Two (or 'Too'?) Commonly-Used Terms

unaluna · Nov 11, 2022, 04:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by willowtigger

I admit I'm guilty of saying PIN number

Me too, all the time.

Im better with SSN (social security number) - Maybe because it has 3 spoken syllables? We say pin number to make it 3 syllables. Hmm!

nonightowl · Nov 11, 2022, 04:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by unaluna

Me too, all the time.

Im better with SSN (social security number) - Maybe because it has 3 spoken syllables? We say pin number to make it 3 syllables. Hmm!

VIN Number.

3 syllables.

*Beth* · Nov 11, 2022, 04:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nonightowl

Two words that are too, like, commonly used?? Like a word that you keep hearing that, like, means NOTHING???

LIKE! And a tie between "awesome" and "soc". I haven't heard anyone my age use the word "like" in a meaningless way in a sentence, just younger people: "It was, like, you know just so hot, that we,like, just cranked up the a/c and, like, stayed inside all day."

And everything is "awesome". "Soc" can be either short for social security number (That IS a mouthful) or "social" as in your social life or your social media activity..."And what's your soc?" In what context? And it's pronounced "sosh" rhyming with "soap", with the "-sh" sound.

Sidenote, "narc" to me has always been short for narcotics or an undercover narcotics cop; I don't know when it started being used as short for narcissistic but it bothers me.

This is technically a phrase and not just separate words, Beth, but I also hate "you know". NO, I don't know unless you tell me. "It was just too much trouble, you know?" No, I don't. Explain.

I'm there with you on all - except that I'm working on "like." I do believe it's a speech habit that is a result of having grown up in Calif. "I'm just, like, not really sure..." or "So, do you want to go to lunch, or, like...should we just meet later in the afternoon?"

I'm also working on using the word "awesome" unless something truly IS awesome (breathtaking, stunning, astounding).

"Soc" (sosh) - please, no. I cringe when I hear that term. I remember the first time I heard it; I was 14. I cringed then.

My mom used to discourage me from saying "go." As in, "She said we had a fun time. So I go I didn't really think it was all that great."

Not "go." Said. Commented. Replied. Disagreed.

*Beth* · Nov 11, 2022, 05:04 PM

Wait. Hang on. "Frig." Where and when I was growing up "frig" (hard "g") or "frigging" was a term for masturbating. As in, "Dude was late to class again! Maaan, he must be busy friggin' himself every day!"

I've never said "friggin'" - I say "freakin'."

Nov 11, 2022, 05:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by *Beth*

Wait. Hang on. "Frig." Where and when I was growing up "frig" (hard "g") or "frigging" was a term for masturbating. As in, "Dude was late to class again! Maaan, he must be busy friggin' himself every day!"

I've never said "friggin'" - I say "freakin'."

i always thought friggin was someone trying not to say f---ing ?

*Beth* · Nov 11, 2022, 06:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by willowtigger

i always thought friggin was someone trying not to say f---ing ?

Apparently, sometimes it is. ?? For me that's where I use "freakin'."

lizardlady · Nov 11, 2022, 09:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by willowtigger

I admit I'm guilty of saying PIN number

Me too Willow.

unaluna · Nov 11, 2022, 11:07 PM

Beth, thats what i am saying. Frig is NOT the shortened version of refrigerator. Fridge is. But non-boomers use frig, not fridge, online. And im sorry but i cant get used to it. "Okay, boomer!"

Eta - its the same problem with using narc for narcissist. Hard c in the abbr, soft c in the whole word.

I think thats what happens when people dont talk? Like its because of texting.

nonightowl · Nov 12, 2022, 11:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by *Beth*

I'm there with you on all - except that I'm working on "like." I do believe it's a speech habit that is a result of having grown up in Calif. "I'm just, like, not really sure..." or "So, do you want to go to lunch, or, like...should we just meet later in the afternoon?"

I'm also working on using the word "awesome" unless something truly IS awesome (breathtaking, stunning, astounding).

"Soc" (sosh) - please, no. I cringe when I hear that term. I remember the first time I heard it; I was 14. I cringed then.

My mom used to discourage me from saying "go." As in, "She said we had a fun time. So I go I didn't really think it was all that great."

Not "go." Said. Commented. Replied. Disagreed.

My parents relentlessly corrected me on using the right words or grammar, and not using abbreviations or slang. In a way, I get it now but also words change over time. And there's generational differences too. And once texting took off, all those shortcuts came up, like "FOLO". (Fear of missing out!) I have to look up those things.

With everything going on in the world now, I wonder if they'd still think it's so important.

I know good communication is important, so I ask if I don't understand a word.

Quote:

Originally Posted by *Beth*

Apparently, sometimes it is. ?? For me that's where I use "freakin'."

Yeah, I thought so too. But I use freaking for that too. Or f-ing. The meaning is clear either way.

I never heard the word "frig" used in any other way.

Quote:

Originally Posted by unaluna

Beth, thats what i am saying. Frig is NOT the shortened version of refrigerator. Fridge is. But non-boomers use frig, not fridge, online. And im sorry but i cant get used to it. "Okay, boomer!"

Eta - its the same problem with using narc for narcissist. Hard c in the abbr, soft c in the whole word.

I think thats what happens when people dont talk? Like its because of texting.

It does make sense that "fridge" is the shortened version of refrigerator, in spite of seeing the spelling of the latter. But people do say or pronounce it "fridge" BUT may SPELL it "frig".

What a thread!

It's true that speaking, whether on the phone or in person, is not so common anymore. And that plays a role I bet. Everyone always wants to email or text me. Nobody wants to TALK to me. It's my favorite way of communicating, because when writing, a lot of non-verbal cues don't get through, like tone of voice. Not everyone uses emojis or they use the wrong one for their meaning.

unaluna · Nov 12, 2022, 02:38 PM

Im so glad i could finally get that friggin frig off my chest!

Agree, fun and informative thread.

*Beth* · Nov 12, 2022, 02:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by unaluna

Eta - its the same problem with using narc for narcissist. Hard c in the abbr, soft c in the whole word.

Technically, I'm not a Boomer I'm a "Joneser" and quite close to Gen X. I have one foot in Boomer, the other foot in Gen X, my crotch in "Joneser."

WHAT A MINUTE!!!! "Narc" for "narcissist" is pronouced with a soft "c" ??? As in "nars"?

My entire freakin' world just flipped upside-down. What gives?

unaluna · Nov 12, 2022, 04:29 PM

Oh! No, re narc - im just saying thats why its a bad abbr. I know english doesnt follow any rules, but this is ridic!

*Beth* · Nov 13, 2022, 10:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by unaluna

Oh! No, re narc - im just saying thats why its a bad abbr. I know english doesnt follow any rules, but this is ridic!

Whew. Suddenly, I thought I had it entirely wrong! Although narc (narsss) would make more sense, considering it comes from "narcisssistic."

I love language. Although how anyone whose first language is not English learns to speak it is beyond me!

At least "toxic" sounds exactly like it's spelled

nonightowl · Nov 13, 2022, 12:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by *Beth*

Whew. Suddenly, I thought I had it entirely wrong! Although narc (narsss) would make more sense, considering it comes from "narcisssistic."

I love language. Although how anyone whose first language is not English learns to speak it is beyond me!

At least "toxic" sounds exactly like it's spelled

I tried to quote both of your posts but it won't work this time for some reason. So one at a time! And I'm not posting about it in tech support.

Hard C, soft C....I've forgotten all those rules.

True "narsss", would sound better since it comes from narcissistic. I see it's "nark", a "hard" C?

I read somewhere English is the hardest language in the world to learn.

We have so many words that sound alike but are spelled differently with different meanings. (And there's a word for THAT which eludes me at this moment) "Red" and "read" (past tense of read, which is spelled the same---confusing to someone learning) are pronounced the same. But completely different meaning. "Two, too, to". "See, sea." I "saw" her there. But they bought a new "saw".

I've also wondered how English SOUNDS to people who can't understand a word. But I don't have anyone who can tell me. For example I think Italian and Spanish sound very musical, it goes up and down. Mandarin too. Do we sound like that? I'll never know. I never even took a class on learning English, so in hindsight I don't know how I learned.

Must be innate.

Toxic does get pronounced as it looks, thankfully. And it's very accurate to describe a lot of things. Places (like a toxic waste dump) AND PEOPLE (toxic friend).

nonightowl · Nov 13, 2022, 12:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by *Beth*

Technically, I'm not a Boomer I'm a "Joneser" and quite close to Gen X. I have one foot in Boomer, the other foot in Gen X, my crotch in "Joneser."

WHAT A MINUTE!!!! "Narc" for "narcissist" is pronouced with a soft "c" ??? As in "nars"?

My entire freakin' world just flipped upside-down. What gives?

I thought it was a hard C, until I read this again. I've said it as "nark" if I saw it....I think in the next post it says it IS a hard C? I can't view that part yet.

I never heard of a Joneser.

And I've given up on trying to keep up with the different generations: X, Y, Z.

Supposedly Y is another term for millennials and the range of birth years isn't black and white. "Boomers" supposedly are born from 1946 to 1964, that boom after WW2. Z is supposedly born in 2000 or 2001 and after.

In my post of yesterday, I meant to write FOMO for Fear of Missing Out.

You folks probably already knew that.

And I bet there's many more like that out there. I'd need a young person to decipher for me. RUT = ARE you there? Not "rut" as in someone is in a rut! And I hate how they use letters instead of the word. R = Are and U = You.

I'm too old for this. Probably cause of my parents being so strict about not abbreviating and spelling out things. They'd hit the ceiling over that "R" thing.

unaluna · Nov 13, 2022, 12:13 PM

Thats what i noticed when my italian relatives visited. They sounded so musical! My americanized relatives sounded so plodding.

One time a cousin's first generation german-american husband was giving me a ride home. He's a musician and mentioned jean-luc ponty. I couldnt understand who he was talking about, even though i was well-acquainted with the name! Like he was speaking french with such a strong german influence.

ETA - thats why i started calling them all non-boomers. Maybe post-boom would be better?

nonightowl · Nov 13, 2022, 12:23 PM

I just had to look up Joneser and found:

The first, boomers I, were born between 1946 and 1954, while boomers II, aka Generation Jones, were born between 1955 and 1964. If you haven't heard of Generation Jones (Jonesers), you're not alone. The term was coined in 1999 by author Jonathan Pontell.

So there's TWO generations of boomers???? Too much for my brain on a Sunday morning. Until I read that post, I never heard of that term.

So boomer is a broad term, covering about 20 years but they divided this into roughly two 10 years each.

MuddyBoots · Nov 13, 2022, 02:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nonightowl

I just had to look up Joneser and found:

The first, boomers I, were born between 1946 and 1954, while boomers II, aka Generation Jones, were born between 1955 and 1964. If you haven't heard of Generation Jones (Jonesers), you're not alone. The term was coined in 1999 by author Jonathan Pontell.

So there's TWO generations of boomers???? Too much for my brain on a Sunday morning. Until I read that post, I never heard of that term.

So boomer is a broad term, covering about 20 years but they divided this into roughly two 10 years each.

There's also "Zillennials" which are the years between millennials and gen Z. I don't get why people care about the generations, just tell me what year you were born in or at least "early 80's" for example.

MuddyBoots · Nov 13, 2022, 02:32 PM

You can learn English through tough thorough thought though.

nonightowl · Nov 13, 2022, 02:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MuddyBoots

You can learn English through tough thorough thought though.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MuddyBoots

There's also "Zillennials" which are the years between millennials and gen Z. I don't get why people care about the generations, just tell me what year you were born in or at least "early 80's" for example.

I agree. And I didn't know of Zillennials, I thought that WAS Z. I get sick of the defining generations with letters too. Just tell me what year or decades, what time frame. Are they going to start all over with Generation A when referring to kids born maybe in 2010 or later?????

*Beth* · Nov 13, 2022, 02:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nonightowl

...
I've also wondered how English SOUNDS to people who can't understand a word. But I don't have anyone who can tell me. For example I think Italian and Spanish sound very musical, it goes up and down. Mandarin too. Do we sound like that? I'll never know. I never even took a class on learning English, so in hindsight I don't know how I learned. Must be innate.

I have been told by language teachers that English is, indeed, the most difficult language to learn, for so many reasons.

I'm afraid we don't sound (at least not those of us who speak American English) so wonderful to non-English speakers The "King's English" surely sounds much lovelier than our choppy, rushed American version of English does.

I had a close friend, his native language was Bulgarian, but his English was quite good. He would cringe at many young women, Americans, who essentially screeched and chirped when they spoke - he found their repetitive "Okay, okay, okay" especially grating. He wanted to know why they kept saying "okay," especially in such a shrill way. I couldn't explain why, I only told him that I, too, found it extremely irritating.

My son had a friend from China, a very bright young woman, new to learning English (her English was lovely, btw). But she was really confused by the word "go" - much as my mother had been. This young woman wanted to know what it meant when, for example, we said, "To turn the radio on you go-" and we'd push a button. Or, "You just go like this." She wanted to know what "go" meant. Sometimes it was easy to explain - but many times we were stumped!

Every baby is born with a "language acquisition device." An LAD. Something in the brain that tells us to respond to and learn language. Language is a method of survival. We learn by hearing and repeating what we hear. You never took a formal class in English, owl, but you did take a "class" in the sense that you heard English spoken, you repeated what you heard, and thus you became a speaker of American English.

I can't exactly say that I speak Hebrew as a second language, but growing up as a Jewish child I spent a lot of time reciting prayers in the synagogue. I picked up Hebrew pronunciation before I could have been aware of doing do, I was so young, and my pronunciation of that language remains very good.

btw- as for the way a language sounds, when I was in Ireland I felt like everyone around me was singing when they spoke. Sometimes I would close my eyes and just float on the lyrical sound of the Irish accent. I've heard many, many languages and accents, but never one quite so beautiful.

*Beth* · Nov 13, 2022, 03:04 PM

Ohhh...and French, when spoken properly....*swoon*....

*Beth* · Nov 13, 2022, 03:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nonightowl

...So there's TWO generations of boomers???? Too much for my brain on a Sunday morning. Until I read that post, I never heard of that term.

So boomer is a broad term, covering about 20 years but they divided this into roughly two 10 years each.

Yup. BUT some claim that Gen-X actually began in 1960 and went until 1973 - as determined by Douglas Copeland's Gen-X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture. And I think Copeland may be the dude who actually invented the term "Gen-X."

I dunno. My kids always said I was far more X than Boomer I tend to agree.

Generation Jones, or the Jonesers, are supposed to be the bridge between Boomer and X. Maybe.

*Beth* · Nov 13, 2022, 03:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MuddyBoots

You can learn English through tough thorough thought though.

~~~~~ ~~~~~

nonightowl · Nov 13, 2022, 03:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by *Beth*

I have been told by language teachers that English is, indeed, the most difficult language to learn, for so many reasons.

I'm afraid we don't sound (at least not those of us who speak American English) so wonderful to non-English speakers The "King's English" surely sounds much lovelier than our choppy, rushed American version of English does.

I had a close friend, his native language was Bulgarian, but his English was quite good. He would cringe at many young women, Americans, who essentially screeched and chirped when they spoke - he found their repetitive "Okay, okay, okay" especially grating. He wanted to know why they kept saying "okay," especially in such a shrill way. I couldn't explain why, I only told him that I, too, found it extremely irritating.

My son had a friend from China, a very bright young woman, new to learning English (her English was lovely, btw). But she was really confused by the word "go" - much as my mother had been. This young woman wanted to know what it meant when, for example, we said, "To turn the radio on you go-" and we'd push a button. Or, "You just go like this." She wanted to know what "go" meant. Sometimes it was easy to explain - but many times we were stumped!

Every baby is born with a "language acquisition device." An LAD. Something in the brain that tells us to respond to and learn language. Language is a method of survival. We learn by hearing and repeating what we hear. You never took a formal class in English, owl, but you did take a "class" in the sense that you heard English spoken, you repeated what you heard, and thus you became a speaker of American English.

I can't exactly say that I speak Hebrew as a second language, but growing up as a Jewish child I spent a lot of time reciting prayers in the synagogue. I picked up Hebrew pronunciation before I could have been aware of doing do, I was so young, and my pronunciation of that language remains very good.

btw- as for the way a language sounds, when I was in Ireland I felt like everyone around me was singing when they spoke. Sometimes I would close my eyes and just float on the lyrical sound of the Irish accent. I've heard many, many languages and accents, but never one quite so beautiful.

True, I repeated what I heard, but I still wonder how I seemed to instinctively "know" what words to use to express my thought, as in "Stop that noise!" Or "What are you watching?" How did I know? I never heard of an LAD, in a human to boot. I mean the word "device" sounds like it's referring to a robot.

I did take English GRAMMAR, but that's different. Thanks for posting about how we sound to others who don't understand English or not much. I'm glad I can't "hear" that.

As for "go, people say "I have to go" as in have to go to the bathroom, LOL. So a non-English speaker might say "Go where?" As a teenager, we said "going together" which meant dating. I overheard a teacher say "Going where together?"

We said "shack up" as living together, but I guess that was crude.

I LOVE the IRISH BROGUE!!! SO lovely sounding.

Their music is great too, I love it. Scottish accent is great too, Australian, anything but American. We are boring.

Quote:

Originally Posted by *Beth*

Ohhh...and French, when spoken properly....*swoon*....

Swoon is right!