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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   829 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for November 7, 2025

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Much ink has been spilled here over the dreaded em-dash and other hallmarks of AI writing. But what other linguistic pet peeves do you have?

I ask because I just found myself fuming over the widespread confusion between "jealousy" and "envy." People tend to use them as synonyms (more often simply using jealousy for both terms), but the two words describe emotions that I think deserve to be distinguished. Jealousy is felt over things that rightfully belong to you, while envy is felt over things which do not. God is jealous; you are envious. Being jealous is still generally bad, but it's nowhere near as bad as envy. As a child who was bad at sharing but generally pretty good about being happy about the good fortune of others, it has always bothered me how few people seem to grasp the distinction.

Quite a few! Most hated:

could of/should of

not getting their/there/they're right.

when people misspell the names of people they supposedly look up to.

when people misspell the names of people they supposedly look up to.

Also when people keep persistently misspelling names that are spelled out properly right there just a few lines above.

I understand my real name may be slightly difficult (but far from impossible) for English speakers to pronounce but seriously, guys, it just can't be that difficult to spell a 5 letter name written in all ascii correctly in written text.

In all ascii...?

Meaning no diacritics. I’m not gonna be upset if someone drops an umlaut.

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