Strangest Question Ever!!

my sister in law drives me insane by using why instead of while.

for example she will say I will clean the house why the baby sleeps. She does this so frequently I cringe every time.

How about "prolly" for "probably" ... My SIL and husband both do it. Wish I knew why ... But I can't say the word "drawer", so I prolly have little room to complain. ;+}

ETA - "Aw" as in "how sweet" and "awe" as in "reverence".

Ziggy I'm glad you mentioned that one. Supposedly DOES NOT HAVE A 'B' in it.
I've heard educated people say it with a 'b'. Blows my mind.
And sticking an 'S' on Walmart. So when they say they are going to Walmarts, they must be going to every single store.

Yeah...I hear "yes."

Yay...I hear woo-hoo!

No one will ever convince me otherwise!! Although, sometimes I'm in a hurry and type the wrong one. Makes me shudder every time.

I hate, HATE when people say "I could care less." I want to punch through the dang computer screen. It's COULDN'T people.

"yeah" - I hear the slang for "yes"
"yay" - I hear celebration
"yea" - I hear our Founding Fathers voting "yes" to declare independence ;-)

I'm delighted that so many of you go crazy over "I could care less" because that drives me nuts!

On Mamapedia, I get a little annoyed with people asking for "good advise" rather than advice. Same with "For all intensive purposes" instead of "intents and purposes."

Then there are the mispronunciations such as "nuke-u-lar" instead of the correct "nuke-lee-ar", "eck cetera" vs. the correct "et cetera", "expresso" vs. the correct "espresso", "jool-er-ree" for "jew-el-ry" and "real-a-tor" for "re-al-tor". Other than those, I have no opinion on these matters!!

And of course you are all correct about yeah vs. yay (or yea). I think "yea" is more archaic and is not celebratory, but is more common in Biblical or poetic usage such as "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death."

ETA - just saw your comment on my comment. It's actually plural "intents and purposes" - that's what the word "all" refers to! Otherwise it doesn't really make as much sense. Not easy I know. We all have to look these things up now and then, don't we?? Consult a phrase directory, I guess, going forward. I think it's like "could care less" - people do the wrong thing so much, it just sounds right even if it's not. Perhaps it's different in different countries? Sometimes something British is different from here? Can't write anymore - gotta go look these things up! LOL!

Okay - I looked it up. Here's one verification site: http://thesaurus.com/browse/for+all+intents+and+purposes

I'm with everyone else: 'yeah' is yes, etc. etc.

What chills me: someone recently tried making an intelligent argument that we should just accept that 'irregardless' is a word because enough people use it erroneously. Are we having to kowtow to stupidity now by allowing it validity?
"Irregardless" a word? NEVER!!!!!

(well, apparently Mirriam-Webster validates stupidity as well, but only in a documenting 'dialectical speech' sort of way. ugh.)

what about "for all intensive purposes" I know I've heard and read that one.

And.. I once stood at a counter in a store in NC for ten minutes wondering why the cashier kept asking me "is that urine?" "WHAT? " "Is that urine?" "excuse me?" "is that urine" "huh?" finally the person behind me explained she wants to know if that item is yours (as in Your' n ) I realize that is a regional thing but so funny for me the confused Yankee.

Much of what's been already been mentioned, and in agreement with the use of "yeah" vs. "yay"

Plus:
it's/its
("It's" is a contraction for "it is" and "its" is the possessive form. If what you are saying still makes sense with "it is" use the apostrophe.)

rein/reign
(Reins are part of a horse's bridle. Giving someone "free rein" is allowing him or her to choose a course of action. "Reign" is what kings and queens do.)

I don't have a degree in English, but I've passed the Altar of Literacy in Kingdom of Loathing. ;-)

ETA:
Oh! Oh! Mustn't forget "alot"!!! That should be two words. I'm sure there are a lot more, but I'm not coming up with them at the moment :-) (Thank you to Suz and FT for the nudges that reminded me of that one, too!)

ETA2:
Okay, on the yeah/yea/yay conversation - the usage that I have heard is that "yeah" is slang for "yes" (and very commonly used now). I've never heard it pronounced with a long a sound. "Yay" is the cheer - sort of like "Yes!" with lots of enthusiasm! I've heard "yea" (also pronounced "yay") most often in the context of a vote - yeas vs. nays, so it also is an indication of assent.

Oh my gosh! As soon as I read your question I realized I did that in my cake questions! I am so tired today. I don't know if you were talking about me or not, but either way, yep, I just did that.

I always thought "yeah" meant "yes," "yea" (which is what I meant to type) meant "hooray!" and I really never thought about what "yay" meant. Huh!

And I agree with the "could care less." What does that even mean? It is possible for you to care less? Than you care, right? Sometimes I even wonder if people think about what they say. But then again, I can't type today, so I shouldn't judge :-)

Same interpretation as Bug gave. I recall being annoyed by this in books when I was younger. The authors would often write "yeah" where I would want to read (and heard) "yay!"

One of our vendors has a support staff in another country and their English in requesting things from us is a riot. Now I'll admit that their English is better than my non-English, but it's not my job to communicate in another language. Anyway...they tend to all pick up on the same odd and mis-used word or phrase at the same time. So if we send in a question, the response will be "I already updated the data" so for a while, I was thinking that there was another issue because to me, that means that the data had been updated before I asked the question. Nope, turns out that they think "already" and "just" are the same word. The new word is "simply," as in "I am simply asking that you send to me the 6/30 funding report." I don't think that they understand that when you throw "simply" in there, it comes across as aggrieved and a bit rude. Cracks me up every time!

Laughed at this. I do *not* judge others for doing this, but just for fun, my biggest spelling/grammar pet peeve is:

"There's about a hundred people out here."
"There's a million reasons to do xxx."
"There's so many people who do this."

Please don't bash me. Professional news anchors, teachers, authors ... most people have begun to do this. Yes, it's obsessive, but drives me insane! No offense to anyone, I promise! :)

Oh, and "your" when people mean "you're".

Yay is yay

and

yeah is yeah

I'm with you.

I'm 46 and just realized I was using yeah for yay several months ago. Oopsie! Or is it Oopsy?? Who cares really? Well, you do I guess. I technically know that ok is spelled okay and cuz is spelled because but I type it quickly and again, I guess I just don't care. So no, I don't really analyze stuff and again, I don't really care. Honestly, seeing "ya know?" after everything is a little annoying...ya know? lol

Oh of my best friends uses "verily" in place of "barely". For example: "I verily made it to my appointment on time". I love her anyway. lol

I agree with most everyone else. Yay is for excitement...it should be considered as being a word. :)

Things that annoy me?

I have a dear friend that starts many of her sentences with "is." It drives me crazy. For example, "Is what you need to do is....." no...it's just, "What you need to do is...." Even so, I'm sure I annoy others, too, so I live with it. :)

eXspecially instead of especially

irregardless --- its simply regardless!

Another thing....sometimes this message board lingo gets a little confusing. One person a while back was pretty upset over the use of "DH," thinking it was 'd*ckhead,' whereas I was told it meant 'darling husband.' I can see where that would set a WHOLE different tone depending upon your interpretation.

It used to drive me crazy when I would see "ETA" on posts, because I've always thought of that as "Estimated Time of Arrival." Of course, it bothered me enough that I eventually googled it to see that it also means "Edited to Add." Ah, sigh. :)

Yeah is yes, and yay is yay... That is that.

However, my mom apparently thinks that yeah is yay, which it is not, and so my texts have been very confusing for her these past... 6-7 years. Lol!!!

So happy that people don't like could care less, that one has always bugged me.

I also hate when people say 'it's all relevant' when they mean 'it's all relative'.

Funny stuff!

Right now all I can think of is Joey and Chandeller (sp?) on Friends. Chandeller complained about people saying "supposebly" instead of "supposedly," and then Joey looked confused and said, "Did they go to the movies? Supposebly."

I "hear" Yeah as "yes" and "yay!" as hooray!!

I'm sure I've mixed them up over the years....

i'm right there with you.
yeah is a word of assent. if you want to cheer, write YAY!
ok?
;)
'literally's overuse is one that makes us all want to LITERALLY tear our hair out, right?
i confess to being part of the 'mourning for the correct use of the apostraphe' club.
a more subtle but pervasive one is the prevalence, at least in this area, of the use of 'left' for 'let.' eg 'i just left the dog out to pee.' makes me bonkers!
khairete
S.
ETA i have NEVER seen 'for all intent and purpose.' ever. it's always plural (assuming it's not 'intensive', that is.')
EFTA if you dissect it, it doesn't make much sense at all. but if you're going to use it, saying 'all' then a singular is just as big a gaffe as 'intensive.'

Thank God for the Couldn't Care Less club! I'm in.

How about "affect" and "effect"? "I was really affected by the special effects in the movie last night." Do you think anyone's writing will be affected by our witty, educational posts? Or will they have have no effect at all?

And I could go on for days about the misuse of apostrophes, but that would be "a whole nother" post...

Lol. I read yes slang. Yay is celebratory.

This makes me think of a joke I read recently...

It is perfectly acceptable to say "yes" and "yeah" while in bed... But how awkward would it be if your partner popped out with "yep!"

Hee hee.

I agree with the others on yeah/yay. My number one grammatical pet peeve is the your/you're issue, along with there/their/they're. They drive me bananas. Other than that, my husband teases me because I say 'what all' and 'who all', as in "Who all was at the party?" or "What all did you do?". I try not to because I know it's redundant, but sometimes I still slip up. I get him back though whenever he says "I was over to the store the other day..." instead of "at the store"! He also sometimes says "I'm going to the store. Wanna go with?" With what? I know what he means but it drives me nuts that the sentence is unfinished! Also, a guy my husband worked with used to end every sentence with "Know It?", like "That's my truck, know it?" and the guys were never sure if it meant "Hey, know what?" (and that there was more info coming) or something more like "Know what I mean?". I guess that's more of a slang issue than a grammatical one, but it always made me laugh!

When I read the word "yeah," which I also use frequently, I hear "yes." I do not hear "yay."

I'm inferring you want to discuss the difference of yah versus yeah. You implied yeah is not pronounced Y-A (long a) as in a cheer, but Y-ah (almost a yep, but drop the 'p')

I too have found the correct spelling of the cheer to be 'yeah' and the agreement to by 'yah'. However, that looks wrong to me too, but I'm pretty sure that's how it's supposed to be.

Remember 'ain't'? I hardly ever hear/see it anymore. I wonder if it's because we're grown-ups?

Ha! Until recently, I had been using " yeah!", for hooray & yes. I knew I was using it incorrectly for " texting celebrations" but didn't know what to use, until I saw "Yay!".
" No one ", I' m good with that.

agree! My Mom does it and I have to re-read her texts to figure out what she is trying to say.