Moot vs Mute

[Pistol]

Poor grammar and punctuation can be annoying, but what gets me are those that don't know history or simple math.

Just watch one of those shows where the reporter hits the streets to ask questions a first grader could answer.
Many don't know the difference between WWII and the Civil War. Some can't identify a photo of Thomas Jefferson.

Here are two videos from a few years back. Funny, but at the same time it is pathetic and sad. Welcome to the new America, well, at least we have another federal holiday ...... Happy Juneteenth!

https://youtu.be/oUTyRPB7AlU

https://youtu.be/dDu_rEo74i4

[Eugen]

Ron, good point about annoying misuse of words. One butchered cliché that I find amusing, is when folks say, "I could care less", when they really mean the opposite. That is they "couldn't care less". LOL

[SteveM]

What really irritates me is someone quoting the second amendment using "bare arms" instead of "bear arms". They must be thinking it can't be bear cuz that's a four legged animal.

[Bill_in_VA]

I kind of like it when a pretty girl says “bare with me”; it means I might get lucky. :-D

[jeb111]

Originally Posted by Pistol

Poor grammar and punctuation can be annoying, but what gets me are those that don't know history or simple math.

Just watch one of those shows where the reporter hits the streets to ask questions a first grader could answer.
Many don't know the difference between WWII and the Civil War. Some can't identify a photo of Thomas Jefferson.

Here are two videos from a few years back. Funny, but at the same time it is pathetic and sad. Welcome to the new America, well, at least we have another federal holiday ...... Happy Juneteenth!

https://youtu.be/oUTyRPB7AlU

https://youtu.be/dDu_rEo74i4

I remember years ago Jay Leno doing his skit of asking people on the street random basic history questions. Going up to a stereotypical surfer dude and asking "when was the War of 1812?", his response "Dude, I don't even know!"
Jim

[mrerick]

A mute trumpet sounding retreat after loss of a battle is moot testament to the valor of the fallen.

The curious carpenter picked up his hammer and saw!

When I moved to the South, I always wondered what was meant by, "I'll get up with you later"...

- - - -

The multiple meaning of same or similar sounding words has always kept language "living" as people either play with the words, or unintentionally confuse them. English is full of examples over time. So are other languages like German, which evolved into old English. (corrected per below)

Words like "irregardless" have made their way into language in my area, including a cafe by that name.

Language is living. My state (ranging from coastal Gullah communities to the Scotch-Irish roots of the mountain folk, has a huge range of accents and language usage.

I try to use language correctly, but am sometimes amused by what I hear from time to time...

When I was helping produce television, we had a program on regional accents in our state. The production process includes closed captioning for hearing impaired, which is done by hand by people with court reporting skills. The caption files for this program didn't come back on schedule, and the caption encoder finally called us and asked us never to send a program like this one to him again... We finally got the files, but it was difficult.

The correct interpretation of similar sounding words is a real challenge in automated voice recognition. Much of the artificial intelligence used in modern systems chews up processing power on this problem.

[Doubs]

Originally Posted by mrerick

So are other languages like German, which is based in old English.

Quite the opposite; English evolved from German.

"English is a West Germanic language that originated from Anglo-Frisian dialects brought to Britain in the mid 5th to 7th centuries AD by Anglo-Saxon migrants from what is now northwest Germany, southern Denmark and the Netherlands. ... The Late West Saxon dialect eventually became dominant."

Only one King in Britain is called "Great" and that was King Alfred the Great who likely kept the English language from extinction. He insisted that court affairs and education be conducted in English rather than Latin.

[George Anderson]

On Grammar...

[spangy]

On grammar police.