Please state in which country your phrase tends to be used, what the phrase is, and what it should be.
Example:
In America, recently came across “back-petal”, instead of back-pedal. Also, still hearing “for all intensive purposes” instead of “for all intents and purposes”.
Oh my goodness, someone pointed this out on Tumblr years ago, but it desperately needs repeating:
Dear English Language Fanfic Writers,
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Wanton: an unrestrained desire, usually of a sexual nature.
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Wonton: a type of dumpling found in Chinese and East Asian cuisine.
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I
couldcouldn’t care lessHold
downthe fortThe proof
is in the puddingof the pudding is in the eatingelon muskTwatIn the USA and other English-speaking countries: weary =/= wary.
For example, I’ll see someone write something like: “I am weary of the campfire because it is so hot”
You aren’t tired of the campfire! You are wary of it!
I don’t generally correct people’s spelling or pronunciation but something I’ve noticed occurring more and more lately is people using “loose” when they mean “lose” and it gets under my skin for unknown reasons
In American English:
I left them know
I’m just leaving you know
No, no, a thousand times no!
You LET them know. You’re just LETTING me know.
Also, they were driving and hit the breaks. Their car needed new break pads.
Just letting y’all know, it’s BRAKES that stop a vehicle.
If the vehicle breaks, it’ll stop, but that’s not the system built into the car that makes it stop on purpose at the press of a pedal.
People capitalizing Random Words for emphasis, as if they’re Proper Nouns.
Also getting ‘a’ vs ‘an’ wrong. It follows pronunciation, not spelling; so it’s “a European” and “an honor”.
Irregardless
“Most best”
I’m still confused that reckless driving causes wrecks.
i feel like we should be able to beat the living shit out of people intentionally spreading political misinformation.
Like im sorry, this may not meet instance rules, or whatever, but like, holy fuck, the amount of shit you can just lie about, without people asking question, kneecaps should’ve happened years ago, what the fuck are we doing bro.
Idk if this counts as a phrase, but on the internet, people talk about their pets crossing the rainbow bridge when they die. That’s not how the rainbow bridge poem goes. Pets go to a magnificent field when they die. They are healed of all injury and illness. When you die, they find you in the field and you cross the bridge together. It’s much sweeter the way it was written than the way people use it.
“per say” vs “per se”
About 1 in 3 posters here say “loose” when they mean “lose”
This thread peaks my interest.
I hope my words
piquedsomeone else’s interests more.I don’t do it that much anymore as I learned to enjoy the freedom of using language, but I recently watched a miniminuteman video where he says pause for concern. which kinda makes sense so it’s an eggcorn: something that would cause concern would hopefully also make one pause for a moment.
apparently this is a commonly misheard phrase though this was the first time I heard someone say it.
Americans saying “I could care less” instead of “I couldn’t care less”.
I’ve seen so many attempts at justification for that one online but I can’t help but think that those people just don’t want to admit that they’re wrong.
I say “I couldn’t care less”, but I used to think that “I couldn’t care less” was used in context where someone seemed like they don’t care and they give that as a snarky remark, implying that they can care even less.
I also like the bonus “hold down the fort” at the end.
Because as you know, it’s an inflatable hover fort and, once relieved of my weight, it might float off into the sky.
I agree that this is very vaguely irritating, but for me it only differs by one sound and a vowel quality
“I couldn’t care less” [aɪ̯.kɘ̃ʔ.kɛɹ.lɛs] vs “I could care less” [aɪ̯.kɘ.kɛɹ.lɛs]
Came here to share this one too
I care a tiny bit. I could care less, but not easily.
I say “I could care less” and then follow it up with, “but I’d be dead”. Correcting “I could care less” is dumb because you literally can care less about lots of stuff, but saying the phrase indicates you just don’t really care.
I could care less, but then I wouldn’t care at all…
Idk why hoes mad at you this is the cleverest way to mix up the saying while keeping it’s intent.
Doesn’t this make sense if someone says it in a sarcastic manner?
No
