Although I grew up in the Maritimes where people are often
made fun of for their diction and pronunciation, I have to say, I was taught to
speak rather well. I remember my grade two teacher in particular, telling us to
pronounce the “r” in February (and I still do) and to open our vowels when we
speak so that “our” doesn’t sound like “are”.
While I’ll admit that I have fun slipping into Cape Bretonese on occasion, the
pronunciation and grammar lessons of my youth are fully ingrained in my every
day speech and were solidified even further when I became an English teacher. Grammar
and pronunciation have always been important in my world. I guess that’s why
hearing the incorrect use of certain words and phrases penetrates my nerves
like nails on a chalkboard.
Take the term, “anyways”. OMG! There is only one
way! The word is an adverb. It cannot take a plural or possessive form; hence,
no “s”. I remember when I first met my husband he used to tack an “s” on “anyway”
when he was speaking. I couldn’t stand it so I wasted little time correcting
him. Since his mother had been quite a grammar fanatic, he considered this was
correct. I challenged him to find it in the dictionary, and of course, he
couldn’t so he had to humbly retreat and start using the term correctly. I love
it when I am right.
Another confusion that people make is using the term “unsatisfied” instead of “dissatisfied”.
Here’s the easiest way to tell the difference. Dissatisfied is an emotion, as
in, “I was dissatisfied with his performance.” In other words, it made me feel
unhappy or disappointed. Unsatisfied can only be used when you are not referring to an emotion. “His
hunger was unsatisfied.”
Regardless of what you believe, “Irregardless” is not even a word! It is a word that is so commonly
misused, uneducated people believe they sound intelligent if they use it. Can't you see
they don't?
“Orientated” is
another one of those common non-words that people use. The proper term is “oriented”
which refers to finding your direction or position. It can also refer to the
way someone thinks. One might say, “I am very business oriented” or “I had to
re-orient myself after nine hours of travel”. Remember, the word has four
syllables, not five.
If you say, “I could
care less”, then you are not even thinking about what you are saying. You
probably mean, “I couldn’t care less”, which of course means that it isn’t even
possible for you to care. Think about it. If you could care, then you have the
ability to care. If you couldn’t care, then you do not have the ability to care.
Trust me. I am right.
“Myself” is a reflexive pronoun. What that
means, is you can only use it when you are talking about doing something alone.
“I will do it myself.” In this case you are the subject and the object of the
sentence. You may also use “myself” for intensity such as, “I, myself, have
witnessed such atrocities.” If you are planning a meeting with another person,
then you cannot correctly say, “Jerry and myself will be holding a conference
call at 8:00.” If you took Jerry out of the sentence, you would have to say, “I”.
It is sadly very common to see corporate
announcements stating, “John Smith will be reporting to myself.” The correct
pronoun to use in this case is “me”. It’s
pretty simple, really, so stop referring to yourself in reflexive form when you
are sharing space with another person.
Renée Cormier is a Communications and Public Relations Specialist,
published author, former English teacher and sales/marketing strategist. Renée
can be contacted through her website at www.reneecormier.com
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