Phrases people don't say correctly — Page 3

Here's one that bothers me and I've had numerous arguments about whether or not it's correct. Is it correct to say "I want a dozen of doughnuts"? To me that has always sounded wrong. It sounds better to say "I want a dozen" not "a dozen of". Otheres don't seem to agree that it's wrong. Is it just me? Am I being too picky and attacking the flow of a sentence rather than it's correctness?

---

The doughnuts question is a good question. Here's the way I would look at that. Let's replace "a dozen" with the word twelve. In that case you would say "I want twelve doughnuts." I think you drop the "of". I could be wrong (lord knows, it happens), but I think you are right. "I want a dozen doughnuts."
Nick

---

"I'll have a dozen of the original glazed and a dozen of the sour cream glazed" works. "I'll have a dozen of donuts," doesn't. It's redundant. And repetitive.

---

Where do they say this? In the Valley? Too weird. I'm glad I've never heard that one.

My ex was always enraged when somebody would say, "I haven't heard back from so and so."

He hated "heard back."

---

I know what a daddy is; so I would assume it has something to do with a crawdaddy?

---

The ones that grates on my nerves most are when people are being "orientated", a show is being "casted", when something is supplemented it is "supplementated" or when people "conversate"

---

Orion, the craw is your gut. It is slang for making one feel uncomfortable or uneasy. And by the way, you only have one craw, so it can't get stuck in your "crawS".

Namo, the people who used the term "I'm not fer sure" are from Arkansas. Go figure. And no it is not the Clintons. Or Lorelei Lee.

---

Updated On: 1/21/04 at 01:59 PM

I'm not a fan of "what up?" Which down?

---

Those are more regionalisms than anything. I think they're kinda sweet. Regional pronunciations are different than when people use a dozen of wrongified words when conversating.

---

Yeah regionalisms are different. They can be maddening in their own way. I have a friend who moved here to Boston from the midwest and was dumbfounded as to what a "palahset" was until I explained it to her.

---

That's funny. I've lived in Boston all my life and it still took me a minute to get PSDS

---

"One college educated person I know told me she is fully aware of the difference between the words ask and axe but her ask always comes out axe because of the fact that she has dental problems."

I had a lisp as a child (which is the reason I went for speech therapy at the age of 4), and growing up in New York City, I also speak very quickly, so I sometimes will say Axe rather than ask; but I try not to. It's just that sometimes I become afraid to try and pronounce a word that has an S in the middle of it.

Another word that bothers me is "Use." Not as in, "Please USE the restroom before we leave," but more like, "Use had better come with me." Why can't the say, "You all had better come with me."?

---