Does this irritate anyone else?

[caryc]

It's that time of year when the word "prom" seems to be coming up on a lot of TV shows. In my time the word prom was always used with "the" in front of it as in "Will you go to "the" prom with me? Or "the senior prom".

But now it is never used with "the" in front of it. It's used as "will you go to prom with me"? Or, "I am going to prom".

If you look it up in the dictionary, it is used correctly with "the" in front of it. Why is it always used incorrectly now? It just bugs me. :wink:

 

[~JM~]

Because people are becoming more lazy & illiterate every day.

 

[Montelores]

"He is in the hospital."

"He is in hospital."

Monty

 

[Sin6Sec63451022]

They talk like they text. Or maybe they moved it from prom and gave it to the freeway, as in "I'm on the 405 heading for prom".

 

[welder]

Heard a woman tell her and her man's occupation, she said, "we drive truck'.

 

[caryc]

"He is in the hospital."

"He is in hospital."

Monty

Yeah, that's irritating also but it's English in nature as in Britain so you have to expect that one.

 

[GP100]

Because people are becoming more lazy & illiterate every day.

That's it right there..

It's all this texting garbage that has had made people lazy and illiterate with all this "net speak" crap such as AFAIK and LOL.

Seems like if they can't abbreviate it, they can't speak it.. The English language has been getting butchered ever since Ebonics, and Texting..

 

[caryc]

"He is in the hospital."

"He is in hospital."

Monty

How about "We're going on holiday"?

The last I heard, the prom was an event not a place.

 

[Pistolero]

This modern day lingo annoys me especially when used by boogernose "Me" generation uptalkers.

 

[Rick Courtright]

Hi,

"Just between you and I," Cary, the improper use of personal pronouns bugs me far worse than Anglicized usages such as the lack of the definite article "the" when headed off to one's prom or a hospital. There's a certain element of speakers to whom this is not important, but when highly educated types, especially the talking heads whom everybody sees, make this obnoxious and rather constant mistake, I get an instant case of raw nerves. And since "going on holiday" is simply going on vacation in so much of the English speaking world, that one doesn't bother me either. After all, we should probably give the inventors of our language a bit of leeway in its usage, no? Or as some of us Yanks joke on a British based forum I visit, please forgive us: English is our second language...

Rick C

 

[Bull Barrel]

Holiday actually is a contraction for holy day.

Or so I have been told.

 

[eveled]

Gifted is the one that gets me. As in, "I was gifted a Randall knife."

Right or wrong it just sounds funny.

I read a book once called "confessions of a comma queen". The author was a proof reader, one of the things I got from the book is that English language is full of rules, but they don't always apply. But they come in sets, if you do one thing, then you have to do other things too. Then you can't switch back and forth.

Also the English language is and has always been evolving.

Also I always answer "well" when asked "how are you"? Some people seem put off by it like I am trying to be better than them. Miss America couldn't have said it better.

I was walking one day, and I saw a goth type teenage girl, we made eye contact, so to be friendly I gave her an obligatory " how are you?". In perfect form off the cuff she replied " I am well thank you, how are you?"

I almost fell over, it was not what I was expecting from her dark appearance.

I took two things away from that interaction, never judge people by how they look, and the way I talk influences people's perception of my intelligence.

 

[Snake45]

I forget which way we said it when I was at university.... :lol:

 

[eveled]

I forget which way we said it when I was at university.... :lol:

Do tell.

 

[mikewriter]

What really bugs me lately is "Come with", or "Go with", omitting the "me" that I feel should end such a sentence.

Mike

 

[WAYNO]

Some folks thrive on irritation.

Language, grammar, pronunciation, accent...Very regional, and has evolved in different ways throughout the English speaking world.

I am pleased English has evolved. If not, we would be talking like Chauccer...

Adam scriveyn, if ever it thee bifalle
Boece or Troylus for to wryten newe,
Under thy long lokkes thou most have the scalle,
But after my makyng thow wryte more trewe;
So ofte adaye I mot thy werk renewe,
It to correcte and eke to rubbe and scrape,
And al is thorugh thy negligence and rape.

 

[Fox Mike]

I wonder if the kids in school today are even taught how to diagram a sentence? Do they even know sentence structure?

 

[5of7]

If the question is am I irritated by this, then No, I am not. I have more important things to be pissed about than this. 8)

 

[Kevin]

But like the example of college and university needs "the" to sound better. What about the sentence. "I never went to prom." Or "I never went to the prom." To me the latter sounds funny. Or friend talking "Are you going to prom? vs. "Are you going to the prom?"

It is funny how language changes, and who's to say change isn't good?


Edited:
Right now, I'm on a field trip with my daughter's summer camp and a bunch of teachers. Literally, one just said "We had prom there" (aquarium) No "the." We are waiting on the bus this second. Funny....

 

[Bull Barrel]

Are you going to prom? Prom what. What is promming? How does one prom?
Used this way it is a verb.

Are you going to an event makes it a noun so, "the prom" is proper.

 

[Montelores]

The American Heritage dictionary is a good source for the origins of English words, and for those with any Latin or Romance language experience, the origins of many common words can be interesting.

thefreedictionary.com has accessible roots and origins of words available below the definition, and it's affiliated with the American Heritage dictionary.

Beyond the pale? Ever thought about that one?

Here's one with which we should all be familiar...

Monty

++++++++++++++++++++++++

gun

Also found in: Thesaurus, Medical, Legal, Financial, Acronyms, Idioms, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia.
gun (gŭn)
n.
1. A weapon consisting of a metal tube from which a projectile is fired at high velocity into a relatively flat trajectory, especially:
a. A portable firearm, such as a rifle or revolver.
b. A cannon with a long barrel and a relatively low angle of fire.
2. A device resembling a firearm or cannon, as in its ability to project something, such as grease or paint, under pressure or at great speed.
3. A discharge of a firearm or cannon as a signal or salute: heard the guns honoring the leader.
4. One who is armed with or skilled in the use of a gun.
5. The throttle of an engine, as of an automobile.
6. guns Slang The biceps muscles of the arms.
v. gunned, gun·ning, guns
v.tr.
1. To shoot (a person): a bank robber who was gunned down by the police.
2. To open the throttle of (an engine) so as to accelerate: gunned the engine and sped off.
v.intr.
To hunt with a gun.
Phrasal Verb:
gun for
1. To plan or take action to harm or destroy (someone).
2. To go after in earnest; set out to obtain: gunning for a promotion.
Idioms:
go great guns
To proceed or perform with great speed, skill, or success.
hold a gun to (someone's) head
To put pressure on someone.
under the gun
Under great pressure or under threat.
[Middle English gonne, cannon, short for Gunilda, woman's name applied to a siege engine, from Old Norse Gunnhildr, woman's name : gunnr, war; see gwhen- in Indo-European roots + hildr, war.]
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.


http://www.thefreedictionary.com/gun

 

[Montelores]

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/the

Monty

 

[whichwatch]

This probably needs to be posted on the "Things people say that really irritate the #$%& out of me" forum.

 

[Bull Barrel]

Beyond the pale?
Pale ale, of course!

 

[smoke-eater]

...and then there's the tv commercial for Chevy trucks, supposedly with "real people, not actors."
The host asks, "What are your first impressions of the new Silverado Special Edition?"
The first guy to answer, a 40'ish, bearded white guy, says, "It like sick!" :shock: :shock: :shock:
What does that mean? It means my blood pressure just went up a notch or two. :evil:
I've learned to keep the remote in my hand at all times, finger hovering over the mute button.

Jeff

 

[contender]

I know that by far,, I am not perfect,, and have mis-used words & proper language myself.
I'm also from the South,,, where slang that is common here is incorrect English.

But,, when I hear OBVIOUS mis-use of the easy to know & understand language by someone,, I chalk it up to a poor education & judge the rest of their thought process the same way. UNLESS,,, it's a person who may have had trouble in school,, but in their trade is a wizard.

 

[GP100]

I know that by far,, I am not perfect,, and have mis-used words & proper language myself.
I'm also from the South,,, where slang that is common here is incorrect English.

But,, when I hear OBVIOUS mis-use of the easy to know & understand language by someone,, I chalk it up to a poor education & judge the rest of their thought process the same way. UNLESS,,, it's a person who may have had trouble in school,, but in their trade is a wizard.

Contender be a Southern boy..

Bless his Heart.. :lol:

 

[Rick Courtright]

Are you going to prom? Prom what. What is promming? How does one prom?
Used this way it is a verb.

Are you going to an event makes it a noun so, "the prom" is proper.

Hi,

BB, can you diagram a sentence properly? If you can, you can prove to yourself that 'going to prom' does not use 'prom' as a verb. If you write it using a capital "P" maybe it will be easier for you to see, as it now becomes a proper noun.

I realize that you and Merriam-Webster are often at odds, but for myself, I prefer their definitions of English words to your saintly third grade English teacher's. Call it a predisposition. Anyway, they don't list "prom" as a verb, either transitive or intransitive. Look it up if you wish, though I predict you won't...

I'm going to breakfast now. Where is breakfast? Is it a place? Is it an event? Or, heaven forbid, is it one of dozens of nouns which suddenly became verbs in common usage while I was sleeping? Perhaps it's been a verb all along, as it was originally two words, "break fast", which also eliminates a spare "the" in use. If it's an event, should it be "the" breakfast? Are you going to try to tell me the only proper way to put it is "I'm going to have breakfast now?" Context, my dear fellow, context: so much of English comprehension depends heavily on that concept, as I learned at the tender age of six or seven upon encountering the word "rape" in the newspaper. The rule in our house was "go look it up" first before asking an adult, so I dug out the dictionary.

I learned that "rape" meant "unlawful carnal knowledge." Ok, I knew what unlawful meant, knowledge I understood, but I had to look up "carnal" which gave me "pertaining to meat." Sixty years later, I'm still confused about how knowledge pertaining to meat can be unlawful. I do hope my brother in law, a meat cutter, isn't unwittingly some kind of criminal. Once again, it's all in the context! Chew on that for a while... it'll while away some time until it's lunch. :?

Rick C

 

[~JM~]

How about the various forms of "GOT" ?

Got, Gotten, etc.

I'm no English scholar & really did not fare well in English class, but I recall when those words would earn you a red circle on your paper.

 

[Bob Wright]

O.K. And how about "He graduated high school?"

And "He went missing" has long been a pet peeve of mine.

Bob Wright