A Thing That Is Not, In the Cosmic Balance, Super Important Or Anything, But Totally Drives Us Bonkers When People Get It Wrong, Which They Do, A Lot
Thursday, June 10, 2010
One goes through a PHASE (e.g. "Le R. Père had slowly come to realize his daughter's rabid communism was, tragically, not just a phase"); one is unFAZEd if one is unruffled by distressing circumstances (e.g. "Yo, dude, I was like so not fazed by that zombie just now"). FAZE. FAZE. IT'S A DIFFERENT WORD. That's all. Thank you.
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My favorite is peak, pique and peek. So much fun when people use them incorrectly.
I am unphased by this post and shall continue with my faze of unique frazing. That iz all.
There is a super long list of these that make me want to smack writers upside the head. I mean, you're a writer for Pete's sake. You should know words!
We should use phasers to enforce the phase/faze distinction.
I had "phase" for "faze" in my query no less, until I did a grammar check before sending. When it popped up I was stunned. After decades of reading it never occurred to me that I had ever seen the word faze, and I thought I knew my words. No I double check each of those words whenever I see them in print, and I catch mistakes pretty often.
I hope you suffer no ill affects from being fazed. :)
I find people unabled to use there/their/they're correctly to be a major source of irritation.
John, you are not alone; we're pretty sure most people use "phase" for "faze" because they have no idea the word exists BUT IT DOES, O BELOVED AUTHOR-FRIENDS. IT DOES.
Ha! That's a good one. So is Brandi's example.
If I see it once in an otherwise well written piece I usually chalk it up to typo. "Segway" for "segue" makes me crazy every time, though. No way that's a typo.
I've been seeing a recent increase of confusion regarding except/accept and it's beginning to drive me insane. x.x
You know what bothers me to? To many people don't know how too use to/too.
Oh and loose. "It's easy to loose things around here."
Oh and lie/lay. "You just lay around all day." I do not. I lie.
I've been overcome by the abundance of apostrophes used incorrectly in abbreviations. CD's. 80's. Stop it! They are CDs. They don't possess anything other than material I am putting on the web because CDs are a dead medium.
(And no, I'm not stealing, I work in media publishing, so I get paid a nice salary with benefits to kill your CDs. I'm killing your paper books too.)
Interesting story about brains (non-zombie, don't worry) - I have a brother-in-common-law who's a very bright guy and reads a ton, but who normally can't spell worth a lick when writing. But he writes with his right (strong) hand, as do most people. Which is interesting because when he texts on his phone, using his left hand, he's a meticulously correct speller. How's that for a right brain/left brain curiosity? So the phasers and segwayers may simply be using the wrong brain.
I hear Apple is coming out with some new brains soon, though. Has some great apps, according to scuttlebutt. Automatically double spaces all memories. Clickable tabs for everything. Good stuff.
The effects of the misuse of these words has the affect of leaving LeR feeling piqued, out of phase with their writing, there is too much of an impact for me to accept. They're going to have to remember to peek at the correct grammar, if they want to submit their manuscript there.
Otherwise they will lose every shred of ego at the hands of the Rejectionist, except for those at the peak of their careers, who will remain unfazed.
*eyes the title* Surely you mean "alot"! ... *hides*
I've been seeing so much confusion between "advice" (the noun) and "advise" (the verb) from professional journalists, I wonder if the correct spellings have become archaic. Am I a fuddy-duddy on this?
I like how much someone at the Oxford American Dictionary hates "baited breath," while having reserved a little loathing for "bated breath" as well. Or at least I choose to picture them trying to control their feelings long enough to come up with acceptable dictionary-speak when they wrote this:
"USAGE The spelling baited breath instead of bated breath is a common mistake that, in addition to perpetuating a cliché, evokes a distasteful image. Before using the expression bated breath, think of the verb | abate, as in | the winds abated, not fish bait."
As long as you're willing to bare with them, it should be just fine.
How about the use of 'past' when 'passed' is meant. Then there's the ever-annoying use of 'loan' when 'lend' is the appropriate verb. Auuugh!
I think your all a bunch of word snobs! Last nite, some friends invited my girlfriend and I to there house for dinner and when I showed them this blog comment, they said I did good.
Bwahahaha! The Dictionary entry for bated breath. Hehehe. (sorry can't stop giggling)
Also, wtf is with "I am bias"? Suddenly seems like EVERYONE is saying that. Do they mean that they are bias incarnate?
Maybe I'm just biased, but... <.<
My absolute favorite is when people use "defiantly" for "definitely," as in "I defiantly believe Washington was the greatest figure in American history." I see this on student papers all the time, and I get a moment's amusement from picturing the student's defiant face as he/she declaims.
Here's a 1980s one that drives me nuts: it's not "SIKE" it is "PSYCH" as in, "I'm trying to psych this guy out" because you are using PSYCHOLOGY to defeat him, and I HAVE NO IDEA WHY PEOPLE THINK THAT OTHER THING IS EVEN A WORD OHMYGOD.
Also, PSA for those getting married: you walk down the aisle but have your honeymoon on an isle, you alter your dress so you look good when you stand at the altar, and you are stationary when you sit to write the addresses on all your stationery.
That is all.
Augustina - I saw just that on an author's site. In an essay about how he got published, he mentioned how his agent said to stay near the phone that Friday because a publisher was defiantly going to call.
He also mentioned how his book was about someone "unable to cope with realty."
Bewares them Spellchecking Tricksters.
Unfortunately I am spelling-blind (I don't see mistakes. I have managed a 85% average by memorizing what spellcheck coughs up after fifteen minutes of respelling words that could almost be "phonetically" or "constipated") so I have no spelling pet peeves. The whole unnecessary apostrophe-ess thing makes me spit nails, though (Dear co-worker from hell, The customer WANTS a cake because it is the CUSTOMER'S order. If you write that the customer WANT'S a cake one more time I am going to do unspeakable things involving frosting and a large spatula.)
My mother's big one is "comprised" and "composed". She's the kind of person who reads the newspaper with a red pen nearby, to correct spelling and punctuation errors. I love my mom.
Ooooh CKHB, I think you get the prize for "Sike." I've never seen that, but I love it. Siking somebody out seems more dangerous than psyching, doesn't it? I wonder if you can have a college major in Sike?
What makes you think they didn't mean unphased?
I was unphased by the zombie.
ie, it didn't cause me to change! Because if it had bitten you, you probably would have phased into a zombie...
:)
To be honest, I do make a few of these mistakes on my first draught. I can't tell how many times I've been horrified to see 'their' instead of 'there'. MORTIFICATION :(
I just read an otherwise fun new novel and throughout, characters repeatedly said,
"Alright."
It is such a sorry bastardization. Please don't do this!
All right?
I was going to mention the "past/passed" thing too, but I see Stephanie beat me to it.
Another is "affect" vs. "effect". Affect is almost always a verb. Effect is almost always a noun. You can affect a kitten by petting it until you make it purr, but you cannot EFFECT a kitten unless you are either a deity or a pregnant cat!
it's just a faze, love. you'll get over it.
'Unfazed' is not in my Word's dictionary (okay, it's a dated version, but) what does that say about Bill Gates, huh?
For me (non-native) the difficulty is that confusion by "incorrect usage" or by "UK/US difference nobody gives a flying about" falls in the same category when processing. Vice or vise? is basically the same problem as Peek or peak? Which is annoying.
But confusion in pronunciation is worse than spelling, I think.
Last couple of years we've been plagued here in Belgium with a confusion in the pronunciation of "skeptic". Now, Flemish as Germanic language doesn't take on French pronunciations (but sometimes uses strange and confusing alternative spelling). Still, politicians come on TV proclaiming adamantly they are very septic about some problem. Poor little things!
I can't stand 'we have a prize to giveaway'. Giveaway is a noun. Give away is the action.
The best mistake of the year for me was reading that "there is no higher rarki in a circle". Er, that would be 'hierarchy', methinks.
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