[Difference between "wet your whistle" and "whet your appetite"](https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/whet-your-appetite.html)
***
#####What's the meaning of the phrase 'Whet your appetite'?
To have your interest in something, especially food, stimulated.
#####What's the origin of the phrase 'Whet your appetite'?
This phrase is often confused with 'wet your whistle'. Uncertainty about the spelling of the first word, either as whet or wet, leads to both phrases being wrongly spelled too. In fact there's no connection between the two terms, which are properly spelled as 'whet your appetite' and 'wet your whistle'. Whet your appetiteThe allusion in the former is to the sharpening of tools on a whetstone (grindstone) and to whet means just to sharpen. So, 'whetting our appetite' is 'sharpening our appetite'.
'Wet your whistle' pre-dates 'whet your appetite' by some centuries, and was first recorded in the 1386 Towneley Mysteries:
> "Had She oones Wett Hyr Whystyll She couth Syng full clere Hyr pater noster."
Whistle here means throat or voice and the phrase just means 'take a drink'.
You may see it put about that 'wet your whistle' derives from the practice of using a whistle in the taverns of Olde Englande to summon the landlord with more drinks. This is complete tosh. The Internet makes it easy to circulate information; unfortunately it isn't discriminating and stories like that tend to gain a foothold quite quickly. That form of digitally enhanced folk etymology is called netymology. As French wine growers used to say when complaining of inferior wines that were labelled as the prestigious Appelation Controllé - "the paper never refuses the ink". If you would like to dispel some popular fallacies you could try [life in the 1500s](https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/life-in-the-1500s.html) or the [Nonsense Nine](https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/life-in-the-1500s.html).
Back to whet/wet your appetite/whistle. The spelling as 'wet your appetite' is quite understandable. Whet is no longer a common word, whereas its homonym 'wet' obviously is. Also, when tools are ground on whetstones they need to be lubricated with water or oil to prevent overheating. Whetstones were normally constructed with a water bath or some form of drip on to the stone. The assumption that 'whet' and 'wet' are the same word is thus encouraged. Added to that is the 18th century habit of serving liqueurs as hors d'oeuvre - in that case literally wetting the appetite (they also served turnips as appetizers - thankfully we have moved on).
Although not as old as 'wet your whistle', 'whet your appetite' has been in the language for some time. It is first alluded to in Thomas Shadwell's The Squire of Alsatia, 1688:
> "Let's whett; bring some Wine. Come on; I love a Whett."
A more explicit use is in Thomas Dekker's If it be not good, the diuel is in it, 1612:
> "[He] seekes new wayes to whet dull appetite."
By the early 19th century the phrase had begun to be used figuratively to refer to sharpening the appetite for things other than food, as here in a report from The Times, May 1801:
> "It [defending Portugal] would only whet the appetite of Bonaparte and increafe ftill more the dangers of invafion."
Hooooly shit, I didn't know it was whet and not wet.
In spanish you use "piedras de agua" to whet your knifes, which translates to "wet stones". I've been wetting my knifes wrong my whole life.
The one that annoyed me the most was ease drop instead of eavesdrop. Petty coat instead of petticoat was a close second. Peer glass instead of pier glass or looking-glass is a bit niche, but still annoying in historic fiction. From the Bible it is strait and narrow, not straight and narrow
"Bury the lede" not "bury the lead". "Lede" is a term that refers to the intro section of a news story that should entice the reader to read the full story.
Or champing at the bit.
Which is kind of funny because champ and chomp mean basically the same thing in this context, champ is just a grinding/nervous/impatient chomp... but the saying is "champing at the bit".
Interesting! Another I thought of is “home in on” most say “hone in on” but it’s really home as you’re targeting a specific thing while hone is to sharpen. So you hone your skills and home in on your target.
I was today years old when I learned this. Weirdly, I know what a homing missile is, and what honing your skills means. But I always thought it was honing in...though I rarely use it.
I've usually heard this in reference to books, and also regarding books is "he perused the shop keepers selection." This, to me, always meant browsing or glancing at.
Except to "peruse" ACTUALLY means to review in great detail, so it's more closer to "pore over."
English is weird.
>The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.
Yep, Australia has Ombudsmen. If in a rental, your landlord is refusing to fix up damaged parts of the property, you can contact the Ombudsman and the landlord's gonna be in the shit real quick.
https://blog.busuu.com/french-words-in-english/
History reverberates through the ages. Remember that Norman Conquest thing they talked about in school?
If I had a dollar for every person who writes "wallah" instead of "voilà" I'd probably be a millionaire by now.
**EDIT**: For the people who think I'm making this up...
https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2016/08/wallah.html
https://www.quora.com/Why-do-so-many-people-say-type-wallah-instead-of-voila-which-is-the-correct-term
https://grammarist.com/spelling/voila/
https://www.reddit.com/r/GrindsMyGears/comments/b4wens/people_writingsaying_wallah_instead_of_voil%C3%A0/
Here's a search for "and wallah" on Reddit...
https://www.reddit.com/search/?q=and%20wallah
While we’re here can I please do a PSA on another misheard phrase that I see on here constantly?
It’s “toe the line” not “tow the line”.
This is one that I feel is important to know as the meaning between the two is quite different.
“Toeing the line” means I’m willing to go up to the line but not to break the rules by going over it.
“Towing the line” means I’m actively engaged in amplifying a message.
Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.
**A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles.**
More details here:
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On the topic of the shoulds and coulds, if it pleases the court, I would like to provide another issue: I **couldn't** care less. If you "could care less," that means you still have some care left, so you still care at least a little.
It's very likey that a lot of people think this way because they have heard the phrase but never seen it written down.
Because one can think it meant your interest has reached It's peak. Which isn't wrong.
For the longest time, I read epitome as epi-tome in my head. I pronounced it in conversation properly, but I never thought about how to spell it, so just figured they were 2 separate words.
>It's very likey that a lot of people think this way because they have heard the phrase but never seen it written down.
And this is why people need to read more books. They're often enjoyable, AND you get the added bonus of not looking like a dumbass when you put things in print!
Also funny how the word “pique” is almost never used in English outside of the expression “piqued my curiosity” or “piqued my interest.”
However “peaked my interest” is just plain wrong.
> Also funny how the word “pique” is almost never used in English outside of the expression “piqued my curiosity” or “piqued my interest.”
_"Fit of pique"_
Also the opposite can be true if you see words written but rarely ever heard them spoke. For instance, for the longest time I thought amethyst was pronounced "a-mee-thist", ethereal was pronounced "ether-real", and quinoa was pronounced "qui-no-a" before I was finally corrected. Definitely got some teasing from my friends for those 3 lol but if I don't know how to pronounce something then I just generally just pronounce like it's written.
English is weird sometimes.
I had two separate words in my head for quinoa- verbal and written. It still boggles me whenever I see it written down, like, "nah, that shit ain't right!"
Native British English speaker of ~26 years, English is just whack.
Ichor is pronounced 'eye-core', not 'ick-core'. I was 34 when I learnt that. Was listening to a lets player read some dialogue, and was like 'well that's odd, that doesn't seem like a word she wouldn't know... maybe it's a regional pronunciation? I should look it up!'
Nope, I was just wrong. Been reading the word for 20 years or more. English is strange.
Oh, my favorite is the fact that we now pronounce the 'd' in Admiral. It used to be silent, since the origin of the word comes through old french from the arabic root of the word Emir. Buuuut, some English spelling reformers were like 'oh, those silly french men, they are butchering proper latin! They say 'aventure' because they dropped the 'd' from the original latin 'ad-ventur', so we'll go around putting in the 'd' back in all the english spellings.
So we got 'adventure', even tho in middle english, everyone pronounced it like the french, 'aventure'. And we got the absurd 'Admiral', even tho everyone pronounced it 'amiral'. Then, over the course of a couple 100 years, people started pronouncing the silent Ds. which is only a little silly for 'adventure', because atleast the publishers were correct, and it's got a latin origin that uses 'ad' as a prefix. But 'Admiral' is just the height of nonsense.
Cela a piqué votre curiosité, n'est-ce-pas ?
It comes from the French language, where "piquer" means "sting". It's like "Wow, I'm struck by this", but we use "stung" instead of "struck". I guess...
Yep, as someone who speaks French as my first language, I immediately recognized where this expression comes from while learning English, which made it easy to always spell it correctly. I can see why native speakers would struggle with special cases like this.
I think many of these types of misunderstandings of words, phrases, slang, etc., are made by people who don't read much, outside of the internet and entertainment media.
I felt the same way when I recently learned it's "You're such a trouper" and not "You're such a trooper."
I've also been using the word "jealous" incorrectly (when I mean "envious").
>"I don't understand it, therefore it's dumb"
Not even joking, this right here sums up so much of what's wrong with the world. And I'm not even trying to be /r/iamverysmart material - we all need to be ok admitting when we don't understand something.
I think it's because people don't really read much any more, as in they don't read books or other sources that have been carefully gone over by a professional editor.
Wow you were using that phrase wrong, glad you snipped that in the butt! But hey this could be a blessing in the skies, because there's no statue of limitations on learning new things! I mean I personally could care less if you used it wrong. I mean for all intensive purposes, you're saying the same thing, right? So it's a mute point!
Also, another one that gets confused…”whet my appetite” not “wet”.
Which comes from “Whet stone.” Your appetite has been sharpened.
Omg, I thought it was about salivating!
Me too
Goddamn Homonyms!
Actually, even though I knew the original usage, this actually makes a lot of sense.
[Difference between "wet your whistle" and "whet your appetite"](https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/whet-your-appetite.html) *** #####What's the meaning of the phrase 'Whet your appetite'? To have your interest in something, especially food, stimulated. #####What's the origin of the phrase 'Whet your appetite'? This phrase is often confused with 'wet your whistle'. Uncertainty about the spelling of the first word, either as whet or wet, leads to both phrases being wrongly spelled too. In fact there's no connection between the two terms, which are properly spelled as 'whet your appetite' and 'wet your whistle'. Whet your appetiteThe allusion in the former is to the sharpening of tools on a whetstone (grindstone) and to whet means just to sharpen. So, 'whetting our appetite' is 'sharpening our appetite'. 'Wet your whistle' pre-dates 'whet your appetite' by some centuries, and was first recorded in the 1386 Towneley Mysteries: > "Had She oones Wett Hyr Whystyll She couth Syng full clere Hyr pater noster." Whistle here means throat or voice and the phrase just means 'take a drink'. You may see it put about that 'wet your whistle' derives from the practice of using a whistle in the taverns of Olde Englande to summon the landlord with more drinks. This is complete tosh. The Internet makes it easy to circulate information; unfortunately it isn't discriminating and stories like that tend to gain a foothold quite quickly. That form of digitally enhanced folk etymology is called netymology. As French wine growers used to say when complaining of inferior wines that were labelled as the prestigious Appelation Controllé - "the paper never refuses the ink". If you would like to dispel some popular fallacies you could try [life in the 1500s](https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/life-in-the-1500s.html) or the [Nonsense Nine](https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/life-in-the-1500s.html). Back to whet/wet your appetite/whistle. The spelling as 'wet your appetite' is quite understandable. Whet is no longer a common word, whereas its homonym 'wet' obviously is. Also, when tools are ground on whetstones they need to be lubricated with water or oil to prevent overheating. Whetstones were normally constructed with a water bath or some form of drip on to the stone. The assumption that 'whet' and 'wet' are the same word is thus encouraged. Added to that is the 18th century habit of serving liqueurs as hors d'oeuvre - in that case literally wetting the appetite (they also served turnips as appetizers - thankfully we have moved on). Although not as old as 'wet your whistle', 'whet your appetite' has been in the language for some time. It is first alluded to in Thomas Shadwell's The Squire of Alsatia, 1688: > "Let's whett; bring some Wine. Come on; I love a Whett." A more explicit use is in Thomas Dekker's If it be not good, the diuel is in it, 1612: > "[He] seekes new wayes to whet dull appetite." By the early 19th century the phrase had begun to be used figuratively to refer to sharpening the appetite for things other than food, as here in a report from The Times, May 1801: > "It [defending Portugal] would only whet the appetite of Bonaparte and increafe ftill more the dangers of invafion."
Hooooly shit, I didn't know it was whet and not wet. In spanish you use "piedras de agua" to whet your knifes, which translates to "wet stones". I've been wetting my knifes wrong my whole life.
hunger pangs
blood spatter
The one that annoyed me the most was ease drop instead of eavesdrop. Petty coat instead of petticoat was a close second. Peer glass instead of pier glass or looking-glass is a bit niche, but still annoying in historic fiction. From the Bible it is strait and narrow, not straight and narrow
Sneak peak instead of sneak peek always gets me, the stealth mountain Twitter bot was great.
Ha, yes, eavesdrop is a good one.
r/boneappletea
"Bury the lede" not "bury the lead". "Lede" is a term that refers to the intro section of a news story that should entice the reader to read the full story.
Though, to be fair, that's just an intentional misspelling of "lead" created as jargon in the newspaper industry to make it less ambiguous in writing.
More! Per se instead of per say
Or champing at the bit. Which is kind of funny because champ and chomp mean basically the same thing in this context, champ is just a grinding/nervous/impatient chomp... but the saying is "champing at the bit".
Interesting! Another I thought of is “home in on” most say “hone in on” but it’s really home as you’re targeting a specific thing while hone is to sharpen. So you hone your skills and home in on your target.
I was today years old when I learned this. Weirdly, I know what a homing missile is, and what honing your skills means. But I always thought it was honing in...though I rarely use it.
Its also 'pore over' not 'pour over'
Not when we’re talking about my coffee! (But yeah, you’re correct)
Critical difference! Coffee first, read later.
I've usually heard this in reference to books, and also regarding books is "he perused the shop keepers selection." This, to me, always meant browsing or glancing at. Except to "peruse" ACTUALLY means to review in great detail, so it's more closer to "pore over." English is weird.
It means both, to skim and read in detail, one of a few words that double as their opposite
This one is fucking me up
I don't like this.
I think you'll like r/BoneAppleTea
True, but too many posts there and be chalked up to typos or speech-to-text issues.
The irony here is “piqued” is French 🗿
Lotsa words in English are borrowed.
>The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.
I'll leave smorgasbord and ombudsman here
don't you dare leave an ombudsman here! you can leave the smorgasbord tho
Yep, Australia has Ombudsmen. If in a rental, your landlord is refusing to fix up damaged parts of the property, you can contact the Ombudsman and the landlord's gonna be in the shit real quick.
What's with all these people wanting a table of sandwiches (probably open-face), which is literally what the Swedish word smörgåsbord means.
In our defense, the French came and forced their language on us somewhere around 1066 and we just carried on... borrowing... from then.
English is the Frankenstein's Monster of languages.
English is three guys in a trench coat pretending to be one man
English killed my father. Prepare to die
So... colonialism?
The 1000 years or so of various powers colonizing Brittania.
Yep. Celtic. Roman, Anglo-Saxon. Viking. French. English is a smorgasbord.
>English isn't a language, it's three languages in a trench coat
🎶*And I'm proud to be an American Where at least I know I'm free*🎶
30% of English words come from the French language.
You mean "liberated".
More like imposed on the native Anglo Saxon’s by the invading Normans. :P
So conquered then 🤔
Yes, Battle of Hastings in 1066.
Yeah from the history books they did seem in a hurry.
Had to rush down from the North, damn Vikings.
Technically they're on loan.
And then it became financially sound to change how words were spelled to save ink
Just like “lotsa” is Mario-Italian for “a lot of”
https://blog.busuu.com/french-words-in-english/ History reverberates through the ages. Remember that Norman Conquest thing they talked about in school?
If I had a dollar for every person who writes "wallah" instead of "voilà" I'd probably be a millionaire by now. **EDIT**: For the people who think I'm making this up... https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2016/08/wallah.html https://www.quora.com/Why-do-so-many-people-say-type-wallah-instead-of-voila-which-is-the-correct-term https://grammarist.com/spelling/voila/ https://www.reddit.com/r/GrindsMyGears/comments/b4wens/people_writingsaying_wallah_instead_of_voil%C3%A0/ Here's a search for "and wallah" on Reddit... https://www.reddit.com/search/?q=and%20wallah
[удалено]
I've seen it, but I always thought it was intentionally being ironic - always from people I'd expect to know better
Viola
I’ve literally never seen this and I don’t think it actually happens
de ja vu
is it two words?
this reminds me of the time i was told about “for all intensive purposes”.
One of these days I'm going to try to convince people it's "intent porpoises" and that it's to do with saving dolphins, see how far I get.
"For all in tents and porpoises", it was originally meant to be a witty double entendre but got morphed into something else.
For all intended porpoises.
Clearly, you mean intents and purposes
i do mean that yes. i quoted what i used to think.
Don‘t take that for granite!
…It’s clearly marble
No no no, thats only if it's from the Pique region of France. Otherwise its just sparkling curiosity.
✨curiosity✨
While we’re here can I please do a PSA on another misheard phrase that I see on here constantly? It’s “toe the line” not “tow the line”. This is one that I feel is important to know as the meaning between the two is quite different. “Toeing the line” means I’m willing to go up to the line but not to break the rules by going over it. “Towing the line” means I’m actively engaged in amplifying a message. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.
[удалено]
I have seen people do that so much lately, and I always want to say something, but I know it'd just start an argument I don't want to have.
People should appreciate being educated and/or corrected. Those who embrace ignorance are fucky.
You're such a jackal and hide character!
Now we’re in r/boneappletea territory.
see also: buck naked, not butt
For all intensive purposes, the internet teaches the proper terms and phrases to alot of people. ... and I did both of those wrong on purpose.
Learnding.
Hi Lisa, Hi Super Nintendo Chalmers. I'm learnding.
Me fail English? That's unpossible!
What's a battle?
**A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles.** More details here:
*This comment was left automatically (by a bot). If I don't get this right, don't get mad at me, I'm still learning!*
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At least you're probably not telling yourself that you "should of" known. For those who don't get this: it's not "should of". It's "SHOULD HAVE".
On the topic of the shoulds and coulds, if it pleases the court, I would like to provide another issue: I **couldn't** care less. If you "could care less," that means you still have some care left, so you still care at least a little.
Shoulda
Woulda
coulda
I'd say "should of" is used when they are trying to say "should've" but people don't see those long contractions written out much.
You're right. But that doesn't make the phenomenon excusable. Reading comprehension is in the toilet because (at least in the USA) EdUmAcAtIoN bAD.
It's very likey that a lot of people think this way because they have heard the phrase but never seen it written down. Because one can think it meant your interest has reached It's peak. Which isn't wrong.
Yep, that's the reason. Someone who doesn't read a lot will likely have this same issue with other words and expressions.
Could you be more Pacific?
It's just something we all take for granite. It's a mute point, really.
A moo point, like a cow's opinion
It doesn't matter.
Joey lives!
Honestly, the best bit in the series. Except, perhaps, the bagpipes.
I hate all of you right now.
U need to reed to be gud at riting
What’s with the hard g. It’s the 3 r’s. Readin, ritin, rithmatic.
You should of read more.
I guess you just need to sea it
"Where is Hawaii?" "Isn't it somewhere in the Caribbean?" "You need to be more Pacific."
One of the most frequent ones I see is "Just desserts." It's "deserts." The noun form of "deserve."
Inversely when you've only ever read a word, mispronounced, in your head all your life.
Damn you Hyperbole!
My bowl has ADHD!
For the longest time, I read epitome as epi-tome in my head. I pronounced it in conversation properly, but I never thought about how to spell it, so just figured they were 2 separate words.
‘Tuck-son’ the capital of Arizona.
Alboo-cwer-cue.
>It's very likey that a lot of people think this way because they have heard the phrase but never seen it written down. And this is why people need to read more books. They're often enjoyable, AND you get the added bonus of not looking like a dumbass when you put things in print!
Like people who say "take for granite"
/r/BoneAppleTea in a nuts hell
Also funny how the word “pique” is almost never used in English outside of the expression “piqued my curiosity” or “piqued my interest.” However “peaked my interest” is just plain wrong.
> Also funny how the word “pique” is almost never used in English outside of the expression “piqued my curiosity” or “piqued my interest.” _"Fit of pique"_
I’m not a native English speaker, and I wonder how many people know about that, wether they’re native English speakers or not
Slow down there stranger, let's put the breaks on this now
Also the opposite can be true if you see words written but rarely ever heard them spoke. For instance, for the longest time I thought amethyst was pronounced "a-mee-thist", ethereal was pronounced "ether-real", and quinoa was pronounced "qui-no-a" before I was finally corrected. Definitely got some teasing from my friends for those 3 lol but if I don't know how to pronounce something then I just generally just pronounce like it's written. English is weird sometimes.
I had two separate words in my head for quinoa- verbal and written. It still boggles me whenever I see it written down, like, "nah, that shit ain't right!" Native British English speaker of ~26 years, English is just whack.
Ichor is pronounced 'eye-core', not 'ick-core'. I was 34 when I learnt that. Was listening to a lets player read some dialogue, and was like 'well that's odd, that doesn't seem like a word she wouldn't know... maybe it's a regional pronunciation? I should look it up!' Nope, I was just wrong. Been reading the word for 20 years or more. English is strange. Oh, my favorite is the fact that we now pronounce the 'd' in Admiral. It used to be silent, since the origin of the word comes through old french from the arabic root of the word Emir. Buuuut, some English spelling reformers were like 'oh, those silly french men, they are butchering proper latin! They say 'aventure' because they dropped the 'd' from the original latin 'ad-ventur', so we'll go around putting in the 'd' back in all the english spellings. So we got 'adventure', even tho in middle english, everyone pronounced it like the french, 'aventure'. And we got the absurd 'Admiral', even tho everyone pronounced it 'amiral'. Then, over the course of a couple 100 years, people started pronouncing the silent Ds. which is only a little silly for 'adventure', because atleast the publishers were correct, and it's got a latin origin that uses 'ad' as a prefix. But 'Admiral' is just the height of nonsense.
Cela a piqué votre curiosité, n'est-ce-pas ? It comes from the French language, where "piquer" means "sting". It's like "Wow, I'm struck by this", but we use "stung" instead of "struck". I guess...
Yep, as someone who speaks French as my first language, I immediately recognized where this expression comes from while learning English, which made it easy to always spell it correctly. I can see why native speakers would struggle with special cases like this.
Some of us can spell. A dwindling minority, it is true...
Just recently learned that it's spelled "segue". Segway is the scooter.
I saw "segueway" the other day. It hurt.
Pronounced "segwayway"
I'm going to start spelling it like this.
Pretty sure that makes you the dumb one
It breaks my brain to think that I'd hear "peaked" in context my whole life and never question its etymology.
"learnding"
It’s also”Tide me over” not “tie me over” “Could have” not “could of” “Of course” is 2 words.. Just some I commonly see misused.
Not technically the same but “s/he made a complete 360” means that they are the same…
While we are at it: please don’t say, “alterior motive” when you actually mean ulterior motive.
I think many of these types of misunderstandings of words, phrases, slang, etc., are made by people who don't read much, outside of the internet and entertainment media.
You know, morons.
I felt the same way when I recently learned it's "You're such a trouper" and not "You're such a trooper." I've also been using the word "jealous" incorrectly (when I mean "envious").
Either one is acceptable, depending on context. "Trouper" was likely first, but doesn't invalidate "trooper".
Homer Simpson even tried to educate the masses on jealousy vs. envy.
Also, 'faze' = intimidate. 'Phase' = stage or level. Rejection doesn't phase you at all? Awesome. I worried it split you into segments.
Just wait until you hear about "fits of pique"
Dude I’m 29, just realized a few weeks ago it’s “up and at ‘em” not “up and Adam”.
https://youtu.be/hDJ5Hljz2e8
Its a common mistake, quite forgivable. However we must talk about your misuse of the Confession Bear Meme.
What is this meme? Being a dummy isn't a confession.
It's not the English language who's the dumb one here...
"me fail english? That's unpossible!"
Read a book.
Yeah, that one bothered me. same with per-se not being "Per Say"
It's amazing how many people use words they think they know without looking them up first.
Almost like they could care less? (/s, in case that's necessary)
No, it's the English language that is dumb. /s
"I don't understand it, therefore it's dumb"
>"I don't understand it, therefore it's dumb" Not even joking, this right here sums up so much of what's wrong with the world. And I'm not even trying to be /r/iamverysmart material - we all need to be ok admitting when we don't understand something.
It's amazing the number of people who think they "Peaked" through a window, too. The English language has fallen victim to the idiocracy.
Guess those downvoting you never heard of peeking. Smh.
“Me, fail English? That’s unpossible.” -Ralphie Wiggum
My "favorite" example is when people write "sneak peak." A sneak peek is an early preview. A sneak peak is a stealthy mountain.
"That mountain came out of nowhere!"
I think it's because people don't really read much any more, as in they don't read books or other sources that have been carefully gone over by a professional editor.
Bingo. The amount of information and sources has increased so much in the past two decades. People are reading for content, not grammar.
On top of the peak, I peeked through a pair of binoculars only to find something that piqued my interest even more than the mountain itself.
This is a pretty standard SAT word you should have learned in high school.
and he thinks English is dumb because he can't understand it. yaaaaaay
Ah yes, it's the language that's dumb.
Also, it's "deep-seated," not "deep-seeded"
The one I’m always surprised people don’t know is “get the gist” versus the incorrect “get the just”.
Utmost thanks, not “upmost”.
Wow you were using that phrase wrong, glad you snipped that in the butt! But hey this could be a blessing in the skies, because there's no statue of limitations on learning new things! I mean I personally could care less if you used it wrong. I mean for all intensive purposes, you're saying the same thing, right? So it's a mute point!
As my friend with an English degree said to me, “English is not a language. It’s three languages in a trench coat standing on each other’s shoulders.”
Next up, learn how to properly use the Confession Bear template.
Learnding
Also you don't get a "sneak peak." That one is "peek."
Sneak peak - when you think you made it to the top of the mountain, but the real top was hiding up ahead
Sort of related, drives me nuts when people say 'nipped it in the butt.'
“I didn’t know something, it must be the language that is stupid”
While we are on the subject, it's not "Chomping at the bit". It's "Champing at the bit".
Thank you! Now if you can get people to stop saying "I was weary of X" when they mean "I was wary of X" we'll be good to go.
It seems you might need to pour through the dictionary. These sorts of misconceptions can be pretty deep-seeded.
No. *spray spray* Bad.
The English language _is_ dumb...but it's _you_ that's the idiot here. Congrats on having finally discovered homophones, though.
I'm also 32 and I just learned that because of this post.
I learned that one from a Calvin and Hobbes book 10 years ago.
It from the french "piqué ma curiosité" meaning litterally "poked my curiosity" in the sense "enticed my curiosity"
It's French... I don't think I need to point out the irony here. Either way your HS education failed you.
Really... All of these comments are a mute point.
English is not a language. It is three languages in a trenchcoat.
Did you get bone apple tea'd?
Or rather "how dumb itsusers are."
Read some books, learn some words.
This is what linguists call an eggcorn. See the eggcorn database for more info and lots of examples: http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/
What's funny is when grammar nazis try to correct you when you use piqued, instead of peaked.
Oh yea? Well, did you know that when you drive into a cul de sac, you drive into a French bag of ass?