The curmudgeon thread

[Cyneheard]

When did the first T in "important" become silent? I can't tell you how many times I've heard people who should know better (e.g. news anchors) refer to something being "impor'ent."

it's not really silent - there's a sound change, but it's not gone; this isn't "knight" which sounds exactly like "night". You don't fully annunciate the t, but "imporant" would sound quite a bit different. The t has become a /ʔ/ - this is a common thing that happens to t. The apostrophe you indicate is a sign that you're still getting the glottal stop.

Sometimes a curmudgeon (points to self) is simply a member of Nitpickers' Anonymous.

[Jowy]

I used to get in trouble in Mafia for not using enough of "I think" or "in my opinion" when presenting my thoughts. It should be obvious that I'm not stating them as facts, but it wasn't for those I was playing with.

[DaveV]

I do the "right?" thing.  It's a way to actually engage the listener's attention, by posing a question that gears up their brain for a response.  For an online video or podcast, I completely understand doing that, since your listener is probably fragmenting their attention between that and a game and a tv show and another podcast all at the same time.

But srsly, I do sometimes deliberately end sentences with "right?".  It can be a useful technique to signal to whoever I'm speaking with that it's okay to interrupt me with questions or to correct or clarify what I'm stating, which they may for various reasons be otherwise reluctant to do.  I also usually preface the "right" way of speaking by saying something like "correct me if I'm wrong".

An occasional sprinkling isn't really what I'm talking about (although, pedagogically, it seems like it would be better to ask a question that required the listeners to make connections between the facts being presented rather than just poking them with verbal static); I'm complaining about the people who use "Right?" instead of a period, after every single sentence.

[francisbaud]

I guess we've got this here in Quebec ("you understand?" at the end of a sentence) but I rarely hear people saying it constantly. Too many "right?" in a discussion must be pretty annoying.