English pet peeves

[micahcowan]

Always base it on the pronunciation.

It's worth noting, though, that there are some writers/speakers who will precede words beginning with "h" with "an" instead of "a". I always assumed it depended on the pronunciation habits of the writer when I saw it.

For instance, "Thanks to an human act of kindness." I would write that with "a", not "an", but I wouldn't be shocked to come across it written that way. I would assume the writer pronounces "human" similar to "you+men", rather than (as I say it) "hew-men" with a hard h.

With acronyms, too, it's by pronunciation. "An HIV-like virus" ("an aitch..."), but "displayed in a HUD (heads-up display)" (because HUD is pronounced as a word rather than by its individual letters).

Looks like "an human" is pretty rare, though. Google only gave 172,000 results, versus 59,500,000 for "a human".

[phreadom]

Yeah, one of my pet peeves is when people pronounce SQL as a word (sequel)... so you have to decide whether to write "a SQL server" or "an SQL server" depending on which way you say it. I seem to run into things like this a lot when writing about computer stuff.

As for the "h" one... "an historic event" seems to be the cliché example of that, and it seems that people tend to think that saying "an historic event" rather than "a historic event" is a bit pretentious. http://www.jimloy.com/language/historic.htm explains why.

[chikara]

Yeah, one of my pet peeves is when people pronounce SQL as a word (sequel)... so you have to decide whether to write "a SQL server" or "an SQL server" depending on which way you say it. I seem to run into things like this a lot when writing about computer stuff.....

Saying SQL as "sequel" seems to be an American English thing. In my experience in this country SQL (ess queue ell), which is the official pronunciation, is usually used. SEQUEL is actually the name of a predecessor of SQL. It is therefore usually an SQL server or an SQL query or an SQL statement.

An SQL query walks into a bar and sees two tables. He walks up to them and asks "Can I join you?"

[phreadom]

I actually never heard it pronounced "sequel" until I went out to the west coast... and then I heard it a bit over in Detroit. But around these parts it's SQL (the 3 letters stated).

An SQL query walks into a bar and sees two tables. He walks up to them and asks "Can I join you?"

I belly laughed for a good several minutes. My girlfriend thought I'd lost my mind... so I explained the joke and she just did that *shake head, smile, and sigh a little* response.

(And a friend I shared it with immediately responded with http://xkcd.com/327/ )

[chikara]

... (And a friend I shared it with immediately responded with http://xkcd.com/327/ )

[tōkai devotee]

Thanks so much Chikara, for posting that link. Now I've just wasted 30 mins of my evening reading many of the jokes on that site!!

[chikara]

Thanks so much Chikara, for posting that link. Now I've just wasted 30 mins of my evening reading many of the jokes on that site!!

どういたしまして、でもフリードムさんでした。　

久しぶりですね。

[Infidel]

I actually never heard it pronounced "sequel" until I went out to the west coast... and then I heard it a bit over in Detroit. But around these parts it's SQL (the 3 letters stated).

I never heard it called sequel before I watched the Microsoft video. I guess that is how they want it pronounced.

[NileCat]

Hi, Infidel!
Long time no see!
I might have said this before but, your avatar always makes me smile.

[tuber97]

Yeah, one of my pet peeves is when people pronounce SQL as a word (sequel)

Okay, I have never heard anybody say "ess-que-ell". I've always known it as "sequel". At first I thought I had read it wrong. Huh. I'm learning about English as well as Japanese!

[chikara]

Okay, I have never heard anybody say "ess-que-ell". I've always known it as "sequel". .....

I know Mircro$ofties like to use the term "Sequel Server" when actually talking about SQL Server but if SQL is pronounced CQL how is CQL (Common Query Language) pronounced? Or how about SMS, is that see-em-ess or maybe even see-em-see? Is an MC an em-ess?

As I posted above I had always assumed that saying "sequel" for SQL was an American English thing.

[Infidel]

Hi, Infidel!
Long time no see!
I might have said this before but, your avatar always makes me smile.

久しぶり　

Thank you.

^^ I have to admit, it makes me smile about as often. It is definitely my favorite avatar.

[ダラゴスちゃん]

They're, their, there. People confuse them all the time...

[john2]

Even wanting to post here, several issues;
the use of idioms/metaphors etc.
And greatings ‘hallo, hello, bye, aloha, こにちは, goodmorning, namaste…’.
Incorrect word order, the wrong negators in german.
Topicless discussions.
feeling obliged to talk to people.
people pointing their face at me all the time.
getting disturbed while looking for stuff in shops.

Some controversies.

[KharismaticKayteh]

I have too many peeves to list.

The spelling "definately".
The pronunciation "exspecially" or "expresso".
The pronunciation "prostrate" instead of "prostate".

Also many colloquial things like "sup" and "ima" (seriously, "ima"? It apparently means "I'm gonna" which means "I'm going to...". How many contracted forms do we need)?!