@NewMetaQuestion Nope, I'm fictional

@ColleenV I think removing things from HNQ would/should be reserved for cases where either the question isn't all that good but makes a huge mess every couple of hours for mods to clean, or that it's just something upvoted for popularity but a question that should be closed really

In the latter case sometimes a binding mod vote wouldn't be all that favorable, so kicking it out of Lightnesses' sight would help a bit

P.S. what's up with meta? Every time a post comes up people seem to want to follow through with more but useless posts

Like said rant up there

Or the jillion comment-answer posts

Oh, by the same OP of that last one

Now I dunno how to comment on the more recent meta post

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ he’s just confused about question quality standards

I should have left an explanatory comment when the question was put on hold, but I’m a busy bee this week and have been doing lots of things half-assed :/

@ColleenV I find it hard to pronounce explanatory correctly. I always pronounce it wrongly. =)

@Jasper There are some words like that for everyone I think, both in spelling and pronunciation

effervescent, obfuscation are two hard ones I can think of off the top of my head

@userr2684291 I first learned the expression "in the family way" from this song:

Good evening

\o, Muhammad

@CowperKettle \o

I normally see wrongly used before the verb (His name had been wrongly spelt, from LDOCE), or when it's meant very literally (can't find an example now). LDOCE also has You've spelled my name wrong -- there should be an 'e' at the end.

They knew they had acted wrongly – from the OALD.

This is the "very literally" case I mentioned.

I don't think wrongly is a mistake there; I think it sounds a little more formal.

I probably use it all the time, but that's because I try to avoid thinking about word choice like that as much as possible. I do the same with the possessive thing (mind my/me asking), even though I know the former is more formal in most cases, and even unnaturally so in some.

If you're being picky, some would say that wrong is the adjective, and wrongly the adverb.

But using wrong as an adverb is common.

Yes, sometimes wrong sounds rather informal/uneducated to me, and I don't particularly mind appearing too formal in writing, so I'll use wrongly and badly most of the time when I'm not sure.

Some confusion may come from the fact that "got it wrong" is right even by that analysis, because you can "get" things "adjective", so to speak. But "spelt it wrong" is wrong by that analysis. You can see how usage would 'slip'.

Yeah, the analysis is wrong.

(Most of the time.)

People who say wrong cannot be an adverb are the same people who taught Trump to say he "felt badly for" ...who(m)ever.

They're also the same people who claim you can't split infinitives or some such nonsense.

Well, "feel badly for" is not right (for his meaning) even by that formal analysis. Though it may be inadvertently honest... it would mean that he didn't do a good job of feeling. But to feel is a linking verb, so you can have an adjective there.

Unfortunately, people who believe some of that 19th-century formal gubbins are setting the English language syllabus and tests for English primary school kids now. They're having to learn stuff people didn't used to learn unless they did an English Language A-Level, which is basically about linguistics applied to our own language.

@SamBC Yeah, I know, that was the point.

I wouldn't mind if everyone were taught the same gibberish, and if everyone then applied it, haha.

As long as that'd put an end to prescriptive nonsense.

Unfortunately, people are bad computers, in the programming sense. So the other day my Antipodean friend told me something along the lines of "You should say he met you and I, trust me – the teacher told us that," heh.

Ugh. Teachers teaching stuff that's overcorrective even by prescriptive rules bugs the hell out of me.

But teach that enough, and it will become an option in English-as-used.

I mean, they probably misextrapolated from "You should say You and I are going...", or their you and mes were corrected to you and I, but they didn't pay enough attention to the (grammatical) situation.

Yep. Overcorrection/hypercorrection (I've seen both terms and can't be bothered to check which is more common right now, especially as it wouldn't be a simple search). The result of being corrected on prescriptive grammar without actually being taught it, largely, is my sense.

Yeah.

On page 231 of a morbidly obese (~940 pages) book. It feels incredible having a book in my hands and turning the pages. It's been years since I've had a real paper copy on my desk.

"If you purchased this book within the United States or Canada you should be aware that it has been imported without the approval of the Publisher or the Author." Oof.

I was the first person to borrow it from the uni library. It was sitting there for years. It's still the latest edition of what I want, so I didn't wanna miss the opportunity.

I regularly use a huge book - that gets a new edition every year - for work. Thousands of pages of bible-paper, tiny print.

(not technically proper bible paper, but that thin)