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What spelling, grammar or semantics rules have been lost in your lifetime?
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laranis lemmy.zip laranis@lemmy.zip
Joined: 2024-02-02
#102 · Quote Reply

Not exactly what you're asking, but double spaces after ends of sentences.

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southsamurai (he/him/pronoun agnostic) sh.itjust.works southsamurai@sh.itjust.works
Joined: 2023-06-19
#103 · Quote Reply

We were always supposed to put punctuation inside quotation marks; however, now it seems to be the user's choice of inside or outside. And I have to admit that most of the time when I’m using quotes, it seems more logical to me to place the punctuation outside of them.

You know, I actually prefer that it be variable, but only when it serves a purpose.

Like, if Im quoting someone "I might want to indicate that they completed a sentence.", but also continue beyond it.

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southsamurai (he/him/pronoun agnostic) sh.itjust.works southsamurai@sh.itjust.works
Joined: 2023-06-19
#104 · Quote Reply

“Drives me up the wall” becoming “drives me up a wall”.

Hey, maybe they have a specific wall up which they are driven!

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emergencyfood sh.itjust.works emergencyfood@sh.itjust.works
Joined: 2023-07-03
#105 · Quote Reply

We were always supposed to put punctuation inside quotation marks; however, now it seems to be the user's choice of inside or outside. And I have to admit that most of the time when I’m using quotes, it seems more logical to me to place the punctuation outside of them.

We were always supposed to put punctuation inside quotation marks;

Isn't this a US English thing? In India we were taught to close them like brackets - i.e., the one that opened last closes first. So

'Don't wait. I will come later.'

But

He said 'I will come later'.

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BCsven lemmy.ca BCsven@lemmy.ca
Joined: 2023-06-17
#106 · Quote Reply

Not exactly what you're asking, but double spaces after ends of sentences.

I still use them. I find it makes reading and finding sentences easier in a paragraph. There was a study that it had an impact

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Dagobah lemmy.world Dagobah@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-07-25
#107 · Quote Reply

I don't know if this fits the question, but in Brazil the "Portuguese-Language Orthographic Agreement of 1990" only started to take effect in 2009 (after I was born), in a transition state, and in 2015 it became official and obligatory. The changes that I still fumble with are diacritics (e.g. "Idéia" -> "Ideia") and hyphens (e.g. "contra-regra" -> "contrarregra").

Most definitely fits the question, also TIL about the PLOA. Are Brazilian and continental Portuguese different enough to be called dialects? Given its much larger population does Brazil have an outsized influence on Portuguese language development through media?

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nore {she/her} sh.itjust.works nore@sh.itjust.works
Joined: 2024-05-14
#108 · (edited) Quote Reply

Most definitely fits the question, also TIL about the PLOA. Are Brazilian and continental Portuguese different enough to be called dialects? Given its much larger population does Brazil have an outsized influence on Portuguese language development through media?

does Brazil have an outsized influence on Portuguese language development through media?

I don't know since I only interact with other Brazilians, though from what I can remember of early to mid 2010s internet, European Portuguese was preferred over Brazilian Portuguese (as in, when a website or app had a PT translation it'd wouldn't be PT-BR).
Nowadays, I believe both are commonly available.

Are Brazilian and continental Portuguese different enough to be called dialects?

The most common way to refer to Brazilian Portuguese that I've seen is that it's a variant of European Portuguese, I'm not a linguist so I don't know the difference between a variant and a dialect.

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Dagobah lemmy.world Dagobah@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-07-25
#109 · Quote Reply

does Brazil have an outsized influence on Portuguese language development through media? I don't know since I only interact with other Brazilians, though from what I can remember of early to mid 2010s internet, European Portuguese was preferred over Brazilian Portuguese (as in, when a website or app had a PT translation it'd wouldn't be PT-BR). Nowadays, I believe both are commonly available. A...

Interesting, thanks for taking the time to reply!
How do European Portuguese sound to the Brazilian ear? Like, as an Australian, New Zealanders sound sort of plucky and goofy to me, Americans are brash and loud, Canadians are laid-back, received English sounds polite or formal etc. I'm sure they all think Australians sound like sandpaper 😅

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CarrotsHaveEars lemmy.ml racketlauncher831@lemmy.ml
Joined: 2021-10-03
#110 · Quote Reply

Pour one out for the Oxford Comma . Let's eat Grandma Commas save lives!

The rich couple, me and ScarJo donated ten thousand dollars to a local charity school.

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HamsterRage lemmy.ca HamsterRage@lemmy.ca
Joined: 2023-06-12
#111 · Quote Reply

Pour one out for the Oxford Comma . Let's eat Grandma Commas save lives!

Us that technically a missing Oxford comma, or just a missing comma?

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Ydna lemmy.world Ydna@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-08-17
#112 · Quote Reply

Ending sentences with propositions, and getting them jumbled around. My work does it in their advertisements and i cry every time.

"See what classes you can register for." Or modifying it to be worse; "see what classes you can register for fast"

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wolfpack86 lemmy.world wolfpack86@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-06-22
#113 · Quote Reply

“Drives me up the wall” becoming “drives me up a wall”.

This drives me up that wall

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vk8kv lemmy.ml vk8kv@lemmy.ml
Joined: 2026-08-12
#114 · Quote Reply

Actually, when I think about it. I rarely see people complaining about emojis at work. Ironically if there's one place that people hate emojis it's Reddit or Lemmy 😅. Do you speak another language than English? I'd be fascinated to know if similar language battles are happening in other languages.

Yes! Well, I am from India, so... I speak multiple languages with people who are comfortable in their own and yes, there is a lot of language battles in India too, especially Search up Hindi Imposition if you're interested.

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likebudda reddthat.com likebudda@reddthat.com
Joined: 2026-08-20
#115 · Quote Reply

The rich couple, me and ScarJo donated ten thousand dollars to a local charity school.

Y'all make a cute couple but she's doing the heavy lifting.

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likebudda reddthat.com likebudda@reddthat.com
Joined: 2026-08-20
#116 · Quote Reply

Literally and Crescendo are my vocabulary pet peeves. Both have stupidly evolved to include definitions that mean the exact opposite of their true meanings. Literally is annoying, but Crescendo is impossible. That is a specific musical term with an unalterable meaning. It means a gradual increase in volume, but it has come to mean a climax. Something will be described as "it rose to a crescendo...

Literallyly

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likebudda reddthat.com likebudda@reddthat.com
Joined: 2026-08-20
#117 · Quote Reply

We were taught single space in the mid 90s, so that can't be too recent.

I learned on a typewriter in '91, we got docked if we didn't double space.

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CedricWhaley lemmy.dbzer0.com CedricWhaley@lemmy.dbzer0.com
Joined: 2026-09-13
#118 · Quote Reply

Ending sentences with propositions, and getting them jumbled around. My work does it in their advertisements and i cry every time. "See what classes you can register for." Or modifying it to be worse; "see what classes you can register for fast"

propositions

Hey sexy mama, wanna kill all humans?

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Ydna lemmy.world Ydna@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-08-17
#119 · Quote Reply

propositions Hey sexy mama, wanna kill all humans?

LOL I'm gonna leave it that way 🤣

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HobbitFoot thelemmy.club HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club
Joined: 2023-06-16
#120 · Quote Reply

Y'all make a cute couple but she's doing the heavy lifting.

That's typical of her relationships.

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nore {she/her} sh.itjust.works nore@sh.itjust.works
Joined: 2024-05-14
#121 · (edited) Quote Reply

Interesting, thanks for taking the time to reply! How do European Portuguese sound to the Brazilian ear? Like, as an Australian, New Zealanders sound sort of plucky and goofy to me, Americans are brash and loud, Canadians are laid-back, received English sounds polite or formal etc. I'm sure they all think Australians sound like sandpaper 😅

I'm bad at describing it, so hear it for yourself!

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blackbrook lemmy.ml blackbrook@lemmy.ml
Joined: 2023-06-03
#122 · Quote Reply

Unique coming to just mean unusual.

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Jose A Lerma lemmy.world JoseALerma@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-08-02
#123 · Quote Reply

Us that technically a missing Oxford comma, or just a missing comma?

The grandma quote is a missing comma in general, but there's another reply with a missing Oxford Comma.

Although punctuation is waning, I'm willing to spend the time to use it.

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1hitsong lemmy.ml 1hitsong@lemmy.ml
Joined: 2023-06-04
#124 · Quote Reply

Pour one out for the Oxford Comma . Let's eat Grandma Commas save lives!

From my cold dead hands!!

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aizakku sh.itjust.works aizakku@sh.itjust.works
Joined: 2026-07-24
#125 · Quote Reply

Pour one out for the Oxford Comma . Let's eat Grandma Commas save lives!

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chunes lemmy.world chunes@lemmy.world
Joined: 2025-04-08
#126 · (edited) Quote Reply

People no longer double-space after sentences.  No one cares that further compares metaphorical distance and farther compares physical distance.  Most people seem to think that joining two independent clauses with a comma (a comma splice) is just fine.  Things are now done on accident instead of by accident.  Compute used to be something you did; now, it's something you rent.  People seem to have given up on less being used for uncountable things and fewer for countable things.  Now they just use less for everything.  People these days are enamored 'by' something instead of with it (or of it, for our British friends).

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CandleTiger programming.dev CandleTiger@programming.dev
Joined: 2023-06-09
#127 · Quote Reply

Australian English language is now largely Americanised, a process that started in the post-war era is now mostly complete. Terms such as 'gaol' have been widely replaced by 'jail'. 'Programme' is mostly replaced by 'program'. A 'car bonnet' is likely to be called a 'hood'. 'Play lunch' is mostly replaced with 'recess'. 'Pusher' is mostly called a 'pram' 'Lacker band' is now mostly just 'rubber...

Y’all still got dual carriageways over there?

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CandleTiger programming.dev CandleTiger@programming.dev
Joined: 2023-06-09
#128 · Quote Reply

Don't do that unless it's a monotype font, please. Sincerely, typesetters everywhere.

Why not? I want to have more white space between my sentences than I do between words in the same sentence. I’m writing emails, business crap, and Lemmy posts; nothing that’s going to see any love from a typesetter. Is there some more appropriate way to get what I want than hitting the spacebar twice between sentences?

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SreudianFlip sh.itjust.works SreudianFlip@sh.itjust.works
Joined: 2024-01-03
#129 · Quote Reply

Why not? I want to have more white space between my sentences than I do between words in the same sentence. I’m writing emails, business crap, and Lemmy posts; nothing that’s going to see any love from a typesetter. Is there some more appropriate way to get what I want than hitting the spacebar twice between sentences?

Well it's okay to break rules, right? So long as you understand how and why.

Your version of readability skews from the norm established over centuries. Fine! Just don't expect the rules to bend to you.

Readability for author and reader vary. Whose reading comprehension is more important? Your call.

In some cases, it might be appropriate to break paragraph convention and isolate important sentences.

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CurlyWurlies4All slrpnk.net CurlyWurlies4All@slrpnk.net
Joined: 2023-02-01
#130 · Quote Reply

Y’all still got dual carriageways over there?

Is that an Australian-ism? I don't remember it ever coming up in conversation with my American or British friends.

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CandleTiger programming.dev CandleTiger@programming.dev
Joined: 2023-06-09
#131 · Quote Reply

Is that an Australian-ism? I don't remember it ever coming up in conversation with my American or British friends.

Yeah it’s a divided highway. I got directions once that included what I heard as a “jewel carriageway” and had just a very confusing time getting that clarified.

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