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Pedants' corner
Original poster

..."to all intensive purposes..."

322 replies

BelfastBloke · 17/09/2010 06:15

Anyone notice this yesterday in a thread?

I kept waiting for a pedant to jump in, but you didn't.

What are some other comedy mishearings?

OP posts:
LikeACandleButNotQuite · 30/11/2011 23:17

My DMum has some corkers.

Balsamic is "bas...bas...bal...basmatic" Hmm

Specific is "pacific"

Don't even get me started on her trying to pronounce crochet Grin

LikeACandleButNotQuite · 30/11/2011 23:20

Oh, and I hate the most: "I could of screamed" ......it's HAVE you nincompoops.

Breathe

LikeACandleButNotQuite · 30/11/2011 23:24

...On a roll now.

DH pronounces "Warrior" as we would say "Worrier" and his "Monster" is "Munster"

Makes my teeth itch.

streakybacon · 01/12/2011 07:16

DH was in a meeting last week and someone said "Speaking hyperpathetically, of course" and he had to hide behind his hand.

He's not usually a pedant but I'm training him Grin.

PludolphTheRedNosedReindeer · 01/12/2011 09:39

Jux, I think HTML is pedantic in its own way (e.g. "404: Not Found"!) but doesn't "get" apostrophes!

PludolphTheRedNosedReindeer · 01/12/2011 09:54

I know this isn't quite a malapropism, but I just have to complain to like-minded pedants about this one. Someone has just sent me a text message, saying "This is my new mobile phone number". I had to write back saying that the person didn't sign the message, so I didn't know whose was "my new number"!

Now, it was in my husband's language, which narrows it down considerably, but it could be either MIL or FIL, or one of DH's friends! And it could have been sent to other people...

P.S. reply just through: it was my MIL.

WhatFreshHellIsThis · 01/12/2011 10:00

Just got programme for DS1's school play sent home. In the cast list there are a number of Shepard's. Shock

Dear god, these people are teaching my child to spell.

Tonksforthememories · 01/12/2011 12:45

The pub near me has 2 meal's for £10 pound's. I want to steal the sign and return it corrected!

Thistledew · 01/12/2011 13:38

I am actually rather concerned about the quality of the Headcam I have bought for DP for Christmas. Proudly emblazoned on the box it states "Make action sports video's" Shock. It's a British company, too.

Jux · 01/12/2011 13:41

I'm afraid I used to correct the stuff that came home from school. I remember a particularly embarrassing one involving a tautology.....

PludolphTheRedNosedReindeer · 01/12/2011 18:34

Oooh, Jux, you have such a treat in store, here!

There are some really ringing teacher-spelling clangers there, for all of us! Smile

Jux · 01/12/2011 20:17

In my case though, it wasn't the teacher's fault. It was a photocopied list of Learning Goals set by the curriculum people (not NC). Beautifully, these particular one's were for Literacy! DD's teacher was so embarrassed and so was I, as I had been doodling without noticing what I was doing. It was stuck in dd's exercise book, and I forgot to Tippex in the bustle of supper. She was bloody lovely, that teacher, one of the best.

FWIW, when I was an undergrad, we replicated an experiment where people were presented with misspelled words and it did have a significant effect on their spelling thereafter. I have noticed that since being on MN my own spelling - particularly of the obvious ones like your, you're, there, their etc have been affected.

Seeing bad spelling does affect your own spelling.

Jux · 01/12/2011 20:19

That is a good thread! Thanks Pludolph.

PludolphTheRedNosedReindeer · 01/12/2011 22:32

It is good, innit? Wink

This evening, I spotted a call to complete a "straw pole" on one of the talk boards, and briefly considered clicking on it to rant, but, returning to the thing which prompted this thread in the first place: sadly, that kind of correction belongs only in Pedants' Corner and to parents of children whose teachers are illiterate.

Jux · 02/12/2011 10:17

Someone mentioned a self-forfilling prophecy yesterday.

Jux · 02/12/2011 10:18

Oh, and that "one's" in my post is the bl%?$¥ autocorrect, grrrrrrr.

PludolphTheRedNosedReindeer · 02/12/2011 10:48

Auto-correct would probably refer to "self farfalle property" (the last with thanks to the bloody UK house-price obsession! Grin)

Ponders · 02/12/2011 10:56

Jeremy Clarkson utterances are all "tongue and cheek" on FB today

(talking out of his arse...?)

Original poster
BelfastBloke · 02/12/2011 11:13

From MN today: "I would go absolutely belistic"

And for Pludolph,

  • "This is my new mobile phone number".
  • "And you are?"
  • "Sorry. It's Dave"
  • "And which of my six mates called Dave is it?"
OP posts:
PludolphTheRedNosedReindeer · 02/12/2011 11:21
Grin

Nice. Thanks!

Theala · 02/12/2011 13:10

DH is foreign but we often speak English at home. For some reason, he's under the impression that 'frisky' means cold. Hmm I suppose I should correct him really, but it makes me giggle every time he asks if I'm feeling frisky.

Thistledew · 02/12/2011 14:20

Not really a mispronounced word, but on the theme of useless text messages:

My phone (which I use both for private calls and for work) once rang with a number I didn't recognise it. I answered and said hello:

  • "Hello, is that Jane?"
  • "No, this is Thistledew. I think you have the wrong number"
  • "No, Jane definitely gave me this number"
  • "I think you are mistaken, there is no-one called Jane at this number. Which number did you mean to call?"
  • Caller reads out my number
  • "You have dialled the right number, but there is no-one called Jane here. What are you calling for?"
  • "I'm calling to speak to Jane. Come on, let me speak to her. It's me calling"
  • "I am afraid I don't know who you are."
  • "Me, it's me calling"
  • (me, sarcastically) "Really? are you sure about that"
  • caller "Of course it's me. Who else would it be?"
  • Me - gives up and hangs up.
BelfastRingingOutForXmasBloke · 04/12/2011 08:57

Instead of 'squeamish'

a MNutter wrote, "...you people are too screamish"

ChippyMinton · 04/12/2011 09:03

I heard someone say "to add insult to industry" the other day Grin

BelfastRingingOutForXmasBloke · 04/12/2011 09:09

Someone lectured me yesterday, "you're mistaking translation and interpretation - they are not one in the same!"