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”.

  • TrueStoryBob@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Oh my goodness, someone pointed this out on Tumblr years ago, but it desperately needs repeating:

    Dear English Language Fanfic Writers,

    • Wanton: an unrestrained desire, usually of a sexual nature.

    • Wonton: a type of dumpling found in Chinese and East Asian cuisine.

  • ThatWeirdGuy1001@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    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

  • laurathepluralized@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    In the USA and other English-speaking countries: weary =/= wary.

    For example, I’ll see someone write something like: “I am weary of the campfire because it is so hot”

    You aren’t tired of the campfire! You are wary of it!

  • brap@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    Americans saying “I could care less” instead of “I couldn’t care less”.

    • proudblond@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      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.

      • SuperSaiyanSwag@lemmy.zip
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        5 days ago

        I say “I couldn’t care less”, but I used to think that “I couldn’t care less” was used in context where someone seemed like they don’t care and they give that as a snarky remark, implying that they can care even less.

    • LGTM@discuss.tchncs.de
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      5 days ago

      I agree that this is very vaguely irritating, but for me it only differs by one sound and a vowel quality

      “I couldn’t care less” [aɪ̯.kɘ̃ʔ.kɛɹ.lɛs] vs “I could care less” [aɪ̯.kɘ.kɛɹ.lɛs]

    • tyler@programming.dev
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      6 days ago

      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.

      • Amanduh@lemm.ee
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        5 days ago

        Idk why hoes mad at you this is the cleverest way to mix up the saying while keeping it’s intent.

    • fossphi@lemm.ee
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      5 days ago

      Doesn’t this make sense if someone says it in a sarcastic manner?

  • shyguyblue@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    “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.

    • Usernameblankface@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      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.

      • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
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        6 days ago

        I mean no? The have in could have is pronounced the same as of, but at least AFAIK no dialect explicitly says could of. Tell the other person to not mesh the two words together and they’ll say have. I think.

        • IronKrill@lemmy.ca
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          6 days ago

          Minor nit pick from my experience. If the word is written out “could have” I enunciate the entire word. I only pronounce the contraction “could’ve” as “could of”. And vice versa when dictating.

        • MudMan@fedia.io
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          6 days ago

          I am viscerally against this concept.

          It’s one thing to include the spelling as a way to capture the phonetics of an accent or a dialect, entirely another to accept its use in writing when using a neutral voice.

          If anything, because it’s so often just a misspelling I would avoid trying to use it as a phonetics thing just as a matter of style. At this point everybody would think I’m making a mistake instead of trying to mimic a way of speech in a way they’d never do with “coulda”.

  • theedqueen@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    English/US - seeing “would of” instead of “would’ve”or “would have”. This one bugs me the most.

  • tiredofsametab@fedia.io
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    6 days ago

    Please state what country your phrase tends to be used

    Please state in which country your phrase tends to be used…

  • HelixDab2@lemm.ee
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    5 days ago

    “For all intensive porpoises” is the one that really annoys me.

    They’re dolphins, not porpoises. Fuck, get your cetaceans right.

  • eponymous_anonymous@sh.itjust.works
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    5 days ago

    “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