Supposably these phrases are causing people to ignore you, you know who you are:

yeah, but...
sorry, but...
I mean,
,you know?
I just.......

Cease and assist.

brad l says this about 100 times a day and it tilts the **** outta me :P

These days, the only people who use "supposably" are people who want to piss off the nits who think "supposedly" is the only correct word. But it turns out that knowledge of the existence of "supposably" as a viable word does not make you cool, and is very irritating to all (including stinkypete and me, as it seems), so shut up and go back to "supposedly" so we can all get on with our lives.

I've heard people say "the" here before, but I always thought it made them sound like little kids. "Yeah, then all of the sudden this big monster came out of the forest and..."

'"Sudden" came to us from Old French (OED), and its ultimate source is the Latin subire, meaning to come or go stealthily. It entered English in about 1300 as an adjective (spelled soden, sodeyne, sodein, swdan - the spelling wasn't established until after 1700). Beginning in the 1400s (OED) "sudden" was also used as an adverb, the way we use "suddenly" today. In the 1500s people began using "sudden" as a noun. A "sudden" was an unexpected occurrence. So people spoke of events that happened at, in, of, or upon "the sudden" or "a sudden." The historical progression of this phrase was "of the sudden" ... "of a sudden" ... "all of a sudden." - "at the sodeyne" (1559) vs. "at a sudden" (1560) - "in the Sodeyne" (1559) vs. "in a sodaine" (1560) - "of the suddeyne" (1570) vs. "of a sodaine" (1596) - "upon the soden" (1558) vs. "vpon a sodayne" (1565) The use of "sudden" was extended to phrases that required the indefinite article "a," like these: "upon suche a sodeyn" (1572); "upon a very great sudden" (1575); and "with such a sodaine" (1582). "All of a sudden" first appeared in 1681.'

"supposably" has a completely different meaning

Sorry if it's been mentioned already, but one that is so common that I'm sure many don't consider it incorrect anymore is using me rather than I for comparisons of two subjects.

For example:
He is taller than me. (Incorrect traditionally)
He is taller than I.

The logic being that in the second sentence you are shortening the sentence from "He is taller than I am." Some say that "than" acts as a preposition in these situations, making "me" actually correct. I don't buy it.

If you're comparing direct or indirect objects, then the objective case after the "than" is correct. In theory this distinction is quite useful, for example:

She likes poker more than I. (She likes poker more than I like poker.)
She likes poker more than me. (She likes poker more than she likes me.)

When confronted with a picture of oneself, I think it's more correct to say "that's I" than "that's me," but "that's me" is basically universal and I'm sure many references call it acceptable. I'm going to have to try to start using "that's I" more.

I've never heard "all of a sudden" before in my life. It's 100% always been "all of the sudden". I've lived in MN and WI. My mind is literally blown away by people saying "all of a sudden" is correct.

I'm hoping the use of literally in the above post was intentionally wrong.

I'm jealous. Consider yourself lucky to hear "supposably" only as a joke.

if you start saying "he's taller than i" and "that's i," don't be surprised if someone decides to punch you in the face.

That's why I always just say "He is taller than I am" to speak correctly and also avoid being punched in the face.

I dislike when people use "lbs" for pounds instead of "lb".

I received an invitation today, with the phrase: 'Please RSVP'.

Thoughts on this? For me, the 'please' is redundant, and I wouldn't use it. That said, I see the argument for including it. 'RSVP' is something a lot of people will use without giving much thought to its literal meaning in French, and it could come across as impolite to request something without adding 'please'.

/nit

So I'm actually being a supernit traditionalist by saying, "All of the sudden."

Splendid! haha

Decline immediately.

This is just as bad as ATM matchine IMO.

I say "he's taller than I", and otherwise correctly use I instead of me in similar constructions, about 99% of the time, both when writing and when speaking. Should I be surprised that not only have I not been punched in the face for it, I don't think anyone's ever seriously considered doing it?

[QUOTE=rebuyboy;14351560]That's why I always just say "He is taller than I am" to speak correctly and also avoid being punched in the face.

[QUOTE]

But the use of "am" here is superfluous. If I heard someone speak like this I would literally punch them in the face.

I hate that a lot too; But at the same time You know their going to think Your an asswhole if you mention any thing to them so its just some thing You have to deal with.

people who "I" where "me" is correct drive me nuts. they are usually pompous *******s who think they're smarter than everyone else, but in reality are ******ed. i hope you don't fall into this category. i'm guessing you do.

I tend to just sort of mentally insert an implied "am" at the end.
He's taller than I [am].

This lets me not go bonkers.

Ok, I have one that drives me bonkers but TBH I don't know what's correct; I only know it sounds stupid and grates on my ears. It's when someone in the IT world says something like:

"These data are very crucial..."

Ok. I get it. "data" is plural. But boy that sounds stupid.

Why not just: "This data is very crucial."!?!?!?!?!??!!
I'm sure we'd know that you mean more than one "datum".

I don't see how 'data' is plural. It refers to the entire collection of information as one unit. This community. This flock. This set. This company. Those all refer to more than one entity within the group, but it refers to them as one unit, so 'this' is used and not 'these.'

this set is made up of many data.

see?

The flock is made up of many cows. You still pluralize cows there ldo.

The problem is that data in English is non-countable, whereas its root datum is countable in latin and has the plural data.


It could also be a Briticism à la "the police are investigating..."

Hm, Merriam-Webster seems to argue in favor of your side. I concede.