This one must be a BrE thing. I've never heard/seen it 'round my neck of the woods. Just as an aside, "que" serves the same purpose in Spanish and is sufficiently addictive for some that it becomes a speech/writing mannerism. Annoying af when I run across it in translation work. The rule is that all nouns, proper and common, should be capitalized in German, though I understand that adherence is on the wane. The same rule was present in English until relatively recently, on the linguist's timeline. You'll find it in early American documents. Spanish has a cryptic set of rules for capitalizing, sufficiently difficult for native speakers/writers to employ that to the eye of the outsider it can look pretty random because it often is. Just as example from the bevy of rules: Names for countries are capitalized, but not the adjectival forms of those names or the words to indicate the people from those countries, hence: The french live in France. Common nouns are capitalized when they are stand-ins for aforementioned proper nouns. This one can get dicey: The Empire State Building is one of the most iconic buildings in New York. Construction of the Building commenced in ..... The first occurrence of 'building' goes lower case because it refers to structures in general, but the second occurrence is referring directly back to original proper noun.
The habit within some speaking regions - that is not universal even within those regions - of pluralizing conceptual and entity nouns. "Microsoft are releasing a new...." Are? No. No, no, fuqing no. The (completely inconsistent) explanation I've been given is that it's singular when referring to the whole entity and plural when referring to the people that comprise the entity, and.... no. That is just NO. Stop trying to make this happen.
"Overwhelmed, Underwhelmed. How come no one is ever 'whelmed'?" - Dick Grayson (Young Justice) I love that show x3 But seriously though... "All of the sudden" ...what does that even mean? I mean... 'I know what it means' its just silly, you know?
And I've heard murder used by Brit friends in the same context. "I could murder a burger just now." I don't personally take issue with this sort of hyperbole, but, yeah, there's that one too.
I could murder a good curry. I dunno I get that kinda. The smashed thing is always by guys and just drips with faux machismo.
I've heard "I could kill for a burger just now" (or similar), but never without the for. As for "Microsoft are", I'm afraid I'm guilty of that kind of thing. My brain simply doesn't want to accept that Microsoft is an entity and not a group (as in "the workers at Microsoft are" however much I try to convince it!
Even as a group, it's still singular for me unless you force the plural: A group is a thing. Members of a group are working together. There's just no way for me to accept a grammatical plural that's not syntactically agreed to in the rest of the construction. For me "Microsoft are..." is a verb agreement error.
I've heard "I could murder a x now" but "I could kill for a x" is much more common, at least in my neck of the woods (London)
Sorry if this has been mentioned before, but I hate a old (thank goodness) habit of mine. I always used to Capitalize Every Single God Damn Word In Every Sentence. Every God Damn Word. Thank God I'm over it. Also, one that confused me like none other is the use of the word "God." I feel compelled to capitalize it, but the word "God" can have many meanings. I'm talking about Greek and Christian specifically. Greek people use "god," because they have multiple gods and demigods. But Christians use "God" because they have a single god. So I ask you. What version is "correct?" Is either version correct or incorrect? I'm so confused.
I'm afraid there will be no end of disagreement on this one. As a stout atheist I refuse to capitalize with word god under any circumstance. Sneaky, that, the usurpation of the common noun as a proper noun in order to argue that the rule for proper nouns trumps.
"Microsoft are..." is an error to me too, it's just that every single time I read/hear "Microsoft is" I stop to think that it must be an error, and I have to clearly tell myself that, no, it's using "are" that is erraneous.
I've read that for the third time and I still don't understand it. Do you mean that the word god(/God) is supposed to to capitalized but isn't supposed to be capitalized? Edit: And would a comment on the use of the word "he" in regards to a group of males and females be suited for the Discussion forum?
No (and we are seriously veering off this thread's intended course), what I mean is that the word god has a use as a common noun and also as a proper noun. Cthulhu is not a god from the Greek pantheon. That's the use as a common noun. It's not the name of a god, but just the concept of a god in general. That should not be capitalized. "I'm telling you, God will provide if you just believe." That's a proper noun, a name, just like any person's name. And as a proper noun, orthographically speaking, it should be capitalized. I do my utmost to avoid this latter construction so as not to have to employ the majuscule. That's not a rule; that's just my personal thing.
Ok, so it can be used as God or god. I understand now. And sorry for bringing the thread off course. :/ Sometimes my curiosity gets the better of me. Bringing the thread back on track again, I hate the phrase "The cat is out of the bag" when it means that a secret is out. I mean, how are cats and revealed secrets related?
Misuse of "literally" When TV chefs say "incorporate" instead of "mix" Hashtag, especially when used in spoken conversations. Throwing shade Oh em gee, ell oh ell, jay kay, and all verbalizations of text abbreviations.
What's meant with this one is less about cats having anything to do with secrets and more to do with the fact that you're not going to get either back in the bag once it's out. Once a cat knows what up with that bag, best of luck trying to catch him. Once a secret is out, you cannot make people un-know what they have learned.
'A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.' Thirty four years on the planet and I'm still none the wiser as to what the fuck that particular pearl of wisdom supposedly (supposably) means.
Cats were revered by the Persians and when enemies went to war with them in ancient times, they would bring cats to the battle to discourage the Persians from harming the sacred animals.
It relates to opportunity cost... kinda'. Opportunity cost is generally the idea that once you settle on one of a given number of choices, the "cost" is the exclusion of the other choices (that's super-mega simplified, btw). The old saying gives the opposite advice. It says that one sure thing is better than two possible things.
Well why didn't they just say that instead of getting all cryptic about it? There's an old Scottish saying, many's a mickle maks a muckle. Which has a similar message.
"Keep your eyes peeled". I used to have trouble with understanding idioms as a child, and this put the grossest image in my head. Why not just say "keep on the look-out"? "Khed". OK, so I'm from around Boston and if you know anything about the area it's that we have our own dialect; accent, colloquial slang, expressions, etc. Some of it's pretty creative and funny, but this "word" (a corruption of 'kid') just reeks of Massholism. When I hear people say this word I think of some curmudgeon in a Red Sox cap with a beer belly ranting to his buddy about how the construction or landscaping company he works for denied him his Dunkin' Donuts break. He's probably also likely to describe the incident as "wicked retahdid". At least I don't live up in Maine, where I'd have to hear his buddy respond with "ayuh"... the mere thought of it all makes me cringe for the future of the Commonwealth. I'd list a couple more, but I hate them not so much because of the words themselves but how they're used and the connotations they carry. Also I wouldn't want to start any trouble with anyone.
