Rest In Peace
December 10, 2020 2:27 am Leave your thoughtsRest in Peace, English language.
I know everything evolves, and languages have come a long way, changed and new words are created every now and then and make it into dictionaries, recognised as standard…but these abominations have been on my mind lately. I plan to add to this list in the future. If you have suggestions, send them through. We can all barf together.
Irregardless: The recent inclusion of this into some dictionaries is vomit-inducing. I was always able to identify woeful pseudo-intellectuals by the use of this when reading their holier-than-thou social media comments. It showed the person spouting off their virtue signal/strawman arguments was trying too hard and, like most simple grammatical errors, made me think they obviously don’t care to self-reflect or improve themselves, lack ser;f-awareness or capacity for reflection. Yes.
WOW, I’m a judgemental old crank when it comes to this stuff. Reading what I just wrote is hilrious. Maybe I need a nap.
“Could’ve went”: One of the worst and fastest spreading diseases on the interwebs. I watch a lot of YouTube videos on crimes, comedy, narrated Reddit stories etc. When recounting things, the narrators say variations of “she could’ve went to the neighbours house for help,” “I know if I’d went to the gym, I’d have bigger muscles.” The word you are looking for is “gone,” you imbeciles. It’s compounding when you see these YouTube channels have thousands of subscribers and not one person in the comment section picked up the issue. I love free speech, all of it, whatever you want to say and however you want to say it. No one should be able to police the sounds that come out of your face…but this irks me.
Could of: Bleh! The phrase is “could have.” I see this a lot with Aussie bogans, text messages and quickly-written rants by people. I hate this.
Tooken: Yes, I shit you not. I have seen comments on social media groups where people use this…word? This one makes me sad. The last time I remember seeing the word was in a group about medical issues. It came from a concerned mother who was upset her daughter was sick. She said “I’ve tooken her to the doctor already but the meds aren’t working.” Tooken. It reminds me of the part in LOTR where Gandalf scolds Pippin for being a dickhead.
“Fool of a took!”
Sickth: People say this IRL. These are usually in parts of the UK. I’ve mentioned this once before, Ed Sheeran says it in one of his songs that’s played ad nauseam on commercial radio. You are not Ed Sheeran, and you don’t even live in the UK. You’re lazy and can’t be bothered saying the X in the word. The word is siXth. When I first heard people saying this online (in videos etc) I had to run it back a few seconds and try to determine what the word was or if they’d made a mistake..but then they would repeat it later in the video.
Ran: “I could’ve ran away.” Replacing “run” with ran is so stupid. It sounds like a young kid desperately trying to say something’s happened to their friend at the playground and they’re stumbling on words and trying to get it out but it’s jumbled because they’re panicked.
Is and are are not interchangable: Grown adults in YouTube videos, even news presenters live at a scene, say things like ” “There is more people here than originally reported,” “Is all those people in there here for the concert?” Writing this at my slave gig…someone across the aisle just said, “There is a lot of problems with that.”
Bought and brought: Another thing people in my regular life say. Quite a few people I know don’t seem to understand the difference, and a couple of them are responsible for educating others in a professional capacity. Bought: you purchased it. Brought: it accompanied you somewhere. If you BOUGHT it, a truck BROUGHT it to you. It’s not hard. Reading it actually confuses me when they text me something like “I brought this cool new game.” Okay…where? Where did you bring it? Oh, you paid for a new game? Ohhhh, that’s what you meant.
Pacific: I was watching a youtuber who analyses movies. He made some good points, drew attention to themes and backstory, Easter eggs and more, but then said “pacifically.”
Special mention: “you’re” and “your,” but they’re so often exchanged by people, it mostly goes without saying and obviously this only happens in text/comments/letters etc. I’ve turned a corner. It makes me laugh and roll my eyes but it used to make me angry! I stopped being so annoyed when I was furiously writing a text, thumbs in a frenzy, angry about something I wanted to recount to a friend and…when I pressed send there was a YOUR…instead of a YOU’RE.
Accidents happen. We do our best editing after we hit “publish.” I’m not going to be hard on myself when there are people walking around saying tooken. XD
Get yours here, dummies! https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/1-Deals-Bought-or-Brought-Worksheets-4200216
TLDR:
*Grammar mistakes happen.
*If you don’t use certain simple words correctly, it makes people (like me lol) think you can’t be bothered with things I respect like self-improvement/reflection.
*Kids in second grade understand the difference between “bought” and “brought.”
*It’s been a tough week. It seems that my content is ranty when I’m stressed. LOL
www.facebook.com/everedenauthor