Dear Americans

by **rdsrds2120** on Mon Apr 08, 2013 8:10 pm

People who say "could care less" has bugged me since I understood that it was wrong (when I first heard it), and has been a pet peeve ever since.

BMO

by **jonesthecurl** on Mon Apr 08, 2013 11:12 pm

One of my pet peeves is the phrase "Head over Heels".
I mean, isn't it already?
Now, "Arse over tit" means you're upside down. But "Head over Heels" is just, well, standing up.

by **john9blue** on Tue Apr 09, 2013 12:03 am

here's an expression that i apparently misused a while ago:

https://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en&tab= ... _qf.&cad=b

https://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en&tab= ... 00&bih=756

given that more people believe the phrase is "tow the party line" than "toe the party line", has "toe" become incorrect?

if i wish for my communication to be understood by as many as possible, shouldn't i use "tow"?

people who understand "toe the line" will understand "tow the line", but not necessarily the other way around. so why use "toe"? because some dude at oxford tells me to? pfft... appeal to authority much?

by **BigBallinStalin** on Tue Apr 09, 2013 12:11 am

You're not towing anything, nor pulling the party. You're following the line, thus 'toeing' it. Towing something would place you in power over the object being towed.

'Toe the party line' makes more sense. It's probably a verb of mid or old English, if I had to venture a guess.

by **john9blue** on Tue Apr 09, 2013 12:15 am

i know why "toe" makes more sense, man.

just saying that it doesn't make sense to use it if less people are going to understand it.

by **Symmetry** on Tue Apr 09, 2013 12:17 am

john9blue wrote:i know why "toe" makes more sense, man.

just saying that it doesn't make sense to use it if less people are going to understand it.

"Fewer" people.

by **nietzsche** on Tue Apr 09, 2013 12:23 am

Symmetry wrote:
john9blue wrote:i know why "toe" makes more sense, man.

just saying that it doesn't make sense to use it if less people are going to understand it.

"Fewer" people.

john is going to kick your ass symmetry, he's hardcore.

by **Symmetry** on Tue Apr 09, 2013 12:30 am

nietzsche wrote:
Symmetry wrote:
john9blue wrote:i know why "toe" makes more sense, man.

just saying that it doesn't make sense to use it if less people are going to understand it.

"Fewer" people.

john is going to kick your ass symmetry, he's hardcore.

The man doesn't type capital letters as it's too much of an effort. I think I'm safe.

by **john9blue** on Tue Apr 09, 2013 12:33 am

Symmetry wrote:
john9blue wrote:i know why "toe" makes more sense, man.

just saying that it doesn't make sense to use it if less people are going to understand it.

"Fewer" people.

LOL, touche

nietzsche wrote:john is going to kick your ass symmetry, he's hardcore.

once they invent a way to do this over the internet, i'm there.

by **BigBallinStalin** on Tue Apr 09, 2013 1:35 am

john9blue wrote:i know why "toe" makes more sense, man.

just saying that it doesn't make sense to use it if less people are going to understand it.

I was replying to this:

john9blue wrote: so why use "toe"? because some dude at oxford tells me to? pfft... appeal to authority much?

RE: change, sure. It happens. Language is a spontaneous order, and although there are authorities (oxford dues), they are not supreme, central planners of the language. I doubt less people would understand it. It takes 5 seconds to explain, and either way, in spoken form, both words sound the same. (forgot that technical term).

I'm laissez-faire with other people's use of language, so I have trouble sympathizing with your concerns.

by **chang50** on Tue Apr 09, 2013 2:52 am

john9blue wrote:here's an expression that i apparently misused a while ago:

https://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en&tab= ... _qf.&cad=b

https://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en&tab= ... 00&bih=756

given that more people believe the phrase is "tow the party line" than "toe the party line", has "toe" become incorrect?

if i wish for my communication to be understood by as many as possible, shouldn't i use "tow"?

people who understand "toe the line" will understand "tow the line", but not necessarily the other way around. so why use "toe"? because some dude at oxford tells me to? pfft... appeal to authority much?

When I corrected you on this I had never heard or seen anyone use 'tow',so I assumed you had made an error.I don't know if the phrase has become corrupted over time in N.America so more believe it to be correct,this is how language evolves after all.I would speculate more English speakers overall would use the original 'toe',and it does have the advantage of making sense,originating in the sport of boxing.

by **aage** on Tue Apr 09, 2013 8:56 am

Actually it seems rather silly to hold contemporary Americans responsible for their language. It's not like they all got together one Saturday afternoon on the event "How To Annoy The British" and decided to cut out the u because it's shorter.

That's almost like blaming the Arabs that they're not Christians.

by **chang50** on Wed Apr 10, 2013 2:36 am

aage wrote:Actually it seems rather silly to hold contemporary Americans responsible for their language. It's not like they all got together one Saturday afternoon on the event "How To Annoy The British" and decided to cut out the u because it's shorter.

That's almost like blaming the Arabs that they're not Christians.

Totally agree,language has and always will evolve,I remember over 40 years ago translating Chaucer at school,it was literally like a foreign language.Americans (US) speak one broad variation of English,there are many others.

by **ooge** on Wed Apr 10, 2013 4:10 am

I would not suggest any American using the British word for cigarette. and anyways there are what? at least six different forms of English in the UK.

by **chang50** on Wed Apr 10, 2013 5:03 am

ooge wrote:I would not suggest any American using the British word for cigarette. and anyways there are what? at least six different forms of English in the UK.

Thats a conservative estimate,it would be equally unwise for any Brit to use a common American word for one's backside...

by **ooge** on Wed Apr 10, 2013 5:38 am

chang50 wrote:
ooge wrote:I would not suggest any American using the British word for cigarette. and anyways there are what? at least six different forms of English in the UK.

Thats a conservative estimate,it would be equally unwise for any Brit to use a common American word for one's backside...

I will have to look that up..lol

by **_sabotage_** on Wed Apr 10, 2013 5:54 am

Fanny, a name a lot of Chinese girls like to give themselves, my favorite though was a guy who called himself Hyman.

by **Army of GOD** on Wed Apr 10, 2013 9:19 pm

Whenever people use "good" instead of "well" I feel physical pain.

by **Lootifer** on Wed Apr 10, 2013 10:46 pm

Army of GOD wrote:Whenever people use "good" instead of "well" I feel physical pain.

Sarcasm doesnt suit you.

by **aage** on Thu Apr 11, 2013 12:24 pm

Lootifer wrote:
Army of GOD wrote:Whenever people use "good" instead of "well" I feel physical pain.

Sarcasm doesnt suit you.

Apostrophes have the same effect.

by **notyou2** on Fri Apr 12, 2013 10:52 pm

Timminz wrote:
keiths31 wrote:
aage wrote:

Same thing, 5 month later by an American. Apparently they do care.

An Alanis reference 20 years too late...is quite lame.

Oddly enough, it is rather ironic for someone to write a song titled "Ironic" without knowing what the word means.