Words......

[theos]

How about "unthaw", which would mean that you're going to freeze it.

So taking some chicken out of the freezer to unthaw is absolutely not going to work! :D

I grew up saying this.

 

[Approaching Infinity]

The one that bugged me growing up was "I seen it on the TV!"

 

[Guardian]

The one that bugged me growing up was "I seen it on the TV!"

People who say "ya'll" when everybody knows it's "yawl" ;D

 

[Renaissance]

How about "unthaw", which would mean that you're going to freeze it.

So taking some chicken out of the freezer to unthaw is absolutely not going to work! :D

Hey, I unthaw chicken all the time!

 

[Nienna]

How about "unthaw", which would mean that you're going to freeze it.

So taking some chicken out of the freezer to unthaw is absolutely not going to work! :D

Hey, I unthaw chicken all the time!

Really??? How interesting. :D

 

[Bluestar]

Actually, "do you see what I'm saying" is something that is said by those who are equally visual and abstract in their thinking. They describe with words and hope that their listener has built up a mental visual image of what they are describing.

yes and I at times use it myself. For me it not a bothersome quote, but that if read in a literal way it is amuzing.

 

[ignis.intimus]

How people answer "Do you mind?" always bugged me. Ask someone if they mind if you sit down, and they say yes or sure, when they obviously don't mind.

People who say "ya'll" when everybody knows it's "yawl" ;D

I do that, or y'all :D I'm not from the south so it sounds more like ya'll then yawl when I say it, so that's how I write it.

 

[wanderer33]

There are many colloquialisms and manners of speech in Australia. I don't mind the quirks of speech. However, I don't like it when people use a lot of expletives in their speech. Although this is not as common as it was in the past.

 

[Laura]

It's ya'll meaning you all. :D

 

[Beau]

One mistake I see used a lot here on the forum is advise vs. advice.

Advise is a verb:

–verb (used with object)
1.
to give counsel to; offer an opinion or suggestion as worth following: I advise you to be cautious.
2.
to recommend as desirable, wise, prudent, etc.: He advised secrecy.
3.
to give (a person, group, etc.) information or notice (often fol. by of ): The investors were advised of the risk. They advised him that this was their final notice.

Advice is a noun:

–noun
1.
an opinion or recommendation offered as a guide to action, conduct, etc.: I shall act on your advice.
2.
a communication, esp. from a distance, containing information: Advice from abroad informs us that the government has fallen. Recent diplomatic advices have been ominous.
3.
an official notification, esp. one pertaining to a business agreement: an overdue advice.

Incorrect usage would be to say: Thank you for giving me that timely advise.
Another: I advice you to not go.

You cannot give advise. You can give advice.

 

[dant]

Proper use?

The investors were advised of the risk.
The investors were given advice of the risk.

 

[Mountain Crown]

Proper use?

The investors were advised of the risk.
The investors were given advice of the risk.

Both sentences are ok.

 

[alphonse]

The over use and the improper use of exclamation marks!!!
(sadly, guilty of that one myself on occasion!!!!!)
Al

 

[Zadius Sky]

The error of ending a sentence with "you know?" (and this kind of incomplete sentence structure.)

That kinda bugs me when people talks like that to me in person, especially when I don't know what they were talking about and they were expecting that I would know what they were talking about and they gets upset if I told them that I didn't know what they were talking about.

I'm not a very good expert on English language, let alone any other languages. I've absorbed from what I read and hear. The problem is that I can't hear myself very well (due to my hearing loss). I still mispronounce certain words and still never gets them right. For example, whenever I came home from hiking, I would say "Oh, man, I'm so sword" when I actually meant "sore." And, I still never get it right. :)

 

[HowToBe]

Hmm, I'm not sure whether I use "unthaw" or not. I think I usually say "thaw out", but I never realized unthaw was wrong.

Recently words have really been coming to life for me. I will say or think a word and suddenly want to know why that word means what it means. The Online Etymology Dictionary by Douglas Harper has been very helpful for this. Learning the etymology of words really clarifies them and reveals things that definitions cannot, particularly connections to original meanings and to other words. So I've begun thinking of words in terms of root words, trying to notice when words are connected, and then checking etymology to see if I'm correct. Also, considering words in terms of their sounds is interesting; there are connections between the meanings of words and the consonants and vowels used in them, although they are very loose.

Some examples of my word-connection discoveries;

infer : transfer : defer : refer - all connected by the Latin "ferre", meaning 'to carry or bear'.

polite : politics - I was surprised to find that the dictionary didn't present any direct connection between these words. Polite comes from Latin "politus" meaning 'polished'. Politics comes from Latin "politicus", from Greek "politikos", both meaning 'of citizens or the state', from Greek "polites", 'citizen', from "polis", meaning 'city'. I still suspect a connection between the two words.

several : sever : separate - all connected by Latin "separare", 'to pull apart', which is from prefix "se-", meaning 'apart' (connected to the word "secret") and "parare", meaning "to make ready, to prepare" (root of the word pare as in "paring knife").

happy : happen - both from 14th century word "hap", meaning 'luck, chance'. Afterwards I realized that "haphazard" is also related, which the dictionary confirms. This last definition is perhaps the most interesting from an esoteric point of view, as it connects to Gurdjieff's teaching that man is a machine (and that mechanical action is chaotic) and everything "happens" through him rather than being done by him.


In Daniel Tammet's book, Embracing The Wide Open Sky, he cites some research indicating that people have natural tendancies and instincts concerning the sounds that make up words, and that sound does relate to meaning. I'm finding the concept fun to explore a bit. The following are just my observations.

The sounds of 'i', 'e', 't', and 'k' seem to be often connected with smallness and pointedness, whereas 'o', 'u', 'b', and 'L' tend toward the large, round, and powerful. The letters 'a' seems to swings around a bit, but seems to often express length, rigidity, and squareness, and combines with letter 'L' a lot.
tiny, teeny, twinkle, sprinkles, sip, tip, pin, tine, tick, inch, kit, mite, tike, spike, stick, bit, spite, spit, needle, knit, trickle, chip, girl.
round, bounce, ball, huge, block, loud, rush, boulder, chunk, crowd, power, tumble, rumble, crumble, thunder, hour, tower, plow, bomb, spoon.
small, tall, mall, stall, large, barge, charge, all, wall, law, lasso, margin, saw, man, rail, tail, scale, sail, tape, late, massive, flat.

Anyway, it's sort of interesting to me, although learning etymology is the most useful, I think.