Ain't just in the USA, Brook. 'Could care less' when meaning 'Couldn't care less' is another. It's the total opposite of what you mean!
But donkey. I lived 6 months in Edgeware, London and also Brighton, England. Never saw Brits confusing this three. Is this a problem in other parts of UK as well? Why are Americans murdering your language like that?
Know which one bugs me for some reason? "Sure up." God fucking dammit, it's "shore up" not "sure up." This offseason our #1 concern should be to shore up that leaky, penalty-ridden OL.
We can do a pretty good job ourselves. Languages should evolve, and in some cases American English is a truer version. Garbage is a very old English word as is posse. Interesting article from lexicographer Susie Dent. https://www-radiotimes-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.radiotimes.com/news/2017-05-20/susie-dent-why-we-shouldnt-trash-american-english/amp/?amp_js_v=a2&_gsa=1&usqp=mq331AQECAFYAQ==#referrer=https://www.google.com&_tf=From %1$s&share=https://www.radiotimes.com/news/2017-05-20/susie-dent-why-we-shouldnt-trash-american-english/ Americanisms don't bother me, just people using the wrong bloody words. We are cursed with should of, could of and would of over here. And yeah it's Couldn't care less... in that you couldn't give less of a shit.
There .. their .. they're is so obvious that no one should get it wrong. A much more challenging one is it's versus its. "It's" is a contraction - that is, a shortened combination of two words. "Its" is the possessive of it. Its use can be very confusing, because it's a possessive word that doesn't use an apostrophe (see what I did there?). Speaking of apostrophes, I absolutely hate when people use them for plurals. No no no no no - apostrophes are for possessives and contractions only! susses "I reckon he susses what's up." And your use of the apostrophe for the plural of the letter S is incorrect according to the Chicago Manual of Style. When using multiple capital letters you don't include an apostrophe, since you don't do that for plurals (as I said above). For lower case letters, however, apostrophes are generally used to aid comprehension. So it's 4 s's, but four Ss, violating my angry screed above. https://english.stackexchange.com/q...ral-of-a-single-letter-another-apostrop/25280
Holy Hell, even though I'm The Typo Queen of the Free Fucking World, I could be here for days. English is such a fckd up language that in most ways doesn't even make any sense. I before E except after C except when it sounds like A in neighbor and weigh. How about get the fck out of here with this? I just do it by rote. Some of the hardest languages to jump to and become fluent if it's your second language is Chinese to Russian or English to Chinese. You are one smart mofo if you can do it, and I guess that's where espionage comes in. I just decide to read the funny papers. Speaking of reading, I starting reading at a very young age (4), kind of freakish, but I'm a circus monkey I guess. I taught myself to read just by putting stuff together. No baby books or anything like that to make me get it. No pictures required, I just got it. It was like a Helen Keller thing when Annie Sullivan pumped the water. Coma head that I am (years later), I have a mind like a camera as to long term memory. Reading: I had a Hershey's Kiss, tore out the label, and it just cIicked. H-E-R-S-H-E-Y. "Her she?" I think my Mom was afraid of me, haha. I can navigate Italian very well and get around, but I call it I-bonics. The history of language and linguistics floors me. Yeah, I'm a nerd. There are several languages that are endangered and dying. It's a very interesting subject. Ancient Greek and Russian look so visually the same to me. I probably need new glasses. Fuck past participles.
Forget about proper usage, adverbs, adjectives, suppositions, nouns and pronouns! @CBG: ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ^What does this MEAN?! I just can't figure it out! It's almost like ! Do we need to call in Mr. Crazy Hair?
