The word Actually and others

[ShamGlock]

This is my favorite thread on here in a long time. I hate every phrase mentioned so far. I will also add that I hate the overuse of "that's ironic", especially when it isn't. I also hate the term "my bad".

[Guest nra37922]

My computer has a cursive font if I need it.  Now I am going back to my Master Bedroom, not Owners Suite, and actually get a nap in. 

[Guest Lester Weevils]

I hate cursive. The only time I ever write in cursive is when I sign my name. And my signature could just as easily say Daffy Duck as my real name. And nobody cares. The only time I have ever written more than my name in cursive is when school assignments made it mandatory. I have done no research to back it up but I don't think I'm in the minority.

 

 

I find abbreviations are quicker. ;)

 

 

Yes, in contexts where abbreviations are acceptable that is a good point, assuming the intended readers also understand the abbreviations. Some modern texting abbreviations are annoying to this old fogey however. For instance, XLR8 is an annoying abbreviation for accelerate. But accel seems fine.

 

The culture of "what is suitable" has changed over the years. In the 1960's a guy was looked upon as "weird" or "wussy" if he took a touch-typing class. In high school, took the intro typing class because I had ideas of being a writer, and was the only guy in a class of 40 gals. About the only fellas who could actually know how to touch-type without being assumed a wussie, were writers and communications operators (typing out received morse code, with radio headphones over the ears, or operating teletypes).

 

A little later on it was also acceptable to know how to type if one were a programmer, but the "status" thing took awhile to die even in programming, because typing was womens work. I recall even in the early 1970's, programmers in industry had to protect their status, and even if it would have been quicker for a programmer to type out his own punch cards, the programmer would pencil in the code on grid sheets and give them to his secretary/assistant to prepare the punch cards.

 

And an "important executive big shot" wouldn't be caught dead doing his own typing, or even writing correspondence to be typed up by the secretary. He had to show his big-shot status by dictating to the secretary and then let the secretary type it up (and fix all his bad grammar in the process, so he wouldn't look so obviously illiterate). :)

 

Maybe something even today that would be useful to know-- shorthand. I never learned shorthand or folks would have figgered I was a very wussie fella. Even weirder than a man who knows how to type. Possibly in the old days only men who wanted to be reporters or journalists could shamelessly admit in public to having skills in shorthand. On the other hand, women who knew shorthand sure could write blindingly fast while making very few marks on the paper.

[Spots]

Well, if I wasn't self conscience about my backwoods grammar, I sure as hell am now around you bunch. I've always had a thick accent, and will usually revert to slang words in day to day conversation, even though I did good in most English classes, and had a librarian for a mother, so I have always been well read. I still have some issues with grammar and spelling from time to time, though as long as someone makes an effort at a coherent sentence, and it doesn't look like one big run on sentence typed in Ghetto speak and "texting code", I usually don't notice it. It does amaze me how many people who are in positions that include public speaking say ummm constantly. I do my best to avoid umm, or other nervous pauses and ticks in my speech.

[Oh Shoot]

 In high school, took the intro typing class because I had ideas of being a writer, and was the only guy in a class of 40 gals. ...

 

Wow, kindred spirits in that regard. There might have been another guy or two in mine, don't remember, but certainly no more than that.

 

We all used manual ones, but there were 3 or four fancy Selectrics or whatever they had in '65 and after a while we who most proved our mettle got them.

 

Though I've made part of my bucks through the years via the ole keyboard,  I sure never could have dreamed that the main use would eventually evolve to being among the fastest posters on an internet forum (as if the concept could actually have been adequately explained at the time)!

 

I remember the class was called "Personal Typing", but this mystery remains -- though I was maybe tops in the class, I didn't learn touch on the top row, and indeed never have since.

 

- OS

Edited May 1, 2013 by Oh Shoot

[mav]

The overuse or misuse of words and phrases that have been mentioned thus far don't bother me at all.  My pet peeve is 300 plus word paragraphs.  The enter key is your friend.

[Oh Shoot]

The overuse or misuse of words and phrases that have been mentioned thus far don't bother me at all.  My pet peeve is 300 plus word paragraphs.  The enter key is your friend.

 

Except for those who won't fix their TapaTalk!

 

 

But in general,

 

truer

 

words

 

were

 

never

 

spake.

 

:)

 

:)

 

-

 

O

 

S

[Chadastrophic]

What about when people say PIN number or ATM machine?

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk 2

[Spook]

I hate cursive. The only time I ever write in cursive is when I sign my name. And my signature could just as easily say Daffy Duck as my real name. And nobody cares. The only time I have ever written more than my name in cursive is when school assignments made it mandatory. I have done no research to back it up but I don't think I'm in the minority.

 

 

I find abbreviations are quicker. ;)

 

So with spell checker being so prevalent will they stop teaching spelling, too?  :(

[LagerHead]

You can misspell a word the same in cursive or print.  :cool:

[JAB]

What about when people say PIN number or ATM machine?

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk 2

 

Or shrimp scampi?

[JAB]

Well, if I wasn't self conscience about my backwoods grammar, I sure as hell am now around you bunch. I've always had a thick accent, and will usually revert to slang words in day to day conversation, even though I did good in most English classes, and had a librarian for a mother, so I have always been well read. I still have some issues with grammar and spelling from time to time, though as long as someone makes an effort at a coherent sentence, and it doesn't look like one big run on sentence typed in Ghetto speak and "texting code", I usually don't notice it. It does amaze me how many people who are in positions that include public speaking say ummm constantly. I do my best to avoid umm, or other nervous pauses and ticks in my speech.

 

One thing that I believe people should keep in mind is that English is a living language.  Unlike dead languages (such as Latin, etc.) this means that English is not 'set in stone.'  It is, instead, changeable.  Further, as I believe is the case with most extant languages that are used across large geographic areas, there are dialogues and regional differences.  I doubt that there are many people who, in their daily lives, speak the Queen's English (including the Queen.)  Personally, I love my Southern accent and many of our uniquely Southern phrases and colloquialisms.  They are part of our regional heritage and identity, IMO.  However, there is a difference between using colloquialisms and just plain using the wrong word.

 

All that said, it annoys me when people use the word 'sweet' as an interjection to indicate positive feelings.  I can handle 'cool' (which is the word I am most often 'guilty' of using) or even the oft overused 'awesome' but for some reason, 'sweet' gets on my nerves. 

[Spook]

You can misspell a word the same in cursive or print.  :cool:

But if cursive is no longer being taught and ultimately goes away, we are left with typing and, thus, spell check. At that point no need to teach spelling? Maybe we could just go with the first and last letter correct with the others in any order. Seems most people can read that without problem.

[JAB]

But if cursive is no longer being taught and ultimately goes away, we are left with typing and, thus, spell check. At that point no need to teach spelling? Maybe we could just go with the first and last letter correct with the others in any order. Seems most people can read that without problem.

 

Without cursive there would still be handwriting in 'print'.  I honestly see no point in 'cursive' writing.

[atlas3025]

"These two men are literally exploding on one another!"  --Tony Schiavone (commenting on pretty much any WCW wrestling match in the 90's)

 

I am peeved at how "great" has been watered down.  "Yeah, that Taco Bell Grande was great!".  No...Charlemagne was great.  Alexander The Great was great.  Great means a lot more than really good. 

 

Also, "Ridiculous"...as in "Angie’s List has ridiculously reliable reviews!"  Really?  So reliable as to be deserving of ridicule?  You keep using that word...

 

Lastly, I have recently been using "what" in place of "that", just for kicks.  "That man over there--what's vomiting by the dumpster--is drunker than a football bat."

[LagerHead]

But if cursive is no longer being taught and ultimately goes away, we are left with typing and, thus, spell check. At that point no need to teach spelling? Maybe we could just go with the first and last letter correct with the others in any order. Seems most people can read that without problem.

 

We're already there. Been on Facebook lately?  :rofl:

[Guest Lester Weevils]

One thing that I believe people should keep in mind is that English is a living language.  Unlike dead languages (such as Latin, etc.) this means that English is not 'set in stone.'  It is, instead, changeable.  Further, as I believe is the case with most extant languages that are used across large geographic areas, there are dialogues and regional differences.  I doubt that there are many people who, in their daily lives, speak the Queen's English (including the Queen.)  Personally, I love my Southern accent and many of our uniquely Southern phrases and colloquialisms.  They are part of our regional heritage and identity, IMO.  However, there is a difference between using colloquialisms and just plain using the wrong word.

 

All that said, it annoys me when people use the word 'sweet' as an interjection to indicate positive feelings.  I can handle 'cool' (which is the word I am most often 'guilty' of using) or even the oft overused 'awesome' but for some reason, 'sweet' gets on my nerves. 

 

On occasion I intentionally use mangled english perhaps because it is "funny" or merely real tacky. I like it anyway. Must present oneself to the public as properly swave, deboner and surfistercated. Ferinstance BushJr discovered the proper pronunciation for nukular, a pronunciation which eluded brilliant scientists for hundreds of years until BushJr finally figgered out the proper way to say the word. Deserving of  perpetual perpetuation, if not even way more bigger than ferever. Along with casual strokes of genius such as misunderestimated.

 

The mutation of ask into axe seems already a permanent fate akomply. When wife was in process of retiring from the post office last year, we had to watch a series of government-prepared computer videos explaining how to fill out the labyrinthine stack of papers. The attractive well-dressed young lady personnel executive lecturing in hours of government video-- IN EVERY CASE she pronounced ask as  axe. Therefore that pronunciation appears to have become the official preferred version among our taskmasters. :)

 

The government must have spent at least a zillion dollars writing, videographing, editing and mastering those videos, and the use of axe thruout obviously indicates that most likely thousands of government yes-men, middle-men and paper-pushers along the production chain either did not know of alternate pronunciations, or at minimum saw nothing at all erroneous/improper with that pronunciation, or possibly consider it the preferred pronunciation. If its good enough for the gubmint, ought to be good enough fer me.

  

But if cursive is no longer being taught and ultimately goes away, we are left with typing and, thus, spell check. At that point no need to teach spelling? Maybe we could just go with the first and last letter correct with the others in any order. Seems most people can read that without problem.

 

I disable automatic "inline" autocorrect because I usually get spelling close enough that there is greater risk of the "inline" autocorrect picking an entirely wrong word. Or sometimes entirely incorrect phrases if the automatic autocorrect is feeling frisky and begins to believe itself indeed highly artificially intelligent. Seems easier to fix an occasional spelling error rather than proofread to fix entirely wrong words in the doc. It is useful to have an editor that will red-underline words it doesn't recognize, however, so I can notice and choose whether a spelling is intentional versus error.

 

I think that "general ability to understand sorely mangled spellings" is a fairly recent perceptual discovery. A human perceptual talent exploited by email spammers everywhere, skilled at crafting horribly mangled but perfectly intelligible porn and pecker pill advertisements. Sneaking the emails past anti-spam firewalls faster than the velocity of All-Bran washed down with Magnesium Citrate. 

 

Without cursive there would still be handwriting in 'print'.  I honestly see no point in 'cursive' writing.

 

Speed. Perhaps cursive should be rightly retired, but shorthand taught in its place? Teach printing for slow and legible, and then teach shorthand for fast?

 

Another technique I know very little about, those machines used by court reporters. The gadgets only have a few keys and court reporters really go fast on them. Maybe that would be better than ascii keyboards.

 

Something I saw many years ago, I expected it to take off but apparently not-- It was a chording keyboard, just a little gadget that is gripped in one's hand like a small potato, having a button under each finger. Mash different "chords" of the keys to type. One handed data entry, supposedly real fast once you learn how.

 

Maybe speech-to-text and vice-versa will ultimately kill keyboards, text screens, and even the skill of reading. But I can't see it. If I had to speak everything I type, I'd always be hoarse. Talking everything into a puter just doesn't seem practical, but maybe speed doesn't matter any more. Otherwise people who must routinely pencil-and-paper handwrite would use cursive or shorthand, rather than prefer hand-printing?

Edited May 1, 2013 by Lester Weevils

[Oh Shoot]

Ferinstance BushJr discovered the proper pronunciation for nukular, a pronunciation which eluded brilliant scientists for hundreds of years until BushJr finally figgered out the proper way to say the word.

 

Well, so did Jimmy Carter and he served on one of them thar Nookular subs and later studied Nookular Physics! Apparently, DDE did too. And Bill Clinton, early on its said, though I never noticed it.

 

And Edward Teller!

 

In defense of those pronunciations,though:

 

http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/washington-whispers/2010/02/18/bush-and-carters-nuclear-pronunciation-might-be-right

 

And found through Wiki regarding pronunciation of "nuclear":

 

American Heritage Dictionary:

    "The pronunciation (noo'kyÉ™-lÉ™r), which is generally considered incorrect, is an example of how a familiar phonological pattern can influence an unfamiliar one … [since] much more common is the similar sequence (-kyÉ™-lÉ™r), which occurs in words like particular, circular, spectacular, and in many scientific words like molecular, ocular, and vascular."

 

Merriam-Webster Dictionary:

    Merriam-Webster receives enough questions about their mention of this mispronunciation in the dictionary that it is one of two mispronunciations which receives particular mention in their FAQ. "Though disapproved of by many, pronunciations ending in \-kyÉ™-lÉ™r\ have been found in widespread use among educated speakers, including scientists, lawyers, professors, congressmen, United States cabinet members, and at least two United States presidents and one vice president. While most common in the United States, these pronunciations have also been heard from British and Canadian speakers."

 

- OS

[zapfbroad]

I made the grave mistake of uploading my resume to monster during a job search. Subsequently, I received on average 2-3 calls daily from insurance company recruiters. Generally I am polite and once I have verified they are calling from Xyz insurance that they rattle off I inform them that I appreciated their inquiry but that I don't presently desire to work in that industry and that they may remove my name from consideration. I had a woman call the other morning saying "blah, blah, blah I would like to axe you when would be a good time to set up an interview so one of our human resource specialists can axe you some more questions..."
My vision went slightly red and my left eye twitched vigorously and I could trust myself to say nothing polite and immediately hung up. I Never hang up on live callers. I Always inform them politely of my disinterest and desire not to be called again. However, it was just too much cruel irony.

Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk 2

[JAB]

1. I think that "general ability to understand sorely mangled spellings" is a fairly recent perceptual discovery. A human perceptual talent exploited by email spammers everywhere, skilled at crafting horribly mangled but perfectly intelligible porn and pecker pill advertisements. Sneaking the emails past anti-spam firewalls faster than the velocity of All-Bran washed down with Magnesium Citrate. 

 

 

2. Speed. Perhaps cursive should be rightly retired, but shorthand taught in its place? Teach printing for slow and legible, and then teach shorthand for fast?

 

 

Lester, I hope you don't mind that I added numbers so I could address these points 'by their number'.

 

1. Not true.  In fact, it was only with the invention of printing presses that the spelling of words began to be 'standardized'.  Before that, people spelled more by 'sounds' than by standard spellings.  One good example is the surname of William Shakespeare.  Apparently, even the Bard, himself spelled his last name differently on differing occasions.  In fact, it is my understanding that people often spelled the same word differently even within the body of the same missive, etc.  When spellings were standardized, largely by the folks who were using the aforementioned printing presses, the people doing the 'standardizing' got to choose what the 'standard' spelling would be.  Those folks were likely influenced not only by their own 'tastes' but also by the way certain sounds were constructed in other languages - and so we ended up with words like 'enough' instead of a much more obvious (and sensible, really) spelling such as 'enuf', etc.

 

 

2. I print faster than I can write in cursive.  Seriously.  Cursive also causes my hand to cramp more quickly.  For me, there is truly nothing 'good' about cursive writing.

Edited May 2, 2013 by JAB

[Spook]

Lester - Don't get me started on "axe" vice "ask." Isn't that part of Ebonics? Are you saying that it is now acceptable as part of the American English language? Please say it ain't so!

[Guest Lester Weevils]

I thought that was mostly associated with Tricky Dick Nixon....    "Make no mistake, I am not a crook."  Perphaps preceded by "Let me be clear."

 

Thanks, didn't notice the phrases so much until Obama wore them out, and the phrases seemed to be adopted by other speakers in his wake, even right wing talking heads. But as you say the phrases may be long in the tooth.

 

The thread is about over used phrases however, so perhaps the phrases qualify now even if not over-used in the past. Perhaps any word or phrase has its appropriate usage. Haven't lately listened to the Demagogue in Chief, but back when I'd occasionally listen, he didn't seem capable of a speech or press conference without reciting both phrases at least once during his blathering. 

 

It would be neat if the Demagogue in Chief is eventually forced to adopt that other Nixon phrase, "I am not a crook." :)

 

Wow, kindred spirits in that regard. There might have been another guy or two in mine, don't remember, but certainly no more than that.

 

We all used manual ones, but there were 3 or four fancy Selectrics or whatever they had in '65 and after a while we who most proved our mettle got them.

 

Though I've made part of my bucks through the years via the ole keyboard,  I sure never could have dreamed that the main use would eventually evolve to being among the fastest posters on an internet forum (as if the concept could actually have been adequately explained at the time)!

 

I remember the class was called "Personal Typing", but this mystery remains -- though I was maybe tops in the class, I didn't learn touch on the top row, and indeed never have since.

 

- OS

 

That typing course I took also was mechanical typewriters. I didn't see an electric until a few years later a wealthier college room mate had a portable electric he would let me use. My "portable typewriter" in high school was fairly small but an antique hand-me-down decades old that would jam if you looked at it crossways. Each letter was out-of-line with any other letter, and the spacing was real erratic, and some letters would be black while other characters would be light gray. But even that mess, adorned with acres of white-out, and occasional lines that would run off the paper, and occasional lines that would run off the bottom of the paper, was still more legible than my bad handwriting.

 

That typing course also taught formatting for business correspondence, so was most likely an "intro to secretarial science" or whatever. But that was also useful info. I don't recall any other class teaching how to format a business letter, so if I hadn't taken the course maybe wouldn't have ever found out!

 

My skill was bad with the typewriter. The grade scores were a composite of speed and accuracy. I got A at the beginning along with most students, but over the weeks the girls kept getting faster and more accurate, and I pretty much stayed about the same slow and inaccurate over the entire semester, but at least it was slow and inaccurate without having to look at the keyboard while typing. Ended up just barely passing the course. It wasn't intentionally goofing off. Girls are just generally better at operating their fingers than guys are, and I'm fairly clumsy even for a guy.

 

But on a computer after years, the speed finally got up there with lots of practice, and accuracy doesn't matter so much when it is so easy to fix errors on a computer. Errors were a PITA to fix on a typewriter. So much that it was worth intentionally slowing down to try to avoid as many errors possible.

 

Well, so did Jimmy Carter and he served on one of them thar Nookular subs and later studied Nookular Physics! Apparently, DDE did too. And Bill Clinton, early on its said, though I never noticed it.

 

And Edward Teller!

 

In defense of those pronunciations,though:

 

http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/washington-whispers/2010/02/18/bush-and-carters-nuclear-pronunciation-might-be-right

 

And found through Wiki regarding pronunciation of "nuclear":

 

American Heritage Dictionary:

    "The pronunciation (noo'kyÉ™-lÉ™r), which is generally considered incorrect, is an example of how a familiar phonological pattern can influence an unfamiliar one … [since] much more common is the similar sequence (-kyÉ™-lÉ™r), which occurs in words like particular, circular, spectacular, and in many scientific words like molecular, ocular, and vascular."

 

Merriam-Webster Dictionary:

    Merriam-Webster receives enough questions about their mention of this mispronunciation in the dictionary that it is one of two mispronunciations which receives particular mention in their FAQ. "Though disapproved of by many, pronunciations ending in \-kyÉ™-lÉ™r\ have been found in widespread use among educated speakers, including scientists, lawyers, professors, congressmen, United States cabinet members, and at least two United States presidents and one vice president. While most common in the United States, these pronunciations have also been heard from British and Canadian speakers."

 

- OS

 

Thanks, OS. If its good enough for the father of the hydrogen bomb, who am I to argue? Would be interesting to know whether those guys pronounced it thataway "tongue in cheek". Getting in touch with their redneck roots.

[Chadastrophic]

Back when I was looking for a car I kept seeing a CL ad where the person kept typing "fone" as in fone number. I thought the person was retarded, turns out just really old and he explained to me that's how they used to spell it.

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk 2

[Guest RedLights&Sirens]

"now thats whats up" I hear this all the time. Some others I hear often are

My car be jakeing what you think dat is

My climax (climate) control dont work

I need a pair of battries on my car

Hey, dont forget to check the headlight fluid!

On a seperate note, anyone ever hear a Niki Minaj "song?" Theres one where she says, "I just want you to father my young" but sounds much closer to, "I just want you to fart on my young."

My grammar is terrible and I am certainly not articulate but I do try. Some people I encounter in Memphis, I just dont understand. Grown men who cant read or sign their own name in the year 2013? I dont get it. And dont get me started on the "book" my mother has been writing since the 80's.

[LagerHead]

Hey, dont forget to check the headlight fluid!

On a seperate note, anyone ever hear a Niki Minaj "song?" Theres one where she says, "I just want you to father my young" but sounds much closer to, "I just want you to fart on my young."
 

 

I was going to listen to a Niki Minaj song but then I remembered I'm a man.  :slapfight: