Correct use of wonder and wander

[GrumpyGasper]

Wonder - to think about, to ponder

Wander - to travel (generally on foot) aimlessly.

These two words are quite different and are increasingly being used interchangeably on the conception and pregnancy threads.

Rather than tell-off hormonally challenged women who probably don't care about the standards of their grammar, I have decided to vent here.

And don't get me started on bought V brought

God, tell me about it - drives me bananas! I do wonder (see?) whether it is just bad spelling or poor education, I have to admit - the number of times I see "loose" for "lose" on here, I seriously wonder (see again)! That is my bete noir, although yours gets me going too.

Bought vs brought I think may be a London district working class thing - my Grandad used to say that and he was not fick or uneducated.

I am with you on that one.

I am also getting increasingly annoyed with people talking about "the pacifics" of something.

It is specifics you eejits.

My husband is not from London, so I do wonder why this specific idiot says "brought". I sometimes lose my rag with him

oh very good, GG!

I haven't seen wonder and wander mixed up.

Interested in the 'brought/bought. So if someone buy you something and says I've brought you this then that would be correct. Do you mean the say 'I went to the shop a brought a loaf of bread'.

buys not buy.

Damn my post was a mess. Shouldn't mnet at work!

When 'Organic' food first hit the shelves, I wondered if the other veg must be'Inorganic'...

Isn't the 'brought' thing Irish? My Irish friend uses 'brought' in a lot of contexts I wouldn't....

abouteve - I know of a couple of MNers who regularly use wonder when they mean wander. The bought/brought thing - yes, it's things like "what do you think of this dress I brought in Debenhams today?"

"So if someone buy you something and says I've brought you this then that would be correct." - depends on the context - if they bought it for you, and are telling you that they bought it for you, then it's incorrect to use "brought". If OTOH they are saying that they have brought over the thing that they bought for you, then brought can be used. Brought is past tense of bring, bought of buy. I'm sure I'm overexplaining this to you...

bought involves paying for something, brought means carrying it along with you

I bought this for you last week and brought it over today.

I bought it in a shop and brought it to you.

There is no bringing involved in the actual purchase. My husband says things like "I brought myself a new pair of jeans". He knows it's wrong but has got into a very bad habit.

Good point step! abouteve you are lucky not to have suffered phrases such as "I was wandering about when I should get a scan".

While and whilst

grrrrrrrrrrrr

Re: Brought examples

OH NO - those are terribly wrong!!!!!

wahwahwah, what is your issue there?

Can honestly say I've never heard anyone say they brought a pair of jeans from a shop. [smug emotion]. Maybe it's a southern thing. Or it all sounds Irish to me

I've never heard anyone use brought instead of bought and I'm from NI. Is it an accent thing?

Whereas I, who lived in SW London area (outskirts), heard it quite a lot, and have seen it a fair amount on MN. In fact I've heard it a few times in Australia as well.

Weary and wary....

I'm boggling after reading

'...blot his coffee book...'

in an email just a few hours ago.

I have never seen wander and wonder mixed up either thankfully. But I do not frequent the Pregnancy and Conception threads.

I have seen and heard brought and bought mixed up. Very frustrating. Seems to be a common one and yes, I am a Southener/Londoner, bit it seems to be dwindling in recent times. Maybe that is a reflection of changing the people around me?

In Wolverhampton there are a lot of 'Wonderers' supporters.

It's in big enough lettering outside the stadium but, no, they still persist!