As a non native speaker, it really irks me when people mix up "brake" and "break", specially among car enthusiasts.
this post was submitted on 29 Jan 2025
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What mis-stated phrases or words do you feel still need to be corrected (online or in person) in 2025?
(lemmy.world)
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".
"Its"
As "its" is used to indicate possession by "it", "its" is an exception to apostrophe-s construction as used to indicate possessive forms.
"It's", used as either the contractive form or the possessive form, does not require such an exception. The distinction between the contractive and possessive forms of "it's" rarely/never introduces ambiguity; the distinction is clear from context.
The word "its" should be deprecated.
As "its" is used to indicate possession by "it", "its" is an exception to apostrophe-s construction as used to indicate possessive forms.
Most, if not all, pronouns work that way though.
"The man's arm" becomes "his arm" not "him's arm". "The woman's arm" becomes "her arm" not "her's arm". Similarly, "the robot's arm" becomes "its arm" not "it's arm".
I don't really care if people use "it's" instead of "its" , but I don't think it's a unique exception. The only thing that's unique is that it is pronounced the same way as if you tacked an apostrophe and an s on the end. If we used the word "hims" instead of "his", I'm sure people would start putting an apostrophe in there too.
"The man's arm" becomes "his arm" not "him's arm".
Similarly, "the robot's arm" becomes "its arm" not "it's arm"
But, "the man" you referred to does not become "hi". "The robot" you mentioned does become "it".
Right, and for pronouns you don't just put apostrophe s after. So you don't make "it" possessive by adding apostrophe s just like you don't add apostrophe s to "he" or "him" to make it possessive.
If you treat the pronoun "it" like a regular (non-pronoun) noun instead of like other pronouns, that is itself an exception.
"Seen".
Holy fuck, "seen".
I honestly think that using this word incorrectly has gotten worse over the last few years. Hearing someone say, "yeah, I seen her yesterday" just makes me want to punch the wall.
That's actually correct usage in several dialects, including African American Vernacular English (AAVE) and Appalachian English (AE). In the US we are brought up to believe that the dialect used by upper middle class white people is "Standard English" and is "correct" but most linguists today recognize that this is an antiquated and problematic way of characterizing language. Each dialect has its own acceptable variations. You can make mistakes within a dialect, but the various dialects are not more or less "correct" based on how close they are to "Standard English."
Seen is not correct english. The past tense of see is saw. Appalachain english is so horrendous I have to stop and translate at times. A bunch of them are not able to pronounce the letter 'i' correctly which is confusing and slows down communication.
Deal and dill are different words.