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Isn’t it weird that humans learn how to use language to communicate with others without needing to put in that much effort? But if we want to write and read or to perfect it and make our linguistic abilities more sophisticated, we need to actually study the language. Despite starting strong and already being able to talk and understand others in childhood, we spend years learning our languages at school, but in the end, not everyone manages to acquire it completely.

Those who are more receptive to languages often get irritated by the mistakes other people make in spoken or written language. It really shows in a Reddit thread where a person asked “What is something that most people don’t use correctly?” and half of the answers consisted of people naming misused words and grammar errors others make.

Image credits: Martha Soukup

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#1

The phrase “I couldn’t care less”

Most Americans I’ve heard say, “I could care less”. Like cmon you’re using that all wrong!!

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#2

Incredibly: should’ve. I’ve seen a ton of people write “should of” when they mean should’ve (as in should have) and in my opinion that’s worse than confusing “then/than”.

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H Edwards
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It comes from the way it's pronounced, and it's exclusively a mistake that native English speakers make.

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#3

The word loose. They mistake it for lose

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H Edwards
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

One of the most common spelling confusions in the English language, apparently. It's quite easy to see why, I suppose. The one that really grinds my gears for some reason is 'shepard' instead of 'shepherd' when people start discussing their dogs.

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#4

The they're/there/their and to/too/two. It's a pet peeve of mine when people say "This is to boring." In any situation when they use the wrong "to." My mates had taken University-level English classes in highschool yet they still make the "there" or "to" mistakes, and it makes my blood boil.

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Mary Rose Kent
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I didn’t even go to college and I still manage to use the right one every single time.

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#5

Less vs. fewer. Less is for uncountable nouns: you have less time, less pain, less work to do. Fewer is for countable nouns: you have fewer apples, fewer cans of soup, fewer distractions. People usually use less when they should use fewer; it rarely happens the other way around. People will say "there are less cars on the road," but they probably won't say "there is fewer traffic." There is a related problem with much vs. many. To be fair, what is countable and uncountable can get complicated, and it's easy to make mistakes (I do it too). You can't have fewer money, you can only have fewer dollars and cents (money, amusingly, is uncountable). You can't have fewer pizza, but you can have fewer pizzas (pluralization of something uncountable makes it countable).

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John C
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I understand this is technically correct, but not only does this not impede effective communication (you know exactly what they meant) but since language evolves over time, I suspect in the future this distinction will be eliminated and these two words cross-pollenating one another will be considered acceptable, or if nothing else slang.

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Yehudit Hannah Cohn
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Then you're missing the whole point of the thread--slang is common, but not proper.

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Parmeisan
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

You got downvoted, but I balanced it out -- I see what you did there :)

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Lauren McG
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I learned something new about the english language reading this 👍

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Llama_flower93
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I kind of feel like the word fewer is becoming one of those words that...well, fewer and fewer people use. Lol. It might altogether disappear not too far down the road. Like the word whom. Nobody uses it anymore. I think that will happen to fewer.

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Brian Bennett
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I do most of these things correctly sometimes I wonder if it was where you were educated - I'm a Brit. If I did not say a word or write a word, in the proper context I was told!

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Stannous Flouride
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

According to the OED and the Times Style Book, the two closest things English has to the Académie Française, this is outdated and no longer accurate. That being said, I appreciate when stores like Trader Joe's label their express checkout lines "Ten items or fewer."

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Raven DeathShade
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

"You should know wheeeen it's less or it's fewer, like people who were, never raised in a sewer!"

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Si
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That explanation is more complex than it needs to be: you have less of one thing, fewer of more than one thing.

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Grace Noyes
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This irritates me too. The grocery store line "10 items or less."

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L. R. V.
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It's probably related to a general laziness in speech patterns: regardless of context, people use "less" rather than "fewer" because it has fewer syllables.

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Isabel Care
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Fewer corpses, becomes less when the bodies are put through a blender into a swimming pool....less gloop.

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GoddessOdd
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It may be evolving but for some reason we all sound less (fewer) intelligent when we don't understand the difference between less/fewer, effect/affect, their/there/they're and so on. To use the "language is evolving" trope, you must then be okay with sentences that look like "Your crazy if you think there not loosing they're mind as an affect of seen where we was". Is it possibly that language is only evolving when it's something you say, but erroneous when other say it?

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Daniel Marsh
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Let it slide. Think about it: when people say there is less of something "incorrectly", don't they usually mean something which may be countable, but isn't counted? Take your example of "less cars." Cars in a parking lot are countable. Cars on a highway are actually, NOT countable. Cars on a certain abitrary length of highway at a given instant are countable, but that's not what anyone means, is it? So I'd argue "less cars" is correct here.

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Sam Yobado
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The difference is really plural and singular as a lots of abstract wholes are countable. Anyway less has been used for plurals for over 1000 years so get over it. Language evolves.

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Wondering Alice
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2 years ago

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Hmmm. I thought EFL for many years. While I explained the few/less rule - I also encouraged the use of less so as not to slow down conversation as it can be a hard call in a hurry. Less is always understood. I do not think this mistake is worth making a fuss about

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Mary Rose Kent
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I disagree—it rankles that we’re becoming slobs with our own language. I understand that language is a fluid subject to change, but laziness is a poor excuse.

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Nathan Jones
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2 years ago

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This one seems dumb. Especially when they use time as an example of something you can't count. Minutes, seconds, hours......those are all countable. So should you say you have fewer time? No. This one is dumb.

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Jamma
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Nathan, there is a difference between "time" (uncountable) and "minutes, seconds, hours" (countable).

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80 Van
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2 years ago

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This is one where the distinction almost never adds any clarity, so I’m not very passionate about the rule. “Literally” vs. “figuratively” makes a big difference in understanding the meaning, but “less” vs. “fewer” are, for all intents and purposes, synonymous. I think there are many grammar battles worth picking, but this is not one of them, in my opinion.

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#6

The pedal next to the gas is not the break pedal

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Paul C.
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2 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It could be, if you push it to hard! You see what I did their? Im pleased with that. :-)

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#7

I'm gonna go get an expresso and excetera.

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#9

Than/then

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Hayhaypaula
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

"Than" is used when you are comparing two items. Use "then" when you are discussing order in time. Examples: I ate pizza, and "then" took a nap! I ate more pizza "than" wings!

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#10

Apostrophes.

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Robert T
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Apostrophes are such a pain to explain as they can indicate two things - possession (such as Robert's book or Mary's bicycle) and abbreviation (where letters have been omitted should've, would've, could've, won't). Then you have to try to explain it's to someone. Is it possession or abbreviation? Its is possession and it's is abbreviation. And they go "what?".

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#11

grumpyoldmanBrad said:
Affect/Effect

Daddict replied:
It's so easy.

Affect is a verb. Except when it's a noun.

Effect is a noun. Except when it's a verb.

No idea why people mix these up.

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memyselfandI
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Affect is first, effect is second. Usually in casual conversation, affect will be a verb (her emotions affected the decision), and effect will be a noun (the effect was that she got two dozen donuts instead of one). Affect as a noun means sort of your vibe, as in (his affect was one of confidence), effect as a verb is basically the same as affect, doing something that changes something else, but effect is usually used when making that specific change was the goal (he wanted to effect a change in legislation). Affect as a verb means your action has some consequences in the situation around you, effect as a verb means you are doing something for the specific purpose of making that change. One is unintentional, the other is intentional. Hope that clears things up.

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#12

APART

If you participated in something you were “a part” of it. If you are “apart” from something or someone you are deliberately not a part.

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ZAPanda
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My pet peeve is "alot". "Allot" means to award or to allocate. "A Lot" means "a bunch".

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#13

"Anyways" the correct word is "anyway". Anyway already denotes any possible way. Adding an S does nothing other than show your ignorance.

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H Edwards
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I see this as a kind of colloquialism. I use it even though I know it's not technically correct.

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#14

Literally

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Pickles
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Webster's dictionary has literally changed the definition of the word to include today's people's common misuse of the word as "figuratively" or "virtually". So the word has literally list all meaning.

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#15

The word “cavalry.” People often say “Calvary” instead.

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#16

Same with saying “payed” instead of “paid”. This one drives me insane the most.

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Robert T
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Nothing wrong with them saying it, it's when the write it down that it annoys me!

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#18

breath, breathe, and breathing. Makes me wanna kill someone more than I already do.

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#19

AtomBombBaby42042 said:
Woman/women!

smooshf**kie replied:
Right! But people don't get man/men wrong.

Why is it that people can tell the difference between man/men but not woman/women?

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Wondering Alice
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Is this a thing? I can't recall seeing someone mix up woman and women. Is it happening a lot?

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#20

;

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Robert T
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Separator between statements. In English and in programming languages.

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#21

Weary vs wary too. I am weary of the misuse of homynyms.

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Tom Hanlin
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Weary is not a homonym of wary but, for all I know, could be a homynym, whatever that is.

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#23

Grammer

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#24

Barley when they mean barely. That one grinds my gears.

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#25

"Begs the question"

It doesn't mean to raise the question.

It's a form of circular reasoning where the argument requires the conclusion to be true, rather than the argument supporting the conclusion.

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Mike Beck
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Interesting. I have only ever heard it used as "raises the question" and never the other.

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#26

The colon and semicolon.

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Fat Harry
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It's not even hard. A semicolon is a punctuation mark used to separate items in a list or to link independent but related clauses, whereas the colon is the longest part of the large intestine.

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#27

People say: You can't have your cake and eat it too.

The traditional correct phrase is: You can't eat your cake and have it too.

Nowadays the two ways of saying it are pretty much used interchangeably.

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Kanuli
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Does it make a difference though? Philosophically? In Switzerland we have that saying aswell, slightly different. There’s a bread called weggli, and it often has a chocolate coin(foifer). And usually when you share one get the weggli, the other the coin: thus :you can’t have the weggli and the foifer.

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#28

The English language

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Skara Brae
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

One time I passed a couple of college students. One was from Iran and the other from Korea. They were speaking in English, but their accents were so strong I could barely understand more than every third word. I was impressed how they could understand each other.

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#29

The words “everyday” and “awhile”.

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Robert T
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

But "everyday" means something different to "every day", which is what I assume you are getting at.

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#30

Plurals

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Robert T
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Plurals in different languages are quite strange. In English is usually by adding an "s" or "es". In Danish it seems to be by adding "er". In French they start messing about with the words before it as well.

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