[beat!the!champ!]

It may be odd, but I don't like when non-francophones try to say things like "croissant" or "guillotine" the proper way. It reeks of pretention, especially when they try to pass it off casually.

[MoriartyL]

I suppose I do that- whenever I try saying "croissant" I say it as casually as possible so that no one should notice how awkward I feel saying it. I know that I don't know the proper pronunciation, and it drives me crazy that I have to try a rough approximation of it. But what's the alternative? "Crescent"? "Croy-sint"? I feel like an idiot no matter how I pronounce it.

[Ninth]

Originally Posted by Jazhara7

We keep on telling him that there is *no such thing* as 1000%

Why not?

[Huz]

Originally Posted by Jat316sob

I hate when people pronounce twat as "twot."

And there was me thinking that "twot" was a completely separate and much milder insult, admittedly one that doesn't mean anything. I've only ever heard it used as such, anyway - cf. James May on Top Gear. I love it!

[Jazhara7]

Originally Posted by Ninth

Why not?

BBMTYS.

That's why.



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[seebaruk]

Originally Posted by Thrift Store Scott

I've never ever heard it pronounced that way, even by an Englishman. Perhaps that pronunciation is peculiar to the area where you live. Either way, it's a word I don't use. On the rare occasions when I need to make reference to that particular subject, I prefer the term "hoo-hoo".

Nahh, everyone over here pronounces it to rhyme with hat. It's an ace word, and a fun insult. As for hoo-hoo, I thought that was an American word for a tit? I swear I've seen some crappy movie where some jock guy says "dude, I touched her hoo-hoo!" after grabbing a boobie. I prefer c**t anyway.

[Sage]

Originally Posted by beat!the!champ!

It may be odd, but I don't like when non-francophones try to say things like "croissant" or "guillotine" the proper way.

But...they're French words! There is a right way and a wrong way to say them, and the French way is the right way.

Originally Posted by beat!the!champ!

It reeks of pretention, especially when they try to pass it off casually.

You would have us deliberately mispronounce such words simply because we don't speak French natively?
I'm sorry, but for me "croissant" will always be pronounced "KWA-san" and "guillotine" will be "GEE-oh-teen".

Originally Posted by seebaruk

Nahh, everyone over here pronounces "twat" to rhyme with hat. It's an ace word, and a fun insult.

Maybe y'all don't say "hat" the way I do.

Originally Posted by seebaruk

As for hoo-hoo, I thought that was an American word for a tit? I swear I've seen some crappy movie where some jock guy says "dude, I touched her hoo-hoo!" after grabbing a boobie.

No, those are nay-nays. Since these are all slang terms, their usage varies greatly from region to region. Saksquash and I had a similar misunderstanding when he had me look up the Wikipedia definition of "choad".

Originally Posted by seebaruk

I prefer c**t anyway.

How delightful.

[Karmillo]

Originally Posted by Thrift Store Scott

But...they're French words! There is a right way and a wrong way to say them, and the French way is the right way.

Yeah but if your not french you must pronounce them improperly, to show how non french you are.

Don't try to be someone your not!

[Sage]

Originally Posted by Karmillo

Yeah but if you're not french you must pronounce them improperly, to show how non-french you are.

I'm fairly certain that all the other words which come out of my mouth are shining testaments to how "non-french" I am.

Originally Posted by Karmillo

Don't try to be someone you're not!

I do not now nor have I ever claimed to be even the slightest bit French. I do, however, possess ears, a brain, and some linguistic facility. While I speak with a strong accent, I do make every effort to pronounce words properly in context. For example, "amarillo" is a Spanish word meaning "yellow", and I pronounce the double "L"s as a single "Y" which is proper in Spanish.

[Jatsie]

Whilst I was visiting Universal Studios Orlando several years ago, I ordered a sandwich from a burly woman, who offered me amongst my bread choices, something which she called a "CRUH-sont." This left me rather bemused and I gave her a puzzled "what the hell are you talking about?" look. It wasn't until later that I realised she was referring to a croissant. I still find it strange that someone would make sandwich from a croissant in the first place.

While proper pronunciation should always be employed, what I find to be funny is when people order pain au chocolat, and do so with a French accent. Now that's pretentious.

[Jelena]

I have a hard time with this expression I've seen on this forum several times: My bad .
I'm not an English grammar whiz but it sounds really wrong to me. I think it should be my fault or it should be used in a sentence: Sorry it was my bad mood that made me....
I haven't seen any of the grammar nazis complain about it so it just might be a proper expression.

[Jazhara7]

Originally Posted by LenaJ

I have a hard time with this expression I've seen on this forum several times: My bad .
I'm not an English grammar whiz but it sounds really wrong to me. I think it should be my fault or it should be used in a sentence: Sorry it was my bad mood that made me....
I haven't seen any of the grammar nazis complain about it so it just might be a proper expression.

It's colloquial. I guess us Grammar Nazis don't complain about it, because it's just something commonly used. It's not high English, but it's not wrong per se either. It's another way of saying "My fault", adding some more flavour to the language.

Also, I like to use it too once in a while.


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[RLacey]

It's still ugly, though .

[Jazhara7]

Originally Posted by RLacey

It's still ugly, though .

Well, that's your bad.




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[Huz]

Originally Posted by LenaJ

I have a hard time with this expression I've seen on this forum several times: My bad .

Guhh. Add that to my list.

[Sage]

Robert, Huz, and I are in accord on the "My bad" issue. I always associate that term with baseball players because they are the first ones I heard use it. It's a horrible misuse of English, but then jocks are not known for expressing themselves articulately.

[Jelena]

Originally Posted by Thrift Store Scott

Robert, Huz, and I are in accord on the "My bad" issue.

Good to hear that I wasn't completely in the blue concerning that expression.

[pinkgothic]

I'd like it, but sadly it's nothing special anymore. It's easy to use it for sarcasm over the internet. If you're going to say "My fault", but don't actually mean it, almost everyone can identify it as sarcasm if you say "My bad". But the less people stumble across it, the less that applies.

Meh.

[AFGNCAAP]

Originally Posted by Jazhara7

We keep on telling him that there is *no such thing* as 1000%, but he won't stop.

There is no such thing as ten?

Originally Posted by Jeysie

"Alright"

Argh! It's "all right", people!! Not "alright"!!!

What about "altogether", "always", "albeit"?

Originally Posted by beat!the!champ!

It may be odd, but I don't like when non-francophones try to say things like "croissant" or "guillotine" the proper way.

It is odd - I'm totally with Scott on this one.

Originally Posted by Thrift Store Scott

Robert, Huz, and I are in accord on the "My bad" issue. I always associate that term with baseball players because they are the first ones I heard use it. It's a horrible misuse of English, but then jocks are not known for expressing themselves articulately.

Isn't this one a natural consequence of treating adjectives as nouns? (see "the good" and "the bad" commonly used in reviews, etc.)

It's pretty funny to see people getting riled up over such details. Especially as when I made an innocent joke about somebody's actual mistake a while back, I felt everyone was like "Oooh, you're so mean!"

[Jeysie]

Originally Posted by AFGNCAAP

What about "altogether", "always", "albeit"?

Ehhh... I'm not sure I can buy that argument.

For one, to me, "all together" means "everything together" or "all of us/it together", in the sense of many different things doing something at the same time.

Whereas "altogether" means more like "completely", "thoroughly", "everything included", in the sense of a gestalt.

I'm reminded of that scene in the movie Airplane! where somebody says, "It's an entirely different kind of flying, altogether!" and everyone else in the scene says, at the same time, "It's an entirely different kind of flying!" (Gah, it pains me to quote that movie...)

For two, "all ways" means to me "every single possible way" where "always" means "forever" or "at all times".

Finally, I don't think I've ever heard the phrase "all be it" used ever, and if I did I'm not sure I'd ascribe the same meaning to it as "albeit", namely, "even though" or "notwithstanding".

But to me, "all right" and "alright" have the exact same meaning... "Everything's OK." So to me, "alright" just comes off as a lazier way to say "all right".

(Side note: "all right" can have other meanings, such as "everything's correct", but it's close enough and usually clear enough from context that I'm not sure a more focused term is necessary. Plus most people who say "alright" aren't doing so with the intention of precise meaning anyway.)

Peace & Luv, Liz