Page 5 | ThAn thAn thAaaaaan

Thispupsgottofly · 2025-07-12T16:36:20+00:00

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!

garlictwist · 13/07/2025 14:34

StarCourt · 12/07/2025 20:28

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.

My husband does this. The other day he text me good luck wishes for a job interview and said “your be fine”. I don’t get it.

Vroomfondleswaistcoat · 13/07/2025 15:16

Pandimoanymum · 13/07/2025 14:20

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"

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Again, I think this is a lack of reading. I bet, if you asked the perpetrators of the 'damp squid' phrase, they wouldn't know what a 'squib' is. They've probably never even heard the word and certainly never seen it written down. They know what a squid is though. They've given no thought at all to the origin of the phrase, and just repeat what they think they've heard.

ButteredRadish · 13/07/2025 19:09

garlictwist · 13/07/2025 14:34

My husband does this. The other day he text me good luck wishes for a job interview and said “your be fine”. I don’t get it.

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PLEASE tell me you corrected him??????

Pandimoanymum · 19/07/2025 11:37

Vroomfondleswaistcoat · 13/07/2025 15:16

Again, I think this is a lack of reading. I bet, if you asked the perpetrators of the 'damp squid' phrase, they wouldn't know what a 'squib' is. They've probably never even heard the word and certainly never seen it written down. They know what a squid is though. They've given no thought at all to the origin of the phrase, and just repeat what they think they've heard.

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Yep, I had this exact conversation with my 19 year old after I posted. Most young people don't know that a squib was a type of firework, they've never heard the word. So the phrase 'damp squib' will disappear eventually. My son only knows it because I bang on about it every so often 😅
It's not really a surprise that so many people think it must be "squid".
Nothing to do with this thread by the way, but he once used the word 'slapdash' in school whilst talking to one of his teachers and another sixth-former (picked up from me, obviously) and both the teacher & pupil thought it was really funny. I have to accept that I talk like an old person now!

Vroomfondleswaistcoat · 19/07/2025 13:25

Pandimoanymum · 19/07/2025 11:37

Yep, I had this exact conversation with my 19 year old after I posted. Most young people don't know that a squib was a type of firework, they've never heard the word. So the phrase 'damp squib' will disappear eventually. My son only knows it because I bang on about it every so often 😅
It's not really a surprise that so many people think it must be "squid".
Nothing to do with this thread by the way, but he once used the word 'slapdash' in school whilst talking to one of his teachers and another sixth-former (picked up from me, obviously) and both the teacher & pupil thought it was really funny. I have to accept that I talk like an old person now!

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We should never underestimate just how small some people's vocabularies are. I write books for a living and I have had reviews of my books (fairly ordinary women's fiction books, nothing fancy-schmancy) from people who say things like 'I have a university education and I had to look up some of the words used in this book'. I use words like scintillation, esoteric, liminal, nothing particularly outstanding to anyone who reads fairly widely, but these 'university educated' people were complaining about vocabulary!

Crushed23 · 19/07/2025 13:26

AramintaBottersnike · 12/07/2025 17:49

I've just read yet another post in which the OP has written women instead of woman.

@Era I saw "loosing the wheel to live" as well 😂I don't understand what anyone thinks "rest bite" means. They're two separate words with their own definitions and putting them together makes no sense whatsoever. I get that it sounds a bit like respite but do people really not think about what they write?

Presumably they haven’t ever read it and are guessing the spelling of what they’ve heard. So many errors cannot be blamed on autocorrect, such as “loosing the wheel”.

I agree with PP, many people clearly don’t read anymore. The frighteningly common mistake that really hammers this point home to me is the use of “his” to mean “he is” or “he’s”.

AramintaBottersnike · 19/07/2025 16:36

@Crushed23 I was reading a post earlier and the OP consistently used "hes" instead of "his". Presumably pronounced as "he's" but without the apostrophe. Bizarre.

I've also recently read a very long post that contained no punctuation whatsoever. None. It was just one never ending sentence and was an absolute bugger to read and try to make sense of. I really did shake my head in despair.