Nitpickin' Nelly Thread

[Spec8472]

Without naming names, here's your opportunity to rant on some people's use of the English language.

Note: This in regards to people who speak English as a first language - not those who've learned it as a second (or more) language.



I'll start:

It's goad, not goat. You don't get someone's goat, you goad someone into doing something.
So, as someone put it: "I love to get his goat all the time" - unless you're actually talking about nicking the fellow's livestock/pet - it's "I love to goad him into arguing about..."

For watchers of the Kath & Kim tv show, yeah - they have the sendup of this in there. "That really gets my goat, Kim, really it does".
Sort of like their Effluent vs Affluent joke - Kim: "I want to be effluent, mum, effluent." Kath: "You <i>are</i> effluent, Kim"

[Sbudda]

Actually, this is what is referred to as an idiom.

You see, it doesn't literally rain cats and dogs. This is a nonsensical statement that really means that it is raining heavily.

I'm sure you knew that one, but I like being snotty sometimes . Since "get someone's goat" is listed in the American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms...
<A href =http://dictionary.reference.com/search? ... e's%20goat>
Get One's Goat</a>
(bottom of page)

...it would be considered acceptable usage. Besides, goading someone, and getting someone's goat are different tenses. Goad being present tense, and goat being past tense.

For example: As you are reading this, perhaps you are being goaded; but in my perspective I've gotten your goat.

Interestingly enough, the origin of this expression has to do with race horses. Apparently people never thought how much it would goad me if someone actually took my goat. I mean, had Mencken forgotten how awesome goats are?

[Spec8472]

Actually, this is what is referred to as an idiom.

Yeah, I didn't think it was an idiom - I was pretty sure it was just a bunch of people mishearing it.

The cats & dogs thing I'd heard before (and use occasionally)... similar to bucketing/pissing down...

[Sbudda]

It's all good dude. Maybe in Australia the idiom has to do with getting your platypus. That'd piss me off as much as taking my goat.

[Spec8472]

It's all good dude. Maybe in Australia the idiom has to do with getting your platypus. That'd piss me off as much as taking my goat.

Smartass

And leave the platypus alone - they're cool.

[Fiferguy]

That platypus is nature's way of showing us that [insert Diety's name here] has a sense of humor...

[Sbudda]

That platypus is nature's way of showing us that [insert Diety's name here] has a sense of humor...

And here I always thought my brother-in-law was Niami's way of demonstrating that...

[Fiferguy]

Could be both... after all, Gods do have that power.

[Mizriath]

In Singapore, English has been mixed/used with Chinese and Malay, the other local languages. It has also been typically called SINGLISH ... Singapore English.

I am used to Singlish, that Oz English sounds foreign the first time I heard it with where the drawl/emphasis is to drag the words. Singlish is to talk it like a bullet train where everything is done for efficiency.... even the language. Brings to mind on 'speed readiing' = 'speed talking'.

[Fiferguy]

I would love to get someone like that down in the south. Southern USA, that is. The average speaking cadence around here is about 10 words a minute.

[Spec8472]

Singlish is to talk it like a bullet train where everything is done for efficiency

Very true, I noticed this a little... wandering around, interacting with some of the people I'd hear this blur of two people talking to each other, in what I assumed was another language.

It took me a few hours of err.. post processing to figure out they had actually been speaking English, just... really fast

[Journeywoman]

Singlish is to talk it like a bullet train where everything is done for efficiency

Very true, I noticed this a little... wandering around, interacting with some of the people I'd hear this blur of two people talking to each other, in what I assumed was another language.

It took me a few hours of err.. post processing to figure out they had actually been speaking English, just... really fast

When I lived in Singapore, when someone visited I would often have to translate stuff into Singlish. One of them I remembered was translating a McDonalds order so the poor lady behind the counter could actually figure out the order!

The other thing about Singlish is it misses out the little words. For example, I was once going around a market and saw a penut seller selling penuts. He was giving away free samples to encourage people to buy them and he had a sign on his stall saying "Penuts no good, don't buy", which translated means "If the penuts are no good, don't buy them."