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”.
Americans saying “I could care less” instead of “I couldn’t care less”.
I’ve seen so many attempts at justification for that one online but I can’t help but think that those people just don’t want to admit that they’re wrong.
I care a tiny bit. I could care less, but not easily.
I say “I could care less” and then follow it up with, “but I’d be dead”. Correcting “I could care less” is dumb because you literally can care less about lots of stuff, but saying the phrase indicates you just don’t really care.
“Could of…”
It’s “could have”!
Edit: I’m referring to text based things, like text and email. I can pretty much ignore the mispronouncing.
It’s definitely a mistake, but I think it has slipped by because spell check wouldn’t have a reason to mark it, and not everyone uses grammar check, so they think it’s correct to spell it out by the sound of the contraction.
English/US - seeing “would of” instead of “would’ve”or “would have”. This one bugs me the most.
The thing is that, at least in the UK, many people also say “of”. You might say that in quick speech it’s not possible to tell between “would’ve” and “would of” which is probably where this misspelling came from, but I once was talking to my English friend and after he said something quickly, I asked if he just said that “she would see it?”, to which he replied “she would OF seen it” putting a lot of emphasis on that “of”, making it clear that he wasn’t aware that it should be “have”.
This thread peaks my interest.
I hope my words
piquedsomeone else’s interests more.Oh this one’s peak
Discreet vs Discrete used to crack me up on dating sites. All those guys looking for discrete hookups - which kind of makes sense but I am sure is not what they meant.
I literally ground my teeth today because I got an email from a customer service person saying “You’re package was returned to us”. Not a phishing email with an intentional misspelling, a legitimate email for a real order I made. If it is your JOB to send messages like this they ought not have misspellings.
So the context matters to me. I am more tolerant of spelling errors and mis-phrasing in everyday life than in a professional communication.
they ought not have misspellings
Wouldn’t it be “ought not to”?
Why no! In the negative (ought not) you don’t need the to.
Neat. That gives me old British author vibes
To my ears it sounds weird without the “to”, but so does “fraught” instead of “fraught with [something]”, which is now common-ish.
Idiots misspelling lose as loose drives me up the wall. Even had someone defend themselves claiming it’s just the common spelling now and to accept it. There, their, and they’re get honorable mention. Nip it in the butt as opposed to correctly nipping it in the bud.
double oo for loose so not tight, lose for the one that has lost one.
Double oo so its a oooo?
Why not, fine for me
I might loooose my parking space…
I
couldcouldn’t care lessHold
downthe fortThe proof
is in the puddingof the pudding is in the eatingelon muskTwat“Toe the party line” To align with the interests of a political party; to get in line with the agenda of the leader of a political party
“Tow the party line” Something to do with tugboats
TIL
Also, the vanishing use of countable quantities: they are all amounts nowadays.
Irregardless
This is literally a restaurant near me. Quite good one too
I don’t generally correct people’s spelling or pronunciation but something I’ve noticed occurring more and more lately is people using “loose” when they mean “lose” and it gets under my skin for unknown reasons
It’s because your skin is too lose, it’s easy to get under it.
Don’t forget that sale/sell constantly get mixed up.
About 1 in 3 posters here say “loose” when they mean “lose”
That triggers me lol
Don’t forget:
brake vs break
waist vs waste
On accident, it is by accident. 🤬
“You can’t have your cake and eat it” The older form was flipped: “you can’t eat your cake and have it” They both can mean about the same, but the older form makes it much clearer - if you’ve eaten your cake, you no longer have it. But you could have your cake, then eat it.
Mr Kaczynski? I thought you were dead?
It’s always going to be the “of” people. Its “would have”, “should have” etc and not “would of”.
Also, if you wish you had done something differently then it’s “wish I had” not “wish I would have”.
Wished’I’d’ve
