Monday, December 19, 2011

Odd Sayings - Strange Things are Afoot at the Circle K

The English language is full of funny quirks.  None the least of which are colloquialisms.  These are sayings that are part of local speech, but not necessarily used elsewhere.  For example, the contraction y'all.  Combining 'you' and 'all' is ever present the further south in the United States you go.  It is used in the following ways -

When referring to one person - Are y'all going to the mall?

When referring to a group of two or more - Are all y'all going to the mall?

It's great, and it shows that English is a langauge that is alive and growing.  It does, however, grow mold.  For example, one of my pet peaves is when someone says something like this -

"Well, that's a whole 'nother thing".

Which begs the question, what is a half 'nother'?

What other colloquialisms are prevelant in your neck of the woods?  :)

1 comment:

  1. When people say-

    "I could care less."
    They really mean they could NOT care less.

    "Everybody can't stop bad habits easily."
    They really mean NOT everybody CAN...

    When people spell the word lllllama with only two L's. Can you ever really have too many L's in that word?


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