'The word pedants' top 10 | It's specific, not Pacific...' blog discussion.

Barter

Flyboy152 wrote: »

Seriously, how is "deteriate" mispronounced, I have never heard it pronounced in any other way.

De-teer-i-or-ate is, as far as I know, the correct way to say deteriorate; is there a word "deteriate"? If so, I expect you would pronounce it as De-teer-i-ate.

Now then, how about people who say mispronounciation instead of mispronunciation, or those who pronounce advertisement as advertise-ment.

juno

jennyjelly wrote: »

People who say "6am in the morning". Is there another 6am that has been kept secret from me?

I would see that as being "in the morning", ie tomorrow. So yes, there are many other 6ams! There's "6am this morning" or "6am yesterday" etc. You could just say "6am tomorrow" but it's just another way of saying it.

jennyjelly

juno wrote: »

I would see that as being "in the morning", ie tomorrow. So yes, there are many other 6ams! There's "6am this morning" or "6am yesterday" etc. You could just say "6am tomorrow" but it's just another way of saying it.

In that case surely you would only need to say either '6 (or 6 o'clock) tomorrow morning' OR '6am tomorrow'. '6am tomorrow morning' would mean that you are saying 'in the morning' twice, given that a.m. stands for ante meridian (sp?) which means 'in the morning'.

Eco_Miser

juno wrote: »

I would see that as being "in the morning", ie tomorrow. You could just say "6am tomorrow" but it's just another way of saying it.

jennyjelly wrote: »

In that case surely you would only need to say either '6 (or 6 o'clock) tomorrow morning' OR '6am tomorrow'. '6am tomorrow morning' would mean that you are saying 'in the morning' twice, given that a.m. stands for ante meridian (sp?) which means 'in the morning'.

What is wrong with a little repetition for emphasis? There are no prizes for conciseness (except maybe on twitter), and repetition is an effective oratorial tool.

KimYeovil

They refuse to use the French of 'clique'. There's nothing like their stupid 50/50 treatment of 'Notre Dame'. But they bizarrely go the whole hog with 'buoy' and deliver a full two syllables version that sounds ridiculous (even if, technically, it does respect the French etymology). What is that about? Crazy Americans.

Even worse is when they use 'buoy' as a verb - I heard someone saying "boo-waying up an argument"!

Barter

'Linguistic Imperialism' I call it - when the foreign word is perfectly pronouncable by someone raised in the U.S.A. but they mangle it to, seemingly, take it over: Spanish for 2 dos becomes dose; Italian pasta becomes parsta, and there's another French one that I forget at the moment.

suttonsaver

Barter wrote: »

De-teer-i-or-ate is, as far as I know, the correct way to say deteriorate; is there a word "deteriate"? If so, I expect you would pronounce it as De-teer-i-ate.

Thanks for spelling this out, I thought flyboy 152 had got the point - but I was mistaken.
Oops again, flyboy 152?

jennyjelly

Eco_Miser wrote: »

What is wrong with a little repetition for emphasis? There are no prizes for conciseness (except maybe on twitter), and repetition is an effective oratorial tool.

If you feel the need for repetition that's fine, I'd go for conciseness every time. To each his own.

Eco_Miser

jennyjelly wrote: »

If you feel the need for repetition that's fine, I'd go for conciseness every time. To each his own.

How many times did you use the word "morning" in the paragraph I quoted? If that's conciseness, give me loquacity every time

Now, 12 a.m. or 12 p.m. annoys me- you can't have 12 in the morning, or 12 in the afternoon, it's either 12 noon or 12 midnight.

John_Pierpoint

What is one minute past midnight?
24:01?
00:01?