Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Oooh you pedants are going to love this!

176 replies

Smitff · 05/06/2017 18:26

www.theguardian.com/science/2017/jun/05/the-35-words-youre-probably-getting-wrong

OP posts:
Dixiestamp · 08/06/2017 10:41

I'm a pedant and I'm proud of it, but I have to confess to loving lots of 'Wenglish' words here in SE Wales. However, 'jamp' is a new one on me; not a fan!

nina2b · 08/06/2017 12:01

Today 06:58 rabbitonrollerskates

Shame about the comma splice in the intro...

Which introduction? I can't locate the comma splice to which you refer.

Badbadbunny · 08/06/2017 12:04

got & gotten
who's & whose
license & licence
gave & gifted

TheNiffler · 08/06/2017 12:09

DD1 used to say 'tooken' instead of 'taken'.

Reader, I beated it out of her.

Also these beauties. First one is painful; the second, well you'd think a church would get the spelling right Confused

Oooh you pedants are going to love this!
Oooh you pedants are going to love this!
OlennasWimple · 08/06/2017 12:17

Some of these peeves are dialect rather than mistakes IMHO (lent rather than borrow; youse rather than you)

Surprised not to see "literally" on the list, as in "I was literally dying after that work out"...

OlennasWimple · 08/06/2017 12:20

Can I also throw in "pretty unique" (it either is, or it isn't); specifically / pacifically (yes, really...); and "agnostic" when "atheist" is the more accurate descriptor

TheNiffler · 08/06/2017 12:24

Have you made a flagrant error, in confusing your alternative choices?

That comma? It's not a comma splice, more of an unnecessary comma.

nina2b · 08/06/2017 12:29

Today 12:24 TheNiffler

Have you made a flagrant error, in confusing your alternative choices?

That comma? It's not a comma splice, more of an unnecessary comma.

Ah. I knew there was no comma splice error.

TheNiffler · 08/06/2017 12:37

Random scattering of commas is one of my bugbears. If you've no idea, don't bloody bother

exbrummie · 08/06/2017 12:54

Someone actually used this upthread. Two times, it's TWICE!!
Two times is only acceptable up to the age of about 5.

theymademejoin · 08/06/2017 13:27

OllennasWimple - youse is dialect. Lent is bad grammar when used to mean borrow. Where I live, "I done" and "I seen" are commonly used. They are incorrect usage even though commonly used (and I had them "bet" out of me as a child).

Ye is the normal term used here for the plural of you. I use ye in speech and in casual writing such as a text message or e-mail to a friend. I always use you in formal writing.

I think there is a big difference between using dialect in casual speech and writing and in more formal writing.

theymademejoin · 08/06/2017 13:28

Recommend me something drives me mad too.

I can recommend you to someone or for something or I can recommend something to you.

OlennasWimple · 08/06/2017 13:39

I think there is a big difference between using dialect in casual speech and writing and in more formal writing Absolutely!

I'm going to push back a bit about "borrow" and "lend", partly because I'm currently learning a language where the word for both is the same and it reminded me of a conversation I had once with a Geordie and someone from Northumbria (I know it sounds like a particularly bad joke, but bear with me!).

The Geordie reminded me that I had said he could lend my book - I was confused. I thought he wanted to borrow it, I already had the book in question. The other person looked at me and didn't understand my confusion at all - he knew exactly what was meant, took the book out of my hand and gave it to the Geordie.

I tend to think that if a linguistic quirk is well-known, used and understood by people from roughly the same geographical area it is more than just a common error (though obviously ideally users of said quirk would know that it is a deviation from standard English)

mommybunny · 08/06/2017 13:41

Badbadbunny there is nothing grammatically incorrect about "gotten". It is the past participle of "get" that for some bizarre reason (considering "forgotten" is apparently fine) has fallen out of favour in the UK but is used by the most educated Americans. It has become an irrational obsession in the UK to become irritated by it.

EvansOvalPies · 08/06/2017 15:30

mommybunny - in UK English speech, 'gotten' is grammatically incorrect. The Oxford English Dictionary describes it as US past part. of GET

Ergo, in UK English, it is incorrect. In the US it seems weirdly acceptable.
A bit like 'dove' instead of 'dived'
And the made-up words like 'burglarised' and 'irregardless'

EvansOvalPies · 08/06/2017 15:35

The word 'forgotten' is entirely unrelated to 'gotten'. It is the opposite of 'remembered. Nothing to do with 'getting' anything at all.

OlennasWimple · 08/06/2017 15:37

Forget and get have the same (Old English) root, though

EvansOvalPies · 08/06/2017 15:51

Do they Olenna? It is interesting, the English language. Do you happen to know what the root is, please? (I've tried looking it up but come up with the same answers. eg, To forget is to not remember something, to get is to bring something from somewhere. Gotten seems to be an American bastardisation of the verb 'to get'. I will genuinely be interested to hear other points of view.

I get irritated when I see someone in the UK saying "I'm sending ut invites" or "I received an invite". This is another Americanism. Invite is the verb, invitation is the noun. So you send/receive an invitation.

Licence/License is another. In the UK, Licence is the noun, License is the verb. In the US, they use it the other way around.

mommybunny · 08/06/2017 16:04

"Gotten" is as "weirdly acceptable" in the US as "eaten", "beaten" and "written" are in the UK. It is not a bastardisation - for some words (like, I guess, "gotten"), it may be archaic usage in the UK, but that doesn't make it "incorrect". At some point in time it would have been used here. [From a forum post quoting Oxford Dictionaries - "As past participles of get, got and gotten both date back to Middle English."]

"Irregardless", on the other hand, is just wrong on both sides of the Atlantic. I have no idea what the status of "burglarised" is - I've never used it or heard it used. I've also never seen the word "licence" used in the US.

OlennasWimple · 08/06/2017 16:21

gietan is Old English for get

forgietan is Old English for forget

and begietan is Old English for beget

MarklahMarklah · 08/06/2017 16:32

Urgh - the confusion between 'past' and 'passed' which Niffler has picked up on. Just saw on someone's FB, "I drove passed him".

EvansOvalPies · 08/06/2017 16:58

Thanks Olanna
gietan is Old English for get
forgietan is Old English for forget
and begietan is Old English for beget

The words, although the endings are spelled the same, still bear no relevance to each other in terms of meaning, however.
And I'm still not convinced that's an valid excuse for the abomination that is 'gotten' though Grin

optionalrationale · 08/06/2017 17:03

Actually "gotten" used to be correct. We stopped saying it but the Americans continued..it is the same as

Forget forgot forgotten
Get Got Gotten

OlennasWimple · 08/06/2017 20:02

They are completely related, Evans Confused

gietan means to get, or to grasp. For is a negative prefix, making forgietan literally mean to lose one's grasp. This website has a more detailed explanation.

I don't disagree that "gotten" is cringey to our British ears, but it's one of these words that the Americans are perfectly entitled to use (in fact, quite a lot of the America English words and spellings that seem wrong to us are simply more old-fashioned versions of modern British English words)