Grumpy Grammar Grinch Grouses...

....fore sale

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Originally Posted by nc tam

How about discreet/discrete?

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Oh, I hate this one. Whenever I see "we guarantee to be discrete" or something of the kind, I want to add "what? one little step at a time??" :D

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Originally Posted by lph

Oh, I hate this one. Whenever I see "we guarantee to be discrete" or something of the kind, I want to add "what? one little step at a time??" :D

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I've run across discreet numbers--in a professionally translated economics text. Truly cringe-worthy.

I guess the numbers are good at keeping secrets.

Veronica

This thread has drifted into snippy spelling sourpuss snivelers. :p

for spazz and sk:

http://comics.com/pearls_before_swine/2009-06-02/

this one cracks me up!

And when did "renown" become an adjective? Grrrrrr.

Renown or renowned? If the latter, a heck of a long time.

The former. That's what drives me crazy about it. Your post is the first time I've even seen the word "renowned" in about five years. Everyone writes "renown" to mean "renowned."


ETA: Oh, I get it.... it's been re-nouned. ;)

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Originally Posted by OakLeaf

ETA: Oh, I get it.... it's been re-nouned. ;)

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:D I'll have to send that to my English teach dad.

Regime used in place of regimen. I see / hear it WAY too frequently, and am afraid it is becoming generally accepted. Even on Masterpiece Theater last night, on PBS (it was "Emma", by Jane Austen, of all things - her father made a remark about his exercise regime). A regime is a government, a regimen is a system of training or treatment.

And how about all of the nouns that have become verbs, all of a sudden?

That might be more of a style thang.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/regime

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Originally Posted by Skierchickie

And how about all of the nouns that have become verbs, all of a sudden?

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This is particularly obvious in the IT industry. A few months ago, I had to sit through a sales spiel in which the speaker described how they "productised" a service. Instead of just saying "We decided to sell our services", he said "We productised our service". ARGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! And he did this all through the presentation. I wanted to take him aside and slap him, but I think that might've been unprofessional. :)

Max

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Originally Posted by spazzdog

Here is set of words that I see miss-used/miss-spelled on a regular basis:

rain
rein
reign

My brain is not cooperating, so please, someone supply a fun sentence using all 3 properly.

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The rain put a rein on the lead cyclist's reign.

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Originally Posted by Maxxxie

This is particularly obvious in the IT industry. A few months ago, I had to sit through a sales spiel in which the speaker described how they "productised" a service. Instead of just saying "We decided to sell our services", he said "We productised our service". ARGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! And he did this all through the presentation. I wanted to take him aside and slap him, but I think that might've been unprofessional. :)

Max

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You could've productised a slap ;)

A bit lost in translation maybe, but similar: there's a trend in Norwegian for people to describe typically chocolate or luxury foods by using "wine taster terms" like: "deep, rich, good on taste".... I hate that! There's nothing wrong with saying that something just plain TASTES GOOD! :mad: