Making the Curmudge cringe.....

bassduke49 · Post by **bassduke49** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 5:17 am

Then there is further and farther. Farther should be used when referring to a measurable distance; further describes degree. Examples:

Tiger Woods drove the ball 80 yards FARTHER than his partner.

I can go no FURTHER with this line of questioning.

paologregorio · Post by **paologregorio** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 10:39 am

Good ones all, as are the wisecracking replies.

Ah, it's just wonderful to be part of a forum with so many witty members. I can't laugh anymore-it hurts too much.

How about "whole heartily agree"(?!!) instead of the correct "whole heartedly agree".

Let's not forget the ever annoying

him and his brother went.....

her and her mother went....

eatswodo · Post by **eatswodo** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 2:08 pm

It's a mute point - he's gone off on a different tact.

jingle_jangle · Post by **jingle_jangle** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 2:42 pm

This CL ad made me cringe today.

Topic is a '92 XJ6 Jag for sale or trade:

"The car needs the driver side window put in bacause its broke but i have a replacement. the car is smoged and the paint still shine.it need a wheel inlinement and thats it. I have smog in hand and pink slip. will let you test drive as long as you want as long *** you pay for gas. e-mail or call and let me no what you got."

Should I call and "let him no" I have a headache?

ricwidow · Post by **ricwidow** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 3:18 pm

Ain't he got no learnin?

lyle_from_minneapolis · Sat Sep 22, 2007 3:44 pm

U meen "larnin'".

melibreits · Post by **melibreits** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 3:53 pm

This has been a really fun and interesting thread!

My kids often say "How much" when they mean "how many," and it drives me crazy!

Another one I hear often around here is "I seen" instead of "I saw." A LOT of adults who grew up in Grand Marais say that, so it may rest on the shoulders of a negligent past English teacher.

I was an English major in college, so I'm pretty sensitive about that sort of thing--but I use plenty of bad grammar myself, though I usually use it for emphasis in a tongue-in-cheek way....

elysrand · Post by **elysrand** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 8:16 pm

Yowsers, tongue in cheek is risky, more so than hand in glove. I usually bite off more than I can chew....

elysrand · Post by **elysrand** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 8:24 pm

Paul sayethed: Elys, neither of my two words is on your long, dictionary list.

My heart goes out to you for the paucity of your lexicon

Besides (parse-i-moniously-speaking) you're such a tease at times, Paul

elysrand · Post by **elysrand** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 8:27 pm

Paul Boyer said: Tiger Woods drove the ball 80 yards FARTHER than his partner.

Stevie Wonder and Tiger Woods are in a restaurant having dinner. Woods turns to Wonder and says, "How's the singing career going"? Stevie Wonder replies, "Not too bad. How's your golf"?
Woods replies, "Not too bad, I've had some problems with my swing, but I think I've got that going right now."
Stevie says, "I always find that when my golf swing goes wrong, I need to stop playing for a while and not think about it.
Then, the next time I play, it seems to be all right." Tiger says, "You play golf??"
Wonder says, "Oh, yes, I've been playing for years."
Woods says, "But you're blind! How can you play golf if you can't see?! "
Wonder replies, "I get my caddy to stand in the middle of the fairway and call to me. I listen for the sound of his voice and play the ball toward him. Then, when I get to where the ball lands, the caddy moves to the green or farther down the fairway and again, I play the ball toward his voice."
"But how do you putt?" asks Woods. "Well," says Stevie, "I get my caddy to lean down in front of the hole and call to me with his head on the ground, and I just play the ball toward his voice."
Woods asks, "What's your handicap"?
Stevie says, "Well, I'm a scratch golfer."
Woods, incredulous, says, "We've got to play around sometime." Wonder replies,
"Well, people don't take me seriously, so I only play for money, and never play for less than $10,000 a hole."
Woods thinks it over and says, "Okay, I'm all for that. When would you like to play"?
Stevie says, "Pick a Night."

ricwidow · Post by **ricwidow** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 8:47 pm

jingle_jangle · Post by **jingle_jangle** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 8:54 pm

Excellent!!!

One of the Two Words is, oddly, "pickaninny" (out-of fashion word, considered racist these days, which was used in days of old to refer to a black child). Ref: Faulkner, Erskine Caldwell, et. al.

This word came from the Portuguese pequininho, meaning "very small one", through the slave traders who used it to describe slave children.

The other word--the most obvious and often-used--is mosquito, literally, "little fly"; "fly" being, mosca. And in a typical quirk of Portuguese, whereas mosca is feminine (and you will hear Portuguese-speakers referring to a fly as "she"--creepy...), mosquito is masculine.

Another Portuguese non-sequitur is the word for "breast", peto.

It's masculine.

wayang · Post by **wayang** » Sun Sep 23, 2007 2:03 am

And teta is feminine...pretty confusing...

How's a poor pentelho supposed to comprehend it all?

So mosquito is masculine...ironic, since only the females drink blood...and only the females make the characteristic buzzing sound in flight. Any time you hear one or get 'bitten', it seems like she should be called a mosquita...

melibreits · Post by **melibreits** » Sun Sep 23, 2007 3:40 am

I agree, languages that assign gender to their nouns can be confusing.... I remember our high school Spanish teacher saying that often an item's gender depends on its size--for example a small handbag is "bolso" (masculine), but a really BIG bag is a "bolsa" (feminine). Very strange, but kind of funny!

paologregorio · Post by **paologregorio** » Sun Sep 23, 2007 11:06 pm

That Tiger/Stevie Wonder joke is too funny!