To be Specific....

[Gossipmonster]

One of admin lady at work's favourite words is "specific" thing is she says "pacific" Every. Fucking. Time.

Another colleague (degree educated) says "she/he done" instead of "did".

I just want to scream - but feel like it's so petty I couldn't possibly say anything.

Anyone else? :)

But to fair, English is probably not their first language (as it isn't mine) but it still makes me stabby!

Except for the 'staff' one. That was quite funny.

Urgh... to be fair...

'them' instead of 'those' (as in, 'them flowers are pretty') and 'was' instead of 'were' ('we was looking at the tudors last week') . A teacher at dc's school does it and it makes me really cross that she is modelling such crap language in front of 30 impressionable children.

I briefly thought about training as a teacher but wouldnt inflict my lack of knowledge of the next generation

Is the brought/bought thing common?! I don't think I've ever noticed anyone using them interchangeably. Do some people really not know it is two different words? That's so strange.

Do you think these mistakes come from not reading enough?

I think the brought/bought is just laziness (but it is my pet hate).

I also get annoyed with their/there. I find that if (and it's not often!) I make the their/there mistake it is because I was lazy and didn't check.

The past tense of 'to text' is texted.

No, it's "sent a text"

I can see 'brought' written down and pass it by with a delicate shudder but if someone actually says it I get angry...like proper angry! My colleague says it and I really want to correct them

I cringe too at 'pacific' rather than specific', my dad does it.

My biggest pet hate is becoming more and more common, it's 'arks' instead of 'ask'. I'm trying to learn to leg it slide and a one woman crusade can't overcome this.

Dh goes for a bike...not a cycle...so he goes for a bike, on his bike. aaaargh!

Should of.

Doing xxx why the kids are at school.

Its have and while.

Argh.

Or whilst.

At my local library they had a mural with something about the goverment

I also hate brought/bought and should of

I must learn to be more tolerant!

I worked with someone one once who used to say unindated instead on inundated. I wanted to kill her for a variety of reasons but that was the main one.

As for dialects and language changing that's fine ( and actually quite interesting) but do the people using these wrong words know that they are wrong and choose to use them or are they just clueless???

The people I talked to about brought and bought genuinely thought that brought wasn't a real word and bought was the same word for both the past tense of buy and bring. One of them had even been correcting children not to say brought. Both had degrees.

I never know how to tackle dialect words. Here we have the word shew, which is the past tense of show. For example 'you remember I shew you that on Monday?'
I had one friend who was otherwise articulate and well spoken who used it. He had no idea it was a dialect word until he used it in a high flying meeting!

People who write down 'then' instead of 'than'. Argh!

I think we all need to print this onto stickers and stick around our work places.
weknowmemes.com/2012/10/theyre-they-fucking-are/

When I am Queen, people who say St. PancrEas will be first against the wall.

Along with those who confuse counsellor/councillor- or even make up hybrids of the two.

From someone on my Facebook "shudnt crumble"

Thought of another!

Advice/advise. 'Asking for advise'. No you bloody well can't!

I'll stop unconsciously saying 'pacifically', when people stop putting penguins on Christmas cards with polar bears.

I have never seen a Christmas card with polar bears and penguins on.

However I did once go into a coffee shop which claimed it sold expressos. There was a sign at the till which said 'check's are not excepted'. This was in the uk and the people running the coffee shop seemed to have English as their first language.

A woman I used to work with did the 'pacific' instead of 'specific' thing. She wasn't particularly nice, generally used to feel superior to everyone and make very bitchy comments about the other female employees behind their back. I pulled her up on this several time which made me distinctly NOT her favourite person.

It used to make me smile that while she was rolling her eyes about people, she would be saying 'pacifically' what it was about them that annoyed her

My husband uses pacific instead of specific. He also pronounces accurately wrong! I just have to take a breath and remember he's not trying to annoy me!

Is the brought/bought thing common?! I don't think I've ever noticed anyone using them interchangeably.

I know someone who always says 'brought'. 'Bought' doesn't exist in her vocabulary. So she will say "Remember when I brought those trousers", "My DH Brought this for me"...

She also insists 'Binoculars' are called 'Binoclears'. She now lives abroad and I do worry that all of her foreign friends who presumably let her help them with their english have all been taught THE WRONG FUCKING WORDS

Do you think these mistakes come from not reading enough?

Nope. I think it comes from bad education, and bad parenting. Her parents speak like that, so does she. No one has ever corrected her. She has a Master's degree and is currently studying for her PhD, so she's not stupid and certainly reads plenty. I just wonder what she thinks when she reads the word 'Bought'... does she not wonder what that word is?

Aaaand deep breath. I feel better now!

This isn't a grammar/spelling thing, but I really have to concentrate on saying "anemone" otherwise it will invariably come out as "anenome". I have noticed people doing the same thing on TV and radio and I'm sure they have no doubt what the word is, it just comes out wrong when they say it.

Go on, say "anemone" and see if you do it too.

As for all the examples on this thread, they annoy me too. Pedal stools is quite funny though.