Anyone Missing an 'N'

[+ Gar1eth]

I see a lot of escort ads on Backpage or Adam- 4-Adam- never so far I think on Rentboy or M4RN- where the escorts advertise as being 'Dominate'. But it's never used in a phrase like, 'I will DOMINATE you'. It's used in the phrase, 'I am very DOMINATE'.

 

I think these guys are looking for the word 'DOMINANT', but I can't help wondering why the mistake is so pervasive. I see it on ad after ad.

 

Gman

[Kevin Slater]

It's right up there with discreet and discrete.

 

Kevin Slater

[+ Gar1eth]

It's right up there with discreet and discrete.

 

Kevin Slater

 

I'll admit to always having to look closely at that one myself. But I know most of the escorts probably mean 'discreet'. And as long as we are at it- there are the varied spellings of 'versatile'.

 

Anyone else have pet peeves in escort ads?

 

 

Gman

[+ Chris Eisenhower]

Definately.

[+ azdr0710]

to, too, two....your, you're.....

 

yes, dominate/dominant and discreet/discrete are the biggies.....and a definate thanks to Chris for his example!!!

[Kevin Slater]

Anyone else have pet peeves in escort ads?

 

Their are allot of them.

 

Kevin Slater

[leigh.bess.toad]

Their are allot of them.

 

Kevin Slater

 

Its breaking out everywhere isn't it?

[bigvalboy]

Their are allot of them.

 

Kevin Slater

 

lol.....

[leigh.bess.toad]

Of course the greatest act of sadism ever committed in the history of mankind: WHAT KIND OF JERK PUT THE LETTER "S" IN THE MIDDLE OF THE WORD "LISP"????

 

I mean I know some kinky, sick people, but no one that sick and depraved.

[tyro]

Sung to the tune of "Camptown Ladies..."

Word nerds of the world unite

Doo dah...doo dah...

 

Aw shit. I can't come up with a good second verse. Big ups to Gman for posting about this though. Seeing so many misspellings just irks my nerves.

T

[gallahadesquire]

"Gifted," as in: He gifted me a camera for Christmas.

 

Whatever happened to "gave"?

[rvwnsd]

Its breaking out everywhere isn't it?

 

You meant "braking out," didn't you?

 

"Gifted," as in: He gifted me a camera for Christmas.

 

Whatever happened to "gave"?

 

I'm not a fan of that one, either. It started out as a tax term ("gifting" money versus "loaning" it, for example) and now refers to everything from birthday gifts to an apple for the teacher.

 

My pet peeve is using an apostrophe when pluralizing a word. It drives me nut's.

[Kevin Slater]

My pet peeve is using an apostrophe when pluralizing a word. It drives me nut's.

 

What about randomly capitalizing Nouns for no apparent Reason?

 

Or not knowing what literally means? I literally slice my wrists every time someone does that.

 

Kevin Slater

[AdamSmith]

Excellent, all!

 

What gets under my Saddle is the inexplicable Compulsion that drives Some to capitalize Every Word that seems to Them Important. Do they Live in the age of jonathan swift? (Seems to cut both ways!)

 

P.S. Kevin and I are in Harmonic Convergence tonight.

[operalover21]

I see a lot of escort ads on Backpage or Adam- 4-Adam- never so far I think on Rentboy or M4RN- where the escorts advertise as being 'Dominate'. But it's never used in a phrase like, 'I will DOMINATE you'. It's used in the phrase, 'I am very DOMINATE'.

 

I think these guys are looking for the word 'DOMINANT', but I can't help wondering why the mistake is so pervasive. I see it on ad after ad.

 

Gman

 

I think looking for proper grammar and correct spelling in an escort ad is, rather, a fool's errand.

[+ Gar1eth]

In pronunciation, I hate hearing 'nu-cue-lar' for 'nu-clee-er'. (Although I'll admit it's off the subject- it's still a pet verbal peeve of mine).

 

That was difficult to describe without having the International Phonetic Alphabet on my phone- not that I can actually read the IPA.

 

Gman

[+ poolboy48220]

Too many to count. I does actually pique my interest when an ad is written with correct grammar and spelling.

[AdamSmith]

pique my interest

 

That is to say, "peak." Or, heaven forfend, "peek."

 

At least I have yet to see "Peke"!

[+ poolboy48220]

That is to say, "peak." Or, heaven forfend, "peek."

 

At least I have yet to see "Peke"!

 

Hahaha - I thought of that while I was writing it.

 

As long as we're on grammar - how many people still put two spaces after a period/question mark/exclamation point at the end of a sentence? (and colon for good measure...) I learned it this way in typing class in the mid-70's. Apparently it was a briefly-lived convention. I found out recently that the rule is again one space, and am trying to break a near-30-year habit.

[Nvr2Thick]

It's right up there with discreet and discrete.

 

Kevin Slater

 

At least discreet and discrete are both adjectives. I agree with Gar1eth regarding those two words -- it's easy to misspell or confuse the two homonyms, particularly when many people are barely aware of the meaning or existence of "discrete". With dominate and dominant, people are confusing the parts of speech (or was that - parts of speach?) substituting the verb for the adjective. Another error of this type I see is block vs. blocked. On the social/hookup sites I see an awful lot of profiles with statements such as "guys over 40 don't message me or you will be block."

 

In my opinion, dependence on spell check has led to many of these types of errors. People used to have to try harder. Dominate, dominant, discreet, discrete, block and blocked all pass the spell check -- so the sentence must be correct.

[+ Gar1eth]

Hahaha - I thought of that while I was writing it.

 

As long as we're on grammar - how many people still put two spaces after a period/question mark/exclamation point at the end of a sentence? (and colon for good measure...) I learned it this way in typing class in the mid-70's. Apparently it was a briefly-lived convention. I found out recently that the rule is again one space, and am trying to break a near-30-year habit.

 

I started a typing class in 1979. I didn't finish it- long story. But that's one of the things I took away from it. One space after a comma. And two spaces after a period and the others you mention. I still do that. Guess I'm a 70's type guy. I wish that came with a side of Tom Selleck in his prime.

 

Gman

[Mark Gordon]

Clients asking for advise, when what they really want is advice.

[+ deej]

I started a typing class in 1979. I didn't finish it- long story. But that's one of the things I took away from it. One space after a comma. And two spaces after a period and the others you mention. I still do that. Guess I'm a 70's type guy. I wish that came with a side of Tom Selleck in his prime.

 

You're not alone. Any copy editor will tell you that this woeful practice is nowhere near its death bed. One of the first things they do when they get an editing job is a global replace, replacing two spaces with one. (And the next step deals with using hard carriage returns at the end of each line, which way too many people still do.)

 

It isn't a typewriter machine, folks.

 

I had typewriter conventions drummed into me in high school typing class but was MORE than willing to drop them like a hot potato when I met my first laser printer with proportional fonts.

[rguer]

As long as we're on grammar - how many people still put two spaces after a period/question mark/exclamation point at the end of a sentence? (and colon for good measure...) I learned it this way in typing class in the mid-70's. Apparently it was a briefly-lived convention. I found out recently that the rule is again one space, and am trying to break a near-30-year habit.

 

Using two spaces after a period is perfectly OK. It's supported by history, and it's supported by readability studies. The claim that the practice was new with the advent of typewriters is simply wrong.

[Phil_musc]

Using two spaces after a period is perfectly OK. It's supported by history, and it's supported by readability studies. The claim that the practice was new with the advent of typewriters is simply wrong.

 

Thank you, ruer. In my humble (well, not all that humble) opinion, it just looks better and reads easier. But I applaud most of these other points - I too found the Dominate vs Dominant thing almost humorous if it weren't additional evidence to the "dumbing down of America."