More insulting than the typo is the implication that I need official notice that taking **** that doesn't belong to me without paying for it is a crime.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/61...f-itt-1105612/

how good is your swedish, jackass?

The comments below this dictionary entry are hilarious:

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/irregardless

I'm going to start using "irregardless" as often as possible and then see if people want to bet me that it isn't a word.

Irregardless is the word that stupid people bring up when they want to join in a grammar nit convo.

Exactly, which is why it would be fun to pwn them by taking away the only weapon they've learned.

Yeah that would effect total ownage.

---

Do you prefer the comma in the second sentence of the 2nd paragraph?



---

**** you, you monocle-wearing ****erdick. (Self-castigation for pretentiousness.) I need to read more Alice Munro or something.

Dear OOT,

It seems that using "begs the question" to mean "raises the question" is now ubiquitous even by writers I respect. Should I give in and go with the flow on this one? I will abide by your decision.

Dazed and Confused in the Midwest

Why should you? There will always be those who will see it as an error and, if not necessarily looking down on you for it (though some will), be distracted by it and therefore less likely to get whatever message you're attempting to communicate.

Meanwhile, there's no reason to do it. The phrase, misused, does not convey meaning better than easily-available alternatives, including the most straightforward, "raises the question".

In other words, by giving in in your own writing and speech you'll be alienating at least some readers and listeners, while gaining exactly nothing in return.


Edit: "always" was too strong. But for the foreseeable future some will consider it an error, and that's sufficient to prove my point.

Thanks for the response. I definitely won't start using it myself, but it's so common I will try not to let it irk me anymore.

No.

"Alright" is a word. Girl in the video is wrong.

You are correct. But it is considered nonstandard by many dictionaries.

Just about any collection of letters one sees often enough to raise someone's dander "is" a word in some sense, and for most there's some dictionary you can find, maybe a lot of them, that will list it. As has been mentioned in this thread numerous times, most dictionaries (and all good ones) are descriptive, not prescriptive.

But that something "is" a word, be it "irregardless" or "alright" or "alot" or an oral "nucular" or whatever else, doesn't mean one should write it, speak it... or even accept it.

^ That's a cromulent point.

Cool that's what I thought. I saw it like fifty kagillion times in the past few weeks.

Bleacher Report must not have standards.

It appears to have standards; bad ones.

As I look more closely I get more an more impressed. He managed to make at least one error in almost every sentence. And more specifically, solid majority of the sentences feature punctuation errors. Cool.

Sometimes, this thread makes me feel better; but mostly, it just makes me feel sad.

You can use the semicolon but if you do, you shouldn't also use the but.

These are correct:

• Sometimes this thread makes me feel better; mostly, it just makes me feel sad.
• Sometimes this thread makes me feel better, but mostly it just makes me feel sad.

A semicolon separates two clauses of equal logical importance, which is what you arguably have here. When it is used in this way the second clause is not introduced by a coordinating conjunction. Think of it as if the semicolon were a period, except that it's a period that links the two sentences because they are very closely related in content.

I prefer the second version, without the semicolon, because in your case you do want to emphasize the contrast so the but really is part of what you want to say.

[There are other uses but what I've described is the most common.]

That's a good point;

I'm sick of hearing the "double-is" all the time, but I hadn't seen it written before. Kudos to this guy for getting it out in the open.

It's a thread about complaining, full of nits.

This is not exactly a disagreement but a small picking of nits. Despite the prejudice against beginning sentences with coordinating conjunctions, it is fine to do so (and many good stylists frequently do). Thus it would be ok to write:

• Sometimes this thread makes me feel better. But mostly it just makes me feel sad.

That provides a certain emphasis on the second statement -- as if it was being uttered after a pause for thought -- that would otherwise be lacking.

What follows is that a semicolon could sometimes be used after "but" as another way of achieving that effect.

Posted in Steve Jobs thread: