Vocabulary and Grammar Lessons

Monday, September 28, 2009

Almost daily I’ll get a phone call here at work from someone who does not know me personally. They will ask for me by my full name. My first name is pretty easy - Jennifer. However, people seem to have a problem pronouncing my last name. And the iterations are hilarious and sad.

I asked Beau if he encountered the butchering of his name and he laughed and said he did all the time and for his whole life.

So it’s something I’ll deal with for the rest of my life, I guess.

What’s silly is that it is pronounced exactly as it is spelled. It isn’t hard by any stretch. Any 4 year old learning to read with phonics would get it pretty quickly. (Jaynee, get CB to read my name, please. Don’t tell him it’s my name, just put the word in front of him and ask him to say it out loud. Report back how hard it was for him in the comments here. Thanks.) It makes me wonder how many adults we have out there who learned to read by the whole word method and can’t figure out how to pronounce my two syllable last name.

Tuesday, January 06, 2009

This made me laugh out loud.

Thursday, October 30, 2008

On my commute I spotted an unnecessary quote on a minivan. I didn’t have my camera, so no picture.

In Loving Memory
of
“D——A—————-”

Now the sentiment caught my eye because I recognized the name. The man lovingly remembered was a member of my former church and died of cancer last year. Then I spotted the quote marks around his name.

Why?

Monday, June 09, 2008

From Jared:

... the sheer power of their merged cuteness made my eyeballs vomit rainbows.

I love that!

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Witnessed just a minute ago in the Etsy fora:

agry

I think the writer meant agree when read in context. This particular person is a serious repeat offender with bad spelling and poor grammar and anytime I see a post written by them, I don’t even bother clicking into the thread. It’s way too painful. However, I was assaulted in an innocent thread where this person chimed in to support the original post.

*sigh*

Monday, January 28, 2008

sal manilla

The gal meant salmonella, I’m sure, when reading in context.

However, next time I’m clearing out old leftovers, I’ll be on the lookout for sal.

Tuesday, January 01, 2008

Two things seen in the Etsy fora in the past few days:

1. Wow I have a lot ov views!

2. i have a glass murano style foiled appearance pendant i want to yous.

Now on the first one, it could be a simple typo. The f and v keys are near enough to each other on the keyboard.

However, the second one defies explanation, imho. Really.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

In response to my vocab post of yesterday, my father informed me of The “Blog” of “Unecessary” Quotes, which is fantastic and in the blogroll.

From TBoUQ, I found Literally, A Web Log, which tracks the abuse of “literally.” (Is this uncessary quote use?) I know that Jared in particular has a peeve about that, so consider this my public service announcement, friend.

Also enjoyed from TBoUQ:

Bad Parking
Why That Plate?

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

I spend way too much time in the Etsy fora and as a result I have a new vocabulary peeve.

Sell vs Sale

It drives me completely around the bend when someone posts about their latest sell.

IT’S A SALE!!!!! Sale. S. A. L. E.

*sigh*

Friday, December 08, 2006

[via Robbo Llama Butcher]

Monday, November 13, 2006

Beau and I have had some discussions about pronunciation lately. His California upbringing is obvious to me in some of the things he says.

That said, I’m not sure I’m really 100% Northeastern in my speech, although maybe my years in New England rubbed off a bit.

I’ve seen this all over the ‘net lately, hence no credit.

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Beau and I played a game of Scrabble last night while I waited for BB, which came on at 9pm instead of 8pm. For most of the game I had the point lead, but it turns out that he had way better letters at the end because he came back to demolish me.

The funny part was when we were down the last few letters on our racks and he said, “I bet you can take these tiles and come up with a word in less that a minute.”

“You want me to try?” I asked.

He handed me the tiles, which were the two blanks and a C. I took a quick look at the board, found an open T and placed the blank, C, blank in place - TACK.

He cracked up that I managed it so fast. Then I took my last two tiles, an O and an I and placed them behind the blank-K to make KOI.

See, I’m quick with the words, but he gets more points with his.

Friday, March 03, 2006

Last week her boyfriend was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison.

Today, the cell phone bandit is to be sentenced.

Alxandria, Va. (AP) - The “cell phone bandit” returns to court Friday to learn her fate.

Candice Martinez was the woman seen in the infamous surveillance video, chatting on the phone while robbing four Wachovia Bank branches in Northern Virginia last October and November.

The now 20-year-old Martinez has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank robbery and brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence under an agreement with prosecutors.

The plea deal has no guarantees on jail time. Martinez could face life in prison. But her attorney Michael Davis has said they’re hoping the judge will follow sentencing guidelines of eleven.5 to 12-years.

Martinez is due to appear in Alexandria (website - news) federal court. Last week her boyfriend was sentenced to a dozen years in prison for the bank robberies.

Unrelated, what I want to know is how the AP reporter graduated from J-school? Since when is “eleven.5” proper grammar anywhere? Does the AP not have editors?

UPDATE: She got 12 years as well.

Monday, November 28, 2005

Who hasn’t mangled sentences like this?

Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream.

LaCrosse, Wisconsin; October 18, 2000

Monday, November 14, 2005

I’ve noticed a lot of people starting to use the word “persons” when they are referring to “people.” It is starting to bother me a bit because it is sloppy grammar.

Persons as defined by Dictionary.com:

per·son   Pronunciation Key (pûrsn)
n.
1. A living human. Often used in combination: chairperson; spokesperson; salesperson.
2. An individual of specified character: a person of importance.
3. The composite of characteristics that make up an individual personality; the self.
4. The living body of a human: searched the prisoner’s person.
5. Physique and general appearance.
6. Law. A human or organization with legal rights and duties.
7. Christianity. Any of the three separate individualities of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as distinguished from the essence of the Godhead that unites them.
8. Grammar.
      a. Any of three groups of pronoun forms with corresponding verb inflections that distinguish the speaker (first person), the individual addressed (second person), and the individual or thing spoken of (third person).
      b. Any of the different forms or inflections expressing these distinctions.
9. A character or role, as in a play; a guise: “Well, in her person, I say I will not have you” (Shakespeare).

Note that there is not a reference to plural in the definition. That is because the word person is not meant to be plural as these recent offenders have used it. People is the word they really should be using.

People as defined by Dictionary.com:

peo·ple  Pronunciation Key (ppl)
n. pl. people
1. Humans considered as a group or in indefinite numbers: People were dancing in the street. I met all sorts of people.
2. A body of persons living in the same country under one national government; a nationality.
3. pl. peo·ples A body of persons sharing a common religion, culture, language, or inherited condition of life.
4. Persons with regard to their residence, class, profession, or group: city people.
5. The mass of ordinary persons; the populace. Used with the: “those who fear and distrust the people, and wish to draw all powers from them into the hands of the higher classes” (Thomas Jefferson).
6. The citizens of a political unit, such as a nation or state; the electorate. Used with the.
7. Persons subordinate to or loyal to a ruler, superior, or employer: The queen showed great compassion for her people.
8. Family, relatives, or ancestors.
9. Informal. Animals or other beings distinct from humans: Rabbits and squirrels are the furry little people of the woods.

I think that people try to sound smarter than they need and instead they sound dumber than they are. More often than not, the shorter and more common way of hearing a word used is the right way to speak or write. I can’t tell you how many times I would slash through “utilize” and change it to “use” in reports and proposals when I was a technical writer. So make note: “person” is not automatically pluralable (yes, I know that’s not a real word, but you understand what I’m saying there, right?) nor is it interchangeable with “people.”

LATER: I realize that the definition for “people” uses “persons” a lot. I admit that I could be wrong on this one. I tried to verify my grammar check online with no success. I don’t have a grammar book handy. So you other grammarphiles, chime in if you agree or disagree. Maybe it’s just my own preference. But it definitely grinds my ear to hear it.