I was in a conversation with a few friends not long ago. I hoped my ears were deceiving me when I heard one of them say, “All of the sudden…”
My head whipped around, but I bit my tongue, even though my English teacher instincts wanted to scream, “It’s ‘all of a sudden’!”
A minor mistake? Maybe. But language is often about being precise. I don’t know any suddens that are specific and would need the word “the” in front of them. There are many suddens in a day, and any story with this would just be “a” sudden.
A few different people over the years have gotten me a little display piece that says, “I’m silently correcting your grammar.” (One student gave me one that had crossed out silently and replaced it with audibly!) It bothers me when some basic English rules are not followed. In some of these cases, people actually think what they are saying, or writing, is correct. Now is the time to disabuse them of this notion.
Another one that my ear has been attuned to is when people say, “For all intensive purposes.” Um, no. The phrase is actually “for all intents and purposes.” The purposes may be quite intense at times, but this is a saying that is just using synonyms to make a point.
Have you ever wanted to cut something off before it gets too far along? A bad idea that could escalate? Well, then you are going to nip it in the bud. You know, like if you take a bud off a plant, that part will not grow anymore. Instead, people are saying and writing, “Nip it in the butt.” All that would do is cause it to yelp a bit, but might not solve the problem!
Irregardless is not a word. It’s just not. Don’t use it. Say regardless instead.
For many years, I was guilty of saying, “If that’s your idea, you’ve got another thing coming.” Imagine my horror when I realized I should have been saying, “You’ve got another think coming.” If you’ve also been saying this wrong, it should become obvious. You have to think about your idea again in order to realize your idea is wrong.
If your feelings about something are not strong, you might say that you could care less. That’s probably not what you really mean. If you say it that way, you are saying there’s a chance you might care about it a little since there is room to care less. What you really want to say is you couldn’t care less, which would show there’s no margin for less caring.
Supposably is not a word. It’s just not. Don’t use it. Say supposedly instead.
This next one is an item that is pronounced correctly, but then is written incorrectly. When you use a contraction like would’ve or could’ve, you pronounce them as if you are saying “would of” or “could of.” Please don’t write them that way, though. Quite often, words are NOT written the way they sound!
If you are debating someone and decide their argument has no real standing, it becomes a moot point. It’s certainly silenced, but that doesn’t make it a mute point, as many people use. Any point can still be spoken, even if it is moot, so please don’t mute the speaker. (At least until the next Presidential debate.)
If you’re looking for someone to blame something on, you’re probably looking for a scapegoat. This term originated in the Bible, when people would release a couple goats into the wilderness to carry their sins with them. The goats didn’t really escape, but were let go. Still, people seem to want to say someone is an escape goat when they use the idea today. I guess an escaped goat could be blamed for things, but that’s not what you’re probably talking about.
My students get really hungry before lunch. But that churning feeling they have in anticipation of a meal is not really pain. It is actually a hunger pang, which is a sudden, sharp feeling. Everyone knows what you mean if you say you have a hunger pain, but are you really hurting?
I don’t even want to get into why you should say buck naked instead of butt naked.
Seven out of ten people say good when they mean well. Students will say they did good on a test. Nope, they did well. Good describes a noun; you could say you had a good test. Well describes how you did something; you did well on your test.
I would be remiss if I didn’t include Leon Schoenrock’s pet peeve when it comes to improper use of words. If you’ve ever been in a store with a line for people who don’t have many items, you’ve likely seen a sign that says “___ items or less.” In reality, it should be fewer, not less. What’s the difference? Fewer is when you can actually count something. You would use less when it refers to something uncountable, like the amount of work you accomplish when you’re working from home.
Of course, there’s an exception to this rule. If you’re referring to time, which involves countable minutes and hours, you use less instead of fewer. English is fun!
Will you change if you make any of these mistakes? It’s hard to do that when it’s ingrained in our heads. We got it stuck in there at some point, and unless we make a conscious effort at saying something correctly many times, it won’t happen.
And I might have to audibly correct your grammar.
Word of the Week: This week’s word is appanage, which means a perk associated with a job, as in, “An appanage of being an English teacher is the right to correct people’s mistakes.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!