My coworker is always saying, “I couldn’t unloosen the oil filter because it was too tight.” So I jokingly say “you mean you couldn’t tighten it?” Because to me unloosen sounds wrong. Shouldn’t he just say he couldn’t loosen the oil filter? He says the same thing with nuts and bolts. He’s been a mechanic for 30 years and has always said it that way.

Some might say, “I have an electric car.” Others might say, “I own an electric car.”

Some might say, “I have a dog.” It would be weird to say, “I own a dog.”

Some might say, “I have a house.” Others might say, “I own a house.”

Some might say, “I have a sandwich.” It would be weird to say, “I own a sandwich.”

Seems like when people claim ownership, the bank usually owns it. When people say “I own that t-shirt” they seem greedy.

Does anyone else think that this was just a typo of "Gunna" that stuck?

😅 Serious...?

I mean, it does work as a 1:1 swap I'm pretty sure.

A post came up on my feed and was asking people what phrases annoyed them, iirc. Many people were mentioning that some of the terms that annoyed people weren’t exactly incorrect but like colloquial or a dialect specific to a region or group of people.

So my question is, what’s the point in learning “proper English” throughout middle school, high school, and college and correcting English or grammar that’s incorrect if everyone has their own dialect and colloquial English is fine to use?

Thank you for any replies!!

Recalcitrant: having an obstinately uncooperative attitude toward authority or discipline

As in, "I'm fiddin to lose my mind from usage of this word."

I watch a lot of YouTube podcasts , and the overuse of "obviously " is driving me insane. It's particularly pronounced in sports related podcasts ...if it were a drinking game we'd all be dead. Am I alone in noticing this and is it worse now than previously or am I just noticing it more? Is it generational? Seems to me to be more pronounced with youth ...

Is anybody noticing aloud being written when the writer obviously means allowed? I'm seeing this more again more often lately and I'm having a hard time believing it's autocorrect.

For me it's "...or no?" instead of "or not". As in "Do you want to go over there or no?"

Language constantly changes, so it's NBD, but I know it's supposed to be "or not" and yet I keep finding myself saying "or no?".

Me and my friend were arguing about what these two words mean. I was trying to tell him if you really think about it preheat really doesn’t mean anything. When using heat as a verb “heat” means to “heat something up”. Like when I say “heat the stove”. The prefix “pre” means “before something”. How can you say preheat “before heat”.Like that makes no sense. In the context of baking, when I say the phrase “heat the oven to 350” and “preheat the oven to 350”. They mean the same thing. If you can use the words interchangeably then the prefix “pre” has no meaning and does not add value to the statement. He argued that preheat means to make sure it’s the desired temperature before continuing. Like when he says “preheat the oven to 350 and put in the cookies in the oven”. Which I guess makes sense. But then I argued that “pre” is still redundant. When reading step by step directions you go from step 1 to step whatever… if the step 3 says “heat the oven to 350” and step 4 says, “ place the cookies in the oven”. You know you must do step 3 before step 4. So I still stand my ground. When you really think about the word “preheat”. What does that actually mean?

Please give me advice on how to convince him otherwise. He still believes “preheat” means something. I don’t. Feel free to also convince me otherwise.

Partially inspired by another post about a suffix they don't like, the suffix -a is one that I am really into. But I literally cannot find any English source that can explains where it comes from or what it means. The only thing I can think of is that is means "mania," "nostalgia" or "a lasting fascination" like in the words Americana, Egyptiana, or Exotica

Like, if a "y" modifies a noun to make an adjective, why are when converting the "y" to an "i" and adding a "ness" to describe the quality possessed by nouns to which that adjective applies?

Like, why have "sturdiness" when you can have "sturd?" Why have "chubbiness" when you can have "chub?"

Can anyone tell me when it became acceptable to pronounce the “t” in often? Bit of background, I (48f) lived in lower NY until age 13 and then TN. I was always taught in school that the “t” is silent but I hear it everywhere, all the time. Any ideas??

Why are so many people pronouncing fentanyl FEN-tun-all instead of FEN-tun-ill?

I like that word so much that I will think about it out loud by myself, even if someone is around...

^(dad joke thrown in there for ya)

What is the word that refers to the lyrics of a religious song, chant, or hymn that when spoken ordinarily (in informal or formal settings and not sung in a religious context) is illogical?

Normally, a word would start with the first letter, like example: “S is for snake”. But some of yall say that “X is for box”. X IS NOT FOR BOX!! It starts with the letter “B”, it doesn’t count that ends with an “x”. Cmon guys, this is basic.

Listen for it, look for it. Especially here on Reddit. Wild, Wild is fucking everywhere

Its wild bro.

Is there a word for someone who builds upon the basis of an idea or further develops a concept into a fully fledged project or creation? like, they’ll take the foundation or rough idea of something and build upon it further and make it into something functional and realized. the only word I can think of is a developer. and its not like they make the idea, so something like creator or inventor works; they simply take a concept and make it into a fully working thing

“Where you at?” I live in a rural area, and poor English runs rampant, but this phrase seems to get to me more than most. I’m constantly correcting my grandchildren, and with luck, and repetition, the correction will stick!

https://preview.redd.it/v5lvqzb84xge1.png?width=1246&format=png&auto=webp&s=6b993875dedbcce28105a29bf607155ad4ddfca4

It's not exactly "reverberation," not exactly "diminishing," but it's specific to when things go back and forth and get faster as they approach a stopping point—like dropping a marble on a tin can, or flicking one of those spring door stops.

Any ideas?

As opposed to "brought": "He brang chicken wings to the Super Bowl party." This was pounded into my head in elementary school and I know it's incorrect but man, it feels alright.

The synopsis is someone getting exactly what they want and it turns out to be a bad thing.

I was originally going with "Blessings of Djinn", because djinn have a reputation for using your wish to screw you over, but "Blessings" has too positive of a connotation.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but my understanding is that the word “circa” means “around”, presumably related to circle and circumference. So you can say this temple was built circa 500 BC, because you don’t know the exact date it was built.

But increasingly I see plaques on houses that say something like “The Smith House, circa 1991”. Do people think it means “founded”, or “built in”? Presumably if something was built in 1991 you would know the exact date.

People who can be described this way aren’t legitimately scared of LGBT; they just hate them. We have the words “racist” and “sexist”. Why don’t the mentioned words follow the same pattern?

Genuinely curious here.