Peevish...

[geminigirl]

dindin and I have recurring conversations about the interesting spelling variations we see on the word "pregnant"-especially when it's oh, in the name of the community that they're posting to (see amipregnant for examples.)

But I don't know why I've seen an increase in people misusing the word "attaining" for "obtaining"-to achieve vs. to acquire.

Comments

[katishna.livejournal.com]

I'm big on grammar. Don't get me started on apostrophes. But my favorite spelling of "pregnant" has to be "pregant."

[geminigirl]

Better than "pregnate"?

[katishna.livejournal.com]

Ooh forgot about that one. There's also "Pregnit" (i did see that once and had to go flush my brain out).

at least

[lonebear.livejournal.com]

pregnate is part of the word impregnate

[fortryll.livejournal.com]

But I don't know why I've seen an increase in people misusing the word "attaining" for "obtaining"-to achieve vs. to acquire.

I have a theory. It's because for a lot of people, achievement ~is~ acquisition.

Can you tell I'm studing for my psych midterm? LOL

[geminigirl]

birth control pills? The last two times I've seen it is in the context of people wanting to get birth control pills.

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

Oh dear. As in, "I'm trying to achieve birth control pills?"

Mayhap they started to write, "I'm trying to achieve birth control" and then turned the object from a concept to a standard noun?

I'm reaching, I know.

[jaclyn.livejournal.com]

hmm, I think I tend to do that.

[geminigirl]

I don't know-I haven't noticed in your casual writing, like livejournal that you make those sorts of errors, so I doubt that you would make them in your professional writing.

[entirelysonja.livejournal.com]

Ugh! That sort of thing really bothers me.

What I really love is when people actually try to defend incorrect word choices and spelling on the basis that these skills are unrelated to intelligence.

True, but they are an indicator of a person's education, assuming the person is a native speaker who attended school in this country.

[geminigirl]

Or people who are quite competent at communicating but think that because they're communicating on the internet they don't need to make their writing readable...

If you want me to be able to answer your question, I need to be able to understand what you're asking.