Misuse of "stood" for "stayed"

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When I was in high school I had a very good friend who had moved to the US from Spain; one of her parents was Portuguese and the other was Spanish. English was not her native language, but you'd never know it from the way she spoke, with absolutely no accent. I mention her background because it's pertinent to this particular pet peeve of mine: the misuse of stood for stayed. When she would describe an incident where she had stayed somewhere, she would say it like this: "I stood at my friend's house overnight Saturday." And my brain would be thinking, "HUH?! Why on earth would she STAND UP all night long at her friend's house?" I quickly realized that she meant stayed, but every time she said it, it continued to affect me kind of like nails on a blackboard!

Over the years I've heard a lot of people say stood when they mean stayed, and something I've noticed is that--almost without exception--they're usually Hispanic or, occasionally, black. I don't know WHY they use the past tense of stand for the past tense of stay, but they do, and it annoys me. As noted in previous posts, I watch Judge Judy every day. There have been numerous times when people appearing on the show have said something along the lines of: "I stood in my car while my friend went in to get her purse." Of course, I envision them STANDING UP in the car...which must be difficult, unless they're very, very short!

So here we go: If you're referring to something that involved a stay somewhere, you STAYED there. If you're referring to something that involved standing somewhere, you STOOD there. Stayed and stood are not synonyms and they are not interchangeable. If you say you stood in your car while your friend went inside, that means you were STANDING UP in the car.

Still not sure which word is correct? Please post a comment below, or contact us on Twitter.

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Wearing pointe shoes for cosplay

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Although there's already a ton of commentary online about people who are untrained in ballet wearing pointe shoes for cosplay, this is my blog about my pet peeves, so here I go!

I have a long background in ballet, and one thing I know for sure is this: pointe shoes are ONLY for people who have put in the time, effort, blood, sweat, and tears required to EARN the right to wear them. So if you're into cosplay and you don't have the serious ballet background necessary to earn the right to wear pointe shoes, please don't. Not only can you hurt yourself--even seriously, like breaking a bone--but you devalue and demean the effort REAL ballet dancers put into earning their pointes.

But wait! All is not lost! There's a type of ballet shoe that looks--to the untrained eye--just like pointe shoes. They're called demi-pointe shoes and are used in some classrooms to get pre-pointe students acclimated to the hard feel of pointe shoes, without actually being made to support a dancer on pointe. Here are some made by Russian Pointe:





As you can see they look just like real pointe shoes because, basically, they are real pointe shoes. They simply haven't had some finishing touches added to them, e.g., there's no shank (the hard part of the sole that supports the foot while en pointe). To any casual observers, these will definitely pass as pointe shoes, so you can proudly wear them knowing that they give your outfit that certain something it needs, yet you're in no danger of harming yourself.

Just to be clear: demi-pointe shoes are not intended for pointe work, period. So don't be tempted to stand on your tip-toes even though they have a [somewhat] hard box. They're just for looks, not for pointe!

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Misspellings of "definitely"

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Back when more lay people (as opposed to computer geeks like me) started entering the online world, about 30 years ago, I immediately noticed that a lot of them didn't know how to spell definitely. In fact, it seems that many of them didn't even know how to SAY it! Over the years the mangling of this word has continued...actually, it's gotten worse and worse, at least in terms of how often it's misspelled.

Here are a few versions I've seen:

- defiantly (see what I mean about pronouncing it?--how do you go from defiant to thinking it's the base of definitely?)
- definately (this seems to be THE most common misspelling)
- deffinatly
- definetly

Okay, for the record, it's DEFINITELY; its root word involves FINITE--and as you can see, there is no "a" in "finite."

Still not sure which word is correct? Please post a comment below, or contact us on Twitter.

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Misuse of "me and him" or "me and her" for "he and I" or "she and I"

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Remember back in elementary school when you learned the correct way to phrase sentences that involved you and another person? I do, and I clearly remember that they're supposed to be structured like this:

"He and I went to Disneyland."
"She and I are vegetarian."

So what happened that caused the rampant mangling of the English language as follows?

"Me and him went to Disneyland."
"Me and her are vegetarian."

Just like the simple test I described in the I vs me pet peeve, you can easily figure out the correct phrasing with this simple test: take out the other person, or take yourself out. For example:

"_____________ went to Disneyland." (him/he)
"_____________ went to Disneyland." (me/I)

For each of the above, plug in both choices:

"Him went to Disneyland."
"He went to Disneyland."

"Me went to Disneyland."
"I went to Disneyland."

In each case, it's obvious that the first choice is incorrect, right? Okay, so now you know which single choice is correct. Now go ahead and combine them:

"He and I went to Disneyland."

That's it! It's that simple.

Still not sure which word is correct? Please post a comment below, or contact us on Twitter.

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