I've seen both of those from native english speakers a lot.

I've never heard anyone refer to a player or team as "dominate". People use "bias" when they mean "biased" all the time.

I found this just from searching 2+2 for the word dominate:

Is it possible that's a cellphone/autocorrect thing? I've never in my life heard anyone pronounce it like that.

I guess it's possible, but I've seen it enough that I'm convinced it's "a thing".

If you accent the first syllable, the two words sound very similar (assuming that the speaker doesn't use a long "a" sound in the last syllable of dominate). The "n" in the word dominant can become almost silent in some people's pronunciation and that's probably why some people are hearing it that way and then spelling it as "dominate."

I remember as a young child (8 years old) hearing people at our swim meets talking about "tents of a second" on a swimmer's time. Having no context, and not being acquainted with fractions, I happily referred to "tents of a second" and would have surely spelled it that way if I had been posting in twoplustwo's swimming competition forum back then. I think this might be a similar situation for these people who hear "dominant" without the n sound.

The a is long in dominate. This is what I'm saying I never hear in place of dominant.

Maybe there are people who spell it incorrectly but wouldn't pronounce the way they spell it. Similar to people who write "loose" when they mean "lose".

Yes, I know it is, but if the "n" sound is not distinct then you could mistake the word being spoken as "dominate" with emphasis on the first syllable and a short "a" sound in the third syllable. I'm pretty sure this is what's happening. Not trying to defend it, just trying to explain it.

https://screen.yahoo.com/news/yahoo-...100241190.html

"dummy down" (1:34) hmm...

Headline in today's Toronto Star:

Well maybe that one is appropriate.

Ford is certainly a dummy, but I think it should still be "dumbing down" ...

ppl

Why in the world do people abbreviate people as ppl?

It's driven me nuts for a while but what sent me over the edge recently was a post (actually a two part post) in another thread that was 994 words long and only one of the words was abbreviated.

THE WORD WAS PEOPLE, IT WAS ABBREVIATED EIGHT TIMES (AS PPL) AND WAS THE ONLY WORD ABBREVIATED.

Is it because of the difficutly that some people have typing the word people?

I think the same thing when I read smth for something. **** that ****.

how else would you abbreviate ppl? i'm pretty lazy when i text. i never type out people; i use ppl exclusively.

The abbreviations in question are in a typed format, I believe.

In informal writing there are no rules whatsoever concerning abbreviations. It's purely a matter of what the audience understands and accepts. And it doesn't get any more informal than texting, which is essentially a real-time conversation with an audience of 1.

What's up with these?

"Islam at this moment is the motherload of bad ideas," Harris said, trying to explain his point of view.


http://m.nydailynews.com/entertainme...icle-1.1963961

WHY is this posted here? I think you picked the wrong thread.

(But it is an interesting article.)

Is motherload now acceptable? My apologies.

Accepted.

(how about starting another thread for misspellings and typos. Much less interesting stuff)

Best containment thread ever.

Here's question inspired by the "in line or on line thread."

I made a joke that you would be standing on line if you're in a hospital with color coded lines on the floor. Then I saw the post about how the Brits have perfected English and wondered if they would say "in hospital."

I know that British English commonly drops the definite article in front of hospital, e.g., "he was flown to hospital after a serious collision" or "she spent several days in hospital recovering." But I've only seen that usage in the context of a person receiving treatment.

But what if you are in the hospital for a different reason, such as to work on the wiring. Would a Brit say "I was in hospital for a solid fortnight sorting out their electricals" or "I was in the hospital"?

A related question: do Brits also drop the indefinite article that appears in my comment in the other thread ("in a hospital")?

They could also use a different preposition, such as "at". The phrase "in hospital" and other similar ones without an article, implies being there for the purpose or service that is provided there. Similar to how we in America say that someone is "in school" to mean they are a student, but we would not say that about the electrician working on the school.