Can we talk? . . .

by exwitless 107 Replies latest social humour

• 

  Scully

  Another error I see frequently in the written word is the confusion between thenand than.

  Then has many uses:

  "I went to the store, then I returned home." (an action that occurs after another one)

  "The party starts at 11:00. I will see you then." (at a specific time)

  "Take it, then." (equivalent of "in that case")

  "She expected to be late, but then she didn't make an effort to be punctual." (as a qualifier)

  Than is almost always used in the sense of comparing one statement or object to another:

  She is older than I am. X is greater than Y. My car is less expensive than yours.
• 

  Nellie

  Skully, you're really getting into this . . . lol

  CoCo - I did use effect (as opposed to affect) properly! Right???
• 

  Scully

  Skully, you're really getting into this . . . lol

  Not really.... if I was "really getting into this", you'd see me using my moderator tools to edit a lot more posts. LOL This is all supposed to be fun. I hope it stays that way.

  Oh, just saw another one: quilty instead of guilty. I'm sure that quilty is a NOT word, but if it were, one could say something like: My toilet paper is quilty. The convict is guilty.

  Cheers, Scully (must have been a no-nonsense English teacher in a past life)
• 

  Nellie

  You edit posts I'm shocked and appalled

  LOL
• 

  Scully

  Usually - almost always - my own, when I catch myself making a spelling or grammatical error!
• 

  compound complex

  Hello Nellie,

  Thanx for the query (the term we used in proofreading at The House of God, when requesting authoritative information).

  The verb EFFECT means to bring about or to accomplish: "It is your duty as our representative to EFFECT our will."

  "I love the way accents AFFECT the way".... meaning, "I love the way accents INFLUENCE the way...."

  Your interest in correct speech will have a good effect on your listeners; it will effect change for the better and affect how we view one another.

  CoCo
• 

  jgnat

  GEEhovah

  TOW the line instead of TOE the line.

  DISCRETE slave instead of DISCREET slave.

  The misspelled imagery does nothing for me.

  Our current domestic favorite, hubby calls the store "XS Cargo", Escargot. He chops off the extra axe. Again, the imagery does nothing for me, and I shudder every time he says it.

  To the waitresses, he says, "I don't want no...." I cringe every time, but I am hogtied. To correct him in a public place is equally gauche.
• 

  Nellie

  I should of known better then to even try . . . (((snicker)))
• 

  jgnat

  Compound complex, I understand you had your tongue firmly planted in cheek as you said that, but I can't help but wonder about the connection between confused language and plain confusion.

  You know the ones, the distressed people who come to this board looking for direction, focus...and it takes twenty minutes to disentangle their confused language. I literally copy their post in to a word document and painfully break their sentences (thoughts) apart then put them back together in some sensible order. Once the thoughts are in order, the sense becomes clear. Common sense.

  Confused language, confused mind.
• 

  Dismembered

  Greetings exwitless,

  I can think of two that used to really bug me.

  1. "Are you going to meeting tonight?" or "I'll be at meeting tonite.", or "Will you be at meeting tonite?"

  2. Another one was " Are you goin out in the service?" or " I was out in the service!"

  What a bunch of dunces

  Dismembered