Trivia Rant Thread

Please relax on the grammar. There is genocide going on right now...in that light grammar slips can be forgiven.
 
rottydaddy said:
That's English for you- there's all these weird exceptions.
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There's a comedy skit out there, I think Carlin, that picks on English language pronunciations and how words that should rhyme don't. Wish I could find it. It fits nicely into this thread.
 
rottydaddy said:
I do realize that English, even for native speakers, can be tricky. I pity those who take it on as a second language.
Sometimes English makes no sense. Answer these questions.

When you buy a pair of shoes, how many do you get?
When you buy a pair of gloves, how many do you get?
When you buy a pair of pants, how many do you get? Why???


Then why isn't it a pair of bras?
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"Aks" rather than ask...
20-something girls who "uptalk" (their voice gets higher at the end of a sentence)
Political "Talking Points"
Blogojevich's hair
Drivers who stop in a merge lane
The HLN Headline News Loop!
Pants below the buttocks!!!

Shall I go on? :mad2:
 
I'm not sure what is the point that the OP is getting at.....
 
With all my gramer mistateks Its a wonder i'm allowed here?
 
All these grammar gods must have a fit reading their text messages.
 
FlySince9 said:
"Aks" rather than ask...
20-something girls who "uptalk" (their voice gets higher at the end of a sentence)
Political "Talking Points"
Blogojevich's hair
Drivers who stop in a merge lane
The HLN Headline News Loop!
Pants below the buttocks!!!

Shall I go on? :mad2:
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!!!!!!

I thought I was the Lone Ranger when it comes to the "up talk" behavior. Agree, also, regarding those who decelerate in the acceleration lane. And no, I am not being culturally insensitive when I object to the pants hanging down... Unless you believe it is important to protect the cultural statement made by imitating penitentiary dress.

---

My top "fingers on the chalkboard" grammatical error: those who cannot distinguish whether they should use "less," or "fewer." Also, remember: Mr. Comma lives inside the Quotation Mark House. He is comfortable there. It is where he belongs.
 
Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe said:
Yea, but "Bravo" sound more pilotie. Things like that are important to Aviation Gods like myself.
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I'm holding out for "talk like a pirate" day when I can answer all ATC transmissions with "arrrrrrrrrrrrr."
 
Palmpilot said:
There are a very few cases where an apostrophe is proper for forming a plural, but they are so few and far between that most people would be better off just not doing it.

http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/apostrophes1.html
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I had an e-mail discussion with Dr. Brians about that subject some years ago. Particulary the issue of using the apostrophe on acronyms. Drives me nuts.

One Short said:
just curious, is it: a "'" or an "'"? :confused:
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touche

Pilawt said:
"I held the yolk all the way back as I taxied on the tarmac to the hanger."

(That made me cringe just typing it. :rolleyes2: )
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And was it tarmac paving on which you were taxiing? Or was it concrete? :D

upstateny said:
rottydaddy said:
I do realize that English, even for native speakers, can be tricky. I pity those who take it on as a second language.
Sometimes English makes no sense. Answer these questions.

When you buy a pair of shoes, how many do you get?
When you buy a pair of gloves, how many do you get?
When you buy a pair of pants, how many do you get? Why???


Then why isn't it a pair of bras?
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I have a collegue from the UK who is fond of reminding me who invented the language. I throw stuff like this back at him as examples of the fine job they did. :D

FlySince9 said:
"Aks" rather than ask...
20-something girls who "uptalk" (their voice gets higher at the end of a sentence)
Political "Talking Points"
Blogojevich's hair
Drivers who stop in a merge lane
The HLN Headline News Loop!
Pants below the buttocks!!!

Shall I go on? :mad2:
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I keep wanting to ask those girls if they are asking a question, rather than making a statement.

Those drivers must be in Denver. I came so close to rear ending so many of them when I lived there in the early 1980s.

Here's one I'm surprised hasn't been brought up. "I could care less". A rather useless statement. If you could care less, why say anything? Now, if you couldn't care less, that's making a statement. ;)
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Pet peeve; flammable is not a word. Inflammable is the correct word. Source Strunk and White's "Elements of Style".
 
Pet peeves:
1. voicemail. I hate listening to someone drone on and on and not just get to the point and end the call.

2. I'm approaching a stop light and the car in the lane next to me decides that he wants to be first in line and pulls into my lane and stops for the red light. So now I have to brake even harder to keep from rear-ending him.

3. My 13 year-old daughter who will mosey at her own pace while I'm antsy, trying to get out the door on time. When she finally gets in the car THEN she gets anxious because she's going to be late for school.
 
rottydaddy said:
I also get really worked up over misuse of "I" and "me". There's a reason why there are two pronouns you can use to refer to yourself in a sentence.

The rule I use for "I" and "me" is simple...
Take the other person (or people) out of the sentence, and say it aloud.
Do you now sound like Tarzan or Tonto?
If so, you need to use the other one. :rolleyes:
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I think some people think if you want to sound intelligent, you always use "I" instead of "me". It drives me batty to hear stuff like, "David went flying with Christy and I."

But the one I REALLY hate is, "After the flight, David came to Christy and I's house".
 
Men who say "we're pregnant". You are not pregnant. SHE is pregnant.
 
As a professional editor, I'm really impressed with all the grammarians here!

So I'll add one of my language pet peeves:

People who say they "could care less," when of course they mean the opposite.
 
Eagle I said:
As a professional editor, I'm really impressed with all the grammarians here!

So I'll add one of my language pet peeves:

People who say they "could care less," when of course they mean the opposite.
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Already covered... #52

Also, Which is worse:

Being at the right place at the wrong time,
the wrong place at the wrong time,
the right place at the right time
or the wrong place at the right time?
 
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Len Lanetti said:
Pet peeve; flammable is not a word. Inflammable is the correct word. Source Strunk and White's "Elements of Style".
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Merriam-Webster diagrees:

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/flammable

According to them "inflammable" has been a part of the language much longer, but "flammable" has been around since at least 1813. :dunno:

Edit: And I see I just stepped on someone's pet peeve from post #64!
 
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Captain said:
Please relax on the grammar. There is genocide going on right now...in that light grammar slips can be forgiven.
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One of the purposes of a trivial complaints thread is to make it easier to focus on more serious matters in all the other threads.
 
Eagle I said:
As a professional editor, I'm really impressed with all the grammarians here!

So I'll add one of my language pet peeves:

People who say they "could care less," when of course they mean the opposite.
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I never heard "I could care less" until recent decades; it was always "I couldn't care less" when I was young. My theory about how the former arose is that it may have started with people saying "as if I could care less," and later got shortened to "I could care less."
 
Sac Arrow said:
I'm surprised nobody's caught it yet. More correctly, "...at which the OP is getting."
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A southern red-neck was admitted to Harvard and was trying to find the library. He walked up to another student and asked, "Where's the library at?" The other student sniffed, "At Harvard we never end a sentence in a preposition." to which the red-neck replied, "OK, so where's the library at, ****ole!"

Something like that? :D
 
Tom-D said:
With all my gramer mistateks Its a wonder i'm allowed here?
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No. :rofl:


In a college writing class I had I took comfort in the phrase "poetic license". Basically, it means you can do and say anything you want, any way you want. :rofl:
 
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Bonanza drivers who park in front of the only gas pump and then go into town for lunch. Grrrrr.
 
My time to vent...........................

1- On a tv interview,,, the host asked questions, the guest answers, at the end of the interview the host says thank you,,, the guest should say

"you are welcome",, but they don't. they all say (thank you).. WTF :dunno:


2- Tv reports on a crime and says the criminal pleaded guilty...
They PLED guilty..........


3- mostly overseas reporters but some here do.....Person was injured and taken to hospital.......
The correct way is the person ( was) taken to (the) hospital..
 
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N801BH said:
My time to vent...........................

1- On a tv interview,,, the host asked questions, the guest answers, at the end of the interview the host says thank you,,, the guest should say

"you are welcome",, but they don't. they all say (thank you).. WTF :dunno:
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I always assumed the guest was grateful for the TV exposure.

3- mostly overseas reporters but some here do.....Person was injured and taken to hospital.......
The correct way is the person ( was) taken to (the) hospital..
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I hear a lot of differences in English usage on British TV. What's considered correct there may differ from what's considered correct here.
 
N801BH said:
My time to vent...........................



3- mostly overseas reporters but some here do.....Person was injured and taken to hospital.......
The correct way is the person ( was) taken to (the) hospital..
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British people don't say THE hospital, just "to hospital" or "in hospital".
I lived there for years too, just differences in English.

British people also put the period at the complete end of the sentence, whereas Americans put quotation marks after the period. They also pronounce the letter Z as "zed". Just some things that popped into my head.
 
I've always wanted to be on a jury to see if lawyers really ask questions the way they do on TV.

Lawyer: "Is it not true that you murdered your spouse?"
Suspect: "No!!!!"

They just confessed!

No, it is Not true = yes, I killed my spouse.

The answer should be "Yes, it is not true."
 
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