Please state in which country your phrase tends to be used, what the phrase is, and what it should be.

Example:

In America, recently came across "back-petal", instead of back-pedal. Also, still hearing "for all intensive purposes" instead of "for all intents and purposes".

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[–] 22 points 2 years ago (2 children)

This one never gets me anywhere, but “begging the question” is actually a logical fallacy where you assume the result and use that as the basis of your argument. Otherwise, it raises the question.

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  • [–] 10 points 2 years ago* (2 children)

    The same goes for the exception that proves the rule. People use it as a magic spell that does away with unwanted evidence but it's self explanatory. No parking on Fridays means you can park every other day.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

    That's actually a post-hoc rationalization; in the original phrase, "proves" has a meaning closer to "tests". But, yes, people use this one all the time to justify being wrong either way.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    How do you feel about other words or phrases that have different meanings in specific fields vs common use? Like a scientific theory is very different from your buddy's theory about what the movie you watched meant. Since beg is a stronger word than raise, some statements scream out for questions in response, while others merely give rise to some further need for clarification.

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