this post was submitted on 29 Jan 2025
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Please state in which country your phrase tends to be used, what the phrase is, and what it should be.

Example:

In America, recently came across "back-petal", instead of back-pedal. Also, still hearing "for all intensive purposes" instead of "for all intents and purposes".

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 day ago (8 children)

I'm not entirely against it, but I'm amused by how common it is to put "whole" inside of "another", making it "a whole nother". Can anyone give any other use of the word "nother"?

[–] con_fig 6 points 1 day ago

It's other, another is a whole other issue... heh

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 2 days ago (16 children)

Using weary/wary interchangeably. I am tired of people not being aware of the difference.

Also, "decimated". The original usage is to reduce by one tenth. It didn't mean something was nearly or totally annihilated, but thanks to overuse, now it does.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I mean, having one in ten of your fellow soldiers murdered by their own commander is pretty horrific, and I think that's the spirit of its modern usage.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago

"addicting"

[–] [email protected] 47 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (4 children)

"Chomping at the bit". It's champing at the bit. Horses champ.

"Get ahold of". It's "get hold of" or, if you must, "get a hold of"

"I'm doing good". No, Superman does good. You're doing well.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago

Haha is this a follow up on that one post with the OP writing "back-petal"?

[–] [email protected] 43 points 2 days ago (13 children)

You do things on purpose or by accident, you don't do anything on accident.

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[–] [email protected] 30 points 2 days ago (3 children)
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[–] ICastFist 7 points 1 day ago (2 children)

They're, you're

Sneak peek

In portuguese: mas/mais - people often use "mais" (plus, sum) when the correct would be mas (but)

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Interchangeable then/than, or using 'on accident'.

Big 🤡 energy.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 days ago (10 children)

What's wrong with the ladder?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago

Idk, try the stairs instead.

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[–] [email protected] 34 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Pretty sure it's "Feral Intensive Porpoises"

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 2 days ago (3 children)

My pet peeve is when people use "then" but they actually meant to use "than". I think it might be mainly due to flaws in predictive text on phone keyboards though.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 days ago (5 children)

This one never gets me anywhere, but “begging the question” is actually a logical fallacy where you assume the result and use that as the basis of your argument. Otherwise, it raises the question.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Yeah /yĕ′ə, yă′ə, yā′ə/ is a different word than Yea /yā/

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

As in the well known Christmas carol, "Oh come, all ye faithful dudes," verse 7, "Yeah, Lord we greet thee, born this happy morning..."

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

"If worse comes to worst..."

In British English, they often say the phrase as "if worst comes to worst," which is based on archaic grammar.

In the US, there's a mix of verb tenses. The only one that make sense in this day and age is "if what is worse comes to be the worst," or "if worse comes to worst."

This point can be argued, but I will be severely wounded (maybe not so much as dying) defending this hill.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Having made some of these mistakes, I tend not to be rigid about them. But here are some fun ones.

  • on line vs in line
  • to graduate vs to be graduated
  • antivenom vs antivenin

All of the above have been normalized, but at one time was not.

Another quirk, we used to not call former Presidents President So and So. We used to call them by their highest position before president. So it would be Senator Obama and not President Obama.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I'm confused about the context of "on line" vs "in line"

Are we talking about standing in a queue, or using the internet, or one's behavior ("you'd better get get yourself in line!"), or auto racing terminology ("stay on your line" or "hold your line", often shortened to "stay on line")?

Doubt it's that last one lol but where are those two getting mixed up and how might they differ from "online" (internet) and "inline" (skates)?

Lol this is such a fun thread

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 2 days ago

Aisle. As much as I would love to take a boat to the breakfast food isle (a.k.a. island), I'm pretty sure that I need to look in the breakfast aisle at the grocery store.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 days ago

Coming from the other direction - when someone ackshullys a parson, but the person was using the phrase correctly.

I had to explain to someone online today that "liminal space" had multiple meanings, and it didn't only refer to spaces you transition through, and the spooky "liminal space aesthetic" is a valid and coherent use of the word "liminal" and the term "liminal space"

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