The verb may be an example of back formation (like beg from beggar). The past participle flabbergasted was recorded before the verb and remains the only common form. Does the verb flabbergast exist? It does, if you heard it. However, its ultimate acceptance need not be doubted.īack formation. For this reason, alright is still frowned upon by editors. But I will repeat my favorite dictum: “Language is not only a means of communication but also a product of culture.” Despite the passionate love of the modern wealthy “elite” for prefabricated torn jeans, the culture of the educated tends to be conservative. Whether forever and today should be spelled as one word, separately, or with a hyphen, is a matter of agreement. No one winces at also, almost, although, always, already, and altogether, a ll of them with one l. From a historical point of view, alright is unobjectionable. Is alright acceptable? This is another favorite of talk shows and word columns. This usage has nothing to recommend it but will probably spread. Analogy makes some people say bored of, like tired of. Obviously, one can bore someone only with inane talk, but in the passive bored comes perilously close to tired, and we are tired of something. However, the old variant does not stigmatize the speaker as a highbrow. Here the “classic” pronunciation of the first syllable requires pat-, not pate-, but the influence of patron is so strong that the variant with a long vowel has become common. Being too smart is usually considered snobbish or even worse, elitist. If sounding more educated than your neighbor does not frighten you, keep the distinction but expect ridicule behind your back. But not enough people are aware of this nicety, and the uniform pronunciation in two syllables has almost won out. The “classic” pronunciation requires two syllables in forte “loud(ly)” and one syllable (just fort) in forte “strong point,” because the first word is Italian and the second French.

Consider Gillespie, the name of the jazz player, let alone Gilbert, with g-, and be grateful for the spelling Ghirlandaio. It should be added that in some such cases tradition is more important than etymology, and many words are pronounced differently from what one expects. However, not every English-speaker has studied Latin or Italian. The Latin plural fungi poses no problems (Latin had no j-sound), while the Italian plural fun ghi tells a foreigner that “hard” – g, rather than – j, is meant. Only those can pronounce such words correctly who know them. Why do some people mispronounce fungi (that is, say it with -ji instead of -gi)? They do so because the letter group gi is ambiguous in English.

Pronounce colloquy