Grammatical NIGHTMARES

[AGBF]

Date: 11/15/2007 6:08:48 PM
Author: AGBF

Date: 11/15/2007 3:09:04 PM

Author: MoonWater


Anyway, here''s the quiz


http://www.blogthings.com/whatkindofamericanenglishdoyouspeakquiz/

Do you all remember the quiz we took about pronunciation? It was very specific.
...
We need to post a link to that quiz, too!

Here is the latest version of the quiz to which I was referring. I still like this quiz the best!

Accent Quiz

Deborah

 

[zoebartlett]

Date: 11/15/2007 9:52:35 PM
Author: AGBF

Date: 11/15/2007 6:08:48 PM
Author: AGBF

Date: 11/15/2007 3:09:04 PM

Author: MoonWater


Anyway, here''s the quiz


http://www.blogthings.com/whatkindofamericanenglishdoyouspeakquiz/

Do you all remember the quiz we took about pronunciation? It was very specific.
...
We need to post a link to that quiz, too!

Here is the latest version of the quiz to which I was referring. I still like this quiz the best!

Accent Quiz

Deborah

I just posted about accents in a thread I just started (Regional Slang and Phrases). I''ll have to check out the quiz.

 

[zoebartlett]

Well now isn''t this interesting? I was born, raised, and still live in the northeast yet this is how I scored on the quiz:


Western
Western is kind of neutral, but not quite since it''s still possible to tell where you''re from. So you might not actually be from the West (but you probably are). If you really want to sound "neutral," learn how to say "stock" and "stalk" differently.

Just out of curiosity, how would one pronounce "stock" and "stalk" differently?

 

[pennquaker09]

You should all be using Firefox instead of internet explorer, it will underline your mistakes in red. Plus it''s MUCH more stable.

 

[AGBF]

Date: 11/15/2007 10:03:03 PM
Author: zoebartlett

Just out of curiosity, how would one pronounce 'stock' and 'stalk' differently?

I pronounce "stock" to rhyme with rock, having the same vowel sound ("ah") one hears in "father".
I pronounce "stalk" to rhyme with "walk", having the same vowel sound ("aw") one hears in "naughty".

Deborah

 

[zoebartlett]

Deborah, they still sound the same to me. All of the words you wrote sound the same.

 

[AGBF]

Date: 11/15/2007 10:19:34 PM
Author: zoebartlett
Deborah, they still sound the same to me. All of the words you wrote sound the same.

Then I am not choosing well! I know that "father" is often given as an example of the "ah" sound in the word, "stock" . I will have to think of another word, one that people from all over the country pronounce the same way, to try to reproduce the vowel sound in "stalk".

Deb

 

[Beacon]

This one should be near and dear to Psers. Appraise/apprise. I used to work for a man who wanted me to keep him "appraised of upcoming events." Drove me nuts; he was such a ding dong.

 

[bookworm21]

Pet peeves:

Irregardless: one girl at work uses this, and it drives me nuts because she only says it when she wants to sound smart! How ironic....

Asterick: People, there is no SUCH THING AS AN ASTERICK!!! It''s an asteriSk.

I shall add more as I think of them.

I really miss this forum sometimes...

 

[bookworm21]

I''ve got it!

Comma splices!!! I edit a lot of documents at work, and it never fails to amaze me how many people don''t know how and when to use a comma, semicolon or a colon. Drives me absolutely mad. Then again, that''s what keeps me employed, so maybe I''ll stop complaining.

 

[MoonWater]

What''s with this quiz only giving 90-95%??

My results:

60% General American English

20% Yankee

15% Dixie

0% Midwestern

0% Upper Midwestern

 

[MoonWater]

Date: 11/15/2007 10:19:34 PM
Author: zoebartlett
Deborah, they still sound the same to me. All of the words you wrote sound the same.

This is so interesting! I also pronounce the words as AGBF does and I''m trying to figure out how they would be pronounced the same.

 

[MoonWater]

Ha, I'm from the Northeast and I got rated a Southerner! Oddly, everyone around here asks if I'm from New York!! I don't get it. No one every believes where I was born and raised. Incidentally, I can mimic many accents. I use to do it a lot as a child. My favorites were Brits, Southerners, and Valley Girls. I watched too much tv!

 

[luckystar112]

Date: 11/15/2007 10:19:34 PM
Author: zoebartlett
Deborah, they still sound the same to me. All of the words you wrote sound the same.

Ditto. I don''t see the difference.

 

[bookworm21]

Guy at work: "Hey, fast question."

NO! It''s QUICK question!!

"The presentation turned out good."

Are you effing serious? It''s WELL!!!

 

[somethingshiny]

Date: 11/16/2007 12:05:57 AM
Author: luckystar112

Date: 11/15/2007 10:19:34 PM

Author: zoebartlett

Deborah, they still sound the same to me. All of the words you wrote sound the same.

Ditto. I don''t see the difference.

Maybe this will help.

Tick-tock, tock rhymes with rock and stock and wok (like going to the dentist and saying "ah")
talk rhymes with stalk and walk (now say these like something''s cute and you are saying "awe")

 

[Gypsy]

Date: 11/15/2007 9:52:35 PM
Author: AGBF
Here is the latest version of the quiz to which I was referring. I still like this quiz the best!

Accent Quiz

Deborah

What American accent do you have?
Neutral

You're not Northern, Southern, or Western, you're just plain -American-. Your national identity is more important than your local identity, because you don't really have a local identity. You might be from the region in that map, which is defined by this kind of accent, but you could easily not be. Or maybe you just moved around a lot growing up.

 

[AGBF]

I had written:

I pronounce "stock" to rhyme with rock, having the same vowel sound ("ah") one hears in "father".
I pronounce "stalk" to rhyme with "walk", having the same vowel sound ("aw") one hears in "naughty".

Date: 11/15/2007 11:52:32 PM
Author: MoonWater

Date: 11/15/2007 10:19:34 PM

Author: zoebartlett

Deborah, they still sound the same to me. All of the words you wrote sound the same.

This is so interesting! I also pronounce the words as AGBF does and I'm trying to figure out how they would be pronounced the same.

MoonWater,

We have an advantage over zoebartlett and luckystar. We at least know how they pronounce "stalk". They pronounce it the same way they pronounce "stock". "Stalk" and "stock" rhyme for them.

The challenge is for us to convey to them how "stalk" sounds to and is pronounced by us!!! I do not know regional accents enough to know what word they would pronounce with the sound we use in "stalk"!

Deb

 

[sevens one]

Date: 11/15/2007 6:29:43 PM
Author: AGBF

Date: 11/15/2007 5:53:29 PM
Author: Gypsy

60% General American English

15% Yankee

10% Dixie

10% Upper Midwestern

0% Midwestern


That quiz was fun! Except: it only adds up to 95%!

I can beat that. Mine adds up to 90%!!!

45% Yankee
35% General American English
5% Dixie (that must be from three years of living in Virginia now)
5% Upper Midwestern (a clear error)
0% Midwestern
_________________
90% Total


Deb

Wait a sec there Deb! You''re in Northern Va.
That Ain''t quite Dixie!!

 

[sevens one]

Since I live in a glass house, I''m not in any postion to throw stones.

However, I have posted this before. This just drives me crazy:

Woke- for awake. "Is he woke yet?"

Sleep- for asleep. "He''s not woke, he''s sleep!" Ahhhhhhhhhhh

Once when my DH''s aunt was over for a visit she heard me sneezing or coughing. (I can''t remember which)
She asked "are you trying to get a cold?" meaning (I think) do you have a cold? are you ill?

I thought "Hell no", I''m not TRYING to catch a cold! Who wants to catch a cold?

 

[nytemist]

I work in an office where we deal with personal ads. I can''t even begin to tell you the mispronounciations and horrible spelling I deal with on a daily basis. But the worst one that makes us want to pull our hair out is people saying ''volumptuous''.

A few years ago when people wanted to officially recognize Ebonics as a real language, I thought ''now I''ve heard everything''. As a black person, I though it was sad that people wanted pure laziness recognized.

 

[AGBF]

Date: 11/16/2007 9:37:31 AM
Author: sevens one


Wait a sec there Deb! You're in Northern Va.

That Ain't quite Dixie!!

Everything's relative, Nan! It isn't the deep South, but it is Dixie...and so is Maryland, where you live. When I taught school in Maryland last year I heard that a certain school was the first one desegregated in a town there. I had never been in a place that was once segregated. Here I learned that the Pentagon has so many bathrooms because it had to have a set of two in each place, one for white and one for "colored". Being somewhere that had been desegregated or that had once had separate black and white facilities shocked me as a northerner. So to me it is Dixie! It is Dixie enough to be very different from where I grew up!

Deb

 

[MoonWater]

Date: 11/16/2007 10:01:13 AM
Author: nytemist
I work in an office where we deal with personal ads. I can't even begin to tell you the mispronounciations and horrible spelling I deal with on a daily basis. But the worst one that makes us want to pull our hair out is people saying 'volumptuous'.


A few years ago when people wanted to officially recognize Ebonics as a real language, I thought 'now I've heard everything'. As a black person, I though it was sad that people wanted pure laziness recognized.

Yeah but I thought it was already recognize as BEV, just not ebonics. I do remember commercials for it (ebonics). That was....severely weird!!

AGBF, I think the words you used to represent how we pronounce it were perfect. But maybe they also pronounce walk and rock the same?

Oh and I forgot, I am technically below the Mason Dixon line so I guess I would be a Southerner.

 

[glitterkitty]

Date: 11/15/2007 3:43:01 PM
Author: MoonWater

Date: 11/15/2007 3:30:55 PM
Author: luckystar112
I just realized that I mixed up ''Ant'' and ''Aunt''. I say ''Aunt'' not ''Ant''!

Don''t the English say Aunt?

Depends where you live the UK. I was born and brought up in Yorkshire and we pronounce aunt as ''ant'', but head a little further south to the home counties and you''ll tend to hear ''aunt''. Same for bath and barth, france and frarnce

 

[MoonWater]

Date: 11/16/2007 10:34:41 AM
Author: glitterkitty

Date: 11/15/2007 3:43:01 PM

Author: MoonWater

Date: 11/15/2007 3:30:55 PM

Author: luckystar112

I just realized that I mixed up ''Ant'' and ''Aunt''. I say ''Aunt'' not ''Ant''!

Don''t the English say Aunt?

Depends where you live the UK. I was born and brought up in Yorkshire and we pronounce aunt as ''ant'', but head a little further south to the home counties and you''ll tend to hear ''aunt''. Same for bath and barth, france and frarnce

Ha, so Aunt is a Southern thing no matter where you are!

 

[diamondfan]

Tgal, I used to try to remind my son it is like FINITE. There is not a word FINATE.

English as a second language is tough though. The grammatical idiosyncracies are strange and just when you think it make sense it does not. SWORD? Why is there a W you do not pronounce? It is just challenging for a lot of people. Speaking of, a lot is TWO words, not one. A lot of times I see alot. This is wrong. I do also see a lot of the your and you''re mistakes too. Sometimes I make typos because I am in a rush. No excuse, but I hit send and depart, and sometimes my posts are off since I started to write one thing, deleted part but not all, and wrote the new sentence. The reader gets parts of both and it makes no sense.

 

[diamondfan]

Date: 11/14/2007 4:28:21 PM
Author: CrownJewel

Date: 11/14/2007 4:23:14 PM

Author: Sparkster

I hate hate hate it when people use an apostophe in a plural word, ie, ''I took the dogs'' out for a walk'' or ''I took the dog''s out for a walk''

Yeah! I hate that too!!! I was in line for the dressing rooms at a Marshalls. There was a sign on the left side (not just a paper sign, these were actual manufactured signs just for Marshalls, in their colors, design and everything) that said, ''Men''s'' with an arrow. And there was another one on the right side with an arrow that said ''Ladie''s.'' EEEEK!

Long time since grammar in school, but I thought apostrophe then S meant ''belonging to" so if it said Men''s it might mean that the dressing room belongs to the men. Does that sound right? (Did not read the link about it a few posts back).


ETA: I had to edit my own post. I guess it''s Marshalls not Marshall''s.

 

[AGBF]

Date: 11/16/2007 10:34:24 AM
Author: MoonWater

But maybe they also pronounce walk and rock the same?

Yes, that is what I have been assuming. And also "naughty". If all the words were not pronounced the same way, they would understand the sound you and I hear when we see the word "stalk" or "walk". To us those words have an "aw" sound as in the word "awe". And you and I pronounce "awe" the same way. And "saw". And "McGraw". But I don''t know what word is universal enough in pronunciation to convey that sound to people who don''t already hear things as we do! So I can preach only to the choir!

Deb

 

[HollyS]

Date: 11/16/2007 10:01:13 AM
Author: nytemist
I work in an office where we deal with personal ads. I can''t even begin to tell you the mispronounciations and horrible spelling I deal with on a daily basis. But the worst one that makes us want to pull our hair out is people saying ''volumptuous''.

A few years ago when people wanted to officially recognize Ebonics as a real language, I thought ''now I''ve heard everything''. As a black person, I though it was sad that people wanted pure laziness recognized.

Amen.

 

[Ninama]

Date: 11/14/2007 9:57:11 PM
Author: somethingshiny

Date: 11/14/2007 4:56:07 PM

Author: Ninama


'Yeah' for 'yay'

I say 'yeah' when some people would say 'yay.' I say it like 'yeah, yeah, yeah!' Like, 'That's right. I sure did. MMM HMM.' And others would just suffice it to say 'yay.'

I should have specified.... "yeah" for "yay" in writing, not in speaking. I say "Oh, YEAH!" and mean the same thing that you do...

When I see it in writing I try to hear it in my head - to sort out if it's the good kind of yeah for yay, or the evil variety.

"I'm getting diamond earrings! Yeah for me!"

Some people use "yah" or "ya" for "yeah" or for "yay". They'll even use "yay" for "yea"... or "yea" for "yeah"... or "yea' for "yay".

"Halo with Asscher - yay or nay?"




Yay for grammar!

I know I make a lot of errors... feel free to correct me anytime!