words that should be banned

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
Get over it, it's a legitimat word. Like flameable and inflamable.

Just becuase it is legit doesn't mean it ain't bad.

[Dis]

I do dislike the word ain't. I still use it accidently sometimes. But I try very hard not to. It was something I used as a kid, and find it hard to shake.

Dictionary.com entry

ain't ( P ) Pronunciation Key (nt)
Nonstandard
Contraction of am not.
Used also as a contraction for are not, is not, has not, and have not.
Usage Note: Ain't has a long history of controversy. It first appeared in 1778, evolving from an earlier an't, which arose almost a century earlier as a contraction of are not and am not. In fact, ain't arose at the tail end of an era that saw the introduction of a number of our most common contractions, including don't and won't. But while don't and won't eventually became accepted at all levels of speech and writing, ain't was to receive a barrage of criticism in the 19th century for having no set sequence of words from which it can be contracted and for being a “vulgarism,” that is, a term used by the lower classes, although an't at least had been originally used by the upper classes as well. At the same time ain't's uses were multiplying to include has not, have not, and is not, by influence of forms like ha'n't and i'n't. It may be that these extended uses helped fuel the negative reaction. Whatever the case, criticism of ain't by usage commentators and teachers has not subsided, and the use of ain't is often regarded as a sign of ignorance. ·But despite all the attempts to ban it, ain't continues to enjoy extensive use in speech. Even educated and upper-class speakers see no substitute in folksy expressions such as Say it ain't so and You ain't seen nothin' yet. ·The stigmatization of ain't leaves us with no happy alternative for use in first-person questions. The widely used aren't I? though illogical, was found acceptable for use in speech by a majority of the Usage Panel in an earlier survey, but in writing there is no acceptable substitute for the stilted am I not?

[Urban Ranger]

I use that to annoy people, particularly in sentences such as "There ain't no such thing."

[Dinner]

Ain't is based upon incorrect gramar which is why it was never accepted in polite society. For example a share cropper might say "That ain't good" . Uncontracted the sentance would read "That are not good" while the correct English phrase would be "That is not good" which could be contracted to "That isn't good". Thus there is no gramatically correct context where the contraction "ain't" can be used.

[Tingkai]

Originally posted by Dissident
I do dislike the word ain't. I still use it accidently sometimes. But I try very hard not to. It was something I used as a kid, and find it hard to shake.

I lived in Northern Manitoba for a year and picked up two phrases that I hate: "well, you know" and "you's guys". It drives me up the wall when I suddenly find myself saying these words.

[Tingkai]

Originally posted by Hurricane


Black ice is IMHO a useful word. The difference between "ordinary" ice and black ice is that black ice is more or less invisible, which means that black ice is NOT clear and shiny. This is because it is so thin that the light don't reflect from it. Someone who claims "ice is ice" has clearly never left California or Florida.

My thoughts exactly. A lot of road ice is cloudy and you can easily see it. Black ice is deadly.

The other word that I thought was okay is frozen tundra. To me, tundra just means a treeless area in the arctic. It can be warm in the summer.

[aaglo]

I dislike all prepositions and postpositions (at, to, into, from, for, in, ect....)

Why can't english be a reasonable language like finnish?

A disturbing word/phrase: when somebody explains something, the use of words "you know" and "like" make the person seem quite stupid.

Another disturbing word/phrase: when somebody replies to another person saying "oh really", what is the other person supposed to do? To say "yes, really" or "no, I was just joking"? Again, a quite stupid reply...

[Dis]

There was a study about filler words (like, you know). I think it was in Discover magazine or something. Many people use words like umm and uhh as filler words. Like is a more recent filler word. They say that human languages have pauses of all kinds, and many use filler words like uhh. This is common to nearly every language I believe. And they say these pauses improve comprehension.

A nice little tidbit is they say every presidential inaguration speech in over 50 years has had no filler words. You will not hear an uhh, or umm in any of those speeches.

[Jon Miller]

a phrase of mine that everyone arround loves to hate is:

even through

Jon Miller

[aaglo]

Two more phrases that should be banned:

Have a nice day

ACK!


J/K

[Rufus T. Firefly]

The unholy trinity:

Infotainment
Edutainment
Advertorial

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by Oerdin
Ain't is based upon incorrect gramar which is why it was never accepted in polite society. For example a share cropper might say "That ain't good" . Uncontracted the sentance would read "That are not good" while the correct English phrase would be "That is not good" which could be contracted to "That isn't good". Thus there is no gramatically correct context where the contraction "ain't" can be used.

Grammar and spelling is defined by how words are used. If enough people use a grammar type incorrectly then it becomes a correct grammar type. Which is why "You and me are friends" is acceptable grammar despite being technically incorrect.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Originally posted by Oerdin
Ain't is based upon incorrect gramar which is why it was never accepted in polite society. For example a share cropper might say "That ain't good" . Uncontracted the sentance would read "That are not good" while the correct English phrase would be "That is not good" which could be contracted to "That isn't good". Thus there is no gramatically correct context where the contraction "ain't" can be used.

Well, that just ain't right.

Actually, because "ain't" is derived from an older English contraction for "am not" (as Diss explains above), the sentence "I ain't going" would be correct.

But the fact is that English is a living language, and grammar is determined my a kind of linguistic mob rule rather than appeal to authority. That, and hygiene, are what distinguish us from the French .

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by Rufus T. Firefly
Actually, because "ain't" is derived from an older English contraction for "am not" (as Diss explains above), the sentence "I ain't going" would be correct.

"I'm not going" would be the prefered contraction.

[Tingkai]

Originally posted by Rufus T. Firefly
But the fact is that English is a living language, and grammar is determined my a kind of linguistic mob rule rather than appeal to authority. That, and hygiene, are what distinguish us from the French .

The downside of English being a living language is the way it gets distorted in places where it is not the native language.

I'm still trying to convince my Hong Kong colleagues that the other word for parentheses is "brackets" not "blankets."