I became aware of "all the sudden" when I heard DS1 saying it, and he argued with me about it, telling me that's how everyone says it. Shortly thereafter Stewie appeared to take my side. Mwahahahaha! I don't necessarily love "Family Guy," but I do love Seth McFarlane.
I don't know if this counts, but DH and I go back and forth about the air conditioner. If I want it colder in the house, do I say turn it up or turn it down?
You're turning it down. Going from 80 to 76. Unless of course you're turning the fan from low to high.
I say up or down as goes the temperature, regardless of whether I mean the heater or the AC. Going from 62 to 65 is up, going from 81 to 79 is down.
To "turn the air down" is to make it colder. . .at least in Florida. I haven't figure out Virginia speak yet.
LOL, we just had the air conditioner argument a few weeks ago. One I hate is "due to the fact that" can we just say because and get it over with. I have to say I like dropping "to be"; it makes the language direct and clearer.
Yeah, I hate the semantics regarding heating and cooling. I generally specify and say "turn the temp up/down" because in my head "turning the air down" means to have less of it, thus making the temp higher.
To me it sounds illiterate and less clear. I love how very, very clear it is possible to be in English. We have the progressive present tense. I really missed that in other languages. The "to be" carries intent--or the imperative, if one is speaking to a child. I know English is a mishmash (it has a fascinating history, which I did read), but we have regular plurals (for the most part) and neuter gender. Those and the progressive present make up for a lot.
To be can be dropped in a manner that is still correct, by changing the tense of the verb. For instance, say "This house needs cleaning." instead of "This house needs to be cleaned." I agree that "needs cleaned" just sounds wrong and odd.
Yeah, we mostly say "turn the temperature down" now because people are always confused when we say "turn the air (or A/C) down".
Or there is the infamous, "Kee-yim, it's fixin' to come a storm!" which is something my neighbor lady told me. :rofl: (Yes, Kim is also apparently two syllables.) She has also called me to tell me there was a "peckerwood on my chimbley." :lol:
That sounds kind of dirty... :spiteful: It bothers me when people misuse/overuse "pretentious." As in calling someone pretentious if they just mention that they like reading, classical music, whatever. Of course, if they're being all snooty and you get the vibe that they only like talking about it, not actually doing it, then it's pretentious. But calling it "pretentious" in other contexts only reflects badly on the speaker, since it implies that they think that nobody could possibly like Dickens or Mozart for real.
