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What's your most ridiculous pet peeve? (hexbear.net)

submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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One of mine (I have many yay neurodivergece) is when people say the phrase "a broken clock is right twice a day". The phrase is actually "a stopped clock is right twice a day." A clock that is stopped will definitely be right twice a day but a clock that is broken could be right multiple times a day or not at all depending on how it's broken. Maybe it's just a little slow running in which case it'll never be right. Maybe it's spinning wildly out of control so it'll be right a lot but still useless.

It annoys the shit outta me and it is so dumb it definitely should not. Anyway your turn.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 months ago (5 children)

I hate to be prescriptivist at all, but for some reason my pet peeve is mixing things up like “peek” vs “peak”, “weary” vs “wary”, and “apart of” vs “a part of”.

English is a silly language and has been imposed around the world by genocide and violence. It can’t even come up with spelling and/or pronunciation reforms to make itself more easily understood. Deeply unserious.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

Honestly, prescriptivism gets a bad wrap. Sometimes it's beneficial to be loose in language, but other times precision and standardization is needed. A good mix of both creates the most effective communication and artistic language.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago

It's a bad rap, not wrap, since we're being prescriptivist. It's an interesting slang etymology: https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/usage-bad-rap-vs-bad-rep-vs-bad-wrap

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

Honestly, prescriptivism gets a bad wrap

fry

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago

It never stops bothering me when people say "comprised of", as opposed to just "comprises", or "composed of".
I try to remind myself that I'm witnessing the evolution of language in real-time, but it just annoys me that what causes language to evolve is just people misusing it.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

pore/pour

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

Same, they mean different things!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

you might be feeling peak pique if someone tries to peek at your peaks