As much as I rail against people for not using the English language correctly*, I must admit there are some sayings that just don't make any damn sense. Here are a couple:
"Have your cake and eat it too"
I know what the meaning of this phrase is, I think; it's talking about not being satisfied and always wanting more than you deserve. But if you look at what it literally says, it's completely ridiculous. I know the Vegetable Assassin will back me up on this one. I mean, what is the point of having sweet delicious cake, if not to cram it down one's gullet? What possible circumstances could exist in which the having of the cake was enough?! What are you going to do, just keep it under a glass dome, taking it out occasionally to stare lovingly at the swirly peaks of frosting until the cake is old enough for baby spiders to come bursting out? Maybe that's good enough for Miss Haversham, but not this girl, no sir! I see a cake, I eat it.
"The exception that proves the rule"
This just makes my brain hurt like Mr Gumby. I'm not even sure I can understand what someone who uses this phrase is trying to say. I mean, surely if an example exists that goes against the conventional wisdom, doesn't that mean the conventional wisdom is wrong? For example, say you meet an Australian who hates beer and loathes cricket. Okay, perhaps it's unexpected, but how in the hell do you turn around and take that as proof that Aussies usually do love beer and cricket, rather than that perhaps you might have been taken in by a popular stereotype, and it's proof of the fact that the stereotype isn't true?!
Extra Credit Question: Dear Readers, what oddities of the English language (or another language, but please explain!) do you find perplexing?
*I think using the wrong your/you're should be punishable by torture, and I have been known to shout at the television during misuse of the word literally...
numer darowizny: SRTF/067/SWD .
1 month ago
23 comments:
Yup, you're/your, it's/its etc. I mean we all slip now and then but some people just don't grasp it at all. And people who say "supposably". NOT A WORD. Oh, oh, also, "I could care less". Then why don't you? That makes no sense. It's "couldn't". I couldn't care less. And don't get me started on "misunderestimate" and "irregardless". And people who use the word "guesstimate" need my boot in their ass. Guess and estimate are roughly the same damn thing, stop combining them.
There, I'm going to go and calm down now.
Whoa I'm that one Australian who hates beer and would rather poke my eyes out with a rusty fork than watch cricket. I never knew I was the key to defining Australia's love of beer and crapet.
Feel my power!
You're not supposed to eat cake! No, ma'am, that just makes you fat! If you're a woman, you smear it over you body and ask your lover to eat it. When he gets fat, you find another lover.
Offhand, I can't think of a thing that perplexes me.
VA - Irregardless gets a pass from me, but only if you say it with a look in your eye that says "I've seen Mean Girls and I know what I'm doing." Everything else though I am on board with you!!! "Supposably" - Pah!
Rusty - Heh, nope that makes 2 of us!
GB - Ahh you make a lot of sense!
Cooper - Oh my god what is that I don't even. How does that HAPPEN?!?!
Yeah I don't get those two phrases. I mean, I can understand when to say it and all, but cake is meant to be eaten, dammit!! And I hate the they're/their/there mess up. And all those other ones. I feel like shooting myself when I come across those; especially from teachers.
The sad thing is that I know the correct version of both of these and why they're entirely logical. I'm so sad, I can't even contribute to the discussion. But I hate the word nice. Just because I can.
Falling Up - Yay cake! Oh no, it would break my heart if I saw a teacher making those mistakes! I guess as long as it wasn't an English teacher it'd be understandable ; )
I hate "have your cake and eat it too," also.
I also don't get the whole I before E, except after C, AND when sounding like "A" as in neighbor and weigh. Why don't they just make it I before E always, like Brian Regan suggested? It's a lot less confusing.
The latest expression that I seem to hear all the time bothers me so very much.
"It is what it is".
Yeah, no kidding Mr. Hawkings, what else would it be?
Madame DeF - I wish you would tell us! Then I wouldn't have to google it.
BeckEye -Yeah, stupid inconsistencies! That's what you get with such a patchwork language.
SkyDad - Hahahaha, I'm going to call someone Mr Hawking as soon as possible.
The one that really bugs me lately is "conversate."
You can either converse or have a conversation, damnit!
This entry and all the comments are making me madder than Yosemite Sam. I'm literally shooting guns off in the air. ;)
WellFed - Mr & Candy hates that one too! He always grumbles about it.
WWW - For your sake, I'm going to accept that you are literally shooting guns. You are an American after all!
I don't think there are any phrases in particular that irk me... or if there are I can't think of them.
ONE THING, however, is when people say "I seen" instead of "I saw". For example, "I seen Bob walking to the grocery store." I swear that EVERYONE in my hometown says this (it's an Atlantic Canadian thing, I think) and it kills me. In retrospect, however, even my teachers said it.
"I seen yez didn't do so good on your last test..."
This is only a SLIGHT exaggeration. It's amazing that I can read and write at all.
Missrandell - Oh no!!! I do make allowances sometimes for regional quirks but come on! I thought of another one that bothers me which is when people write "per say" when they mean "per se". Gah!!! It makes me cross just thinking about it!
Here's an awesome one. Twice in the last few weeks I've seen a person referred to in print as a "pre-Madonna". LOLZ ensued.
WWW - PRE MADONNA?! IN PRINT??? My brain just exploded. Do these people even think about the fact that what they're writing makes zero sense? Gah!
@Missrandell: We recently had an executive VP give a presentation and at the end of a power point deck, he wrote "Waa Laa" instead of Voila.
Seriously.
Yep, 'a doggie dog world' (seen in print).
Also equally maddening, 'for all intensive purposes'. gah
And another thing,
Should you eat cake before you have it? Or have your cake, then eat it? I think the first one?
SkyDad - Oh lord. It's definitely worse when it's someone who's making gobs more money than you.
Eric - I hate both of those! Intensive purposes is worse I think, it's one of those ones people use when they want to seem more intellectual. Also, good question on the cake. I think eating the cake wherever possible is the answer.
Ooooh, "for all intensive purposes" burns my biscuits!
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