Re: Off Topic: English Grammar, Spelling, colloquialisms, etc.
- Posted by useless_ Apr 10, 2012
- 4545 views
So there was a child psychologist on tv, and she said "blah blah mini psychologists blah blah", and i was thinking, ok, this is code for "child psychologists" or "short-statured psychologists", because she is 5ft tall in high heels, and treats children. Maybe it's a phrase in anime or Pokemon or TransformerBots or such genre. But later on her discussion isn't at all about the children or her own tallness, and to make a long story short, she meant "many" instead of "mini" (they are pronounced differently), and i quit listening, threw out the mental gymnastics of post-correcting her monologue, and turned the tv off.
There was once a medical doc on a tv show, very eloquent, perfect enunciation, of the darker-skinned sort of human (aka black, african-american, etc), and i mention her skin tone only to relate there is a group of people who somehow got it unto their heads that to end a word with a "d" sound is "ghetto sounding", especially if the word ends a sentence. This woman had not fallen for this before, but one day ended a sentence with "blut". Since she had never mispoken before, i figured this was a new word i did not know, and eagerly awaited a definition. She didn't give a definition, but said it again. I spent 20 minutes with google looking for medical references to "blut", trying different spellings, and i could not find the word. Sadly, as you prolly (Brit informal slang) guessed by now, she meant "blood".
Tv commercial, guy says "CompanyName were experienced in blah blah", and i am thinking, glad to know you are no longer experienced. But the way he went on, i realised he meant "we're". He most likely didn't know the difference between "were" and "we're", always wrote "were", and so pronounced both words the same. I won't buy from him. If he cannot find the proper words to describe his company and product, how can i know he can properly read or write the instructions on installation and use of his product? What if his instructions include using "mini screws" to attach the product, when what is needed is a fair amount of 3.5 inch #10 deck screws?
Another set of words almost everyone messes up is "moral" and morale". One word means ethics, the other means state of well being, and the words are not pronounced the same. I keep hearing, and seeing in print, people who get into a bind needing ethics support, when i'd have thought they needed a bit of support in their mental outlook towards the problem. They wouldn't need "moral support", but they may need "morale support".
useless
