The Interesting, Weird or Funny Usage Thread

[Ser]

It has finally come to town, it is finally here. The Interesting, Weird and Funny Usage Thread!

This is your ideal thread for:

• Cross-dialectal observations (as long as they don't seem to be innovative, see The Innovative Usage Thread)
• Non-native mistakes, whether yours or heard from others
• Word polysemy, whether in your L1 or not

Note that this thread excludes intentionally creative usage (see The Innovative Usage Thread), as well as garden paths especially those of headlines (see the Confusing headlines, and other trips down the garden path thread).

I'll just start this thread by saying some girl from Guadalajara, Mexico, asked me yesterday whether I was going to have class today. However, her exact words were ¿tienes curso mañana?. The expression tener curso can only mean 'to have diarrhea' in my dialect (I'd say tener clase for 'to have class'). And so what she said could effectively only mean 'will you have diarrhea tomorrow?', though context of course made it obvious what she meant.

[Nortaneous]

This is neither interesting nor funny but the next time I hear a tenured professor say "a phenomena" I am going to pile drive his skull through his fucking colon.

[KathTheDragon]

This is neither interesting nor funny but the next time I hear a tenured professor say "a phenomena" I am going to pile drive his skull through his fucking colon.

A bacteria. >.<

[Ser]

This is neither interesting nor funnyf

Shit. I actually meant to write "or Funny", not "and Funny". I changed the title.

I think "a bacteria" is very common though.

[Viktor77]

Do not open a "party store" in Michigan unless you know what you're getting yourself into because you won't find many products for children's parties at a Michigan party store.

A Michigan party store sells alcohol.

Does that count?

[Burke]

Do not open a "party store" in Michigan unless you know what you're getting yourself into because you won't find many products for children's parties at a Michigan party store.

A Michigan party store sells alcohol.

Does that count?

On that note, here in the Boston area we have what we call "packies."

"Packy" is short for package store.

What does one purchase at a package store? One would think it would be boxes or fedex envelopes. Nope, you buy booze there.

[clawgrip]

I once took a 3D animation class with a teacher who would say "vertice" for the singular of 'vertices' instead of 'vertex'. Like /vərtɪsi/

Chinese (Mandarin) speakers often have trouble differentiating /aj/ and /ɛ/ in English, which led for an unusual situation when one Chinese person I knew tried to tell someone, "I like your smile."

[Gulliver]

"I don't like going to the [outdoor pool] in town any more, there's always a load of teenagers getting off round the edges" does not mean the same thing in English English as American English, it transpires.

[Rui]

What does one purchase at a package store? One would think it would be boxes or fedex envelopes. Nope, you buy booze there.

I understand a package store to be a liquor store as well (from CT here). It irritated and amused me that at my university the on-campus post office would have an arrow pointing to the rear of the building saying "Package Store" which is where you were supposed to go if you received a package and needed to pick it up, since they don't deliver to dorm rooms.

[Hallow XIII]

This is neither interesting nor funny but the next time I hear a tenured professor say "a phenomena" I am going to pile drive his skull through his fucking colon.

A bacteria. >.<

Have you people ever heard of double plural marking

"maximas" "minimas" "bacterias" "phenomenas"

this occurs even in people who get the singular right

[Qwynegold]

"I don't like going to the [outdoor pool] in town any more, there's always a load of teenagers getting off round the edges" does not mean the same thing in English English as American English, it transpires.

So what does it mean in the dirty version?

I can't find it now, but there used to be a meme thing on the internet, a fake commercial for Vattenfall (they sell electricity) that said "Fritzl har släckt i källaren. Har du?" which means "Fritzl has turned off the lights in the basement. Have you?" If you deleted the C in that sentence, it would mean "Fritzl has family in the basement. Do you?"

[Drydic]

This is neither interesting nor funny but the next time I hear a tenured professor say "a phenomena" I am going to pile drive his skull through his fucking colon.

A bacteria. >.<

Have you people ever heard of double plural marking

"maximas" "minimas" "bacterias" "phenomenas"

this occurs even in people who get the singular right

At what point does it stop being people getting the pluralization WRONG and becomes people regularizing a foreign plural pattern into their native pluralization system? Hmm?

[Ser]

"I don't like going to the [outdoor pool] in town any more, there's always a load of teenagers getting off round the edges" does not mean the same thing in English English as American English, it transpires.

So what does it mean in the dirty version?

Both could be interpreted in a "dirty" way actually, as "there's always teenagers having orgasms" in AmE and "there's always teenagers having sex" in EngE, though I think it'd tend to be interpreted as simply "there's always teenagers getting out of the pool" in AmE.

[Shrdlu]

I remember reading that in ww2 the expression "to table something" caused confusion between the allies(Americans and British namely).

[Astraios]

How on earth does it make sense to get off a pool? You don't swim on the pool, you swim in it, so you get out of it, not off.

[Gulliver]

"I don't like going to the [outdoor pool] in town any more, there's always a load of teenagers getting off round the edges" does not mean the same thing in English English as American English, it transpires.

So what does it mean in the dirty version?

Both could be interpreted in a "dirty" way actually, as "there's always teenagers having orgasms" in AmE and "there's always teenagers having sex" in EngE, though I think it'd tend to be interpreted as simply "there's always teenagers getting out of the pool" in AmE.

In my English, it's somewhere between passionate kissing and passionate kissing whilst copping a feel. Nothing sticky is implied.

[Nortaneous]

"I don't like going to the [outdoor pool] in town any more, there's always a load of teenagers getting off round the edges" does not mean the same thing in English English as American English, it transpires.

So what does it mean in the dirty version?

Both could be interpreted in a "dirty" way actually, as "there's always teenagers having orgasms" in AmE and "there's always teenagers having sex" in EngE, though I think it'd tend to be interpreted as simply "there's always teenagers getting out of the pool" in AmE.

No it wouldn't be. There's no way to interpret that IMD that isn't dirty. What's it supposed to mean?

[Thry]

I understand that in AmE that's just coming.

[Nortaneous]

That's the end result. 'Getting off' is the action itself.

[clawgrip]

I would describe "get off" as "obtain sexual gratification" in whatever way any person might be able to do that.

[Thry]

Oooh, things make a lot more sense now

[Qwynegold]

Haha, thanks for all the answers.

[Leukos]

Hearing people pronounce "vice versa" as [vaɪsə vəɹsə] or [vaɪsi vəɹsə]. Just so you know, I pronounce it as [vaɪs vəɹsə]. I don't know why, but I find it annoying (commonness aside).

[linguoboy]

Hearing people pronounce "vice versa" as [vaɪsə vəɹsə] or [vaɪsi vəɹsə]. Just so you know, I pronounce it as [vaɪs vəɹsə]. I don't know why, but I find it annoying (commonness aside).

I was surprised when it dawned on me that, etymologically, the e shouldn't be silent. All those years, I just assumed the bisyllabic pronunciation was reduplicative (cf. artsy-fartsy, ticky-tacky).

[Thry]

Well "vice" is a dative, vicê, so if I were a purist I'd go ["vaI.si], like, idk... how do you pronounce de jure? dayoor or dee yoo-ree?