Dear Americans: etc.

It's "et cetera", not "excetera".
If you get it wrong, you sound REALLY stupid, like someone trying to seem clever but failing miserably. Just say "and the rest" if you can't pronounce it.

If this applies to Brits as well, consider yourself included.

Thanks.

Also, asterisk, not asterix.

And learn the difference between 'than' and 'then'.

And learn that "et cetera" includes the Latin word "and" (that's what the "et" is), so "and etc." is redundant and ignorant!

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And it's "could have" not "could of".

The mistake comes from people spelling out how the contraction ("could've") sounds.

I see it far too much (both here and in scripts IRL).

For all intents and purposes, not "for all intensive purposes".

I've been meaning to axe you about that.

And "have went," no matter how you twist the construction so they don't come right together, is wrong and ignorant as well!

I see these kinds of errors all the time here on WordForge. And in almost all cases, they are not in posts from people whose first language is not English.

If I hadn't of went to school and learned all that, I would of made lots of mistakes, too!

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Today I took a call from a viewer wanting us to cover his daughter signing her "letter of detention" to attend some university on a softball scholarship.

"Once in a while", not "once and a while".

Shit, I never learned any of this stuff in high school.

Teaching proper grammer, and how to not wreck the English language is a thing of the past.

These days they're more worried about teaching Shakespeare.

And I suppose it's a lost cause, now, to even talk about things like "irregardless" and "a whole nother story"...

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Or the sign in the restaurant thanking us for patronizing them?

My favorite....."it goes without saying....."
and then they say it anyway!

I usually say, "it should go without saying, but..."

"Up and at 'em!"

"Up and at zem!"

"Up and at 'em!"

"Up and at zem!"

"UP AND AT 'EM!"

"UP AND AT ZEM!!!"

"Better."



Also, "begging the question" means the conclusion is assumed by the premises, also called circular reasoning ("Nobody hates chocolate ice cream because everyone likes it"). It does NOT mean "prompts the question to be asked." In 'Batman Begins,' Alfred notes that Bruce Wayne's injuries and strange noctural schedule "beg the question, 'what does Bruce Wayne' do with his spare time'?" What he really should say is "raise the question..."

They're going over there to their car.

You're sure that's your car?

I got in a huge row with some kid over at TBBS who thought he was posting an intelligent discourse on prejudice, but he kept using the word "prejudism" instead.

The more I pointed out the word doesn't even exist, the more defensive he got. He told me it was only my opinion that the word didn't exist , and he didn't give a damn about my opinion. It was hysterical.

I like how you place the two on opposite ends, as if Shakespeare is worthless and a waste of time.

I don't know about you, but children should've learned proper grammar in grade school, before they could tackle the prose of the Bard.

That is a problem as well. Most kids in grade school are not learning proper grammer.

The way papers were marked in high school, teachers focused more on the 'content' part, what you wrote about....and they usually avoided the horrible grammar.

I never said Shakespeare is useless. I'm saying too much of the 'english' class is focused on his writings.

One that I've seen about, that grates whenever I read it;

Ridiculous

NOT

Rediculous.

This reminds me of when I was a delivery boy for a local, underground newspaper.

One day, they were short handed and asked me to edit their writings, and given the red pen, I quickly filled the paper by pointing out grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors. Whole paragraphs were either unnecessary or out of place.

Turns out they just wanted me to make sure there were nothing risque or glaring before they sent it to print. My inner grammarian was disheartened so.

Actually, "rediculous" is quite correct.


...When something was diculous, then wasn't any more, but once again became diculous!

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That is EXACTLY what is happening in grade/high school these days.

I'm not too far removed from it, and I know from talking to kids still in high school that work for me....they have the same problem.

Their papers get graded on content, ideas, how you present it......and not on grammar, spelling and punctuation errors.

I think it would be good for Garamet to read this thread, as she sometimes has trouble with prepositions.

no one understand do and due.

I read this while drinking an expresso.

You've been talking to my wife.

She said EXACTLY that last night.