Messages

1

You Asked Me This Question / Re: Virtually

« on: August 21, 2010, 10:43:54 PM »

Mr. Carillo, thank you for the reply.  Now I understand.

2

You Asked Me This Question / Virtually

« on: August 15, 2010, 02:45:36 AM »

Mr. Carillo, is the adverb "virtually" the alternative to the adverb "practically"?

3

Badly Written, Badly Spoken / Re: Don’t be 100% dependent on your digital spell-checker!

« on: August 15, 2010, 02:35:58 AM »

The dictionary is still the most reliable reference for spelling. 

4

Badly Written, Badly Spoken / Re: Inscrutable English of a foreword to a college magazine in India

« on: August 15, 2010, 02:31:48 AM »

Perhaps this was a case of WUI - Writing under the Influence (of Alcohol). hahahahaha!!!

5

Badly Written, Badly Spoken / Re: And we thought we’d find typos only in newspapers and books!

« on: August 15, 2010, 02:27:45 AM »

The sign painter probably had a very mean dose of scotch whiskey while working on the road. hahahahaha!!!

6

Badly Written, Badly Spoken / Re: How to correct

« on: August 15, 2010, 02:25:09 AM »

This is my idea of how to correct your physiotherapists’s misuse of “irregardless” without hurting his ego: Get him to read the usage note below of the Merriam-Webster’s 11th Collegiate Dictionary about the nonstandard status of “irregardless” in the English language.

How to get him to read it? Well, since he’s your physiotherapist, find a way to get him to visit Jose Carillo’s English Forum. If he is web-literate, explain to him that you would like to share with him a resource for improving English usage that you discovered on the web recently. Better still, ask him to specifically click the link to this posting. If this doesn’t make him see the light and avoid using “irregardless” altogether, I don’t know what will.

Good luck!
 

irregardless
Function: adverb
Etymology: probably blend of irrespective and regardless
Date: circa 1912

 nonstandard   : REGARDLESS
usage Irregardless originated in dialectal American speech in the early 20th century. Its fairly widespread use in speech called it to the attention of usage commentators as early as 1927. The most frequently repeated remark about it is that *there is no such word.* There is such a word, however. It is still used primarily in speech, although it can be found from time to time in edited prose. Its reputation has not risen over the years, and it is still a long way from general acceptance. Use regardless instead.

Irregardless - to me, the word is a double negative.

7

Badly Written, Badly Spoken / Re: Gender-blind photo caption

« on: August 15, 2010, 02:20:06 AM »

^_^ Funny. I wonder why in the world the writer overlooked the usage of the pronoun here.

Perhaps the writer was thinking that Angel Locsin swings either way. hahahahaha!!!

8

Badly Written, Badly Spoken / Re: When English jargon gets the better of official correspondence

« on: August 15, 2010, 02:16:00 AM »

This exchange of correspondence is most definitely a classic, which should be a topic for some primetime TV comedy show! 

9

Badly Written, Badly Spoken / Re: Four English-challenged signages in our part of the world

« on: August 15, 2010, 01:58:29 AM »

I went to a certain 24-hour car wash along Boni Avenue, in Mandaluyong City, and saw this sign, which read "Services Offered...Collision repair, Bupping..."  I asked one of the staff what "bupping" meant; he replied, "Iyung parang pinakikintab iyung sasakyan."  Then I quickly realized that the sign meant "buffing."  So much for Boni-Avenue-Mandaluyong-City style of English.