BS: Improper letter S endings! Arghhh!

Subject: Improper letter S endings! Arghhh!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 06 Oct 01 - 11:37 PM

Okay, pedants...here's one to grind your teeth over. People who stick an "S" on the end of a word where it absolutely does not belong...

Examples:

"alls" ("Alls I did was tell him how I felt!") (Even worse if you put in an apostrophe...and make it "all's"

"We's" ("We's are goin' downtown!")

"So's" ("So's I said to him...")

"You's", "Youse"...etc. (Are youse ready to order yet?") This from people who are apparently unaware that the word "you" can mean more than one person.

"anyways" (So's, anyways, I told him all's I could, but he still wasn't happy about it. Whaddayouse think about that?")

"a long ways" ("It's a long ways to Tipperary...")

There is a veritable plague of the expression "youse" in Orillia these days, particularly among waitresses. How does something like this get started?

Does anyone have any more examples of this kind of thing?

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Improper letter S endings! Arghhh!
From: katlaughing
Date: 06 Oct 01 - 11:41 PM

Hows about?

Subject: RE: BS: Improper letter S endings! Arghhh!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 06 Oct 01 - 11:45 PM

Ah, yes. Good one.

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Improper letter S endings! Arghhh!
From: wysiwyg
Date: 06 Oct 01 - 11:53 PM

Yeppers.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Improper letter S endings! Arghhh!
From: raredance
Date: 06 Oct 01 - 11:55 PM

So annoying especially when, as I'm sure all you all know, there are legitimate ways to separate singular "you" from plural "you". "You all (y'all)" is singular and "all you all (all y'all) is plural. No need for you's to every be confused again.

rich r

Subject: RE: BS: Improper letter S endings! Arghhh!
From: Bert
Date: 06 Oct 01 - 11:56 PM

Colloquialismses

Subject: RE: BS: Improper letter S endings! Arghhh!
From: GUEST,Whistle and Bagpipes
Date: 07 Oct 01 - 12:02 AM

"Hows come?"

My peeve is the apostraphe s where it doesn't belong - saw a sign in a store where "Banana's" were 59 a pound

Subject: RE: BS: Improper letter S endings! Arghhh!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 07 Oct 01 - 12:02 AM

LOL!!! We's could justs starts putting "s"'s on alls our words, if in doubt. Anyways, its' not so's youseall dont' have to express yourselves's the ways I say's cos it's a long ways from being a free country if'n we's cant' put our apostrohe's and suchlike in the same places as our Daddy's did!!! Right? Do youse follows me?

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Improper letter S endings! Arghhh!
From: Gypsy
Date: 07 Oct 01 - 12:07 AM

And i add my own tooth grinding for the apostrophe added unnecessarily! Since i read without contractions, the absurdity of one, when it doesn't exist, can drive me mad.

Subject: RE: BS: Improper letter S endings! Arghhh!
From: raredance
Date: 07 Oct 01 - 12:10 AM

LH,

I beliveve that should be "iffen all youse all's in doubt"

rich r

Subject: RE: BS: Improper letter S endings! Arghhh!
From: DonMeixner
Date: 07 Oct 01 - 12:11 AM

Likes when your driving down the road and theres a sign that says, "No Turn Arounds" when you knows all too well it should be "No Turns Around" ?

Don

Subject: RE: BS: Improper letter S endings! Arghhh!
From: katlaughing
Date: 07 Oct 01 - 12:14 AM

Just sose youse knows, I nevers meant ta causes ya's'll innys trubbles at alls!

Subject: RE: BS: Improper letter S endings! Arghhh!
From: wysiwyg
Date: 07 Oct 01 - 12:15 AM

It useta was anyhow.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Improper letter S endings! Arghhh!
From: katlaughing
Date: 07 Oct 01 - 12:18 AM

gawds and gawddesses, we'uns er alls startin' ta sounds likes Cletus and them Reg boyz!

Subject: RE: BS: Improper letter S endings! Arghhh!
From: Genie
Date: 07 Oct 01 - 12:18 AM

It's the fault of the medias--phenomenon like this can be blamed on their use of the wrong criterias for spelling. They don't even know that "kudos", like "pathos" or "ethos," is not a plural. ("Kudos," like "praise," is due ... .)
And they said it was a waste of time to know anything about Latin and Greek!

Yeah, Whistle and Hawk, I really detest the trend to reverse grammatical and spelling rules. "Him and me went downtown and ran into the man who owes money to he and I... ." "Its too bad I cant think of other example's and illustration's."

Genie

Subject: RE: BS: Improper letter S endings! Arghhh!
From: wysiwyg
Date: 07 Oct 01 - 12:22 AM

Buncha damn language aficiondos.

Off the beaten tract completely.

That is, hearabouts.

Huh, I cracked myself up!

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Improper letter S endings! Arghhh!
From: Clifton53
Date: 07 Oct 01 - 12:24 AM

How about the opposite, ex, " He gave me fifteen-cent in change". Or, " I bought six-pound of steak"

Clifton

Subject: RE: BS: Improper letter S endings! Arghhh!
From: Bert
Date: 07 Oct 01 - 12:27 AM

"praise," is due! Wow, does WYSI know yet?

Subject: RE: BS: Improper letter S endings! Arghhh!
From: wysiwyg
Date: 07 Oct 01 - 12:33 AM

Uh oh! Time for these again?!?!?

CLICK!

OY!

Or my new favorite, LOL!, where with a little thought you can get things like this:

What's On! Like, oh my gawd! (Who is totally Performing Where)

BS: Improper letter S endings! Like, oh my gawd! Arghhh! Help: SanDiego Jams Anyway... Song Circles, Open Mics

BS: GAS! Like, oh my gawd! GAS!

Lyr Req: Gawd Save George Washington

Muirshin or Molly Durkin? Like, I am so sure! which came 1st

Subject: RE: BS: Improper letter S endings! Arghhh!
From: wysiwyg
Date: 07 Oct 01 - 12:35 AM

Hahahahahhhhhhhhhhhh............

Create a Smurfily smurfily new Thread (start a smurfily new topic) Mudcat Frequently Smurfed Questions - Newcomer's Guide Mudcat Smurf Map and PermaThread Index What's On! (Who is smurfily Performing Where)

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Improper letter S endings! Arghhh!
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 07 Oct 01 - 12:42 AM

Hey, in Pittsburgh they say "youns", which sort of rhymes with the German word "uns" only with a Z sound at the end. And I don't think they say it anywhere else but in Pittsburgh...which is one reason I'm glad to be from Philadelphia (home of the four-part vowels).

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: BS: Improper letter S endings! Arghhh!
From: Genie
Date: 07 Oct 01 - 12:46 AM

OK, Bert,
Some praise is due you, too! About 10 pound of it, maybe.
Genie

Subject: RE: BS: Improper letter S endings! Arghhh!
From: wysiwyg
Date: 07 Oct 01 - 01:02 AM

Yes, Bert, I definitely agree. More than ten, tho. Come and get it.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Improper letter S endings! Arghhh!
From: pavane
Date: 07 Oct 01 - 05:18 AM

Just thought that I'd point out 'You' is already plural. The second person singular is 'Thou'.

Subject: RE: BS: Improper letter S endings! Arghhh!
From: gnu
Date: 07 Oct 01 - 05:36 AM

PLEEEEASE don't say to me that you are going to, "... try AND do something." It is, "... try TO do something." If you ARE going to do something, why would you say you are going to TRY ? This is so pervasive that I have had to try and ignore it.

Subject: RE: BS: Improper letter S endings! Arghhh!
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 07 Oct 01 - 05:38 AM

I'm afraid that the common misuse of English that annoys me is the adding of an "s" on the end of words like stadium and forum etc.. The best spoken English in a radio interview that I have heard recently, was from a Finnish politician being interviewed on BBC Radio 4.

Jock

Subject: RE: BS: Improper letter S endings! Arghhh!
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 07 Oct 01 - 06:41 AM

How about compared to/with. It drives me up the wall.

And who rattled WYS' cage, is she still taking the medication? Made no sense to me at all!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Improper letter S endings! Arghhh!
From: DMcG
Date: 07 Oct 01 - 07:01 AM

Off thread, but a great media and media favourite: percentage inflation

We used to have to give 100% of our effort or comitment to things, but it then drifted up to 110%, and I've been hearing 200% quite a bit lately

My other main complaint in spelling on official notices (not it typing emails, you understand!). The biggest supermarket near where I live has had a spelling mistake in the notice over the aisles listing the products for over three years now.

Subject: RE: BS: Improper letter S endings! Arghhh!
From: DMcG
Date: 07 Oct 01 - 07:03 AM

That should have been 'media and management' of course.

Subject: RE: BS: Improper letter S endings! Arghhh!
From: Allan C.
Date: 07 Oct 01 - 07:36 AM

In reference to "We's" ("We's are goin' downtown!") I agree that this is totally wrong. "We's" is clearly a contraction for "We is". Thus, folling it with an additional (plural) verb is just not right. I have taken the liberty of correcting one other glaring error. The sentence should properly read: "We's a-goin' downtown!"

For some reason this all reminds me of a prep order I once received when I was a hospital orderly. Some fine, young nurse from the backwoods had written instructions for preparing a man for testicular surgery. The order, as she wrote it, said: "Please shave Mr. _______ 's growin area." (She spelled it exactly as she pronounced it!)

Subject: RE: BS: Improper letter S endings! Arghhh!
From: Donuel
Date: 07 Oct 01 - 08:48 AM

When octopi make love it is a many tentacled thing. Each of their "arms" have their own nerve center/brain and most likely have their own alias'.

Subject: RE: BS: Improper letter S endings! Arghhh!
From: Banjer
Date: 07 Oct 01 - 09:05 AM

It irritates me when otherwise educated people, in responsible positions, misuse the language. Many times in advertising for hardware products that we receive at our shop I am amzed at the copy writers that don't know the difference between a coarse thread and a course thread. A recent sign in the grocery store where my wife works told the employees to put the carts they brought in into 'Two row's of cart's only'. Is it any wonder young people can't learn proper usage and spelling when people in the public eye continue to set bad examples?

I'll never forget walking of the office of the Dean of Boys at my son's school many years ago. This educator had just said, "Your chile bees disruptly in his classes" My thought was that if my child had no better teachers that this Administrator it was time for me to become 'disruptly'. Unfortunately my complaints to our local school board fell on deaf ears. That is why Florida is ranked 48th (out of 50 states) in the quality of education.

Subject: RE: BS: Improper letter S endings! Arghhh!
From: AliUK
Date: 07 Oct 01 - 10:32 AM

WISIWYG: GAS! GAS! was actually a quote from the poem that is contained in the thread. The use of the exclamation mark in cases of speech is not wrong, infact it is what it was invented fro. Perhaps you should look at the context before making joke of it.

Subject: RE: BS: Improper letter S endings! Arghhh!
From: wysiwyg
Date: 07 Oct 01 - 10:34 AM

AliUK, that was not the intent at all. I was just showing what one of the links I found, that translates things into different dialects, would do to a thread list.

I think it's very strange how often Mudcatters make assumptions about others' motives in posts.

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: Improper letter S endings! Arghhh!
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 07 Oct 01 - 11:39 AM

Little Hawk: The syndrome you describe in your first post must be a regional thing. I don't hear it here in Minnesota. Here, the plural form of "you" is "you guys."

Subject: RE: BS: Improper letter S endings! Arghhh!
From: Peg
Date: 07 Oct 01 - 11:40 AM

anyways...grrr

in writing: "suppose to" instead of "supposed to"...grrr...

or "supposively" instead of "supposedly"...grrr

or "cut and dry" instead of "cut and dried"...grrr...

BayBanks (when it was called BayBank; the bank was bought out and does not exist anymore but it used to make me go grrrrr when people added an S)...grrr

As a film critic I notice when people get film titles wrong:

like "sex, lies and videotapes"...grrr

people also used to pronounce the film "Cinema Paradiso" as if it were "Cinema Paradisio"...grrr

or "Mississippi Marsala" instead of the proper "Mississippi Masala"...grrr

or when I used to work at a little art house theatre in grad school, people though they were cool when asking for tickets by saying the first word of the title...like "Wild" for "Wild at Heart"...or "Life" instead of "Life is Sweet"...grrr...I would pretend I did not know what they were talking about...heh heh heh...

Subject: RE: BS: Improper letter S endings! Arghhh!
From: AliUK
Date: 07 Oct 01 - 12:15 PM

Susan, suitably chastized. A thousand apologies...or is that apologii?

Subject: RE: BS: Improper letter S endings! Arghhh!
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 07 Oct 01 - 12:51 PM

Sigh. And one of the biggest disappointments so far in my life was finding a type in a headline (yes, one of those apostrophe s things) on the front page of the New York Times -- below the fold, but nonetheless very disappointing. Sigh.

(In some circles I'm a type goddess.)

Bat Goddess

Subject: RE: BS: Improper letter S endings! Arghhh!
From: Bill D
Date: 07 Oct 01 - 01:19 PM

..unfortunately, disdain for correct grammar seems to be 'in', whereas it once was mostly due to poor education and just plain 'dumbness'....There are many causes, but since so many managers and 'educators' are unable to write & speak clearly & correctly, it is hard to mount a movement to correct the problem.

(I should have "beed disruptly in MY chiles classes" a bit more I suppose)

Subject: RE: BS: Improper letter S endings! Arghhh!
From: wysiwyg
Date: 07 Oct 01 - 01:40 PM

It occurred to me, after hastily writing what ALiUK took as chastisement, that "smurfs" and "valley girls" may be unknown creatures in the UK.

At least with the resource of Mudcat we can learn enough to know we understand little!

No apology needed, no harm, no foul?

*G*

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Improper letter S endings! Arghhh!
From: Noreen
Date: 07 Oct 01 - 01:47 PM

Another teeth-grinder that seems to bother no-one else: a local taxi firm has big printed signs on all their cars advertising the phone number for Advanced bookings. I'm still trying to work that one out... I'm obviously not advanced enough.

Subject: RE: BS: Improper letter S endings! Arghhh!
From: Wyrd Sister
Date: 07 Oct 01 - 02:20 PM

"Different to"? Does that mean we have to have "similar from"?

Subject: RE: BS: Improper letter S endings! Arghhh!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 07 Oct 01 - 02:55 PM

Then there's mispronunciation of names. Back in the famous Canada-Russia hockey series in 1972, the Russians had a star forward named Valeri Karlamov (I hope I spelled it right...well, Russian employs a somewhat different alphabet anyway...maybe should be an "h" in there somewhere).

Most of the Canadian announcers couldn't handle "Karlamov" for some reason and insisted on reversing the letters and pronouncing at "Karmaloff", like "marmalade". Gad! What idiots they made of themselves. Despite the almost universal mispronunciation of the man's name, he earned the grudging respect and outright admiration of the frustrated Canadians, as he had an uncanny ability to both skate and put the puck in the net. So uncanny, that I believe the Canucks arranged to injure him and get him off the ice. Dirty pool! Not that the Russians didn't do some dirty play themselves...quite a bit of it.

Now why has G.W.B. not shown up on this thread? Oh yeah, there's a war on...

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Improper letter S endings! Arghhh!
From: Donuel
Date: 07 Oct 01 - 03:17 PM

The B word is not to be sullied under threat of extreme predjudice. Even the TV show Politically Incorrect has been banned from all affiliates in the Washington DC area.

Subject: RE: BS: Improper letter S endings! Arghhh!
From: Ebbie
Date: 07 Oct 01 - 03:59 PM

"The B word is not to be sullied under threat of extreme predjudice." Boy howdy, am I out of it- What does that mean, Donuel?

Ebbie

Subject: RE: BS: Improper letter S endings! Arghhh!
From: Ebbie
Date: 07 Oct 01 - 04:23 PM

A local store has signs above the clothing aisles: Ladies', Boy's, Children's, etc. I once even saw a sign that read Mens'. I would prefer to respond with laughter but it irritates me.

One of my peeves is a small one, I grant you: "I would like to thank..." Why not do it? Just say, My thanks to..."

Eb

Subject: RE: BS: Improper letter S endings! Arghhh!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 07 Oct 01 - 05:17 PM

Ebbie - I think he means it's hands off George W. Bush at the moment, as in no making fun of the commander-in-chief in time of war.

Either that, or he's talking about borscht. :-)

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Improper letter S endings! Arghhh!
From: Mr Red
Date: 07 Oct 01 - 05:50 PM

datums, gymnasiums, symposiums, referendums, operas (yes operas AND opuses).

Subject: RE: BS: Improper letter S endings! Arghhh!
From: pavane
Date: 07 Oct 01 - 06:03 PM

If you are speaking English, it is proper to form regular English plurals - even of imported words. No need for Radii, radiuses will suffice. Form the Latin plural if you are speaking Latin

Subject: RE: BS: Improper letter S endings! Arghhh!
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 07 Oct 01 - 08:21 PM

Lots of confusion here. Why equate the vulgar vernacular with correct, formal English? (WYSIWYG- The song you are searching for is Geawge Warshington warshes his clos- or his hans in a variant version). I agree that newscasters and newspaper writers should speak and write proper English (or American, as the case might be), but why shouldn't we add color to our language when speaking informally? The vernacular also helps to denote our home ground. Where do people say Alabamer (two answers, one for England, one for the United States). I am going to home? I'm fixin' to go to town? I be ready to go? Etc. Moreover, what was wrong when I was a child (see "Anglicised" plurals) seems to be gaining currency today.