this post was submitted on 29 Jan 2025
254 points (94.4% liked)

Ask Lemmy

27799 readers
1815 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Please state in which country your phrase tends to be used, what the phrase is, and what it should be.

Example:

In America, recently came across "back-petal", instead of back-pedal. Also, still hearing "for all intensive purposes" instead of "for all intents and purposes".

(page 4) 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Bosht@lemmy.world 35 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Idiots misspelling lose as loose drives me up the wall. Even had someone defend themselves claiming it's just the common spelling now and to accept it. There, their, and they're get honorable mention. Nip it in the butt as opposed to correctly nipping it in the bud.

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] Kagu@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

"that begs the question". I wish people would just use the more correct "raises the question", especially people doing educational/academic content. I hear it across the English-speaking internet

load more comments (2 replies)

Haha is this a follow up on that one post with the OP writing "back-petal"?

[–] noxypaws@pawb.social 4 points 23 hours ago

"addicting"

[–] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 2 points 20 hours ago

The vast majority of these issues could be solved if people a) read any halfway-decent book, b) and didn’t choose to remain willfully ignorant. It’s fine to misunderstand or just not know something. We’ve all been there, we’ll be there again. NBD. But to be shown or offered the correct way and still choose to do it wrongly? That’s not cool at all.

[–] brap@lemmy.world 126 points 1 day ago (11 children)

Americans saying "I could care less" instead of "I couldn't care less".

load more comments (11 replies)
[–] BenLeMan@lemmy.world 25 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Alot is not a word.

Also, the vanishing use of countable quantities: they are all amounts nowadays.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] viralJ@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago (7 children)

I'm not entirely against it, but I'm amused by how common it is to put "whole" inside of "another", making it "a whole nother". Can anyone give any other use of the word "nother"?

[–] rickyrigatoni@lemm.ee 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Maybe it works like fucking

A-fucking-nother

A-whole-nother

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (6 replies)
[–] dharmacurious@slrpnk.net 36 points 1 day ago (2 children)

There is no fucking s at the end of "anyway"

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] Hossenfeffer@feddit.uk 14 points 1 day ago (3 children)

People using 'yourself' and 'myself' instead of 'you' and 'me' when trying to sound formal or posh. You don't sound formal or posh, you sound ill-educated.

[–] SLVRDRGN@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago

Have you a merry little Christmas, commoner.

[–] viralJ@lemmy.world 11 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I remember once being on a call with some customer support guy who didn't seem to even be aware that words "you" and "me" exist. My favourite part of the conversation was when he said "let myself put yourself on hold while I ask a senior colleague to clarify this for myself".

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] shyguyblue@lemmy.world 101 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (10 children)

"Could of..."

It's "could have"!

Edit: I'm referring to text based things, like text and email. I can pretty much ignore the mispronouncing.

load more comments (10 replies)
[–] ICastFist@programming.dev 7 points 1 day ago (2 children)

They're, you're

Sneak peek

In portuguese: mas/mais - people often use "mais" (plus, sum) when the correct would be mas (but)

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] whotookkarl@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (5 children)

Yeah /yĕ′ə, yă′ə, yā′ə/ is a different word than Yea /yā/

[–] RBWells@lemmy.world 32 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Discreet vs Discrete used to crack me up on dating sites. All those guys looking for discrete hookups - which kind of makes sense but I am sure is not what they meant.

I literally ground my teeth today because I got an email from a customer service person saying "You're package was returned to us". Not a phishing email with an intentional misspelling, a legitimate email for a real order I made. If it is your JOB to send messages like this they ought not have misspellings.

So the context matters to me. I am more tolerant of spelling errors and mis-phrasing in everyday life than in a professional communication.

[–] Feathercrown@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

they ought not have misspellings

Wouldn't it be "ought not to"?

[–] RBWells@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Why no! In the negative (ought not) you don't need the to.

[–] Feathercrown@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

Neat. That gives me old British author vibes

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] KittenBiscuits@lemm.ee 23 points 1 day ago (16 children)

Using weary/wary interchangeably. I am tired of people not being aware of the difference.

Also, "decimated". The original usage is to reduce by one tenth. It didn't mean something was nearly or totally annihilated, but thanks to overuse, now it does.

load more comments (16 replies)
[–] tiredofsametab@fedia.io 72 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Please state what country your phrase tends to be used

Please state in which country your phrase tends to be used...

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 61 points 1 day ago (5 children)
load more comments (5 replies)
[–] leaky_shower_thought@feddit.nl 29 points 1 day ago (7 children)

affect vs effect.

the usual case for effect is as a noun, and for affect, as a verb.

[–] RisingSwell@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

I've been told which is which 50 times and in 12 seconds I'm gonna have no fucking clue again so I'll just pretend effect is the only option.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Stovetop@lemmy.world 24 points 1 day ago

Just to clarify the exceptions to the general rule:

effect as a verb: to cause or bring about

This policy effects change.

affect as a noun: a display of emotion

She greeted us with warm affect.

load more comments (5 replies)
load more comments
view more: ‹ prev next ›