Lose or Loose?

[Grumbaki]

Your kidding me right? Their's much worst cases

Even though I'm not a native speaker, I'm so tired of the moosh that english as a lingua franca became that I often resort to some level of old timey english with some latin locutions on top.
My chinglish wielding counterpart shan't fathom my thoughs!

German words that got into a niche of english langage are pretty nice for confusing your counterpart. But it's a bit over zeistgeist-y

In my native language (french) we have a specialized oldschool dictionary that is highly respected even though it stopped evoluting in the 1800's (Littré)...is there anything like that for english? I'd be interested!

 

[Kelt0901]

For me English is a fourth language

Wow, I'd have never guessed that ! Your written English is better than mine, and I'm as English as a Red London Bus, or Fox Hunting, depending upon how politically correct I choose to be

Agreed on your command of the English language, nice job for a fourth language!

I would have guessed you were a Texan, J.R. is a common name in Texas.

I only speak two languages....English and American...but I'm working on a third - Canadian(but not the French part) :

When you learn Australian you will speak four languages ;D

Would that be old Australian or current Australian, when I grew up the Australian language was referred to as “strine”. My grandchildren didn’t know what it meant.

 

[CarlTN]

I would rather talk about the loose women, they don't annoy me.

Ahahaha...touché.

 

[Sella174]

Here in South Africa I've noticed that the word "borrow" has largely been, shall we say, replaced by the other end of the relationship ... "lend" and "loan". As in:

"My I lend your lens."
"I lent his lens."
"I will loan a lens from him."

 

[CarlTN]

Here in South Africa I've noticed that the word "borrow" has largely been, shall we say, replaced by the other end of the relationship ... "lend" and "loan". As in:

"My I lend your lens."
"I lent his lens."
"I will loan a lens from him."

That's cute, because it is giving the person who is doing the taking or borrowing, the credit for also owning the thing...and being generous enough to let someone borrow it! How nice of them!

 

[9VIII]

I can't wait for the day a virus is released on the internet to spell check every word typed out in a non-secure application.

I know it wouldn't fix the problem in the title, but it would still be a big improvement.

 

[9VIII]

For me English is a fourth language and the way it is used in my country, as long as you understand what the speaker / poster is trying to convey, it is usually enough.

Canonrumors is a forum where the users are spread all across the world - some with good English and some with not so good English. I feel that there should be some leeway as long as one can understand what a poster is trying to convey. That said, I've seen many native English speakers who have worse English language skills than myself

I would bet that nobody is going to stop posting on the forum simply because they did not know the nuance of a language.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Fair_Lady

Many of those posting on this thread are probably familiar with the movie already, but if you aren't I suggest giving it a look.

(Looks like I linked to the stage play and not the movie, either one should do though.)

 

[AcutancePhotography]

"Irregardless" of the lose/loose issue, one of my favourite peeves to pet is the intermingling of the words envy and Jealous. While related, they don't mean the same thing.

But in some dictionaries they are listed as meaning the same. (facepalm).

And lets not even think about the word irony. I am convinced that no one on the Internets Tubes seems to know really what that means. ;D

 

[mackguyver]

Since this thread is still kicking, I'll add my latest and most annoying one - Curated. Last time I checked, this was something done by highly skilled people at museums, you know, curators. But now, you see it everywhere and you have "curated" MP3 playlists, "highly curated" collections of photos or items for sale at certain websites. Please. If a computer or some idiot in their pajamas is doing it, it isn't curated. Even Google has it in their definition:

cu·rate
ˈkyo͝oˌrāt/
verb
past tense: curated; past participle: curated
1. select, organize, and look after the items in (a collection or exhibition).
"both exhibitions are curated by the museum's director"
select acts to perform at (a music festival).
"in past years the festival has been curated by the likes of David Bowie"
select, organize, and present (suitable content, typically for online or computational use).
"nearly every major news organization is using Twitter’s new lists feature to curate tweets about the earthquake"

Okay, venting over

 

[Famateur]

"Irregardless"

LOL. Nice!

And lets not even think about the word irony. I am convinced that no one on the Internets Tubes seems to know really what that means. ;D

Agreed! It seems that most people should use "coincidental" rather than "ironic". Irony is Oedipus vowing to bring to justice the man who killed the king, not knowing at the time that it was himself all along.

 

[Kernuak]

And lets not even think about the word irony. I am convinced that no one on the Internets Tubes seems to know really what that means. ;D

It's ironic isn't it, that they don't understand the proper use of irony.
Actually, that leads me back to cannot and the link to the German translation. While both languages tend to concatenate words to form new words, I think overall, modern German tends to concatenate more than modern English, although I haven't really done a comparison and my German vocabulary is pretty small.

 

[AmbientLight]

And lets not even think about the word irony. I am convinced that no one on the Internets Tubes seems to know really what that means. ;D

It's ironic isn't it, that they don't understand the proper use of irony.
Actually, that leads me back to cannot and the link to the German translation. While both languages tend to concatenate words to form new words, I think overall, modern German tends to concatenate more than modern English, although I haven't really done a comparison and my German vocabulary is pretty small.

In my case I use both English and German quite a lot and indeed there is a certain resistance to concatenation in the English language, which is unknown in German. It is best exemplified by using "-" in between combined words. Even more of a pronounced difference are common combinations such as lens cap, which are separated completely, while in German you would have an Objektivdeckel. In German you can combine two words spontaneously to make up something new and this new construct hopefully becomes a useful expression. Zeitgeist for example has become a rather famous word combination curiously more in English-speaking areas than in German-speaking areas. It also seems to me that it is not exactly en vogue any longer, being perhaps zeitgeistlos.

 

[Larry]

I feel that my being perfect in every regard obliges (or is it "obligates"?) me to post.

"I could care less!" is only appropriate if delivered dripping with sarcasm( or is it "sarcazm"?), ...thus signifying to those with a clue that exactly the opposite is in fact the case.

I'm surprised (or am I "surprized"?) that no one has mentioned the grammaration which has become my increasingly infuriating pet peeve.

What it is, is the redundant use of the word "is" as in the first part of this sentence. No one says "My name is, is Bill", or "My Bentley is, is black".

But people in increasing numbers, including supposedly knowledgeable personalities such as news anchors, politicians, advertisers, and the U.S. president, seem quite willing to say "The trouble with that is, is such-and-such".

OK, so maybe these types aren't really "supposed" (as in "believed") to be knowledgable anymore, but In my childhood days it was more or less expected ;-)

I can't (as in "can not") speak for the rest of the world, ...but the "Dumbing of America" continues apace. (...and the "pace" is increasing. )

One hand-basket is never going to suffice.

I believe "can not" is perfectly legit, since I can not-do a great many things , even at the same time. ;D

I can not-jump over the moon at the same time as I can not-dance a minuet. Can't you?

Same goes for "won't". I will not-type a great deal more on this subject. There, done! (... and at record speed, if I do say so myself!).

 

[Valvebounce]

Hi Folks
One I hate is axed! As in I was axed a question, or is it aksed, ;D I hope no one axes me a question as I fear the pain of an axe strike! :

Cheers Graham.

 

[gmrza]

Here in South Africa I've noticed that the word "borrow" has largely been, shall we say, replaced by the other end of the relationship ... "lend" and "loan". As in:

"My I lend your lens."
"I lent his lens."
"I will loan a lens from him."

That is taken from Afrikaans, because the Afrikaans word "leen" means either lend or borrow. The difference is contextual.

 

[DJL329]

The British English usage is the ending "ice" for the noun and "ise" for the verb. E.g., I would advise you that the advice is to practise the practice of grammar. Americans use "ise" in all cases.

Sorry to disagree, but I am an American, and I was taught the correct usage of each in school.

Alan...I think you meant to write that Americans use "ice" not "ise" for the word practice. (I'm from the US) Americans always use practice, not practise. (Even as I tried to write practise the spellcheck keeps trying to correct me). I wonder if the spellcheck does that if you live in the UK?

DJL...Americans never use the word "practise"...so in the US there would be no "correct usage" of each...unless you mean that it would be correct to use "practise" when communicating with a Brit.

No, I thought he was saying that Americans always say advise, even when they mean advice.

 

[Jim Saunders]

I suppose my thing is pronouns; They're such simple things that I can't understand why people get them wrong - that drives me crazy!

Jim

 

[AdamJ]

Personally, I'm not really bothered by other people's poor English usage or grammar, provided they get their intended meaning across. In any case, language is constantly evolving so many examples of what we consider bad English now might well enter dictionaries some time in the future. One example is 'miniscule', which is spelt that way so often that it has entered many dictionaries as an official variant of 'minuscule.' And that's fine. Just like the law, language is our servant, not vice versa.

Anyway, to give this thread a photographic flavour, and in case anyone cares about getting it right, please note that 'lens' is a singular noun. If you want to describe something that a lens has, it is lens's, not lens'. The plural equivalent is lenses'. Similarly, someone's name ending with an 's' is singular, e.g. Mr Harris's, Miss Perkins's, not Mr Harris' or Miss Perkins'. I mention it because, although it seems right to me that popular, enduring spelling variants should enter the dictionary, I don't think bad grammar should be passed into official usage quite so readily.

 

[takesome1]

Personally, I'm not really bothered by other people's poor English usage or grammar, provided they get their intended meaning across.

+1

In our text and twitter generation why do we blame the education system?
When listening to the news sometimes the anchor starts reading off twitter "so and so wrote @bs and #wth".
Maybe I have turned in to my dad but all I can say is stf... and turn the channel.

In the third grade my teacher would have hit my knuckles with a ruler if I had written anything like this.

 

[LSV]

I suppose my thing is pronouns; They're such simple things that I can't understand why people get them wrong - that drives me crazy!

Jim

Using uppercase after a semi-colon may also drive some people crazy.