Suzanne, I always thought that "my bad" came from basketball, where the player committing a foul has to raise his/her hand, thus publically accepting guilt. [As an aside, my spell checker is upset with "publically" but "publicly" looks wrong looks wrong to me. That, however, if for another page.]

"My bad" therefore means "my mistake". Or is that just my bad?

[From Tom in TX, above...now I'm told someone else is using that name.]

"Yesterday, I cast my net into the sea". I certainly didn't "casted" it.
I'm starting to see the light.
What's the name of this website again?

Having only one tongue, I can't say "texted" in one syllable.

@Stee, You text your mother the other day? Cool. I phone my mother last week. Does that *really* sound correct to you? Rats...now I need to explain my use of asterisks.

@CharlotteGarner, people who think this is currently taught in schools are the type of people who don't capitalize their sentences. Back when I was in school, I "learnED" to add "-ed" to show past-tense. Perhaps that makes me learned? Golly, how shall we pronounce the last word in that last sentence?

"Text message"? What other types of texts are sent? Text pictures? A bit redundant.

I almost think I get it. "Text" sounds, to the uneducated ear, like "texed". But only to people who don't know what a text is. And, yes, I understand that "a text" is a new concept for some. "I texed my mother last week" might sound ok but is clearly incorrect. "I text Mom last week" would sound better as "Me text Ogg last week", assuming, of course, that my mom's name is Ogg, which it isn't, and that we're cave people, which we aren't. Still, the concept holds.

"I texted" -- two syllables -- seems clearly correct; it only sounds incorrect to uneducated people who don't know what "a text" is. Learn at your own pace; I really don't see any hurry.

CitySpeak, I didn't understand your question: "What is the word to describe a person who sets himself or herself above others simply by the use of their vocabulary?"

Do you mean intentionally, like a snob? Or someone who simply outshines others by speaking correctly?

The "L" is definitely not silent in "walk" and "talk". They may not *sound* like l's, but they're not pronounced "wack" and "tack". Come to think of it, there may be places where they *are* pronounced like that. Wall+k comes awfully close to "walk". Similar to "caulk". Some people insist that word is pronounced "cock". As in "Give me your caulk so I can squeeze it until some white goo comes out." I absolutely pronounce the "L"! But "could" has a silent "L".

Peter, you pronounce "fifth" like "fith"? I pronounce both f's. I pronouce "fjord" like "fee-ord", but maybe that's just me. I could argue that savvy is "sav-vy" and not "sav-ee", but agree that it's debatable. I also pronounce the R in February, but mostly to be a smarty-pants jerk, since "normal" people don't.

And while I realize that pretty much all English words come from other languages, I'm bothered, in this thread, by "obviously" French words, such as, well, anything ending in X, and "rendezvous". Wait...what about phoenix? Not a silent x, but a silent o....

I think the proper way to pronounce "tsunami" is "tidal wave". But what about "settle"? I suppose some smarty-pants jerk will say it's "set-tle", not "set-le.

According to Wikipedia, the "j" in marijuana "seem(s) to be an innovation of English"(!) I pronounce it as in "Me and Mary wanna smoke some." Again, we come to regional accents.

@charliemyall
Why can't we use "cliff"?

Fun thread!

"To awaken the masses..." "To beslumber the masses..."
"I was awakened by the alarm." "I was beslumbered by the gentle ocean waves."

@Daniel...Why not just answer the question?

I agree with tim.heuett. New technology spawns new words, which is as it should be.

I really ain't so sure that common usage makes a phrase correct, but at least we're trying to hone in on the question.
And dickshunaries don't got the last say on spellin, neither.

I would think either jealous or naive, depending on the context.

I would assume that "dove" is past-tense for "doff". "Yesterday, I dove my hat to a sweet old lady".

Pronounced with a long "o", not like the bird.