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Pedants' corner

See all MNHQ comments on this thread

Original poster

My friend uses the wrong words...

411 replies

nickytwotimes · 12/02/2008 13:23

My very good, kind and lovely friend uses the word "pacific" rather than the correct term "specific". My fellow pedants, what do I do? I have turned a blind eye (or deaf ear) to it thus far, but it drives me crazy. Another lovely friend responded to my ds saying "How do you do?" (he is 18 mths - very cute!) by saying "Very well thank you and how are you?"!

Am I going straight to hell for being so judgemental?

OP posts:
mybabysinthegarden · 12/02/2008 22:12

Lay for lie, as in, I'm going to lay down. Lay down what for heaven's sake??? (Or should that be heavens'...)

And 'pleased to meet you' upon meeting the Queen, of course.

JossStick · 12/02/2008 22:12

I've heard people say "tempers (sic) fugit" meaning - don't be so cross!!!

IT MEANS TIME FLIES PEOPLE!

and breathe..........

Can you tell it's the ILs?

rachaelsara · 12/02/2008 22:13

Whoops! I really am off up the wooded hill to bedfordshire!

rachaelsara · 12/02/2008 22:16

Did I mean Lady Bracknell? That'll teach me for being a smart arse!

MotherFunk · 12/02/2008 22:21

Message withdrawn

mybabysinthegarden · 12/02/2008 22:22

I think it makes sense if you're only having one or two thinks a day.

mybabysinthegarden · 12/02/2008 22:23

So another think coming is quite a big event and worthy of comment

rachaelsara · 12/02/2008 22:25

That'd be me then!

Ags · 12/02/2008 22:30

I had a good friend who always rode 'pavillion' on her boyfriend's bike!

BarbaraWoodlouse · 12/02/2008 22:31

PMSL at your ILs JossStick. Do they also think "carpe diem" means "fish of the day"?

schneebly · 12/02/2008 22:31

pmsl at these! Not a pedant really and a bit frightened of posting something heinous! I just had to share one of my Aunt's malapropisms with you.

"I am so cross with the school that I am going to contact the omnibusman"

JossStick · 12/02/2008 22:47
  • wouldn't surprise me BW!
MsHighwater · 12/02/2008 23:15

It's definitely "another think coming". As in, having to think again, having second thoughts, etc, etc.

I always think "have your cake and eat it" ought really to be "eat your cake and have it". Am I wrong?

Quattrocento · 12/02/2008 23:17

I have a friend given to malapropisms

Tis an absolute hoot

he is massively funny anyhow

but the unintentional ones are almost as funny as the intended jokes

i think you should celebrate people saying the wrong word

colditz · 12/02/2008 23:23

Ohhhh Haitch Haitch Haitch.

Ds1 is four, and has speech therapy, and he does NOT need his bloody TA insisting that he says "Haitch is for Happy". He needs her to be right about things, because when he comes home spouting, I correct him, and this sets up Conflict.

Damn it, she should just get it right.

gibberish · 12/02/2008 23:29

My friend despaired at how erotic she had lately become.

After much cringing and subsequent relief on my part, it transpired that she had become, in fact, erratic.

MrsEi25 · 12/02/2008 23:41

i hate it when someone says 'i Fink so...its not hard to say THINK...really
i didnt realise i was a pedant until i read this thread...but i do make little mistakes myself and then feel ...
xx ei xx

UnquietDad · 12/02/2008 23:42

Oh gawd, I recall an endless thing/think thread from last year. It's just so obviously "thing" and I want to bang my head against the keyboard every time I fail to get through to people and explain why.

IorekByrnison · 12/02/2008 23:59

MsHighwater - you are so right about the cake. This phrase has always bothered me.

I'm with "another think". Thing doesn't make sense. There is no first "thing" referred to, so how could there be another?

smartiejake · 13/02/2008 00:06

AHHH the pacific thing my mum does drives me nuts too. Thing is she doesn't know it's wrong.

Also having probs with dd1 at mo who, having fallen in with a new group of friends at school seems to think (fink) that TH is now spelt with an F!!! (God I wish I didn't live in Essex sometimes!)

pageturner · 13/02/2008 00:13

Disinterested and uninterested...aaaaargh!

That one really bugs me!

RosaLuxOnTheBrightSideOfLife · 13/02/2008 00:14

It is clearly think. The context is 'if he thinks it ought to be thing, then he has another think coming'.

And the mortified one drives me wild as well.

Though not as much as floor which we have already established that I am alone in caring about.

MotherFunk · 13/02/2008 00:20

Message withdrawn

MotherFunk · 13/02/2008 00:21

Message withdrawn

RosaLuxOnTheBrightSideOfLife · 13/02/2008 00:24

Sorry MotherFunk but you are mistaken.

You have another think coming"
: : : : : : "If you think that, you have another think coming" means "You are mistaken and will soon have to alter your opinion". This is now sometimes heard with "thing" in place of "think", but "think" is the older version. Eric Partridge, in A Dictionary of Catch Phrases, gives the phrase as "you have another guess coming", "US: since the 1920s, if not a decade or two earlier". Clearly "think" is closer to "guess" than "thing" is. The OED gives a citation with "think" from 1937, and no evidence for "thing". Merriam-Webster Editorial Department writes: "When an informal poll was conducted here at Merriam-Webster, about 60% of our editors favored 'thing' over 'think,' a result that runs counter to our written evidence."