this post was submitted on 29 Jan 2025
250 points (94.3% liked)

Ask Lemmy

27799 readers
2134 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Please state in which country your phrase tends to be used, what the phrase is, and what it should be.

Example:

In America, recently came across "back-petal", instead of back-pedal. Also, still hearing "for all intensive purposes" instead of "for all intents and purposes".

(page 8) 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 7 points 1 day ago (8 children)

"Its"

As "its" is used to indicate possession by "it", "its" is an exception to apostrophe-s construction as used to indicate possessive forms.

"It's", used as either the contractive form or the possessive form, does not require such an exception. The distinction between the contractive and possessive forms of "it's" rarely/never introduces ambiguity; the distinction is clear from context.

The word "its" should be deprecated.

[–] JubilantJaguar@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I have a much better plan: deprecate the stupid apostrophe for all possessives! It always looks semi-illiterate to me, like the 15th-century Dutch printsetters weren't hot on English grammar (not sure, but I bet this is in fact how it happened - German possessives manage fine without the apostrophe).

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (7 replies)
[–] xmunk@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 day ago (8 children)

Irregardless is just a synonym for Regardless now and I staunchly oppose anyone who tries to correct it.

load more comments (8 replies)
[–] Majorllama@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I learned recently that I was using the word "hydroscopic" incorrectly to describe something that repels water. A hydroscope is a device to observe things under water.

Hydrophobic is what I was looking for.

I only realized I had been using the term incorrectly when I got into 3D printing and learned all about the hygroscopic filaments involved lol. I had and epiphany and realized the mistake I had been making for my entire life. And nobody corrected me!

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] CaptainBlagbird@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

In German:

  • "Je X, je Y."

statt eines davon

  • "Je X, desto Y."
  • "Je X, umso Y."
[–] Redacted@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Across the Anglosphere people seem to use "generally" and "genuinely" almost interchangeably these days.

It's "a couple of minutes" not "a couple minutes". Americans tend to drop it for speed, but it kind of fits with the accent I guess.

As far as Americanisms go, this is my least favourite... They seem to be dropping the "go" from the aforementioned and it throws me right off the sentence every time.

load more comments
view more: ‹ prev next ›