Results 481 to 510 of 1497
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2017-08-02, 08:48 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2010
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- Dallas, TX
- Gender
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2017-08-02, 09:15 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2015
- Location
- San Francisco Bay area
- Gender
Re: Completely unimportant language misuses that bug you
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2017-08-02, 10:16 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2007
- Location
- The Imagination
- Gender
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2017-08-02, 11:24 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2006
- Location
- Watching the world go by
- Gender
Re: Completely unimportant language misuses that bug you
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2017-08-03, 01:06 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2007
- Location
- France
- Gender
Re: Completely unimportant language misuses that bug you
I love chip cards. I was flabbergasted when I moved to the US and people were using swipe-and-sign cards. I'm so happy that chip cards are starting to be used here as well, anything else just feels weird (I grew up when chip cards were already in common use, though, so I'm sure habit has a lot to do with it).
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2017-08-03, 02:23 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2007
- Location
- Manchester, UK
- Gender
Re: Completely unimportant language misuses that bug you
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2017-08-03, 05:51 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2009
- Gender
Re: Completely unimportant language misuses that bug you
How about millennium - millennia? That one also has millennia used as a singular, although it's wrong.
Originally Posted by J.R.R. Tolkien, 1955
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2017-08-03, 07:17 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2006
- Location
- Germany
- Gender
Re: Completely unimportant language misuses that bug you
Dice IS actually the singular, too. It's become common usage: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/dice
Last edited by GolemsVoice; 2017-08-03 at 07:18 AM.
Si non confectus, non reficiat.
The beautiful girl is courtesy of Serpentine
My S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripjat Let's Play! Please give it a read, more than one constant reader would be nice!
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2017-08-03, 03:31 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2012
- Location
- In the Playground, duh.
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2017-08-03, 06:13 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2006
- Location
- Bristol
- Gender
Re: Completely unimportant language misuses that bug you
When chip and pin first came in, I had been using my card for a couple of years and was instinctively sceptical. Within a relatively short time, I had got to the point where if a retailer didn't have chip and pin (adoption was rapid, so this remained rare) it seemed incomprehensibly primitive. Like with many things, it rapidly reached the point where I had stopped muttering about newfangled nonsense and struggled to remember how we'd coped beforehand.
Similarly, remember paying for stuff in a shop by cheque? I think some shops still take them, but they're the exception and it wouldn't occur to me to do so. I get my chequebook out about once a year these days.
The US can be surprisingly backward and conservative about such things, though, considering that in many respects it's a technological world leader. When I left school in the UK pretty much everyone of my age that I knew had a mobile phone. When I got to my American school a few months later, almost nobody did. A lot of people were still using pagers; I don't think I'd ever actually seen one before and I was baffled by how useless they seemed.
I suspect that it's a form of cultural nationalism. Where tech-innovations are American, they're great and often catch on quickly. When they come from foreign, they're weird and not to be trusted even when they're obviously superior to anyone who's given the new one a go. We're the same here, I guess - but it's funny to watch when it's not happening to you.
I hear it reasonably frequently, but then I spend a lot of time around nerds.GITP Blood Bowl Manager Cup
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Spoiler: Previous Avatars(by Strawberries)
(by Rain Dragon)
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2017-08-03, 06:41 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2007
- Location
- France
- Gender
Re: Completely unimportant language misuses that bug you
I do hear "die". I sometimes forget which is the singular and which is plural and ask, and people all know the answer. But again, that's when I'm surrounded by nerds.
I like that you mentioned cheques. At my previous place, the only way to pay the rent was by cheque. This was so weird, it must have meant they got the money later, especially since we mailed the cheques. It wasn't that way when we moved it, we could pay online back then, but then the managing company changed and apparently the new one didn't do technology. That was very impractical, I'm glad this is over, I'm back to rent being paid without my having to remember it.
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2017-08-03, 09:25 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2014
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2017-08-04, 08:13 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2008
Re: Completely unimportant language misuses that bug you
I would really like to see a game made by Obryn, Kurald Galain, and Knaight from these forums.
I'm not joking one bit. I would buy the hell out of that. -- ChubbyRain
Current Design Project: Legacy, a game of masters and apprentices for two players and a GM.
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2017-08-04, 09:32 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2006
- Location
- Watching the world go by
- Gender
Re: Completely unimportant language misuses that bug you
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2017-08-04, 09:42 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2004
- Location
- The Land of Angles
Re: Completely unimportant language misuses that bug you
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2017-08-04, 09:51 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2007
- Gender
Re: Completely unimportant language misuses that bug you
oh.. cheques... I got a cheques book when I opened my account some 20 years ago.
I just bumped into it today, looking for other things. It's still new, albeit covered in 20 years of dust.
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2017-08-11, 12:16 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2013
- Location
- PST / UTC-8
Re: Completely unimportant language misuses that bug you
This was probably responded to at some point among the pages long ago but I've just wandered into the thread and figured I'd chime while I read through things.
"The exception that proves the rule" simply refers to a situation where because there is a noted exception it proves an unnoted rule most exist.
You arrive at a college campus you have never visited. As you get out of your car in the parking lot you see a picnic table, a cigarette butt can, and a sign that reads "Designated Smoking Area". You can now safely assume a no smoking rule is in effect for the rest of the campus because if there wasn't there would be no reason to designate a specific spot where it is allowed. This exception to the rule proves there must be a rule in place despite that you haven't encountered the rule.I stream RPG sessions, campaign preparation, and world-building via my Twitch Channel and upload them to my Youtube Channel.
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2017-08-11, 01:22 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2010
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2017-08-27, 12:08 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2015
- Location
- An igloo near you
- Gender
Re: Completely unimportant language misuses that bug you
Yup. It's never just "a die" except when I'm correcting someone who asked for "a dice." It is a d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, or d20. Because, if I need a d20 for an Initiative roll, a d8 isn't going to work.
That said, both "could you pass me a percentile die?" and "could you pass me a percentile dice?" really get on my nerves. I cannot pass anyone a percentile die, because we don't have any hundred-sided dice; the person is asking for a pair of d10s, one of which happens to have an extra zero on every side. Those are dice. "A percentile dice" is still wrong, because "a" does not go together with "dice." (Almost everyone in my gamer group says "a percentile dice.")
"The percentile dice" is a bit better, but still wrong because we have more than one set of percentile dice. What I would like to hear is "could you pass me a pair [or a set] of percentile dice?"
Of course, my reaction would still be "I could . . ."
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2017-08-27, 12:21 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Sep 2011
- Location
- Calgary, AB
- Gender
Re: Completely unimportant language misuses that bug you
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2017-08-27, 12:55 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2008
Re: Completely unimportant language misuses that bug you
I would really like to see a game made by Obryn, Kurald Galain, and Knaight from these forums.
I'm not joking one bit. I would buy the hell out of that. -- ChubbyRain
Current Design Project: Legacy, a game of masters and apprentices for two players and a GM.
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2017-08-27, 12:57 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2006
- Location
- 3 inches from yesterday
- Gender
Re: Completely unimportant language misuses that bug you
Thanks Uncle Festy for the wonderful Ashling Avatar
I make music
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2017-08-28, 10:22 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2004
- Location
- Chicago!
- Gender
Re: Completely unimportant language misuses that bug you
If you find yourself watching Power Rangers and wonder how some characters got their powers and zords back for an anniversary episode, just assume they were restored off screen. They have 20+ seasons of team geniuses to call on.
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2017-08-28, 10:57 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2007
Re: Completely unimportant language misuses that bug you
Interested in MitD? Join us in MitD's thread.There is a world of imagination
Deep in the corners of your mind
Where reality is an intruder
And myth and legend thrive
Ceterum autem censeo Hilgya malefica est
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2017-08-28, 12:23 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2009
Re: Completely unimportant language misuses that bug you
Okay, here's one that bugs me to see in writing: having an exclamation mark in the middle of a sentence. Usually when people do it, it's because something has an exclamation mark in its title, and the title is used in the middle of a sentence. Like, "did you see the latest episode of TV Show With An Exclamatory Title! last night?" Maybe it's not really a misuse of language, but it still irritates me to read.
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2017-08-28, 01:08 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2015
- Location
- San Francisco Bay area
- Gender
Re: Completely unimportant language misuses that bug you
The very existence of "d10's" bugs me, as they are not platonic solids.
We used to have "d20's" that went 0 to 9 twice, as is right, good, true, proper, and beutiful.
Stop the madness!
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2017-08-28, 06:03 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2009
- Gender
Re: Completely unimportant language misuses that bug you
Originally Posted by J.R.R. Tolkien, 1955
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2017-08-28, 06:41 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2007
- Gender
Re: Completely unimportant language misuses that bug you
my d100 was rather tiny,, maybe two times the diameter of a regular d20, but ultimately useless. It's not that it wouldn't work... I just never got to use it before it broke.
yes, it was made of two hollow halves, filled with something I can't remember.. possibly sand, or sand-like.. so when it fell harder than usual off a table, it split right down the middle, where the two parts were glued together.
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2017-08-29, 05:49 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2010
- Gender
Re: Completely unimportant language misuses that bug you
A couple of my friends have owned d100's over the years, and all the ones that I've seen were made this way. Perhaps it keeps them from taking forever to stop rolling, I'm not sure. I've never seen one break though, that's unusual.
EDIT: Also, I don't know if I've mentioned this one yet (I'm sure someone has), but "libary." Hate. This. So. Much.Last edited by Velaryon; 2017-08-29 at 05:54 PM.
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2017-08-29, 08:12 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2009
- Location
- Birmingham, AL
- Gender
Re: Completely unimportant language misuses that bug you
The best joke in Scrubs was the two coins that add up to 30 cents riddle. The lunch guy says to go to a libary, gets corrected to library. Then, when the answer is revealed, looks at the janitor and says, "your face is all red like a strawbrerry!" Gets me every time.
Also, friend had a d100. Die in water in exterior shell. Never broke, stopped alright, about the size of a golf ball. Just couldn't tell which number was actually on too. Percentile dice are just so much easier, I never understood why someone would waste their money on a d100.