Speakers of non-English languages, what common mistakes do native speakers make that drive you crazy?
Speakers of non-English languages, what common mistakes do native speakers make that drive you crazy?
For example, English speakers commonly mix up your/you're or there/their/they're. I'm curious about similar mistakes in other languages.
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I'm a native French speaker, specifically from the Acadian parts of the province of New-Brunswick (Canada). We have a lot of vocabulary, grammar and syntax that people who speak a more standard French might frown upon (lots of borrowing from English but also a lot of old French words which disappeared in Europe but not here, as well as some Indigenous influences). Fuck anyone who judges our dialect and accents, I love the way we speak.
That being said, there are a few things that bother me:
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The pleonasm "plus pire" (most worst, or most most bad). There are a few common pleonasm but this one is the only one that truly irks me for some reason.
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"Si que" (if that) because of something that was drilled into me by my dad, "les si n'aiment pas les que" ("the ifs don't like the thats"). Using "si que" is like saying "if that I say this" rather than "if I say this".
The more I think about it the more I guess my stance on this is that deviating from standard French is fine and even cool when it adds meaning or nuance. I just dislike it when it's purely redundant.
In France there are some mistakes that became social markers.
People following conspiracy theories are mostly bad educated people, and they wrongly conjugate some verbs.
The most common examples are:
- "Nous sachons", instead of "Nous savons" (we know)
- "Ils croivent" instead of "Ils croient" (they think, they believe)
- "Comme même" instead of "Quand même" (nonetheless, despite, kinda hard to translate)
Making one of those mistakes will immediately tag you as a fool.
Interesting, in Quebec I've never heard the conjugations to the left!
When we need to strategically indicate this kind of thing, we just curse excessively. Often they are strung together into a profane litany that continues on for some time! I always thought it was quite artful.
Like Saigonauticon, I've never heard any of these!
In my neck of the woods you'll find people adding a first person plural ending to third person plural verbs (ex: "elles mangeons" instead of "elles mangent") which is common enough to not bother me or strike me as a sign of stupidity, and at least differenciates between the singular and plural forms of a verb.
One thing I didn't mention in my original comment that does bother me is something kinda similar some people do with the verb "être", like a teacher I had in high school. Instead of "ils étaient", she'd say "ils sontaient", simply adding the typical imparfait conjugation ending to the present "ils sont".
Les cours avec elle sontaient un peu tristes, et malheureusement assez représentatifs de la qualité de mon enseignement.
So is it like saying "si que le jet est un 20 natural" instead of "si le jet est un 20 natural"? Just adding the word "que" in there without reason? Or does it only happen in certain contexts?
I'm not a linguist, and studies about the French in my region are few and far between, so I'm not comfortable stating anything as fact. However, as far as I can tell, it's not context-dependant and never adds any meaning.
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