Username
bubbha
Member Since
December 24, 2011
Total number of comments
110
Total number of votes received
519
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“Literally” in spoken conversation
- February 19, 2012, 12:49am
"literally" means "according to the face value of the words", so if you said you "literally bumped into someone", it would mean you collided with him rather than merely meeting him by chance.
ye, yer, yers
- December 24, 2011, 7:25pm
In older English, "ye" was the plural of "thee": it was the plural objective case. As such, you can't say "ye are"; thus no "ye're".
"you" was plural of "thou"; it was also the formal singular (like "vous" in French).
Eventually, "thou" fell out of fashion as being too familiar and impolite sounding, and was supplanted by the formal "you". "ye" eventually merged into "you", leaving us with today's all-purpose second person pronoun.
The possessives were "your" and "yours".
There are some dialects of English where "you" is pronounced "ye", so in such a case you would find "ye're".
Perpendicular
- December 9, 2011, 11:03pm
I first learned the word in sense in which it's used in the field of geometry (at right angles to a line). I learned the word "parallel" probably in the same lesson, way back in the mists of childhood memories. Perpendicular being like the opposite of parallel.
To me, that is the primary meaning, and to see the word "perpendicular" without a base reference line/plane of comparison seems odd to me. So, something being "perpendicular to" something else, or mention of "two perpendicular lines" makes sense. But if you say "a perpendicular tree", my reaction is "perpendicular to what?"
make it work
- December 9, 2011, 10:52pm
"Jane’s boss makes the schedule works for everyone."
This is wrong because the third-person-singular inflection "-s" only applies to the main verb (in this case, "make").
Just like in other sentences:
"This helps him perform better"
"I saw her get on the bus"
ta-ta & ho-ho
- November 30, 2011, 11:02pm
The 'real' Dean Andrews (not Candy) says "you got the right ta ta but the wrong ho ho" on actual news film. I have it since it's on the bonus dvd for jfk directors cut. So not stylized.
Had he breakfast this morning?
- November 21, 2011, 10:16am
Yes, it's old-fashioned English. Older forms of English have grammar that's more Germanic in nature.
“hone in” vs. “home in”
- October 6, 2011, 9:41pm
Because the sports media aren't exactly known for high intellect.
“If I was” vs. “If I were”
- September 28, 2011, 10:21am
The subjunctive was drilled into my head, when I was a kid, by that old commercial that went "I wish I were an Oscar Meyer wiener".
Over-use of periods
- July 14, 2011, 12:49pm
It would be nice if the OP could provide examples of period overuse.
As for emdashes, the standard way of representing one, if all you use is plain ASCII text or a typewriter, is two hyphens--with no spaces on either side.
-age words
One I see on those survival shows is "cordage". And some guys say "babeage" when describing high proportions of available young women.