 2021

Truckling: Not our forte


HALLIE EPHRON: Truckle. Verb. A new word for me, it was in last week’s Boston Globe talking about a certain politician's willingness to act in a subservient manner.

I looked it up (thank you Google), and truckle can also be a noun meaning a barrel-shaped cheese or a low bed that slides under another bed.

I posted this earth shaking discovery -- a new word! -- on Facebook and my dear writer friend Cajsa Baldini commented that truckle was a variant of trundle, as in trundle bed. A waggish friend pictured a truck laughing. For me the word conjures a person trudging truculently. Or perhaps some kind of British pudding.

A designer friend was moved to share her pet peeve: “Those fabrics you put on and around windows are NOT drapes, they are draperies. The ‘folds’ you get when scrunching up fabrics are drapes. Drives me nuts when people even my design industry insist upon using it incorrectly.”

I, of course, was clueless about this and have been misusing drapes my entire writing life. From now on, it's curtains.

My mother, a writer and English major, used to be driven nuts by people who said "off of" - apparently it should just be "off" (get off the couch). Also on her hit list were people who pronounced forte forTAY. Wrong wrong wrong. According to her, it's simply pronounced FORT.

She was formidable. I was inclined to truckle when she corrected my grammar or pronunciation and most of her rules (biases?) have become mine. Though I try never to say "forte" aloud since she's the only person I've ever heard pronounce it her way. Avoidance has always been my strong suit.

What are your pet peeves when it comes to usage or pronunciation in the world of words, AKA a writer’s playground.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: At a restaurant, when people order, they sometimes say: “I’ll take the truckle (for instance) rare, with…” It is NOT “I’ll take.”

It’s “I’d like” or “I’ll try” or even “I’ll have” Or “May I have.” It is also most emphatically, NOT: “I’ll DO the truckle…” NO no no, not DO. Not TAKE.

Argh.

Also I wonder about “for free.” It’s not “for free,” it’s simply free. You can get that for free? Nope, you can get that free.

(There’s also material. Rolls of thing that you make clothing from is not material. It’s “fabric.”)

Also, and probably not finally, where did “out of” come from? “He’s out of Oklahoma.” You mean--from there?

JENN McKINLAY: Truckle - that is an unexpected word! It sounds like something I would make up while playing Scrabble and staunchly insist it’s real.

I’m okay with mispronunciations because people mispronounce words when they learn them while reading (the librarian in me gives a double thumbs up on that). As for my own grammar weaknesses, well, my copyeditor always has to lop the “ofs” from my “offs” - your mother would be quite appalled - because I can’t seem to break that habit.

The one that grates on my nerves is when people say “he goes” instead of “he said” -- it’s maddening! The speaker is SPEAKING they’re not GOING anywhere. Argh!

HANK: Oh, Jenn, I agree on mispronunciations...that’s a different thing. (For a long time I really thought it was muncipal). (No to mention misled,which clearly is myzled.)

And going. Ahhhh…

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Agreed with Jenn - as a young person (and by this I mean well into my twenties) I would mispronounce words because my reading vocabulary was so much larger than what I heard spoken around me. My daughters do the same now, and they bristle when I correct them, but I figure better your mom than a fellow guest at a dinner party. Which happened to me, when I pronounced “detritus” wrong (I put the emphasis on the initial syllable instead of the middle.)

There’s one common pronunciation that irks me, however, and that’s err rhyming with air. Yes, folks, I know it’s become increasingly accepted over the past 50 years and that way of saying it is even okayed in most American dictionaries. It still chaps my you-know-what. Err should rhyme with her, and that’s that.

Do not even get me STARTED on substituting impact for effect unless you have time for my fifteen minute rant on why effect versus affect is not that damn hard, come on.

LUCY BURDETTE: Hank, you would hate going out with our neighbors--they always “do” the steak etc.

How about the word versus? Drives me crazy when people pronounce it as “verse.”

RHYS BOWEN: Hank, it also drives me mad when people ask for things in a rude way. Perhaps their parents didn’t instill in them that one says , “Please may I have…”

Do you want my whole list of pet peeves? I think my hands would get tired of typing first. Lay and lie. Now even newscasters get it wrong (except Hank, of course, who is always perfectly correct in everything). It’s so easy too. If there is an object it’s a transitive verb. You lay something. I lay down the book. Lay is also the past tense of lie. I lie on the bed. Yesterday I lay on the bed. But I think the damage has already been done and lay will become acceptable.

And simple grammar of parts of speech. How many people say between you and I? Prepositions take the accusative or dative. That’s why it’s so useful to have learned foreign languages. My degree is in German and French and I love German especially as it has rules. When you see this, you always do this. It’s great to teach German… except that now so much English has crept into the German language. Everything to do with computers, lots of slang words. I wrote a thesis on the foreign word in the German language. Now it would be several pages longer!

And don’t get me started on irregardless!

DEBORAH CROMBIE: When I think English is going to grammar hell I keep reminding myself that language is always changing and evolving. Still, the misuse of pronouns, even though ubiquitous, drives me bonkers. People who are educated and know better say "Me and John are going to do--" I have to fan myself…

But on a more writerly note, I have a serious peeve about the misuse of "may" and "might." It's a very subtle thing, I know. "May" is more definite than "might," so how likely something is to happen is subjective. Still, so often "may" is used when it really should be "might." I "may" go to the store later as we are out of bread. However, I "might" run into Daniel Craig in the pub next time I am in London.

HALLIE:
So are we preaching to the choir, or do you think we take our words entirely too seriously?

87 comments:

  1. You guys know words far better than I. The English language is so forgiving with all the slang that has been added through time, but I do agree “irregardless” and “Me and John” do rattle my nerves!

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  2. I suspect I’m guilty of using a few [several] of these expressions or mispronouncing words, but I still have a few pet peeves . . .

    Mixing up “emigrate” and “immigrate” . . . folks emigrate from their country and immigrate to this country.

    “He’s been there over twenty years” when it really should be “He’s been there more than twenty years” [and I know it’s been deemed “okay” to do this, but I still find it extremely annoying] . . . . Sometimes, changing the rules feels like simply capitulating, kind of like saying, everyone does it, so it must be okay.

    And "truckle" is new to me, too . . . .

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    1. Over/more than - I've never thought about that distinction. Tucking it away...

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    2. I’m with you, Joan - even though over is now “OK” it makes me grind my teeth.

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  3. While I'm certainly guilty of using words improperly, I do try to use them in the correct manner. But shortcuts usually help me get to the point faster (so I can get on to whatever comes next).

    But I do hate when people use the word "literally" for something isn't. When someone posts that they are "literally" dying. NO YOU AREN'T! YOU ARE POSTING ON FACEBOOK, NOT DYING!!!!!!

    But since I get edits back on my book reviews for Mystery Scene, I'm well aware that I make a number of mistakes of my own so I usually keep my complaints to myself.

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  4. So many peeves, so little time. Like Rhys, my German comes in handy when remembering if it should be who or whom. But the fact is, case marking is disappearing in modern English. That's why people hypercorrect to "He gave it to Jenn and I" and why nobody uses whom anymore, and lately, they even substitute "that" for who: "The guy that went into the store..."

    Other peeves: you graduate FROM college, not graduate college. And what's wrong with about? It's been years since people started saying things like, "We had a conversation around diversity." I always (silently) scream, You had a conversation ABOUT!

    My son's and his friend used to say, "We versed the Giants" when talking about their team paying versus the Giants. But kids' language innovations are a separate and delightful topic.

    As for pronunciations like err rhyming with air. Nobody in my family ever said air, Julia, and I'm sure it's related to error. Do you pronounce that err-er? But also, regional variations are widespread. Hugh (from New Jersey with parents from MA and Maine) says your-up for Europe. And I say warshing machine, Warshington, etc. Dialects are fine - and rich. (Although ekcetera takes the enamel off my teeth.)

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    1. Edith, I get confused when I see " (name of person) was graduated from college".

      Diana

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    2. Edith, I usually take “around” literally. That the conversation did not directly address diversity, just tiptoed around the topic.

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    3. I will now be cracking up when people say this at work, picturing them tiptoeing!

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    4. Hmm, I'll have to see what a reputable (i.e., not too quick to accept devolutions as evolutions!) dictionary or two say about the the proper pronunciation of "err". Personally, I never rhyme it with either "air" or "um, er". It's an open short E, as in "Eh, so *you* say" — and as in "error" ... isn't it?!

      My pronunciation bête noire is "irrevocable", because my learning-from-reading stab at it got /revock/ stuck in my head, then I "corrected" (logically enough) to /revoke/... and now I always have to pause to "REV up" my brain to say it right!

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  5. "Me and John went..." NO, NO, NO. (I've heard teachers say it.)

    Less for fewer. There are fewer clouds today, it is less cloudy. THERE!

    "Him and me..." Just NO!

    The use of "is" for "are." It's not a "colloquialism," Honey, it's wrong. (Even the chief weatherman on our local station uses "there's" instead of "there are," as in..."There's several storms coming." That sounds like nails on a chalkboard to me.

    If you would say, "He gave some to me," then why would you say, "He gave some to Sam and I?"

    Squawk! Bite your tongue, Judy. Correcting other people's grammar will not make you very popular.

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    1. And this topic made me chuckle. I do appreciate a chance to vent, and Hank, I never DO "the truckle!" ( Snort;-)

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  6. The one that gets me is fewer/less - "There were less people in the parade this year..." Aaaagh! Sets my teeth on edge. It's not less, it's FEWER. When it's something you can count, it's fewer. Less is when it's a continuous thing ("There was less milk in the pitcher...")

    Yes, it irks me... but I do wonder why there's not the same distinction for its opposite: MORE. "There's MORE people in this year's parade" is just as fine as "There's MORE milk in the pitcher"

    Go figure.

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    1. OMG, Hallie, ARE there more people?

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    2. Yes! I'm a grammar stickler, and this one bothers me, too. But this morning, as I was mentally correcting my audiobook (which, to my own utter consternation I do constantly) a character, commenting on a previously healthy friend, said, "....less than two weeks ago, he was just fine...." I immediately recognized it as wrong -- you can count weeks. It should be "fewer", right? But saying "fewer than two weeks ago, he...." doesn't sound right, either. It clumsy, and I've never heard anyone say it that way. I'm afraid I'd say "less" in this construction, too. So either I personally endorse and use a word I know to be wrong -- or maybe there's another rule? What a dilemma! Will drive me nuts all day... ha!

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    3. But you're NOT actually counting whole weeks, you're *measuring* a length of time, some *amount* of time ago (some number of days and hours and minutes), *less* than the full span of two full weeks!

      One college linguistics class project I was involved in (mumble years ago), where we were surveying people to try to dig out implicit understanding of English-language rules, led to the prof asking for all our permissions to publish a paper: it turned out that we didn't get the expected uniformity of results for what values of X were and were not accepted in the construction "He searched the X for Y", because not everyone had the same conception of what Xs were whole, indivisble (and thus un-searchable) things — similar to your problem with weeks!

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  7. I'm in the choir on this one. Language gone wrong is hard to hear, that's for sure. Though I have toned down my shrieks over the years -- so many students in the college classrooms I taught in had no idea of the building blocks of the English language. Try correcting a student's writing by explaining subject vs object to them when they have no understanding of those grammatical terms! Also, the many international students whom I taught were using English as their second or third language and English is notoriously convoluted to learn (see Hallie's comment above about how 'less' is used correctly vs how 'more' can be used). With these students, I came to focus on the clarity of the message they were crafting vs the correctness of their grammar. In the big scheme of things, this seemed liked the most useful approach to their use of English.

    But that said, any language used mindfully and correctly is a joy to hear or read. And I delight in learning new words, such as 'truckle'. Thanks for this post today, Hallie. Fun!

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  8. I gave up most of my pet peeves years ago. Too much stress and bother.

    Not that they don't get to me. I just usually sigh and move on.

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    1. I'm with you, Liz! Life's too short, so I just move on.

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  9. Where did “verse” come from, anyway? I started hearing that a couple of years ago, and it’s got to be the most annoying thing ever. I’m just trying to figure out how it evolves from versus. And why.

    And yes, ekcetera. Gah. Again—How did it happen, and why?

    I understand that they are mispronunciations, but why did those particular ones become so common and widespread?

    And oh, Roberta, your neighbors! You’re right, I would wince. Xxxx

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    1. That's right. You can DO the hokey-pokey but not the steak.

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    2. I think "ekcetera" started with people who didn't realize "et" means "and" (as in the stylized-Et ampersand!), and mangled the abbreviation into "ect." *cringes*
      Obviously, that would create an /ek/ beginning sound, which was likely extended back to the full expression. *sigh*

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  10. Oh, I’m laughing so hard Hallie. This transported x-Brit has learned a lot of language patience over the past 50plus years. I’m working on truckle. Perhaps I shall devise a pudding, or a pie of truckling ingredients. My biggest peeves are upcoming for forthcoming, and unique. My trip to Paris is coming up in a month. Unique stands alone, no qualifiers thank you.

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    1. Upcoming/forthcoming... I need to think about that. Is it that an object can't upcome?

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  11. HALLIE,

    Thanks for making me laugh this morning. I am laughing while reading this post. Regarding mispronouncations, my only pet peeve in that department is when someone is speaking and they mumble. When people mumble, it makes it harder to read lips. And if someone is talking while chewing food? I wonder how the food stays in the mouth? LOL

    I never heard of truckle. I never heard of "off of". Regarding "lay" and "lie", I learned that in the 4th grade. I was surprised because the word "lie" meant an untruth.

    I've wondered about "me and John" type of sentences.

    Yes, I just remembered another pet peeve. When I get an email saying "Hey", I delete the email. I just finished a wonderful memoir by Kitt Shapiro, daughter of Eartha Kitt. The catwoman did Not like that word "Hey" either. She expected people to speak clearly. And to say "please".

    We were taught to say "please".

    Diana

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    1. Laughing, Diana! Because when I pick up the telephone (yes it does still occasionally ring) and the voice on the other end goes (sorry) HEY... I hang up. Definitely not a real person.

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    2. Diana, Irwin has a big handlebar mustache. One of his technicians at work was hearing impaired and he complained bitterly about the mustache when trying to read Irwin's lips. I guess that's akin to mumbling.

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  12. So funny, Hallie - The Hartford Courant published a forte/fort article a while ago and mentioned that if it were truly pronounced in the French manner it's for - the "t" is silent in French! Think I'll avoid the controversy and stick to using it only in writing.

    My pet peeve, anyways. There ain't no S on that word. I don't know why it drives me nuts, but it does. I have to rely on higher authorities in my writing for the lie/lay distinction - maybe Rhys's explanation will help. Then there is present/current controversy. Almost no one gets those right and they are so easy! So many more, but my editors often advise me that I'm not in any shape to be tossing stones. :)

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    1. I have always pronounced forte four-tay, presuming it was correct. Apparently not necessarily. Though online the English Cambridge dictionary's pronunciation is four-tay. But that's not the point I want to make, what I want to ask is this: When we bring over a word from another language, should we pronounce it as the source-language speakers do, or should we adapt it to our own? After all, we say Paris, pronouncing the S, while in French the S is silent (Par-ee).

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    2. Great question... and as I writer we make choices like that all the time when writing (internal OR spoken) dialogue - which way a character says (or thinks) it shows the reader something about that character. If it's me talking: Paris.

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  13. Bring...brang...brung. AAAGH!
    Sneak...snuck...snuck AAAGH! Apparently, the irregular "snuck" is an acceptable version of the regular "sneaked"

    Truckle: A monster truck rally played with toy trucks.

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  14. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Hearing bad grammar in everyday conversation but I should not be hearing it from news readers! Why haven't they learned that the T in often is not pronounced?

    And speaking of 'of' why do so many people say things like 'not that big of a deal'? Just leave out the of.

    Maybe you folks can help me out with this one. Say you are queuing for movie tickets, why do some people insist they are 'on line' while others insist they are 'in line'?

    My son and I have argued several times about people who say they live in (or is it on?) Long Island. By now I can't even remember which way is correct, if we ever knew.

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    1. So interesting in/on Long Island. Because I know this isn't a rule or anything, but "in LI" feels like LI is a municipal entity where as "on LI" feels like it's the land mass/island.

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    2. When I was in college in CT, a professor and some classmates who were from New York City said they grew up saying “on line”. They were surprise that in Connecticut we say “in line.”

      DebRo

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    3. “surprised”. I dictated my response, and my phone doesn’t hear everything that I say!

      DebRo

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  15. The other day I answered the phone and the person asked, "Is this Hallie?" - I answered, "It's I." And it sounds SO WEIRD to me. Though, I think, correct. Maybe a simple "Yes" would have been safer.

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    1. When a caller asks for me I say "this is she" and they seem a lit bit taken aback as probably many people say "yeah, this is me."

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    2. You were right to avoid saying yes to a caller, Hallie. That’s one of the dangers in a scam. They can say you agreed to what they were selling!
      Rhys ( who can’t get Google to switch accounts)

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    3. Good point, Rhys! Thanks for the reminder.

      Hallie - It's totally correct to say, "It is I." Like Judy, I love to answer "This is she" and then wait out the heavy pause that follows that astonishing display of correct usage. LOL

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    4. I answer that question, "This is she." And, I do try not to say "yes" in a conversation with a stranger, as the scamming is everywhere.

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    5. I did not know that about YES. Usually I don't pick up the phone if the number looks sketchy, or I pick it up and listen. Those phone banks have a distinctive sound.

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  16. Let's not forget the difference between bring and take. Most people don't seem to know the difference and maybe it doesn't matter if we understand what they are saying, but it still irks me when the wrong word is used.

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  17. This bugs me. Scene-a fast food counter- customer staring up at the menu board- says to worker "Could I have a cheeseburger? Ah, could I have some fries?" I feel like jumping behind the counter and saying "No, you can not have that today. No cheeseburger or fries for you." Also, another subject- no one knows how to get in line anymore. They all back up against the wall and stare at the board. You don't know if they are waiting on their food or in line. Back when, you chose a line got in it and watched all the other lines move faster. Both are pet peeves of mine.

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    1. Oh, Lynn, “waiting on their food” visions of folks standing atop those fries and burgers. Oh, what strange visions language gives us. Thanks for making me smile

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    2. Elizabeth--Oops-Guess,I did it too. "Waiting for their food"-Never thought about "waiting on" before. Must be regional. :-)

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    3. Elisabeth-one more thought- Rolling Stones- Waiting On A Friend song-never pictured them standing atop their friend

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    4. My mother used to say, "You can but you may not."

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  18. I was born into a family who put great value on grammar. So my proper use of lay/lie, me/I, my/myself, etc., might be genetic. My father's first language was German, but his English was impeccable. I wonder if this would be the case today. Children, and the rest of us, are exposed to more language variables than he was in 1909.

    Now we are lucky if subject and tense agree.

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    1. Finta/Ann: My grounding in grammar comes from my middle-school years in the German system. My home room teacher taught us German grammar and, believe you me, she taught us how to parse sentences correctly. I always found it fascinating...but this was in the previous century, after all, and well before the seduction of the Google-knows-everything brand of learning.

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  19. Now that it’s football season, it’s the announcers saying a runner broke contain. Argh! No, they broke through the containMENT!

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  20. A friend moved to New Mexico, where instead of saying they ended up doing something, people said they landed up. Drove her nuts.

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  21. I have made an effort to loosen up about a lot of grammar pet peeves because it just isn't worth the negative energy. However, the "give it to John and I" one still gets under my skin. I can't seem to let go of reacting to that one like nails on a chalkboard.

    I would also point out that sports announcers seem to be in a class of their own for misused or blatantly made-up words. Sadly, a lot of people listen to them and pick up their patterns.

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  22. I don’t like it when stores or restaurants refer to their customers as guests. If I am a guest of the restaurant, then why must I pay for the food that I eat there?

    What is a “free gift”? If it’s a gift, it’s free. If it’s not free, then it isn’t a gift!

    A ninth grade classmate announced to our English teacher that she didn’t learn anything from her eighth grade English teacher. Her exact comment was “I ain’t got no good English background. That’s cuz our teacher never learned us nuthin’.” And she was serious.

    DebRo

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  23. Also “various different.” I am apparently peevier than I thought.

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  24. I think people say "give it to John and I" because they think "I" sounds classier or more educated than "me." My pet peeve is orientate. Why use orientate when orient is a perfectly good word?

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    1. Pat, I suspect this is a British-ism that has crept into American English. Although why the British say "orientate" I do not know.

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  25. The other night my husband, not for the first time, said “boughten.” I muttered under my breath, “bought.” My daughter, a journalism major, said, “We’re not on the clock.” “Oh, my darling child, we’re always on the clock.”

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  26. Thank you for this. Hallie, I am with you on the less/fewer page. I drives me crazy.
    Also the who/whom problem. When I taught French grammar, I would make my students diagram a sentence to see what the correct relative pronoun was. Of course with French you also had to worry about whether the pronoun referred to a person or a thing (and then whether the antecedent was masculine or feminine).

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  27. Such fun, Hallie! We are a peevy bunch, aren't we?

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  28. Hallie,

    I googled "truckle" and this is from Merriam-Webster.

    Truckle definition is - to act in a subservient manner : submit.

    Diana

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  29. I am a grammar stickler but have had to lighten up a bit or risk offending many people on a a regular basis. I've seen a T-shirt which states, "I'm silently correcting your grammar."
    The people-pleaser in me has kept me from buying it...

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    1. It would make you look more than a little bit truculent.

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    2. I have that coffee mug!

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  30. Pronouns and prepositions, subjective and objective cases, appositives, pronouns after "than" all have rules. These rules are not difficult, but people still get confused. I'm sure even I've made a mistake (is that possible?). I try not to be too critical of people because I realize that not everyone finds reading grammar books an entertaining read.

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    1. There are some good ones out there... I remember liking Eats Shoots and Leaves (though the best part was the title)

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    2. Loved that book!

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  31. I've been reading a series of books in which the author consistently says "get ahold of" people. Never reached, called, or even get hold of. This bothers me even more than the all too prevalent "Susie and I " when it should be "Susie and me."

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    1. This is why authors need editors - we all have our verbal tics that we're not aware of. (...or of which we are not aware)

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  32. I have been pronouncing "detritus" wrong for thirty years. Thanks, Julia! This is going to be a hard word to relearn. Ack!

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    1. I too have to *cough* TRY to remember de-TRY-tus. (Arrgh, I need schwas!) Also, chimera (ky-MEHR-a). They're among the words for which retraining myself is an ongoing process, along with using "nauseated" (or "queasy") and "nauseating" instead of the ambiguity of long-misused "nauseous".

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  33. This post has been fun and it seems we can be a fussy lot. It also seems we keep it to ourselves (at least, most of the time). I have a couple of food peeves. As a slow eater, I am irked by the staff asking me if I am still "working" on my meal. I read somewhere that an appropriate response would be something like "No my friend, you have it wrong. YOU are working, I am dining." But I could never do such a thing! I also dislike the construction he/she popped something into his/her mouth. I envision choking. One last one: my MIL is peeved when she is in a group at a restaurant and the group is addressed as "guys" by the staff. "Can I get you guys something to drink?" Well, at 97, I suppose she has the right to expect a slightly better form of greeting. (Now of course I'm wondering how many mistakes there are in my comment!)
    -Melanie
    -Melanie

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    1. If the waiter had said, "Can I get you ladies something to drink" I'm sure someone would have taken them to task. It's hard to speak (or write) without insulting someone.

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  34. This post made me laugh, LITERALLY, ha-ha! Brought back a lot of memories. I've live in many states and different towns, and so many things are regional... I learned to adapt. My late m-i-l was a former English teacher so corrected dh's speech OFTEN. But he has a wicked sense of humor and enjoyed teasing her. She was from rural East TX, born in "19 and 09", not 1909 as we said. Then after she passed in 2000, the new millennial began, so remember the next few years there was a controversy in the media of "do we say 2000 and 1,2" etc. or "20-09". Joke backfired on us!She also used old-fashion terms like "wake/d" instead of woke, and other funny things. Hubby & I also have had our own private-joke language through the years, for example a new local TV newscaster from the Midwest mispronounced several words like the TX towns of Mexia (which here is Ma-HAY-ah),Waxahachie (correctly sounds like Walks-a-hatchie)and then proceeded to say something like 'waxamoley'for the avocado dip we all know and love! Cracked us up, and once m-i-l heard me say to dh I was making 'waxamoley' and she clutched her pearls as she told me how to correctly pronounce guacamole, lol.(Which btw,can be pronounced either the Hispanic way or just say 'guac', and everyone knows what you mean. People are funny!

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  35. Oops, I see my mistakes, but blame them on the band-aid on my finger, for all you peevy folks! LOL, at myself!

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  36. You all would love grading the papers I get.

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  37. All of the above.
    Plus, I've noticed with young people (I know, I know) that they say, "I seen that." I hear the misuse of "seen" more and more, even with my granddaughters. I repeat what they say, as with my example, "I saw that." I often say it three times. I think they think I'm batty. When I tell them why I'm saying that over and over, they seem dumbstruck. And these are intelligent young women. I'm at a loss!

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    1. Teachers are afraid to teach "lie vs. lay" these days, but what's the excuse for not teaching the difference between a simple-past form and a past-participle requiring a "helper verb"? Many others get misused, too, such as "been" and "brung". And maybe worst of all, "drug" is in no way, shape, or form part of the the conjuhation of "drag"! (I think there's another such misuse with a U in it, but I can't recall it right now.)

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  38. So many of these and more!

    Julia, it's a relief to hear I'm not the only one who pronounced “detritus” wrong all these years (just learned the correct emphasis recently!).

    My hang-ups (just ask my college freshmen): who/that - old school, but I was taught people are "who" and things are "that"; less/fewer; "Me and John" Deborah mentioned earlier; and others I haven't had enough caffeine to think of yet.

    And I love Margaret's "Truckle: A monster truck rally played with toy trucks."!

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  39. The one that bothers me the most these days in “anyways”. NO S! You may have an anyway, but do you have more than one? How many “anyways” do you have? The word is ANYWAY, not anyways. ! !

    Why does everyone these days seem to answer “thank you” with “thank you”? The answer is “You’re welcome” people!

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