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Pet peeve

Dear Anyone Who Wants to Write or Speak in English:

“Beg the question” does not – not - mean “raise the question.” It does not mean that. I’m not going to tell you want it means. If you want to know what it means, google it. Until you know what it means, don’t use it. All I’ll tell you for sure is that it does not – not – mean “raise the question.” It doesn’t ever mean that. Ever. So stop using it as if it does. OK? Just stop. Thank you.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 14th, 2010 at 18:34 and is filed under Dear diary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

3 Responses to “Pet peeve”

  1. Will Says:
    January 14th, 2010 at 21:00

    Amen! This goes double for people who get paid specifically to write or speak in English.

  2. Joe Petrides Says:
    January 16th, 2010 at 15:44

    But this only begs the question, is there really any use in preserving correct grammar?

  3. Daniel Silliman Says:
    January 21st, 2010 at 01:23

    Don’t get that one here in Germany, but don’t give them ideas. People are always saying “so-called” as if it isn’t prejorative, and then I kill them.