SwoLy, You are not referring to me with my use of "a" and "urinal", are you? If you are, just say "an urinal" - it might make sense from a pure grammatical point of view, but logically it sounds nonsensical.
Oh, I forgot one - one that will make HayesStreet and Fatty real happy: Smokers smoking around you. Case in point - I have taken a couple of days off from work and my mailman comes by to give me a package along with a couple of other things. He wants to look at Jake but the little guy was a little leery of him. The whole time he is smoking a cigarette and that nasty smell is getting inside of my house. Of course, I don't say anything because I like the guy (he is a good old boy), but you would think that he would have known better to do that. 3 hours later, the smell was still there (it is gone now).
How did you know they were born and raised here? Being a foreigner myself who doesn't speak perfect English, I consider people who keep making fun of others beacause their grammar mistakes extramly rude.
I think he's referring to the first words of this thread: "There was a instance..." should be stated "There was an instance..." BBS grammar doesn't bother me. When it's spoken, however...ugh. And ebonics is just disgraceful. -- droxford
I absolutely cannot stand getting cut off from behind. When I need to get over a lane, I will turn my signal on and it never fails that the dickwad behind will IMMEDIATELY pull out into the lane I'm trying to occupy (without the use of his signal, no less), setting off a seemingly endless chain of following cars to do the same. Also, it really irks me when someone blocks an entire shelf while they stand there and read the back of whatever product they're looking at.
Ditto... but God forbid if you try to REMOVE ebonics "classes" from schools... No, sir, I am not referring to your post.Your usage of "a" as an indefinite article is correct. The sound of a consonant in place of a vowel does not require "an"; dROXford is right: "a urinal" is correct, Manny. I asked them. They answered that they were born and raised here. I am a foreigner myself. I consider myself a better writer and speaker of the English language than MOST of the people who will make the mistakes I illustrate. I don't make fun of them, I simply ask that they write it correctly, and if they don't, well off they go to continue to use these words incorrectly. The question raised earlier was "what rude things bother you"... I guess I should NOT answer with grammatical intolerance... because that would be soOoOoOooo RUDE... right?
Mulder... I feel your pain. Except, with me, it's people who are actually enrolled in the class. Sometimes you get a bad batch of students and they will actually disrupt things on purpose. When you turn toward them, of course, they stop. And you would kick them out if you just had proof of exactly which one was doing it... I probably should have kicked the whole group of them out. I sent emails to the class about "some people are disrupting the class, you know who you are, please stop or I will separate you". While most people appreciated the emails, the ones it was intended for were just offended and thought I was biased against them and their friends. Most of the time it's not quite so bad, but there's always someone who decides to have conversations during class. They must just think it's expected. Where I come from, class is supposed to be quiet. If you have anything to say to your friend, write it down. These are not exactly big classrooms either. You wouldn't think you'd need "classroom management" when teaching adults. It's not like they prepare you for that in Ph.D. school.
Slower Traffic Keep Right. And. Left Lane for Passing Only. That's my biggest beef I think. It's pretty inconsiderate to drive along in the left lane below the speed of traffic and force people to pass you on the right. Also, when I'm at a red light, and I'm turning right - and the car to the left(which can't go anywhere while the light is red) keeps inching forward - preventing me from seeing if there is traffic coming - meaning I can't turn until the light turns green. It doesn't take a long time - but it's pretty inconsiderate to other drivers. I don't get the beef with cell phones - the only thing that annoys me about that is I can only eavesdrop on half the conversation(which I suspect is most people's problem with cell phone users).
There WAS a GAY thread somewhere around here or the GARM... I got out of there FAST...!!! [EDIT...] OK, upon further review, you wrote "should have" correctly. Yes, we are, sir.
Aww... Come on. Embrace your grammatical sexuality. I'm offended that you would even think otherwise. We are so broken up.
That was a TYPO. My TYPING sucks. Then again if I were TYPING a memo or paper for class it would be a different story. I get what he is saying though. One of my grammer pet peeves is: "How are you doing?" "Good" No, you are doing well, not good. Thankyouberrymuch. Oh and T_J, I'm trying not to let that crack about "First Generation Americans" get to me, especially since I am married to one. Frankly I see more umpteenth generation redneck a-hole Texans with atrocious table manners than "newer" Americans. You could have just let it go at the career limiting move and we all would have agreed with you. Just had to drag it down...
I can't stand: ...when you deboard a plane and inevitably somebody will take 3 steps out of the tunnel and stop...as if there aren't 150 people behind them. This same rule applies walking through any opening at a busy place. Could be a mall, an elevator, whatever. ...when people talk at the movies. Needless to say cell phones. ...when people write checks at the grocery store at all. If they haven't even pulled their checkbook out until the final amount is given I nearly throw myself in front of a passing car. ...people who rush to get in front of me on an escalator and don't walk up/down...just stand there. ...when drivers on a multi-lane road go straight from the righ-hand lane blocking all people who want to turn right.
cell phones in restaurants really annoy me. I would like to kill people who wait until the last moment to get over for a freeway exit, even if they make hundreds of people sit there until someone lets them in. They should have cops sitting at major exits during traffic times.
I will back T_J up on this one. I am quite far from being racist in any way, and I pride myself on that. I have noticed a disproportionate amount of newer Americans from Asia in particular who do this as well. What T_J said is not meant to be hateful, it's just based on his personal experience, which I can back up because I have seen it in my experiences as well (which are VERY different than T_J's, for those of you who still cling to your theories about us...) I'm not denying that rednecks could be prone to this as well, I just don't have as much experience with them as some of you might.
