<p>And how about “heighth” or is it “heigth” for height? I don’t think I ever see it spelled that way, but the widespread pronunciation of the word with the “th” sound at the end. Grrr!</p>
<p>Jmmom - technical/medical/business people are the worst. My son just began his first dual-level course. His text is not a traditional text, but a technical treatise. After reading the first page, his face fell and he exclaimed, “I’m doomed. I don’t understand a word on the page.” I helped him “translate” the first page into standard English. After that, he got the hang of translating for himself and zipped along just fine.</p>
<p>Be careful, you guys, or the Redundancy Nazi will show up :)</p>
<p>texastaximom - and all you other lovable Texans. One non-grammatical construction that I truly love: “might could”. I can still hear my Texas boyfriend from a <em>few</em> years ago. We “might could” do that! Love it. Don’t ever stop.</p>
<p>Another lovable one, although I’ve heard it in south Jersey, is that “it’s meant to rain” when referring to a precipitative weather forecast.</p>
<p>A yankee woman was traveling through Texas by car, and stopped at a burger
joint in Mexia for lunch. She went to the girl at the counter, and asked,
“How do you pronounce the name of this place?” The girl looked at the woman
like she (the woman) was incredibly stupid, then very slowly and carefully
intoned, “Day-ree-Queen.”</p>
<p>PS Despite deriving its name from a Mexican general, Mexia is pronounced “muh-HAY-a” in the land where fixin’ to is one word!</p>
<p>Such an amusing thread on a slow afternoon. I see I’m not the only idler out there!</p>
<p>Bonding- we bonded immediately</p>
<p>What does that mean?</p>
<p>Chemical attraction?</p>
<p>like that guy hanging holding onto his hard hat I guess (you know from the commercial)</p>
<p>My new least favorite word</p>
<p>PIMP- ie pimp cup, pimp my ride, he’s or she is sucha pimp, like its a good thing</p>
<p>double blech</p>
<p>How about “went missing” on the news channels? I’m not sure that’s grammatically correct. Wouldn’t it be just “is missing”?</p>
<p>Just noticed on another thread – poster mentioned that a school is “by far and away” the best. Pick one, either “by far” or “far and away”, but not both!</p>
<p>I worked with a women who used the word flustrate (a combination of fluster and frustrate). She was unaware that it wasn’t a real word.</p>
<p>^^^ doddsmom, I think I might like that almost as much as “might could.”</p>
<p>When my English was shakier than it is now, I used to say “squibble” when I could not remember whether to say “quibble” or “squabble.” I think "squibble’ ought to be a legitimate word. :)</p>
<p>I had a Kentucky friend that always said “might could”. She also said “used to could”, as in “I used to could run 5 miles, but not anymore”.</p>
<p>I looked ,but could not find ,if anyone mentioned the typical teenager line, “he goes to me” instead of “He said to me”…and then “She goes to me, and then he goes to me”…My mother-in-law goes crazy when someone says “She is rich” . She says it should be stated as " She is wealthy"- Ice Cream may be described as “rich”, butter can be rich, but a person cannot be rich. Also we were not allowed to say “The kids” …it should be the children as “Kids are the offspring of goats”… the use of he/him and she/her drives her nuts also. Actually ,I am sure I drove both my in-laws crazy. The difference is that I asked them straight out, when I could see that I was falling in love with their daughter, that if they ever heard a grammatical blunder from my lips, they should correct me immediately!</p>
<p>My mother was a high school English teacher. She was the grammar police in our house. She would froth at the mouth when we used poor grammar or vocabulary inappropriately. As a kid I routinely used tooken (not a real word, imagine my surprise 
) for taken…it made her crazy.</p>
<p>Now I find myself correcting my DD (DS has better grammar and vocabulary usage than I do so he’s no fun). I find myself counting the number of times she uses like in a conversation and then her dad and I use like a gazillion times when replying to her. Gets the message across.</p>
<p>Another grammar tragedy –> the increasing misuse of “gender” to mean “sex”. Your sex is either male or female. Your gender is either masculine or feminine.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>or neutral (Latin) or indeterminate. </p>
<p>I knew someone who decided to be a he in college; became a she when applying to grad school, and reverted to being a he after getting an M.A.</p>