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

Former_MSE_Helen · 4 April 2011 at 10:34AM

This is the discussion to link on the back of Martin's blog. Please read the blog first, as this discussion follows it.

Read Martin's "The word pedants' top 10 | It's specific, not Pacific | You didn't 'literally' die." Blog.

Please click 'post reply' to discuss below.

brettcta · 4 April 2011 at 11:23AM

i had something of this ilk in my signature and it was removed because someone obviously reported it to a mod. to this day i do not understand why.

bought/brought is my number 1 word cock up hate

oakhouse13 · 4 April 2011 at 11:41AM

Specific/Pacific

A friend of mine once told me about a conversation he had with his son over the telephone. His son was at uni and had called to ask how to spell the word Pacific. What he meant was specific. His father tried to distinguish the word Pacific from specific but because his son was dyslexic and especially so with auditory short term memory his son was unable to process sounds accurately. He could hear perfectly but did not have the ability in his brain that most of us have that enables us to hear sounds, retain them as individual sounds and then put them together as words. He was loosing memory of the s by the time he arrived at the c.

It was a sad phone call hence my friend recounting it to me. His son was extremely frustrated after years of being laughed at for not saying words properly.

lmuk2k · 4 April 2011 at 11:48AM

OK, as we're being pedantic, my pet hate is customers asking the person serving them in a shop or bar "can I get a coffee please?" (or whatever it is that you want them to pass over from their side of the counter.)

"Can I have a coffee please?" is now pretty rare.

architec · 4 April 2011 at 11:49AM

Martin
You have hit one of my most profound hates in the degradation of the English language. The use of the word "like" as punctuation; instead of commas and full stops - Aaaaaaaaaaaggghhh. Every time I point it out to my kids, they turn it on it's head and accuse me of not allowing the language to develop. You have certainly hit a nerve.
The propensity for dropping T's in the communiee, or is it community, and yes I have taken lumps out of my tongue when sat in front of a very well educated young female client who insisted that her requirements were very 'pacific'. - Give me strength.
Any ideas to help re-float this ship that has well and truly gone aground would be much appreciated.

ScarletBea · 4 April 2011 at 12:06PM

Thank you for posting this.
Really.
I'm a foreigner who loves the english language and hates to see it distorted in such nasty ways as your top 10.

Note: I didn't know about the specific/Pacific confusion. Really? The world is worse than I thought

spandit · 4 April 2011 at 12:10PM

Another word which grates on me: "women".
No, it's not a sexist comment – it's the fact that some people don't know the difference between "woman" and "women". If someone refers to themselves as a "women" must mean they're large enough to be two (or more) people.

The sales staff that ask me to enter my PIN number must be used to my facial expressions by now! :mad:

For those who dislike "alot": http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/04/alot-is-better-than-you-at-everything.html

southerly · 4 April 2011 at 12:29PM

lmuk2k wrote: »

OK, as we're being pedantic, my pet hate is customers asking the person serving them in a shop or bar "can I get a coffee please?" (or whatever it is that you want them to pass over from their side of the counter.)

"Can I have a coffee please?" is now pretty rare.

I think that is an Americanism, I find it annoying as well.

I also hate what you see written in the media & even on these forums but (hopefully!) people don't actually say it, 'I'm loving it', 'we're liking it', etc. Probably American also, as in a McDonalds advert of a few years ago.

Tupperware_Queen · 4 April 2011 at 12:35PM

so glad my top hate made it into the list - lend and borrow!!

Tupperware_Queen · 4 April 2011 at 12:40PM

oh, and the giving 110% is like, just kinda, basically, soooo annoying!!!

although to be fair, I got really annoyed with a reporter on Radio 4 who kept insisting that something had been totally decimated - the definition of decimate is to reduce by 10% - so how can something be totally decimated? It would, in theory be possible to decimate what had previously been decimated, but this would always leave 90% intact after each 'decimation' making total decimation an impossibility.

ScarletBea · 4 April 2011 at 12:45PM

Tupperware_Queen wrote: »

although to be fair, I got really annoyed with a reporter on Radio 4 who kept insisting that something had been totally decimated - the definition of decimate is to reduce by 10% -

I'm sorry, but I have to disagree with you. To decimate is to reduce drastically, not just 10%, it's not linked to the 'decimal system'.

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

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