Yes yes, language changes over time. I've heard that mantra for decades and I know it. That doesn't mean there aren't language changes that aren't grating when they become fashionable (and hopefully temporary).

For me, "morals" being used as a crude catch-all application of "morality," "ethics," "integrity" or related concepts bothers me. Sentence example: "Maybe if society had morals there wouldn't be so many minorities in prison." lmayo us-foreign-policy

An even more annoying otherwise-fluent-speaker modification I see is when "conscious" is used to mean "consciousness" and "conscience" interchangeably. Sentence example: "Single mothers on welfare that steal baby formula have no conscious." It sounds like they're saying the shoplifter is not mentally aware of their own actions, not that they're lacking sufficient "morals" to let their baby starve for the sake of Rules-Based Order(tm).

There's others, but those two come up enough recently, with sufficient newness, for me to bring them up here. Some old classic language quirks are so established and entrenched that even though I hate them, bringing them up would likely invite some hatemail and maybe some mystery alt accounts also sending hatemail after that. You know, because they "could care less(sic)" about what I think. janet-wink

  • ChaosMaterialist [he/him]
    ·
    10 months ago

    English had a big French spelling phase, so a bunch of our words have entirely different phonetic sounds vs their spelling. I constantly mess this up. Go ahead, make me spell bourgoise or bureacracy the first time. Nope failed again! Conscious/Conscience are definitely in that category.

    For me I'm not sure if Math or Maths are correct ohnoes

      • UlyssesT [he/him]
        hexagon
        ·
        edit-2
        10 months ago

        Use a Kuh-nife when you do it, you bold Kuh-night of Time! knifecat

    • Gucci_Minh [he/him]
      ·
      10 months ago

      You're not a real leftist if you can spell bourgeiouiuiouiise on the first try

    • UlyssesT [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      10 months ago

      "Grey/gray" trips me the fuck up and I'm an English teacher. stalin-stressed

    • UlyssesT [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      10 months ago

      English had a big French spelling phase

      Laughs in William the Conqueror you-are-a-serf

    • temptest [any]
      ·
      10 months ago

      Fun page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_and_British_English_spelling_differences

      North Americans contract 'mathematics' to 'math', most other places shorten it to 'maths'. I don't even know if one is more "correct" or if the entire word 'mathematics' was a mistake. Honestly, the North Americans might be right about this one.