this post was submitted on 29 Jan 2025
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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".

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[–] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 2 points 23 hours ago

The vast majority of these issues could be solved if people a) read any halfway-decent book, b) and didn’t choose to remain willfully ignorant. It’s fine to misunderstand or just not know something. We’ve all been there, we’ll be there again. NBD. But to be shown or offered the correct way and still choose to do it wrongly? That’s not cool at all.

[–] ICastFist@programming.dev 7 points 1 day ago (2 children)

They're, you're

Sneak peek

In portuguese: mas/mais - people often use "mais" (plus, sum) when the correct would be mas (but)

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[–] tiredofsametab@fedia.io 76 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Please state what country your phrase tends to be used

Please state in which country your phrase tends to be used...

[–] GuyDudeman@lemmy.world 58 points 1 day ago

Casey Point

[–] HeckGazer@programming.dev 26 points 1 day ago

This reply deserves to be put on a peddle stool

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[–] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 63 points 1 day ago (5 children)
[–] Obscura@lemmy.world 28 points 1 day ago

Get two birds stoned at once!

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[–] whotookkarl@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (5 children)

Yeah /yĕ′ə, yă′ə, yā′ə/ is a different word than Yea /yā/

[–] KittenBiscuits@lemm.ee 23 points 1 day ago (16 children)

Using weary/wary interchangeably. I am tired of people not being aware of the difference.

Also, "decimated". The original usage is to reduce by one tenth. It didn't mean something was nearly or totally annihilated, but thanks to overuse, now it does.

[–] rektdeckard@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I mean, having one in ten of your fellow soldiers murdered by their own commander is pretty horrific, and I think that's the spirit of its modern usage.

[–] hungryphrog@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Must have been great for morale.

/s just in case

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[–] leaky_shower_thought@feddit.nl 30 points 1 day ago (10 children)

affect vs effect.

the usual case for effect is as a noun, and for affect, as a verb.

[–] Stovetop@lemmy.world 25 points 1 day ago

Just to clarify the exceptions to the general rule:

effect as a verb: to cause or bring about

This policy effects change.

affect as a noun: a display of emotion

She greeted us with warm affect.

[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Personally I would jsut deprecate the word "affect" entirely. Same with "inflammable" and "cleanse."

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[–] ace_garp@lemmy.world 18 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Interchangeable then/than, or using 'on accident'.

Big 🤡 energy.

[–] DontRedditMyLemmy@lemmy.world 14 points 1 day ago (10 children)

What's wrong with the ladder?

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[–] ptz@dubvee.org 47 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (4 children)

"Chomping at the bit". It's champing at the bit. Horses champ.

"Get ahold of". It's "get hold of" or, if you must, "get a hold of"

"I'm doing good". No, Superman does good. You're doing well.

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[–] pomfegranate@lemmy.world 31 points 1 day ago (3 children)
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[–] Nemo@slrpnk.net 41 points 1 day ago (13 children)

You do things on purpose or by accident, you don't do anything on accident.

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[–] TempermentalAnomaly@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Having made some of these mistakes, I tend not to be rigid about them. But here are some fun ones.

  • on line vs in line
  • to graduate vs to be graduated
  • antivenom vs antivenin

All of the above have been normalized, but at one time was not.

Another quirk, we used to not call former Presidents President So and So. We used to call them by their highest position before president. So it would be Senator Obama and not President Obama.

[–] y0kai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I'm confused about the context of "on line" vs "in line"

Are we talking about standing in a queue, or using the internet, or one's behavior ("you'd better get get yourself in line!"), or auto racing terminology ("stay on your line" or "hold your line", often shortened to "stay on line")?

Doubt it's that last one lol but where are those two getting mixed up and how might they differ from "online" (internet) and "inline" (skates)?

Lol this is such a fun thread

[–] TempermentalAnomaly@lemmy.world 1 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

The first one. Standing on line vs standing in line.

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[–] Venator@lemmy.nz 26 points 1 day ago (3 children)

My pet peeve is when people use "then" but they actually meant to use "than". I think it might be mainly due to flaws in predictive text on phone keyboards though.

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