Languages and those who violate them

[Rusty]

My dick's cleverer than yours, Captain Mafia

And it looks like my dick's even cleverer than yours. *moderator's pet*

 

[Dark_Jester]

No, it just knows where to stick itself :Smokedev:

 

[Rusty]

That too.

It has reminded me of another annoyance though, when it comes to writing/typing. Its versus it's. Grrr. Even worse if it comes to it'self. I might not be a complete grammar Nazi, but I do try to be an apostrophe Nazi.

 

[Northern Lights]

@rahvin: Oh, I'll be ranting too much myself to notice

Oh! Another thing about Swedish! If you want to say "I will try to land the plane" in swedish you say "jag ska försöka att landa planet". So verb + att = verb + to (most of the time anyway).
However, when speaking most people tend to say "försöka å" instead of "försöka att". That's ok, it's just a contraction. Although "å" is also used when speaking and saying "och" (really pronounced 'okk', sort of), which means "and".
Recently I've noticed that some overambitious tv-people (reporters etc.) who wish to overpronounce everything have started saying (for example) "försöka och". "jag ska försöka och landa planet". try and. so you will try something, what I don't know since you're not telling me, but you will also land the plane? interesting. silly person.

 

[lord667]

I hate the word "innit", as in:

"Did you watch that programme on TV last night?"
"Nah, we was Jus's party last night, innit!"

And any word which was created specifically to be politically correct also tends to annoy me. Twisting the language to make it gender-neutral is a dirty habit.

 

[Tebus]

I can only speak about English, but for me the most irritating thing by a country mile is "I could care less". And some people realise it's wrong but go right ahead and carry on using it, and don't care that they're actually saying the exact opposite of what they truly mean. Such a violent and sordid rape of the language, it makes me physically cringe whenever I see it. Thankfully it seems to be an American thing, since I can only remember seeing/hearing Americans using it. It hasn't invaded these shores yet, but I'm sure it will soon. Just like the stereotypical American blonde cheerleader talk of "that's, like, SO cool" which is spreading like wildfire over here. "Like", eurgh. It's not like so cool, it either is or it isn't. You shouldn't be like an adjective, you should be like a noun. "That's like something cool", yes, much better thank you. Or, how about "it was, like, 4 months ago". What, "it was as if 4 months ago"?? I beg your pardon?? Or, "and I was like 'mum, get out of my room', and she was like 'no' and..." FOR GODS' SAKES you cannot replace "I said" with "I was like" and pass if off as even remotely barely-adequate English.

Dammit I'm getting all flustered now, I need water.

Wow... I thought I was the only one that gets an urge to kill someone everytime I hear someone say that. It means nothing! >:-|

 

[Lina]

Or, how about "it was, like, 4 months ago". What, "it was as if 4 months ago"?? I beg your pardon??

*ahem*

In that case, like means approximately. "It was, oh, I don't know, like, 4 months ago." Maybe I'm just making excuses for myself , but no, I really think that's legitimate in conversation (as opposed to a formal paper). I agree with the rest of your "like" rant, though.


I've got a good one. A certain "papa" of the Off-Topic forum consistently makes this mistake, even after it was pointed out. (God, that irks me. )

"Could of"
"Would of"
"Should of"

I just don't get how someone cannot understand the patterns underlying basic language skills.

Obviously an occasional mistake is perfectly innocent, but there are several people who I don't think have ever typed an error-free post -- even those who claim to proofread every post they make! (I conducted a poll, moreso to point out that people should proofread. )

The only people who claim you can't infer personality traits from people's sloppy posts are the ones making the sloppy posts. :Smug:

 

[Arch]

@Northern Lights: Thanks for the pointers. I'll be more educated as a svensk learner.

 

[Thanatos]

I don't speak (and write in) english as good as I'd like, but still, it annoys me a lot when people write or say your instead of you're

edit: right, Nick?

 

[rahvin]

@ben; rusty: your dicks are cleverer because they've been in a lot of dangerous places.

(I conducted a poll, moreso to point out that people should proofread. )

i never proofread. well, maybe one post out of thirty.

The only people who claim you can't infer personality traits from people's sloppy posts are the ones making the sloppy posts. :Smug:

that's very true, exactly like those who claim all the while that logic isn't everything are those who can't use it at all.

 

[Child of Time]

@Northern Lights: Thanks for the pointers. I'll be more educated as a svensk learner.

(In the spirit of this thread: ) It's supposed to be svenska learner! *beats Arch's fingers with the pointer*

 

[Miolo]

And Italians! Italians who speak English!!!
(Falls off chair, and falls to the floor giggling hysterically, tears pouring out of his eyes while muttering 'mama mia!' over and over again)

that's why i never speak english, unless i'm forced to. you insensitive bastard.

*back to the original topic*

i hate it when, in italian, people don't use the proper verbal forms. subjunctive exists, use it.

 

[Child of Time]

Ahh, grammar fasiscm in all its glory, splendour and beauty.
In most cases, not only when it comes to grammar, I care more about if I follow the rules than if other people follow the rules.

 

[Northern Lights]

@Soulburner: I've been told by various russians that I've met that most of them have a really difficult time learning how to spell correctly, mostly because that annoying similarity between a and o but also the 'ь' is quite difficult to place... And I agree that there are many stupid rules even more so than in German, which I for a while thought was impossible. The Junge-Gruppe, anyone? Or indeed, why not put all male living creatures in the genetive when they're really in accusive (as russians do)?

Anyway, I apologise for my previous example, since "try and land" would have been accepted in english. If I say "we decided and take the car", it will maybe make more/less sense, since that's what some silly Swedes tend to say nowadays...

 

[Wolfman Von Jones]

Your right Lu . I think I basically hate anything that peope add a S to at the end of the word when there should'nt be one, like "Hey, thats mines."

Nick

 

[Miolo]

@Soulburner: I've been told by various russians that I've met that most of them have a really difficult time learning how to spell correctly, mostly because that annoying similarity between a and o but also the 'ь' is quite difficult to place... And I agree that there are many stupid rules

i agree. the whole spelling in russian is ridiculous. first of all, if i don't know where the accent is, i can't pronounce properly the word. then, all these stupid signs like ь, ы, ъ and й are incredibly confusing.
i'll never be able to write/speak proper russian.

 

[Rusty]

In that case, like means approximately. "It was, oh, I don't know, like, 4 months ago." Maybe I'm just making excuses for myself , but no, I really think that's legitimate in conversation (as opposed to a formal paper). I agree with the rest of your "like" rant, though.

But there are plenty of alternatives to use that don't break up the flow of the sentence. People use "like" in that sense and they automatically put gaps in the sentence: "it was.... like...... 4 months ago". Why not just use "about" and let it flow freely: "it was about 4 months ago"?? You never get "it was like 4 months ago" flowing like that. Besides, whether it's legitimate in conversation or not, it still makes me want to break things.



This is my whole post. I didn't say anything else. Honestly.

 

[rahvin]

It's a bit of a bugger, and I certainly don't mind if non-native speakers get it wrong (and that goes for anything else in the language too, all of my mini-rants were aimed at native English speakers ).

in fact i think that, precisely because the use of "like" you reported disliking is very colloquial, non-native speakers get to know about it much later in their education in english. somehow, this makes it look a little more appealing than the more correct schoolbook sentences using "about" and "such as" as substitutes, or none at all when they're not needed. so the non-natives probably feel that they're more "into the language" if they're using a sentence structure they can actually hear in the streets every day. i know i am instinctively drawn towards such expressions myself, even though i would still not dream of using them for anything official.

 

[Legende]

About Särskrivningen that you talked about, I'm only a beginner with swedish but I took the habit never to separate them. I know that when they stick to each other, it's more difficult to read, and also to understand in the mind so we separate it as a sort of playschool version of swedish.

Eventho it helps separating, I force myself not to! Like when I write Härskaresteknisksnivå while in english it's "härskare's technical level" lol

But the other story is that when talking muntligt the correct swedish is to pronounce correctly individually. But I heard some swedes erase some letters OR pronounce multiple words as if they were one word. And when I hear the teacher pronounce correctly word by word. Like: 'hur säger du' is 'hur säger du' And there's no big mystery! BUT I took the habit to do it the "wrong" way. That because I heard swedes pronounce as if it was one word, i heard it was faster, and so I started doing it and now I cant stop doing it lol
'hur säger du' I pronounce it like 'hu'rshäge'ðu' with the same D as "ord" or "bord" (integrating the R into the way I pronounce the D') A girl told me that it's not correct but that swedes do it that way. Can you guys tell me if it's not true?

And about försöker att, I see it often without any ATT. like... jag försöker skriva något. About the försöker och, it's like in english... try and do something instead of try to. I think that "try and do" is a shortening of "try to do it and finally do it" as if it was adding an optimism like... "I will try to succeed AND I WILL SUCCEED" lol anyway...

 

[Legende]

Oh one last thing, you swede facist fucks!! lol

Since I'm really motivated to learn swedish, I wondered if I could add your msn's to my list... it wouldn't be of any big interest for you unless you want someone to do your french homework, but it'd really help me practise my new language! What do you say?