Common Grammatical Errors

[nibbles2]

I am probably the most grammatically inept person on this board, so who am I to complain, right?

You're really, really not.

[behrlyliz]

You're really, really not.

Thanks

[nibbles2]

The could care less one kills me every time I hear/read it. It's a real American thing, I've never heard an Irish/Brit/Aussie say could care less.

Oh me too! It seriously irks me to the point of violence.

I found this video of John Cleese have a little rant on this very topic and had to share. Enjoy.

[Zanity]

The could care less one kills me every time I hear/read it. It's a real American thing, I've never heard an Irish/Brit/Aussie say could care less.

Oh me too! It seriously irks me to the point of violence.

I found this video of John Cleese have a little rant on this very topic and had to share. Enjoy.

This is a failure of trying to translate the spoken word into text. When I'm writing I use the more accurate term ("I couldn't care less!") exclusively. But as pointed out the other term is an American thing because we are rather fond of sarcasm and slang in our speech. It is similar to other terms we use a lot like saying "Tell me about it." when we already know all about it and really don't want to hear it again. Or like when we tell someone to "Go ahead, do it." when we really don't want them even considering it.

In our spoken language there are a great many examples of times when we say the opposite of what we mean and expect our tone of voice to convey that fact. When people translate that to writing tone of voice is lost and then such phrases can often look or sound very stupid.

[nibbles2]

This is a failure of trying to translate the spoken word into text. When I'm writing I use the more accurate term ("I couldn't care less!") exclusively. But as pointed out the other term is an American thing because we are rather fond of sarcasm and slang in our speech. It is similar to other terms we use a lot like saying "Tell me about it." when we already know all about it and really don't want to hear it again. Or like when we tell someone to "Go ahead, do it." when we really don't want them even considering it.

In our spoken language there are a great many examples of times when we say the opposite of what we mean and expect our tone of voice to convey that fact. When people translate that to writing tone of voice is lost and then such phrases can often look or sound very stupid.

I don't think it's sarcasm, to be honest. I'm Irish, I know sarcasm . I think that some people genuinely believe that the expression is 'could care less'. It's just a figure of speech that Americans use, like Math (ugh) and write me (?).

[RosDude]

It's just a figure of speech that Americans use, like Math (ugh) and write me (?).

Um what's wrong with saying Math?

~Chad~

[Rowedog]

It's just a figure of speech that Americans use, like Math (ugh) and write me (?).

Um what's wrong with saying Math?

~Chad~

The unshortened term is mathematics, which is plural. When you shorten it you make it singular, while a lot of the rest of the world keeps it plural as maths. Growing up in Australia and using the word maths, the first time I heard math on TV I almost had an aneurysm.

And yeah, 'I could care less' isn't sarcasm, it's a failure to understand the actual saying.

[Zanity]

It's just a figure of speech that Americans use, like Math (ugh) and write me (?).

Um what's wrong with saying Math?

~Chad~

The unshortened term is mathematics, which is plural. When you shorten it you make it singular, while a lot of the rest of the world keeps it plural as maths. Growing up in Australia and using the word maths, the first time I heard math on TV I almost had an aneurysm.

And yeah, 'I could care less' isn't sarcasm, it's a failure to understand the actual saying.

Quick search found this... Even uses one of my examples.

http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-ico1.htm

[Rowedog]

Quick search found this... Even uses one of my examples.

http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-ico1.htm

Yeah... it's still stupid. And you can't convince me that it hasn't originally grown from an original lack of understanding of the actual saying, but due to widespread use has become a saying in its own right. God I hate it so much; it's so illogical and nonsensical.

[Heavenli24]

It's just a figure of speech that Americans use, like Math (ugh) and write me (?).

Um what's wrong with saying Math?

~Chad~

Growing up in Australia and using the word maths, the first time I heard math on TV I almost had an aneurysm.

Yeah, I grew up in England using the word maths - the first time I saw the word 'math' was in a Babysitter's Club book that I read when I was about 11 years old: one of the characters was going to a 'math meet' - it took me years to figure out what on Earth a 'math meet' was; for ages I thought it was a typing mistake that the editors of the book hadn't caught (I had no idea that a 'meet' was like a competition) !