Completely unimportant language misuses that bug you

[lio45]

Of course, you could go the opposite: have verbs whose conjugation carries all the information you need, so you don't actually need the prono...

...oh, hey Spanish, I didn't see you there.

FYI, there are cases in Spanish where it can be ambiguous (context in which first person singular and third person singular (which may be used politely to mean someone who normally would be second person singular) all could conceivably be committing the action in question).

(Vast majority of cases, of course, it's clear.)

[dehro]

It might not always carry information in a sentence, but it carries information nonetheless.

I guess it depends on whether he's running with a briefcase

[Vinyadan]

Do Australians really talk like in Waltzing Matilda?

[BWR]

Do Australians really talk like in Waltzing Matilda?

Some clarification, please.
Do you mean 'do Australians use words you have hitherto only heard in the song "Waltzing Matilda"?'
Or 'do Australians formulate their sentences as they do in WM?'
Or 'do Australians pronounce words the way some recording of WM I've heard does?'
Something else?

[Grey_Wolf_c]

Some clarification, please.
Do you mean 'do Australians use words you have hitherto only heard in the song "Waltzing Matilda"?'
Or 'do Australians formulate their sentences as they do in WM?'
Or 'do Australians pronounce words the way some recording of WM I've heard does?'
Something else?

Same.

But I think they are asking if the non-standard words are actually in current use? I'd imagine that bilabong and tucker bag probably are, while, say, jumbuck less so except by people actually keeping sheep.

GW

[Vinyadan]

The question is mostly about the lexicon. The one other thing that I find a bit odd is "that" for "shoved that jumbuck ", instead of "the jumbuck", but it might be to prepare for the question by the trooper later (whose is that jolly jumbuck).

[BWR]

The question is mostly about the lexicon. The one other thing that I find a bit odd is "that" for "shoved that jumbuck ", instead of "the jumbuck", but it might be to prepare for the question by the trooper later (whose is that jolly jumbuck).

Eh, it's not a terribly common way of formulating specificity these days but it's grammatically acceptable and has historical precedence. I'll leave it to the experts to say whether it is appropriate or at least not inappropriate for Australians of the time the song is meant to take place. As for the words, again I'll bow to the superior knowledge of actual Australians but my impression is they do see some use, if not daily in most places. Maybe a bit antiquated.

[Bohandas]

Not a misuse per se, more like something formerly correct that's become obsolete, but I don't like singing Deck the Halls because about half the words in the song are used in deprecated senses.

[Jay R]

Do Australians really talk like in Waltzing Matilda?

Do all Americans talk like they do in "Yankee Doodle"? No, of course not. Nobody I know has referred to a dandy as a "doodle", or talks about macaroni wigs.

Similarly, "Waltzing Matilda" is a song written in 1895 at a cattle and sheep station, using the late 19th century jargon of that place. Modern Australians rarely talk about swagmen, billabongs or jumbucks.

[Peelee]

Do all Americans talk like they do in "Yankee Doodle"? No, of course not. Nobody I know has referred to a dandy as a "doodle", or talks about macaroni wigs.

Maybe you just don't know enough dandies?

[Jay R]

Maybe you just don't know enough dandies?

Giggle. Or perhaps I just don't know enough 18th century colonials using Dutch-influenced slang.

[PunsAndDragons]

My bugbear is the dying use of the word 'alternative' in the UK. It is now being replaced with 'alternate' , which means something quite different.

My girlfriend' (from the US) use of aluminum vs aluminium (I'm from the UK)!

Also, I was brought up with 'tit-anium' which now draws sniggers because it's apparently now 'tite-anium'

[Peelee]

My bugbear is the dying use of the word 'alternative' in the UK. It is now being replaced with 'alternate' , which means something quite different.

My girlfriend' (from the US) use of aluminum vs aluminium (I'm from the UK)!

Also, I was brought up with 'tit-anium' which now draws sniggers because it's apparently now 'tite-anium'

Fun fact! Don't ever say "sniggers" if you come to the States.

[KillingAScarab]

My peeve: when someone claims they have a theory. If anything, they have an hypothesis, and one which they likely haven't tested, yet.

Also, normality and normalcy are interchangeable, but one of those is associated with a 20th century American presidential campaign, so I get mad at it.

[Jormengand]

My peeve: when someone claims they have a theory. If anything, they have an hypothesis, and one which they likely haven't tested, yet.

That's not even a misuse; theory just has multiple meanings and they mean different things.

[Xuc Xac]

Also, I was brought up with 'tit-anium' which now draws sniggers because it's apparently now 'tite-anium'

Yes, your way makes more sense because it's named for the Tittans of Greek mythology.

[VoxRationis]

Overuse of capitalization in writing. A lot of people, I have observed, have a tendency to capitalize words seemingly without rhyme or reason when they're writing. There is no difference in denotative meaning, but I find it incredibly distracting and unpleasant nonetheless.

[Velaryon]

Overuse of capitalization in writing. A lot of people, I have observed, have a tendency to capitalize words seemingly without rhyme or reason when they're writing. There is no difference in denotative meaning, but I find it incredibly distracting and unpleasant nonetheless.

Might this sometimes be a case of people whose first language is not English? German at least capitalizes all nouns (and I think English may have done so in the past as well, because I've seen it in older writing). I wouldn't be at all surprised to learn that other languages also have different rules for capitalization. Perhaps some people are just mistakenly porting those rules into English.

[VoxRationis]

It's quite possible, but German also has that beta-pretending-to-be-double-S character, and it would be pretty unreasonable to port that over into English.

[Aedilred]

It's not confined to ESL speakers. I've known a couple of People who are Fond of the Overused Capitalisation and don't have that Excuse. Perhaps it makes them feel like they're writing something more Official or Important, since it's the sort of thing Lawyers do in Legal Documents.

[georgie_leech]

It's not confined to ESL speakers. I've known a couple of People who are Fond of the Overused Capitalisation and don't have that Excuse. Perhaps it makes them feel like they're writing something more Official or Important, since it's the sort of thing Lawyers do in Legal Documents.

Personally, my autocorrect has Been weirdly insistent about capitalising random words. They aren't even all nouns! I'd turn it off on my phone, if experience hadn't taught me it makes my typo rate worse. I can handle the odd capital if it fixes my o's frequently becoming 9's. Capital B not deliberately added, but deliberately left in for illustrative purposes.

[Wardog]

My autocorrect has been playing up as well. NOT only does it randomly capitalize certain words (as here), it often ignores minor errors that should be correctable, but changes correctly spelled words to other words.

(As a test, in the last sentance I tried deliberately misspelling "ignores" with a z. Autocorrect changed it to "ignored". I changed it to ignores and autocorrect changed it back to ignored. Also, it objected to the closing quotes in the earlier sentance).

As for deliberate over-capitalisation: I think it has a certain charm in historic writing (and when replicating that style). But otherwise it comes across as pretentious. It's often used by people trying to come across as profound when they're really talking nonsense. If someone is talking about "truth", they're probably talking about verifiable facts. If someone is talking about "Truth", they're probably making unevidenced assertions about (their view of) Nature / Human Nature / The Meaning of Life/ etc.

[Aedilred]

Personally, my autocorrect has Been weirdly insistent about capitalising random words. They aren't even all nouns! I'd turn it off on my phone, if experience hadn't taught me it makes my typo rate worse. I can handle the odd capital if it fixes my o's frequently becoming 9's. Capital B not deliberately added, but deliberately left in for illustrative purposes.

Ah, that is a pretty good point. Autocorrect has a lot to answer for.

[Bohandas]

Maybe you just don't know enough dandies?

I think they're called metrosexuals now

[2D8HP]

Overuse of capitalization in writing. A lot of people, I have observed, have a tendency to capitalize words seemingly without rhyme or reason when they're writing. There is no difference in denotative meaning, but I find it incredibly distracting and unpleasant nonetheless.

Perhaps instead of "sentence case" capitalization they're using
"title case" (often called "headline" as in newspaper headlines) capitalization.

Think of the Headlines of Typical Newspapers (title case)

Think of the headlines of typical newspapers (sentence case).

But probably just auto-correct (mine has it as 20th century, but 21st Century for some reason).

[Velaryon]

It's quite possible, but German also has that beta-pretending-to-be-double-S character, and it would be pretty unreasonable to port that over into English.

Ah, the Eszett, as in weiß, Straße, and so on. Well, they älso use ümläüted letters, and we thankfully don't have those in English either.


Back on the subject of language misuses that bug me, have I mentioned how much I hate it when people sub other vowels into the word yes? Specifically "yas," but I've seen "yiss" as well. It's stupid and it makes people who do it look stupid, please stop.

[Peelee]

Ah, the Eszett, as in weiß, Straße, and so on. Well, they älso use ümläüted letters, and we thankfully don't have those in English either.


Back on the subject of language misuses that bug me, have I mentioned how much I hate it when people sub other vowels into the word yes? Specifically "yas," but I've seen "yiss" as well. It's stupid and it makes people who do it look stupid, please stop.

Absofruitly.

[The Extinguisher]

Overuse of capitalization in writing. A lot of people, I have observed, have a tendency to capitalize words seemingly without rhyme or reason when they're writing. There is no difference in denotative meaning, but I find it incredibly distracting and unpleasant nonetheless.

theres a lot of difference in meaning tho. i communicate with people a lot through text, and theres a big difference between, say, a mood and a Mood. its a case of using grammar to imitate tone and even non verbal communication thats not present in text

[Xuc Xac]

Ah, the Eszett, as in weiß, Straße, and so on. Well, they älso use ümläüted letters, and we thankfully don't have those in English either.

Really? Don't be so naïve.

[Rockphed]

Really? Don't be so naïve.

Standard English uses 52 letter characters (upper and lower case) plus a variety of punctuation. Naive is, as an English word, properly spelled with an 'i', not an 'ï'.