I have another rant about grammar. Well, it's more about using the right words. I realize that people say things without really knowing what it means all the time. Let me list some every day cases of that:
-When repeating the Pledge of Allegiance
-When singing the lyrics of "Afternoon delight" by the Starland Vocal Band
-When we say anything right after we wake up
-When repeating a psychologist
-When repeating a broker
-When repeating a doctor
In all these cases, we don't really know what we're saying. C'mon. Admit it. You've got no idea what you were talking about when you woke up this morning.
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| Chimp Grammar > George Bush Grammar |
I could obviously go on for paragraphs and paragraphs about how stupid all those things were and how I would obviously be a better Hollywood or Business Executive than any of these comedians, but I digress...
...The reason I decided to write about grammar again is that I hear people use these two simple phrases in completely the wrong way all the time. If people listened, or happened to be reading the words, they'd get exactly the opposite of the intended message. Here's an example or two:
"Mr. CEO of Netflix, after our new business model was announced, our stock all but dropped" .
Being that you, the one reading this, may be an average person, you may not have found anything wrong with that statement. Well, let me tell you, Netflix stock did not do well after that announcement. So go ahead and replace the phrase "All but" with "Anything but", or "Anything other than".
"Mr. CEO of Netflix, after our new business model was announced, our stock did anything other than drop".
You see? When you say "all but", what you're really saying is "This did NOT happen". All but = The stock did not drop. But I repeatedly hear the phrase used exactly in the opposite way. Such as:
(There are 180 MPH winds outside)
"This is Alisha Kelly with 11 o'clock news. It's all but windy outside".
When did people start doing this? I hear it all the time. In fact, I never hear anyone use the phrase the correct way anymore. And again, I hear this on a National, Public, Radio ( I won't mention the name of the station because I may want to be invited to be a host someday) broadcast. People there are supposedly very smart.
Another one that get's me is "I could care less". What you mean to say is "I could NOT care less". As if you're saying, "I could not possibly have less concern for this matter". But I hear people say things like this instead:
-Bob is a jerk. I never want to speak to him again. I can't' believe he murdered my 3 day old daughter. I could care less about the fact that he was jealous about the attention she was getting, so jealous that he brutally murdered my 3 day old daughter".
-So wait... Your 3 day old baby was murdered by Bob, and you think it's important to let me know that you COULD have less concern about his reasons for doings so right now? So on a scale of 1-10 (1 Being the least amount of caring and 10 the highest) you're trying to specify that you could be ranging anywhere from 2-10 on that scale? That's highly nonspecific. You're literally telling me that you could be a 10, and that you very much care about his feelings right now.
-Yeah, I'm a 10. Thus, I could care less. I could be a 9, or 8, or even a 7 for that matter. I'm all but angry with him right now.
-Wow. I'm so confused right now.
Did any of you understand that? I'm having a very hard time articulating exactly what I mean, and exactly why I care. The truth is. I could care less about people repeating these phrases that they don't understand. I'm all but happy to allow people to be themselves.
Confused now?
Written by individual contributor
Lane Fries (a.k.a. Dr. Freeze(
Head scratch! A bushel and a peck for your thoughts! Two knees are better than one! An apple a day is too many apples when you'd rather have a cappuccino! All's well that ends someone misquoting a great line and then being putting on You tube because of it.
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