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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Aibu to ask that we all write etc not ect

113 replies

lurkingnotlurking · 17/02/2018 09:57

Etc stands for et cetera. Etc. It is not ect. Please. Just please. Get it right.

And no, I don't know any other latin. I even assumed it was French. I just can't see anyone else write ect...!

Thank you.

OP posts:
GunnyHighway · 17/02/2018 14:07

Is that it?

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726 · 17/02/2018 14:09

Well it wasn't a very long sentence, was it?

GunnyHighway · 17/02/2018 14:09

I've posted several times.

SpitefulMidLifeAnimal · 17/02/2018 15:02

So what! All this thread shows op is your own insecurities. Nobody with good self esteem would feel the need to post such a smart arse thing

I can't stand seeing the letters "ect". My late brother had a course of it. Turned him into a zombie. I miss him so much. Maybe OP is like me? Not a smart arse, just sick of being reminded of something?

PerfumeIsAMessage · 17/02/2018 15:39

Gunny, you also seem to be unwilling to punctuate your sentences correctly (the longer ones on pps need commas separating clauses, and even rhetorical questions need a question mark)

All very minor things. However, when scattered liberally through one poster's contributions, might make the reader think that poster needed some help with their own SPAG before they started criticising other people's.

Muphry's Law, pots and kettles etc.

SeniorRita · 17/02/2018 15:41

When people write "ect ect" I think it looks like how I would write the sound my cat makes when he's trying to bring up a hair ball.

lazyarse123 · 17/02/2018 16:50

No one is saying it's OK to criticize pp at the time they post but we are allowed to feel irritated by the amount of bad English we see everywhere especially advertising. It's easy to see how mistakes are made but we don't have to like it.

MincemeatTart · 17/02/2018 16:59

You are absolutely right. I also roll my eyes when people say Excetera too.

Trendy1 · 17/02/2018 17:01

I've always been to frightened to correct other peoples language or grammar. What right do I have...etc, etc.(!) However, since we are here...

I can't BEAR people saying secketary, instead of secretary,
Saying or writing defiantly, instead of definitely,

And mentioning the dreaded apostrophe, which NOBODY seems to get right. Pah!

Trendy1 · 17/02/2018 17:02

There... hoist by my own petard (too)!

Growingboys · 17/02/2018 17:03

YANBU

PS maras2 it's adults'

windygallows · 17/02/2018 17:39

If you can stop the use of 'loose' instead of 'lose' I'd be delighted.

It's never too late to improve on grammar and spelling amongst other things in life. But the PC thing to do is to shrug and assume that someone's knowledge and capacity for change is set/fixed. Sad.

Cranberrywensleydale · 17/02/2018 17:48

Ect..... it's actually really hard to type that as autocorrect keeps correcting it!!!

Blackteadrinker77 · 17/02/2018 17:57

My self esteem is fine

My self-esteem is fine

Skiiltan · 18/02/2018 01:31

Trendy1

I can't BEAR people saying secketary, instead of secretary,

How about "sickth" instead of "sixth"? Absolutely universal on television & radio.

halfwitpicker · 18/02/2018 01:32

Who doesn't know that?

EnormousDormouse · 18/02/2018 01:39

Ect, ect, ect as any fule kno.

EnormousDormouse · 18/02/2018 01:40

(waves to Hackmum)

bluepears · 18/02/2018 03:55

op it is etcetera not et cetera 'et' and 'cetera' are not words in the English language but etcetera is

bluepears · 18/02/2018 03:59

'And no, I don't know any other latin' amazing that you dont know any of these words ad hoc alias bona fide e.g. (exempli gratia) i.e. (id est) N.B. (nota bene), and P.S. (post script) etc

Risen · 18/02/2018 05:27

lurkingnotlurking, what is your solution to this, then?

Do you think we should correct EVERYBODY that cannot spell, regardless?

My amazing adopted mother, who, by her own admission, 'cannot spell', should I pull her up on it?

Or, my boss, who, again, is lovely, but cannot spell for toffee, do I correct her everytime she emails me?

Or, my best friend who frequently gets mixed up with their/there/they're. Should she be on my hit-list too?

Or, is this just reserved for people who have differing opinions to us, or strangers on an internet forum that we have no attachment to?

Or, do 'we' subconsciously want to feel superior and show off our 'intelligence' by having digs at those who just cannot, not will not, grasp the English language.

Let me know.

Regarding the poster that said it's never too late to improve on your grammar. Do I go into the nursing home and tell her? Wink

Shadow666 · 18/02/2018 08:52

bluepears, it's et cetera. It's two words, not one.

StripySocksAndDocs · 18/02/2018 09:07

Is 'ect' worse or more acceptable than proper nouns without capital letters? Is there an ordered list of acceptability?

I feel the world has, just recently, run out of commas. (They were the last two. Sorry.)

bluepears · 18/02/2018 09:13

bluepears, it's et cetera. It's two words, not one.
its not as i explained et and cetera are not words in the English language

CluedoAddict · 18/02/2018 10:01

skiiltan we went to a parents information evening at my DC's school last week. The Deputy Head continually said sickth form. It drove me crackers.