Grammar Gripes and Other Psycholinguistic Squawkings

I could have sworn in school, many moons ago, that we had learnt certain words that I get dinged for on spell check, maybe some of you words masters can help me out.

What I learned was that: pleaded was a word and pled was not, dreamt/learnt were words and dreamed and learned were not. However, those depended on the usage of "perfect past" or simply "past"tenses such as he HAD dreamt of this day, he dreamed of this day, he HAD learnt his lesson, he learned his lesson, he pleaded guilt, he HAD pled guilty. the doctor bleeded out the infection, the doctor HAD bled out the infection. That ~ED was appropriate when showing past tense without the participle. But when I read the paper or a magazine or someone reads off a teleprompter it doesn't seem to matter. Because if I remember properly, then I feel ok however, if I remember falsely then I wonder how I did come to these conclusions in belief. It's like past perfect tenses don't get noticed. Has had to swim, did have to swim, would liked to have swam, sing sang sung, swim, swam, swum, do, did, done Could have done better, but I did do better.

No wonder I always heard English was the hardest language to learn.

 

I like your spin, B_G. It helps me cope.

 

I just heard a reporter on BBC Radio say, irregardless.

 

Jebus, I wish I never took those journo classes or was born to Canadians who spoke properly and constantly corrected my grammar and spelling errors. I wish for blissful ignorance. I'm never gonna get it. Thanks, Mom & Dad.

 

I think journalists and newspapers rightfully or wrongly, use the terms that the target audience will feel most comfortable with. Since very few people speak or write perfectly, they could feasibly have an audience scratching their heads going "huh". That is not to give a "pass of ignorance" to the press, simply a nod that at least they are getting out what needs to be gotten out in a way most people could understand. In High school we were told flat out most news papers write at a 5th grade level. As most copywriters get their information from newspaper journalists, it would be easy to see why and how the language gets all muddied up. The vocabulary has to be understandable to the audiences targeted.

I am not a wordsmith, but I hope I write over the typical 5th grade level.

I have read and heard many double negatives in my years. I have also written a few. To say I no not never have, would be lying.

 

I dunno - Pled just sounds like a made up word to me

 

Thank you for this, for the longest time I thought I was crazy when it came to these words and I would shudder if I heard or read them thinking they were incorrect.
--- merged: Nov 22, 2011 12:43 AM ---

hey now, we may be silly but our abOUT doesn't sound like abOOT as you Canadians would have it, eh.

 

Working in a place where American and British usage and spelling often bump, I find that words like, whilst and learnt are more often used by British.

As for the whole Canadian pronunciation of about, I have never heard it pronounced, aboot. If you really want to sound Canadian, it's aboat. I'm just saying.

 

Prepositions that should end with 'ly. Like "I did that proper LY". Also saying "You did GOOD." It should either be "You did a good job." or "You did WELL." I have plenty of other little pet peeves but try to hold my tongue as much as possible. It's just that I almost bite it off TOO often.

 

Yeah, it's like they left out a letter or something.
--- merged: Nov 22, 2011 7:55 AM ---

So Charlatan you're talking eastern Canada--Ontario? Are the western Canadians different at all in their usage? I have yet to get out there to find out for myself.

I'm with you on the 'aboot.' Geez, as a young Canadian kid here in the U.S., specifically rural industrial Connecticut, people treated me as an 'other.' Say "oot and aboot". What??? And the dumb jokes never ended.
I guess that's payback for 'Newfie' jokes, but I've never told one.
--- merged: Nov 22, 2011 7:58 AM ---

You guys are so jealous of our 'eh'!
Nyah!
Let's not really consider the variety of attractive US accents, shall we?

 

I am speaking largely of voices from Ontario, but I can say that I've never heard aboot. There are some regional accents across Canada but, the Maritimes aside, few are as extreme as we hear from the UK or US.

Cripes, just across the border from Ontario, the upstate NY twang is crazy -- Tom becomes Tam, for example.

 

Tom is 'Tam' in the Chicago area, too. Don is 'Dan' and so forth.

They speak funny here.

OTOH, I will never forget the first time I heard the word 'pasta' pronounced by my Ontarian cousin. Remember, pasta used to be called 'spaghetti.'
So we are at our cottage on Maple Lake in Ontario and my cousin invites us to dinner at her cottage next door and with dinner she offers a big bowl of pasta to pass around. The 'a' in pasta is soft like the 'a' in pass! That just cracks me up because to my ears it sounds completely silly.

 

"My friend and I talked all night long" is perfectly acceptable, no?

Whose and who's.
Whose car is that?
Who's that?