The English Language

My husband gets the biggest kick out of the ads around here for "wench" trucks. We Texans pronounce "wench" the same as "winch." I simply cannot make the short "e" sound when it is followed by an "n."

One of the most common grammar mistakes is to use "I" in the objective. "Susie gave Nancy and I some concert tickets." Or, "It was an exciting day for Nancy and I." In my early elementary school days I was taught the easiest way to avoid this mistake. Simply leave off the other person's name and see if it sounds right. You would never say, "Susie gave I some concert tickets." You would say, "Susie gave me some concert tickets." Therefore you should also say she gave them to Nancy and me. Same with, "It was an exciting day for I." No, you would say "me," so you should also say, "It was an exciting day for Nancy and me."
 
Between witch or which, which is which ? :D

Oh, and the accent, which :D has been mentioned here often. I think it's more a British thing, so EJ (James Scott) transforms Samantha into Samanther. Though Samanther is still a witch, in my opinion. :D So Cat Deeley, from So you think you can dance, always says "Tabither and Napoleon".

Oh, and how about "who" or "whom" ? Now that's a tricky one, at least for me ! And some characters on Friends, apparently !

 
"who" and "whom" are tricky for all of us, I swear. I do know that all over the U.S. the accents are different, and while supposedly the midwest has none (not true) it is always everywhere else that has one. New York, Jersey...definitely. The south, the west...yes, for sure. Even some states have their own "flavor". And no offense to anyone. i.e. Hoosier (Indiana) accent is different from Iowa, and Texas is different than Tennessee, etc. etc.

However, I wonder......is English still taught in school. High school I mean? I HAD to take 3 years of it, and took the 4th on my own. Requirements change thru the years.
 
Just a quick tidbit on pronunciation I stumbled upon this week with Annabelle's spelling words. She has the word 'pin'. Well, at the beginning of the week, she was spelling it 'pen' because I was pronouncing it wrong. I discovered that I don't distinguish the vowel sounds in those two words unless I really concentrate on it.

My biggest grammar problems come from the who/whom and the lay/lie dilemmas.
 
This thread shows how even having English as a 1st language, it is confusing.

I have a big family all over the country & sometimes we need a translator when at reunions. lol. The country folk in the family says "picture" & "pitcher" the same way, leaving out the c sound.

That also brings up pitcher. It's a person throwing an object, but also a jug to hold liquid. If a person throws the jug at a wall hanging photo, they are pitching the pitcher at the picture. :rotfl:
 
Is there a different pronunciation for you and ewe?? LOL Unless I'm disgusted or seeing a bug, then it's eeeeeeewwww!

How do you say Caribbean? I would go with how the locals say it if I knew, lol.
 
I say it as Care-uh-bea-un if talking of the location but Car-rib-ee-un if speaking of food, markets, etc. I'll have to ask my neighbor. There's a large amount of them around here.

I put it in my status here (not hear), but will Will will his belongings to Arianna Grace? :)

Addition: I guess we'll have to wait, not weight, to see how that wheel, not we'll, turns. lol
 
You all are on a roll here. @JS...I have a friend here who does exactly the same thing with warsh, instead of wash, and heighth.
@Sirramix, and I have another friend up here who does the same thing with the word Italian. I have also asked her if she is going to visit EYEtaly.

When my sister moved to Missouri, she had to constantly "correct" me that is was pronounced Missoura and St. Louie. LOL. And I let her get away with it all until my became MA and I became AH. i.e. Ma back is killin' me. AH have to go to the doctor tomorrow.
I said to her.........what did you just say? and she was flabbergasted. She had no idea that she had adopted that Missouri accent. LOL. I told her she was born and raised in Chicago, and I did not care if she lived in Memphis for a while, Joplin and now St. Louis. she is not a southerner. LOL.
 
OC, it's close to 'bob war' when people try to say barb wire instead of barbed wire around here.

My mom calls her aunts "Ain't", I say ant, Hubby tries to get the girls to call his sister "auntie" as in taunt with an 'e' sound on the end.

Sirramix, if I'm writing a sentence that puts a same name/verb together like "I hope Hope tells Bo to shove it where the sun don't shine" or your example of the triple will....I work hard to reword my sentence to avoid that doubling.

JS, my mom and one of my elementary teachers always say "worsh" instead of wash. I make sure to 'correct' my mom every time she does it by asking her to spell the word and show me the 'R' in the word. LOL!

I noticed a church sign while driving today had something about being "at your whit's end". I'm assuming that's a spelling mistake because I always thought it was "wit" not "whit".
 
LOL this truly is a fun thread.

@ Sirramix - love your examples and play on words but being used in the correct context. Will Will will his belongings to Arianna? Brilliant.

For Carribean, I also use both pronounciations but really had to stop and think how and what I am referring when saying Carribean. Cuh-rib-eean for food and Care-ri-beean for travel. But now that I'm saying it out loud, I'm sayingit just the one way.

For aunt I have always said 'ant' or 'anty', never Aunt, rhyning with Taunt. That way always seemed so formal and you're right, @Canadiansnowbird, it is very British to say it that way.
 
I like this thread too. I'm always fascinated with language, accents and such.

My husband's nephews from the northeast call me Auntie (as in taunt) Judy. It always makes me grin.

Rocky, I grew up saying "ain't" for ants and also for my aunts. "Ain't Dixie got stung by a red ain't." It sounds corny now but if I am with the right people I can still easily revert to it. My mother's cousin, a dear and funny lady, who recently died at age 93, used to say, when a lot of things were going wrong, "If it ain't ain'ts, it's fleas!"

Oh my goodness, an example of how easy it is to make writing or typing errors in this great language we call English----in the previous sentence where I spoke of my mother's cousin, I looked back and saw that I had typed in "deer" instead of "dear!"

Muzzaman, I had not heard of Caribbean being pronounced different ways for travel and for food. I learn lots of new things here.

You patriots will love this. Drives my husband crazy that I say, "ar-MISS-tus" for Armistice Day. He says Texans always put the emphasis in the wrong places on everything! And that we add syllables to words.
 
Some other often confused & confusing words;

affect - effect. The side effect can affect different people in different ways.

some - sum. The sum can be found by adding some numbers together, just to sum it all up. :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top