ThAn thAn thAaaaaan

[Thispupsgottofly]

I swear this didn't use to be such a common error, but I have read so many posts today where people say then when they mean than!
I guess it's because lots of people (including me) pronounce it 'thn'.
Eg. If you say you'd rather stay at home then go to the beach it sounds like you're going to do one after the other!
Aaaaargh!

i text regularly with somebody who uses your when they mean you’ll. Took me ages to get used to it but still jumps out at me every time.

Can I join in?
SiXth, siXth, siXXXXXXXth... ahhhhh, that's better...

Do people say sith instead? Maybe they're into Star Wars.

I keep spotting ‘women’ used as a singular noun. There’s a perfectly serviceable singular, and it’s deeply confusing to use them interchangeably.

No they say 'sicth'.

@Thispupsgottofly ha ha that would be preferable tbh. 'They' say 'sicKth'. Shudder.

This. This all day long! When did this sick-th shit start? Drives me batty.

Oh is this a pronunciation thing? In that case I think I say sickth 😂
I find it very difficult to actually say sixth pronouncing those sounds as they're written.

I seen instead of saw.

Of instead of have. This is so common.

Very true 😁 but i was trying to not swear at him.

You're so right. It is really aggravating. You wonder sometimes if they're reading the same thing I am, and then the ones who carry on the misapprehension.

They genuinely think it's a viable alternative because it's how their parents write/speak. Parents help their childen at home and teach them incorrectly, or incorrectly 'correct' something I've taught them because they don't know they're wrong...

I've corrected children's use of language in their writing at school and been told, "Yeah, but that's just how posh people speak."

Shouldn't/wouldn't/couldn't of is one that really gets me. It blows the children's minds when I tell them it's 'have'.

And the incredibly poor standard of English published online is also responsible.

I guess it's like the ubiquitous Mac n Cheese that's popped up everywhere now, as opposed to Macaroni Cheese. Funnily, never see Cauli 'n' Cheese.

I can go one better, though. I give you my cousins text replies of 'a no' (which is meant to be I Know. I'm sorry, but with predictive text these days there's no excuse and it just sounds thick.

Yes, I'm very judgy about it.

Various reasons. The SPaG they learn in primary school is very specific, not always very useful, not necessarily focused on correcting common errors, and is crammed for SATS and then dropped like a hot potato. Plus with many kids it goes in one ear and out of the other.

I'm a secondary school MFL teacher. Part of the reason UK kids (and adults!) find foreign languages so hard is that they have so little awareness of how their own language works.

Upmost.

???

"Damp squid" is actually delightful 😂

"Loose" for "lose" is my pet hate, but it's so common that there's little point getting worked up about it.

Today I wrote free rein on a post and my phone underlined it and suggested reign, it also just underlined suggested and suggested siggested. So some of this has to be phone mischief!

I've got another - "slither" for "sliver". I keep seeing this in actual published novels.

I've seen this a lot too. It's as though nobody knows what the words actually 'mean', so they just point themselves at something that sounds right. And then the mistake gets perpetuated, because everyone has seen it written down somewhere and THEY don't know what it means either.

I used to see "rest bite" in an old job in the last century so that's not a new one!

"Sell" and "sale" are commonly confused where I am.

@Lins77 YES! So much YES.... why??!

Sorry - are you confused at why 'upmost' is a mistake, or are you baffled that people use it wrongly instead of 'utmost'?

That’s one I do on purpose because it makes me laugh

Apologies, was poorly multitasking.
No idea whether that is correct, or whether it should be hyphenated.
However, yes, my bafflement relates to people erroneously spelling 'utmost'.

Yes, I know what you mean about damp squid. There is something quite pleasing about it, it's just that if someone uses it instead of "squib" my mind goes down that rabbit hole of "why would you say 'damp squid?' It makes no sense. Squids are supposed to be damp, therefore, a damp squid does not describe something that was a let-down. Which is what you're trying to describe, and why it is 'damp squib, squib, SQUIB!'" 😂
The upside of this for me is that it does always conjure up a mental image of a little pink squid in a rockpool, which is quite nice.
Maybe we should re-purpose "damp squid" to mean something that was everything you expected it to be. "I went to Glasto for the first time this year, and it was amazing, a completed damp squid"