Monday, December 31, 2007

Know thy language

I hate it when people pronounce enable as unable. Can it be design of the nature that these be so opposite in meaning yet close in their pronunciations? Another pathetic experience is that of hearing a person use "able" as a verb; as in, I can able to do this part. It's just not English.

I also hate it when people mix up the usage of "its" and "it's". I mean, despite constant coaching in schools about how different they are, if people commit the same mistake again and again, something must be wrong with them. And this doesn't happen in text messages over cell-phones, but in first and second drafts of papers to be submitted to international conferences. But then, perhaps, that's not the last straw. The last would be when an Englishman starts doing that, I guess?

I am keeping count of the straws, by the way!

1 comment:

Nandan said...

hmm, I agree. hairs, a criteria and it is me are few of my other pet peeves ;)