P&C review Double Duckpin from Union Brewing, then talk about grammar mistakes that even smart people make. Plus a few others.
“I could care less” vs. “I couldn’t care less.” That vs. which. Irregardless. Who and whom. Shoo in. Sleight of hand. Home in vs. hone in. Affect vs. effect. Misuse of apostrophes and quote marks. Bated breath. Accept vs. except. Insure, assure, ensure. Whet your appetite. Must’ve, should’ve, would’ve, could’ve. Plus many more.
Great show. Add to your list: Since versus Because. The former reflects the passage of time, while the latter suggests a causal relationship. Yet since is frequently used where because is technically the better choice. I don’t know why or where that started but my hunch is that since sounds more dramatic than because so it becomes the default option.
That’s a good one.
There’s so much material for a show like that! There are lots of confusibles out there.
Here is another one: When you use a word to refer to itself, you should encase it in quotation marks: e.g. “since,” “because,” and so forth.
Finally just listening to this now. An added wrinkle: affect can also be a noun, and effect can also be a verb, but with different meanings. Those aren’t just accommodations to non-standard usage, but long-standing meanings.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/affect
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/effect
Yes, I’m aware, but in my experience if you get too complicated, people end up not getting any of it.
I thought that might have been what you were going for in the podcast.
The choice of the words “which” and “that” for relative pronouns gets extremely complicated in translations from German into English. English has “that” for such a pronoun, but also for a subordinating clause, whereas in German there different words for those two functions. And there are additional complications, especially for long sentences with clauses within clauses.
I wouldn’t know. I know that vs. which in English cold. But I haven’t the foggiest how it works in translation.
The forte/forte thing is also correct, and not a concession to misuse.
Forte = loud in music, is from Italian.
Forte = a person’s particular strength, is from French.
Spanish is fuerte and can be used for both. Common Latin roots. When I started learning Spanish 5 years ago to speak to my wife, having at least studied Latin roots in high school, and having a good ear for Latin, afforded me the ability to guess about words when I was speaking and at least get close.