• BibiTofu@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Well shit. I never knew what “ostensibly” meant. I thought it was a direct equivalent to the French “ostensiblement”. And apparently so does Google Translate.

    Except that the definition of “ostensiblement” is “Not hidden, done with the intention to be seen”. Which is not at all the English meaning. So now I wonder what’s an accurate English translation for “ostensiblement”…

    • Rodeo
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      1 year ago

      “Not hidden, done with the intention to be seen”. Which is not at all the English meaning.

      It sort of fits the English definition, because it’s often used in the context of deception: a person could ostensibly think one thing but actually believe another. The thing they ostensibly think is the thing they intend to be seen, while their true feelings remain hidden.

  • KillAllPoorPeople@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    If you know what they mean, who cares? Does it give you an erection to “correct” people when literally everyone knows what the person means? You’re not winning any brownie points being a wannabe middle school English teacher. You’re just an insufferable twat.

    • baggachipz@sh.itjust.worksOP
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      1 year ago

      El Guapo, I know that I, Jefe, do not have your superior intellect and education, but could it be that once again, you are angry at something else, and are looking to take it out on me?

      Jefe, ¡Three Amigos!

    • bennypr0fane@discuss.tchncs.de
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      1 year ago

      When you keep speaking wrong*, it indicates that you have no regard for being understood, and hence you don’t give a rat’s ass about a) your listeners and b) your language. Meaning you’re an insufferable twat.

      • KillAllPoorPeople@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        A total of zero people are confused when someone says “supposably” instead of “supposedly.” All you think about is how you or someone else you know was corrected and made fun for speaking “wrong.”

        Also, “correcting” peoples pronunciations has a deep-rooted history in oppressing minority groups, e.g. “ask” vs. “axe.” You’d know this if you weren’t full of so much hate and ignorance.

        • D_C@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          Them- “btw, you’ve pronounced that word incorrectly.”
          You- “THAT’S RACIST. You are full of hate and ignorance!”

          • KillAllPoorPeople@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            You’re not an English teacher, right? You’re not speaking to your kids, right? You’re just having regular conversations with people, right? If you want to beat rules into people who don’t speak like you do, you might actually be full of hate and ignorance and you’re probably racist, that is 100% correct.

            • Tartas1995@discuss.tchncs.de
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              1 year ago

              I don’t think so. As a non native English speaker, I am happy when people help me to improve my English. So I totally would do the same for other people, I don’t think that makes me a racist but rather someone that cares about language as it allows me to better understand intention, such as racist ones.

              • KillAllPoorPeople@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                It’s about context, my guy. As a non-native speaker, you’re probably not making the same English speaking “mistakes” as natives. If you’re correcting native speakers about English as a non-native, you’re probably going to be more often wrong than right, and since you don’t know societal context, that’s really bad too. You people have to stop dumbing shit down and ignoring all the context with everything.

                • Tartas1995@discuss.tchncs.de
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                  1 year ago

                  You realize that I never said that I would correct people’s English, right? You realize that I have a mother tongue, right? Maybe you shouldn’t be so arrogant and complain about dumbing down shit when you don’t understand that non-native English speakers have a mother tongue. Also societal context??? Dude, you understand that societal context is dependent on the situation. If I am exposed to something as a non native speaker on e.g. the internet, that something doesn’t exclusive exist in the societal context that the author might intended it to be. And also if I am a non native speaker but I live in the country for 45years that my understanding of the societal context could easily be equal or better than a native speaker’s understanding, as e.g. I was able to contrast the 2 contexts that I am familiar with and that might exposes social notions that a native speaker is not actively aware of. What I am trying to express, your response seem to be pretty dumbed down.

  • DreamButt@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Genuine question: why do people care? The goal of language is to communicate and if you understand what the other person said then they’ve done that

    • Affine Connection@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Wye due pupil cairn what wards ah yews wren the pronoun serration is clothes and off two yonder sandwich wards amen two yews wrens pea king allowed.

      • DreamButt@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Thank you for providing evidence in my favor by communicating an idea with words near the edge of incoherence. Obviously there’s a spectrum here between near misses and totally breakdown of language. But this is Lemmy so let’s jump the gun and not give people the consideration we would if we spoke to them to their face. I’m talking about how all the examples people have been providing are near misses that are very clearly communicating the same thing as a “correct” word. People aren’t stupid for using them, you’re an asshole for being irritated by it

    • baggachipz@sh.itjust.worksOP
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      1 year ago

      Because “supposably” is not a goddamn word, so it shouldn’t be used to communicate. We live in a society

    • nevial@discuss.tchncs.de
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      1 year ago

      Genuine answer: because it makes language less accurate and if you have to infer what the other person is trying to say (instead of what they are actually saying) that is just unnecessary energy wasted and it WILL create misunderstandings eventually. Disclaimer: I know this is about accurately using language, but as English is not my first language, this comment might not be entirely accurate itself, lol. But I am observing similar situations like the one this post is about in my first language (German) as well