FFS it's not ECT it's ETC!

[BIWI]

Seen this twice this evening.

'Etc' is short for 'et cetera'. I have no idea what 'ect' means!

Obviously I haven't corrected/posted on the specific threads as that's a cunty thing to do. But really! Do people not know that? Do they not know that it's 'et cetera' and therefore that 'ect' makes no sense at all?!

I actually agree with op, Ive just always wanted to be the twat that writes that.

And it isn't about language evolving at all! That's always the lazy excuse people make for their mistakes.

No-one will ever say 'ect'. But if you're using it in speech, you would say 'et cetera'.

Oh, sorry! Cross post then!

Fission

I can try, BIWI. Would failing to read your posts but ticking you off, schoolmarm-style, be a start? If so, I'm sure I know whose style to imitate.

Not just me then..

Sorry!

Imitation. The sincerest form of flattery.

Cashier in the local shop asked me this the other week! Her and another colleague were debating as neither knew. I assumed et cetera was pretty common knowledge but then I should have stopped assuming a long time ago.

No, some people don't know that. Not everyone is privileged enough to receive a fantastic education, or has a home-life that enables them to learn. Other people have learning difficulties.

Do people really not know that?

YY, tiger.

And also, does it matter?

No of course it doesn't matter in the great scheme of things! And obviously if you have learning difficulties that's a completely different issue.

But I'd also argue that it's not about having a fantastic education - it's hardly unusual to see 'etc' written down in books or magazines or news articles.

And it's fucking irritating!

Bugs me too. The other thing I understand to be true is that etc should only be used once so saying "blah blah etc etc" is grammatically incorrect.

But having a learning difficulty isn't a 'completely different issue,' is it?

People with learning difficulties still read your post, didn't they? They still see you saying it's 'fucking irritating' to you that they do this.

How exactly do you imagine those people feel?

Do you really think all of us who have learning difficulties and who read your posts are busily tugging our forelocks and thinking 'ah! not us, mam, you mean them other folks what can read and write proper like'?

Because we're not. We're actually almost indistinguishable from everyone else, except when people feel the need to make a distinction.

Do people with spelling difficulties not want to improve?

And now you're being deliberately goady LRD. As you are an academic, I know that if you do have any learning difficulties, you have learnt to surpass them. You have - as far as I know from everything you have posted on MN and FB (because yes, we are FB friends, although you don't post as if you are one of my friends ) - a superb understanding of language and its history, usage and development.

No, I'm not being goady. And no, despite my work, I have not magically ceased to have learning disabilities.

What on earth do you mean by that statement?

Do you imagine my colleague who is autistic no longer suffers because he is a professor? Or my colleage who is blind is no longer affected?

I don't believe we are facebook friends, and I'm not sure who you are on facebook. But, please - do realise that people who have disabilities don't all fit into one tiny box. We're not all sitting around with our hands out waiting for you to help. Some of us cope fine, but it is still bloody rude to talk about us the way you do.

When I see ect I always think of ectoplasm

I remember learning “et cetera” in my totally unremarkable primary school, admittedly back in the Dark Ages of the Sixties. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect people to use such a common expression correctly.

Well quite, @DreamsofJacaranda.

I'd like to add that it's CAMHS and not CAHMS

this annoys me too.

It thought it was Ampers and not Ampersand?.

Don’t even get fucking started on per se. It’s not fucking “per say”. It’s Latin, “per se”.

And it’s vice versa. Not VISE versa or VISA versa.

Thank you for this ranty thread!! :)

@SteamTrainsRealAleandOpenFires no. It’s ampersand.

@Judashascomeintosomemoney that's what comes to mind whenever I see it.

"Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera!"

Being an editor (some picky types will probably call me ‘self-styled’ or something equally lovely), these type of grammatical errors / typos / call them what you will really irritate me. I used to be very pedantic about this stuff at work but realised quickly that most people didn’t like it if I constantly nitpicked others’ grammar, spelling, writing, language faux pas etc in a patronising way, unless it was part of some factchecking or proofreading for my job.

Having said that, it still blinking irritates me and I get some odd pleasure out of correcting typos in adverts and signs I see when out and about that really winds up DH! I’m just a grammar pedant at heart, and can’t help it really... I used to grin when a colleague used to say to an editor I worked with, ‘You’re a wordsmith...’ whilst waving a document for fact checking etc (see what I did there?!) Said editor used to roll his eyes at me after but I was secretly envious I hadn’t been referred to as a wordsmith...