It's Just DRIVING ME CRAZY!!!

[freemotion]

...how come is factive, while why is not...

http://ling.umd.edu/~staceyc/Conroy UMWPiL 14.pdf

Here is the answer. "How come" is not incorrect. It may not be commonly used where you live, and your English teacher(s) may have been on a campaign against the phrase, but that does mean it ain't good talkin'.

 

[FarmerJamie]

This thread had me chuckling. I think I've said before, 'round here we sometimes worsh our clothes in the crik.

Other words:
battries (batteries)

chimley (yep, thanks QA)

so-der (soda)

DEE-triot (Detriot)

Once at work, I was amused by trying to follow slang and dialect of some of the Indian (from India) developers on my team when we were having a potluck lunch. Many of them came from high-class families and came here speaking the Queen's English, but they started interspersing it with Hindi and local dialect. The Americans on the team were a little amused, too. So I started speakin' good ol' 'merican hillbilly. We had a major laugh when one of the new folks turned to a more senior Indian countryman and asked "what language is he speaking?"

 

[yourbadd]

The phrase that really gets me is, "I seen". As in, " I seen your sister yesterday at the grocery store."

My former boss would use supposibly instead of supposedly. I also get twitchy when I see people misuse your and you're in print/type.

However, I love, love, love hearing the regional dialects butcher words like wash/warsh and crick/creek!! My mom warshes her dishes and played in that crick over yonder as a youngin'.

 

[abifae]

Glad this thread got all the OCD nutbags outta hiding You'd all twitch at my job as much as I do.

We're in a chat room to get help and I often see phrases like "his modem dont turn on power". Now, I do not twitch at typos, missing punctuation, or lack of caps. Unless it's more formal writing. Heck, when I type on my nook, I have to change pages to get to caps and special characters LOL! So I often won't bother.

But double negatives and just.... really poorly phrased things and someone will type "translate??"

Then add to it our customers are from all over and never took classes in speech.

 

[Britesea]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAYUuspQ6BY

 

[old fashioned]

Most of it doesn't bother me a bit. 'Warsh' as in 'wash' makes me smile but for some odd reason it does bother me when someone says 'Warshington' vs 'Washington'. It bothers me less when the person is a newcomer or visiting, but it really drives me nuts when the person was born here and still says 'Warshington'!


What can really send me into fits is more of what people do than what or how they say something. And that is those who have a bluetooth (isn't that what it is?) where they are talking without holding a cell phone. It just looks completely insane for people to be walking around talking to themselves without any noticeable connection to someone else. Half the time I think they are trying to talk to me, so I'll say something and they give me the 'mind your own business' look.

 

[cabinchick]

Because "our" English is such a hodge-podge of English and other languages and dialects and regional short-cuts, we end up with some really strange phrases that may make more sense if you follow them through to their probable origin. "How come?" may have originally been "How has it come to be that....?" I find all the archaic phrases kind of funny and interesting. What REALLY annoys the crap out of me is people who "rattle on" like a car that continues to run after you turn the ignition off. They keep on talking way past when they should have shut up. I had an acquaintance who would add "and all that" every few words. She would say loudly "I went to the doctor and all that today, and all that, and he said my blood pressure and all that is up again and all that. And all that." Sent pains right to my eyeballs. Sometimes we would chime in and say "and all that" right along with her. She never caught on.:/

I used to date a guy who would follow everyother sentence with "and all that stuff". We eventually broke up "and all that stuff" LOL

I love this thread....
My pet peeve is similar to yours..."and everything else." I find that it usually used to amplify the preceeding phrase, usually something the person speaking is angry about. For instance, "He charged me $10.00, forgot to give me my receipt, and everything else". I've actually asked my DH ...."specifically what else?". He never has an answer, because there is nothing else to add to the statement, so why say that there is ??? We were in California during this fun phase of our marriage, so it may be a regional thing. DH doesn't say this anymore, thank goodness, but many people do.

I just realized this thread is under the catagory of Everything Else Sufficient Living...

 

[chipmunk]

I get tickled with the way people pronounce things sometime. We had a math teacher that said "iggle" instead of "eagle"; around here lots of people put light bubs into their lamps; and I have to stifle a giggle when people tell me their phone number starts with "sebm-sebm-oh".

It is a little strange how many folks lately are saying "whenever" when they mean "when", e.g. "whenever I was growing up..."

 

[abifae]

It is a little strange how many folks lately are saying "whenever" when they mean "when", e.g. "whenever I was growing up..."

Never heard that one before! LOL!!

Most people shorten it - text talk.

 

[yourbadd]

It is a little strange how many folks lately are saying "whenever" when they mean "when", e.g. "whenever I was growing up..."

My sister-in-law uses whenever...drives me batty but I love her so much I let it slide and hope no one notices me cringe!!!