There is this little girl in my neighborhood who makes the absolute worst tasting lemonade I've ever had in my life, though she does give generous portions. I feel obligated to stop every time she makes eye contact, so I guess she knows a sucker when she sees one. LOL
Edit: a word (top to stop)
And y’all are so nice!!! Thank you!
Ding ding ha that’s right, I was going to circumlocute that shit with “unironic faux-portmanteau” and then I would have had a clear opening to “or… fartmenteau!!! Ayoo”
But that felt hella nerdy and I thought of it too late, so 🤷♂️
No you're right. Lots of people just can't be bothered looking up the actual phrases and just try to spell it phonetically after hearing it - usually with horrid spelling. It's like when people say "here here" instead of "hear hear".
This one is weird for me. The original usage is "I couldn't care less." Saying that you care so little that you couldn't possibly care any less. "I could care less" said with a sarcastic tone, is saying that you care enough that you could care less about it but since it's sarcastic you're essentially saying you could not care less but with some bite. I think most of the time people just don't know what they're saying but sarcastically saying "I could care less," very dryly, hits harder than "I couldn't care less."
In elementary school, Brave Spelling encourages students to sound out the word and not be afraid to make mistakes, and that a misspelled word that still communicates the idea is often good enough. As adults, we should strive to do better, but even so not be afraid of the pedants who harp on every detail.
I agree to an extent - it's fine to make mistakes as that's one of the best ways to learn. But I also don't think there's anything wrong with pointing out a mistake so someone can learn, without the feedback being dismissed as being pedantic. After all, it is important to be accurate with written language, and using the wrong words just confuses people, especially when the reader might not be as familiar with the language to pick up on the context clues.
If you don't want to be dismissed as just being pedantic, maybe be more polite with your correction instead of implyint laziness by saying people just can't be bothered to look up phrases? People generally respond better to polite feedback than rudeness.
When I'm talking to someone directly I do say it politely. I was just making a general statement and not actually correcting anybody.
To me, it does come off as laziness if people never actually verify phrases and information that they hear before they use them. Especially when we can check things in seconds using the internet.
It's not that serious. Sometimes people just don't know what they don't know. They hear a phrase and their mind just assumes it's one word instead of another (site/sight) and they don't even realize it's wrong until it's pointed out to them. That's not a moral failing.
I had to come read all the comments to see if anyone read the edit and honestly, my own word mistake makes me giggle too.
It honestly impresses me, the creative ways some folks tried to defend my spelling oops. It’s sweet and fun, all at the same time and I’d happily be pals with them all!
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u/Shalarean Feb 20 '25 edited Feb 20 '25
There is this little girl in my neighborhood who makes the absolute worst tasting lemonade I've ever had in my life, though she does give generous portions. I feel obligated to stop every time she makes eye contact, so I guess she knows a sucker when she sees one. LOL
Edit: a word (top to stop) And y’all are so nice!!! Thank you!