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Permalink Reply by Rocky Oliver (LotusGeek) on December 1, 2011 at 9:41am

Here's one I haven't seen yet, and it really gets on my nerves. I'm referring to the (non) word "irregardless". IT IS NOT A "REAL" WORD - and since "ir" and "less" are both negatives - which means that it really means the exact OPPOSITE of what you want to convey.

 

As clearly stated by Paul Brians, an author and professor at Washington State University, on his site "Common Errors in English Language":

 

Regardless of what you have heard, “irregardless” is a redundancy. The suffix “-less” on the end of the word already makes the word negative. It doesn’t need the negative prefix “ir-” added to make it even more negative.

 

I truly despise the use of irregardless, and it is one of the few grammatical errors that I will correct whenever I hear it.

 

Does this bother anyone else?

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Permalink Reply by Sophie B on December 2, 2011 at 1:22pm

When people pronounce 'H' as 'haitch' instead of 'aitch'. It's on a couple adverts at the moment and driving me absolutely crazy everytime I hear it :/

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Permalink Reply by Jewelz on December 2, 2011 at 1:38pm

I always thought the haitch sound made more sense. Is it just the sound of the letter or do different pronunciations of h words bother you as well? What about "herb" vs "erb?" I find that I say "herb" if it's a name but "erb" if I'm talking about a plant. So you could buy some "erb" from "herb".

What about people who constantly drop the "h" sound? I can't help but think of that scene from My Fair Lady... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUQpoyfbWJ0

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Permalink Reply by Sophie B on December 2, 2011 at 3:22pm

I thought it made sense too when I was learning to read. Different pronunciations dof words don't bother me as I see them as regional dialects and varied by country or even county. You make an interesting point though, I hadn't thought of it that way XD I suppose its just that I was taught that this is how the letter is pronounced so it sounds clunky and unnatural when people pronounce it the other way, if that makes sense?

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Permalink Reply by Kris Feenstra on December 2, 2011 at 3:34pm

I only ever say "'erb" with reference to marijuana, though I almost never refer to marijuana that way to begin with.  I've heard a number of British people rag on Americans for dropping that 'h', bit it always struck me as odd.  I thought not pronouncing the 'h' in front of words was most commonly found in certain British dialects.  I still encounter things like 'an hospital' in some British writing.  If someone wrote that and pronounced the 'h', they should be punched in the face.  It's just silly.

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Permalink Reply by Sophie B on December 2, 2011 at 3:43pm

I had noticed that when watching some American shows and it struck me as strange but it doesn't irritate me, lol. As a scouser with a reduced accent I tend to drop the ends of certain words so I'm guilty as charged XD I'd noticed that  hospital thing too- like in some titles it says "an history of.."- that's just totally wrong to me.

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Permalink Reply by Jewelz on December 2, 2011 at 4:57pm

I notice the letter "haitch" thing when I was in Australia. It bothered me too. It just sounds so wrong. Your comment made me curious enough to google the reason for this...

 

In Northern Ireland it is a shibboleth as Protestant schools teach aitch and Catholics haitch. In Australia, this has also been attributed to Catholic school teaching and is estimated to be in use by 60% of the population.

The non-standard haitch pronunciation of h has spread in England, being used by approximately 24% of English people born since 1982 and polls continue to show this pronunciation becoming more common among younger native speakers.

The Catholics did it! And it's on the rise! How do we stop it??? haha

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Permalink Reply by Sophie B on December 2, 2011 at 5:04pm

I just can't stop giggling at your comment- I'd never have thought to google it! Or that it'd end up being a religious issue! But thank you for teaching me something new and hilarious, it's honestly tickled me :D

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Permalink Reply by Jewelz on December 2, 2011 at 5:15pm

Aaaaaand another thing! (I'm on a roll now)

I understand many English speakers tend to drop the "r" at the end of syllables. I accept that. River becomes rivah. Mirror becomes mirrah. The only downside of this is that Brits would make terrible pirates if arrrr becomes ahhhh.

As I said, this doesn't bother me. What does bother me, however, is that all these lost r's show up at the ends of syllables and words that end in an aw or ah sound! Drawring? Sawr? Brar? I've even heard Pizzer!!! HA!

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Permalink Reply by Unseen on December 2, 2011 at 5:48pm

This article outlines some of the times when H is not pronounced, and when it is:

H is not pronounced when following W. Some speakers whisper the H before the W.

what
when
where
whether
why

H is not pronounced at the beginning of many words. Use the article "an" with unvoiced H. Here are some of the most common:

hour
honest
honor
heir
herb

H is pronounced at the beginning of these common words. Use the article "a" with voiced H.

hill
history
height
happy
hangover

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Permalink Reply by Kris Feenstra on December 2, 2011 at 5:54pm

I've always assumed that commonly non-pronounced 'h's were holdovers from French.

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Permalink Reply by Unseen on December 3, 2011 at 10:42am

THE DEATH OF "WHOEVER"

Have you noticed how common it has become for people dealing with multiple potential customers to say "I can take who's next" instead of "I can take whoever is next"?

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