October 18, 2007

The death of the adverb

I was listening to a radio show the other day. People were calling in with their pet peeves regarding misuse of language. Some of the examples were:

· The use of the word irregardless instead of regardless
· Adding an ‘s’ to Fred Meyer
· Saying “I seen it” instead of “I saw it”
· Saying “I could care less” instead of “I couldn’t care less”

One that has always bugged me is when people leave off the ‘ly’ on adverbs. It is pretty prevalent. I saw this at Home Depot today.


It also bugs me when people say supposably and anyways.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Guilty! I say anyways. I also say acrossed instead of across. I don't know where I picked up these bad habits, but I've been trying to stop. Feel free to correct me if you catch me.

And what about those people who add 'r' to wash or say melk instead of milk?

As my kids are in the process of growing their vocabulary, I have to wonder if this is where it starts - with the parents. Sometimes their misuse/mispronunciation of words is too cute and hilarious to correct. I would like to think I will though as they get older and hopefully it won't be too late.

Lastly, the dropping of the 'ly' and many more language misuse is probably due to the new language of texting.