We English majors are an odd lot. We pay close attention to things other people don’t. Sometimes I’m surprised at what comes out of people’s mouths. But I’m not obsessive about it. I know some people couldn’t care less. But that doesn’t mean that their mistakes don’t drive us nuts. I belong to a group called The Language Nerds and ran across these pearls of wisdom.
Case and point.
It’s grammatical and all but it doesn’t make any sense. What people mean is case in point.
A mute point.
Mute means silent, so would you really want to make a point that doesn’t say anything? What you want to say is a moot point which means debatable or doubtful. On route.
This is a French phrase and it’s spelled en route.
For all intensive purposes.
Read “intensive purposes” slowly and you will realize it makes no sense at all. It’s for all intents and purposes.
Peaked my interest.
To pique means to arouse, so the phrase is “piqued my interest,” meaning that my interest was stimulated.
Literally.
No, you didn’t literally die. If that were the case, I wonder why you’re still here! Most people use literally as an intensifier, which is against the rules and meaning of the word.
I don’t know nothing.
That’s a double negative. Although this could be pure prescriptivism, but double negatives should be avoided in formal speech So it should be I don’t know anything. Wreck havoc.
What most people mean is wreak havoc.
That’s so random.
This is a big one for young kids these days. Random doesn’t mean weird. It means “without definite aim, direction, rule or method.” Your night out was not “OMG so random.”
Expresso.
Nope! There is no x in this word. It’s just simply Espresso.
Loose.
Loose and lose are two different words and they’re not interchangeable. Please don’t confuse the two.
Irregardless.
Th i s m ig ht s ou nd strange, but as fun as this word sounds, unfortunately it does not exist. The word most people are looking for is simply regardless.
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