Monday, December 8, 2008

Grammar, people! Grammar!

Now, I may be a crass and unapologetic bitch who has a penchant for deconstructing language. However, I only endorse it when it makes sense, not when it is done out of complete stupidity.

One thing I have found to be common on blogs is people saying "flavourful." Now, let me demonstrate how WRONG this word is. (if you want to enlarge to see the red dotted/zig-zaggy lines, just click on the image to enlarge...obviously)



Ok, firstly Blogspot itself has something against the word.


Is it no surprise that Microsoft Word 2006 hates it?
Hell no!


Hmm, Gmail doesn't like it either.


Now, no surprises, but I don't have an English dictionary, but I can assure you it won't be in there. The German's don't believe in the word either. Now, as you can see, it is blurry enough, but I attempted to demonstrate how the Swedish and French don't believe in the word either.
And, thus, if the Swedes don't have a word for it, neither do the Norwegians or Danish.

So, why the hell do we put up with it?

Just to clear things up, the word is FLAVOURSOME. And I will not succumb to Americanised spelling. There IS a "U" in the word Flavour!

I also hate when people put "s" on the end of words that don't require it. Like...sheep. SHEEP IS PLURAL, there are no fucking sheepS! Also, there are no FISHES.

Speaking of fish, someone attempted to tell me that boogly eyed fish and what not are all bred that way from people wanting entertaining fish to look at, and that they're just all goldfish that have inbred, like incest babies.



Now, I have wikied it, and seeing as there are different varieties, they can't possibly be inbred fish, or perhaps I am mistaken. I am not a marine biologist.

Can anyone clear that one up for me?

6 comments:

Agnes said...

Haha - my friend Dany is on a personal crusade to rid the world of the word "flavorful". Gosh, I think I may have used it once - never again after having to hear her rant and rave about it!

In regards to "fish" and "fishes" I've heard that the pural of fish belonging to one species is "fish" but fish belonging to several species is "fishes" - see http://teacherseducation.wordpress.com/2008/02/27/grammar-wednesday-54/. I don't think I've ever said fishes though, it sounds stoopid. I don't care if it is correct.

Duncan | Syrup&Tang said...

A little bit of interdialectal chauvinism going on here? you'll find flavorful on another continent, alongside healthful. Icky for us, not so icky for them.

claire said...

Dude you got me all paranoid that I may have used flavourful on my blog, so I did a google advanced search and thank Christ I'm in the clear...

I do use the word fishes in certain contexts though (eg the loaves and the fishes).

Long live linguistic/grammatical pedantry! If you do find the odd error on my blog, PLEASE err on the side of correcting me.

bunchesmcginty said...

Agnes- I like your friend Dany. Also, thanks for the fish thing, and you're right. Fishes does sound stoooooooooooopid.

Duncan- I remember that vaguely, from class. Le sigh.

Claire- Will do. And you have allowed me to inflate my head slightly by giving you grammatical paranoia.

Anonymous said...

I hate the made up word "flavourful" as well. That's why I can't watch Giada De Laurentiis - she uses it every two seconds. She's kind of annoying as well.

FoodieFi said...

With you all the way on flavourful