Be Impeccable: Commonly Misused Phrases That Will Make You Sound Ignorant

[Laura]

Great list and glad to say I am not guilty of using any of those incorrectly.

Laura, I notice you spell our southern word as "ya'll". I have always spelled it "y'all" as in "you all". I grew up in Alabama and we said y'all a lot, but never to a single person as they do on TV. Is ya'll correct or is that a different contraction than for "you all"?

Now that you mention it, seems to me that your spelling is correct and mine isn't.

Y'all means "you all" as in a number of people. Maybe on TV they are just trying to push it over the top to be funny.

 

[Alejo]

Thanks for the list Laura!

I found myself laughing as I read some of these. I must admit that I have fallen in some of those at times.

I remember that when I first moved to the USA I had no clue how to spell lettuce, I used to work at a restaurant and one of my clients went: “let me have a cheeseburger with no lettuce” in my ear it sounded exactly like the word “letters” I spend a few minutes trying to find it on the computer screen “where does it say letters? And whatever does she mean by a burger with no letters? Do they mark the burger patty?...strange country this is...” :P

Then I mastered English (to a certain extent) only to learn years later that I had to re learn Spanish grammar learning keeps us young.

Anyway, I wanted to add another one that I’ve seen a lot on social media: supposably vs. supposedly

 

[SevenFeathers]

I remember that when I first moved to the USA I had no clue how to spell lettuce, I used to work at a restaurant and one of my clients went: “let me have a cheeseburger with no lettuce” in my ear it sounded exactly like the word “letters” I spend a few minutes trying to find it on the computer screen “where does it say letters? And whatever does she mean by a burger with no letters? Do they mark the burger patty?...strange country this is...” :P

That is too funny! But I can see how you could have misunderstood it, especially with all the different kinds of accents in different parts of the US. Southern accents can often be hard to understand (even for those of us who grew up in the south). I remember once while traveling in Alabama, we stopped at a restaurant, one of the steak house types where one stands in line to order then sits to receive the order. As soon as we walked in the door, the girl at the counter about 10 feet away said "do y'all have a collie?" Puzzled we were, why would we bring a dog inside? After having her repeat it a couple of times, I finally understood. She was saying, "did y'all have a call in (meaning a take out order)!

In addition to misused phrases, what about inappropriate punctuation? My pet peeve is seeing an apostrophe out of place, such as "there are many book's in the library". I see that kind of thing all the time at work, in corporate documents and emails. Drives me crazy.

 

[Glenn]

Another one that gets me, is when someone says, axed, instead of asked. Like someone 'axed' you for your phone number... Sounds a bit gruesome.

 

[Ant22]

Another one that gets me, is when someone says, axed, instead of asked. Like someone 'axed' you for your phone number... Sounds a bit gruesome.

My personal "favourite" is punctuation (or lack of it), especially in business correspondence. Meeting "client's expectations" and "clients' expectations" for example.

And here are a couple of entertaining punctuation failures:

 

[treesparrow]

Here's another very common one I see, particularly in emails - your verses you're. Here's clarification -

Your vs you’re

Similar to other pairs like whose and who’s, the pairing you’re and your often causes confusion. In fact, it’s not hard to find hundreds of mistakes bearing this out in the Oxford English Corpus, a collection of examples drawn from around the Internet. Those your vs you’re mistakes include the following:

X You wanted sumptuous and sumptuous is what your going to get.
X You’re last name is Major Darcy?

You’re is a contraction and is short for the two words ‘you are’. The apostrophe stands for the omitted ‘a’ of ‘are’:

√ You’re not in Philly any more, you’re in Detroit.
√ Whatever the reason, you’re in big trouble now.

Your is a possessive determiner and pronoun which means ‘belonging to you’:

√ What’s your name?
√ You can feel on top of the world by setting your own goal and going for it.

One way to do this is by considering whether or not a contraction is necessary. Expand the contraction from you’re to you are and see if the sentence still makes sense. For instance, the sentence You are last name is Major Darcy doesn’t make sense. You can do the same if you’re adding a contraction where it is not needed.

 

[Beau]

Another one that gets me, is when someone says, axed, instead of asked. Like someone 'axed' you for your phone number... Sounds a bit gruesome.

People who say that aren't using the word axed like you are explaining above. It dates back to Old English when ask would also be spelled aks. Chaucer used it in The Canterbury Tales: "Yow loveres axe I now this questioun." In current times it has become part of black American colloquial English, although it is rarely ever written that way but rather spoken.

My pet peeve is advice vs. advise. It's very common for them to get mixed up.

Advise is a verb meaning to give advice.

Advice is a noun meaning a suggestion about what someone should do. It's also worth remembering that advice is an uncountable noun that has no plural form, unlike advise. You can only refer to 'pieces of advice' or 'some advice'.

Advise will always be used as an action in a sentence. I advise you. Advice will occur after the action since it's a noun. I gave advice to you. They are very easy to mix up because their meanings are so similar, but since one is a verb and the other is a noun, it really stands out to me.

 

[mkrnhr]

One subtle distinction that often confounds non-native speakers is the one between "that" and "which".
The difference here is explained in terms of restrictive and nonrestrictive clauses. The trick I was told a long time ago is to read the sentence (in the mind) and if there is a pause before adding a new information, it's a "which". In other words, there is a comma before "which". Very often however, "which" is systematically used in the spoken language.

They got into the van, which had Ohio plates. [nonrestrictive]

I was driving the van that had Ohio plates. [restrictive]

 

[trendsetter37]

Seeing to and too used interchangeably sometimes stands out for me. I guess it's somewhat understandable since they are homophones and nearly homonyms but for some reason it grinds my gears a little.

To vs. Too. To is a preposition with several meanings, including “toward” and “until.” Too is an adverb that can mean “excessively” or “also.” Just to be clear: two is pronounced the same as to and too, but it can't be used instead of either of them because it's a number.

 

[987baz]

Thanks Laura for the thread :)

Another common mistake: to confuse affect and effect.

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/usage/affect-or-effect

Affect and effect are different in meaning, though frequently confused. Affect is chiefly used as a verb and its main meaning is ‘to influence or make a difference to’, as in the following example sentences:

The pay increase will greatly affect their lifestyle.

The dampness began to affect my health.

The weather will affect my plans for the weekend.

Effect, on the other hand, is used both as a noun and a verb, although is more commonly used as a noun. As a noun it means ‘a result or an influence’, as in:

Move the cursor until you get the effect you want.

The beneficial effects of exercise are well documented.

Over time the effect of loud music can damage your hearing.

When used as a verb effect means ‘to bring something about as a result’. It’s most often used in a formal context as oppose(d) to everyday English:

Growth in the economy can only be effected by stringent economic controls.

The new policies did little to effect change.

The prime minister effected many policy changes.

The key thing to remember is that effect is most commonly used as a noun, whereas affect is typically used as a verb.

This is the one that gets me, thanks for the explanation Adaryn.

Most of the others I hear constantly, especially it seems from the younger generation.

Something that occurs quite a bit down here, again with the younger generation, and not usually when they spell it but when they say it is instead of something, they say somethink, and a heap of other words ending in ing become ink, not sure if this is just an Aussie thing or it is international?

 

[BHelmet]

Bonus footnote: It is my understanding that Jibe is a sailing term which indicates a change in course direction, hence, the agree/disagree connotation depending on the usage.

Being a baseball player in my youth I can say that "down the pipe" goes way back before Mario. It connotes: straight down the center/right on target. (if you watch a baseball game with a camera angle behind the pitcher and the pitcher throws a 98mph fastball right over the plate, you can actually "see" it. It is so fast and straight it is as if it was moving through a pipe the same diameter as the ball.)

Lastly, one of my faves:

"To Toe the Line" vs "To Tow the Line"

Kind of similar but slightly different. I imagine Tow the Line is derived from the dudes towing barges on the Erie Canal with long rope lines from land pulled by horses/wagons/men. So I think it means to effort at pulling something ponderous like a really idea bad ideology.

I would bet Toe the Line is derived from the proverbial line drawn in the sand. A sort of boundary challenge. That one must toe the line: to agree with the idea or behavior and not deviate or transgress; such as vaccine dogma.

 

[Voyageur]

There is also the issue of conveyance:

What Is the Difference Between "Bring" and "Take"? {and "have"} http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/bring-versus-take

Whether you use “bring” or “take” generally depends on your point of reference for the action. You ask people to bring things to the place you are, and you take things to the place you are going. As one listener named Simone put it, you bring things here and take things there.

For instance, you don't "take" a bath and you don't "take" the book home from the library.

However, the Grammar Girl has exceptions: http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/bring-versus-take?page=1 that may include "taking a bath."

Exceptions: "Bring" and "Take" in Idioms

I suspect one reason some people are confused about "bring" and "take" is that there are many exceptions to the basic rules. For example, idioms such as "bring someone down a peg" and "take a bath" and phrasal verbs such as "bring up," "bring about," "take down," and "take after" don't comply with the rule that "bring" means to cause something to come to the speaker and "take" means to cause something to go away from the speaker.

Exceptions: “Bring” and “Take” for Future Events

Further, the simple rules fall apart when you consider an event in the future where nobody has arrived yet. Do you bring rum cake to the school bazaar or do you take rum cake to the school bazaar? It simply depends on where you want to place the emphasis of the sentence—which perspective you want to adopt.

If you want to focus on the school and write from the perspective of the bazaar, you bring the cake to the bazaar.

If you want to focus on your kitchen and write from the perspective of home, then you take the cake to the bazaar (which puts the focus on taking it away from your home).

When you start writing about the future and have to choose between “bring” and “take,” imagine where you are in the scenario, and make your word choice based on that location.
The Past Tense of “Bring”

As an aside, the past tense of “bring” is “brought,” as in, “He brought me flowers.” In some regions people say “brung” or “brang,” but it isn't standard English.
What About "Come" and "Go"?

An interesting note is that the words “come” and “go” follow rules that are similar to those for “bring” and “take.”

“Come” is like “bring”: you ask people to come here—to come to where you are. “Go” is like “take”: you tell people to go away—to move away from your location. Aardvark and Squiggly will come to my party, and when Aardvark calls Squiggly, he'll say, “Let's go to Grammar Girl's party.”

 

[Oxajil]

Here's another one: When you use 'didn't' (did not) the verb that comes after it shouldn't be placed in past tense.

So, correct would be: I didn't know. I didn't think. I didn't see. Instead of: I didn't knew. I didn't thought. I didn't saw.

An explanation I found somewhere:

I didn’t know is correct.
I didn’t knew is a common mistake to make.
The simple past is formed by adding -ed to the infinitive for regular verbs, or by using the irregular form of the verb.
The negative and interrogative forms of the simple past use “did”, which tells us it is past, together with the bare infinitive.
So “I knew” (past) becomes “I did not know = I didn’t know” (negative) and “did I know?” (question/ interrogative).

Still learning myself! :)

 

[Alana]

I had a good laugh with all y'all's lists, especially the phrases/words that I now realize that I have been using wrong all this time So thank you!

I remember that when I first moved to the USA I had no clue how to spell lettuce, I used to work at a restaurant and one of my clients went: “let me have a cheeseburger with no lettuce” in my ear it sounded exactly like the word “letters” I spend a few minutes trying to find it on the computer screen “where does it say letters? And whatever does she mean by a burger with no letters? Do they mark the burger patty?...strange country this is...”

That's so funny! It is very comical at first when you try to communicate in a language you are still learning, and I also have a few experiences like this with english.

When I was at the university in the US I wrote a paper using the phrase "the bondage between mother and child". I don't know where I heard the word bondage, but I took it to mean bonding. My professor wrote me a polite note describing what bondage actually means

Recently I was watching a movie where the phrase "scullery maid" was used, but the way I heard it and repeated it to my husband later, was "scollarly maid".

 

[SevenFeathers]

Recently I was watching a movie where the phrase "scullery maid" was used, but the way I heard it and repeated it to my husband later, was "scollarly maid".

She could have been a scholarly scullery maid who was very interested in learning and had to be a maid to pay for her education.