brokenrecord | (no subject)

[Poll #1180373]

Mostly just because I'm curious. They're all pretty much unrelated.

Pronunciation "prevalence": I've always done it the second way, but this group that presented in Drugs and Society today, all SEVEN of them, pronounced it the first way, and it really bothered me. So now I'm not sure if I'm just a freak or it's a regional thing or they just can't pronounce words.

Pronunciation "comfortable": Here's where I'm pretty sure I'm a freak, because I pronounce it the second way. I've heard a couple people pronounce it the first way recently, and at first I was like "WTF? NOT HOW YOU PRONOUNCE THAT WORD" and then I was like "...wait. That pronunciation totally matches how the word looks. ...and my pronunciation makes no sense." So now I want to see if I'm alone in my freaky pronunciation.

One or two spaces: I was taught 2 spaces between sentences when I first learned to type, and I cannot make myself NOT do it. This isn't normally a problem, except my film professor wants us to only put one space between sentences for whatever reason (it can't be due to like... page count or anything, since we have a word count for the paper, not a page count, and I don't see how the number of spaces affects that), and I absolutely CANNOT force myself to do it. I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to go back once I'm done with the paper and change the spaces between every sentence to only one space.

Random poll, I know. But I felt like procrastinating some more. I officially have 133 words out of 2000 right now. heh. Not so good. I'm just really stuck about how to approach this paper. I really need to just DO it and stop bitching about it, I know. sigh.

Last random tidbit before actually getting to work! Something that's really been amusing me in my Film Analysis class: Ok, so we've been discussing how different things like... masculinity and femininity and such are socially-constructed categories and are not inherent qualities defining what men or women are, and my professor keeps describing how these categories are "post-it notes" that we put on people and the world sees them that way and such, and I can't help but always thinking about The Office episode "Diversity Day" when Michael puts the various post-it notes on people's head of different races and then everyone's supposed to treat each other like the race on their head. This wouldn't be a problem (it's actually a pretty good literal example of what he's describing) except that every time he brings it up, I start cracking up, and... what he's discussing isn't actually amusing. But I figured that you all would be much more appreciative of how amusing it is.

Ok, time to work!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

my film professor wants us to only put one space between sentences for whatever reason

that is SUCH a weird request. i mean, i only do one space because i worked in book publishing and that's how they do it and i just got used to it after a while, but i cannot understand why it would matter so much to a professor who's just going to read your paper once and put it aside. that's ridiculous.

I know! I really have no clue why he is insisting on only one space. The ONLY reason I could figure is that two spaces vs. one space could make a difference of like... a few lines, MAYBE, in the length of the paper. But this can't be the reason since he's not concerned with page count, he has a specific word count (since we're supposed to include stills from the film we're analyzing within the paper, so basing it on page count would make no sense), which isn't affected at all by spaces between sentences. My only other guess is that he wants to make sure people actually read the guidelines he wrote up for writing papers (where he mentions that he wants 1 space), because I can't imagine that it makes the papers easier to read or affects it in any other way. But maybe I'm the only one who uses 2 spaces and so it doesn't really matter for most people. Who knows.

I use both pronunciations of the word 'comfortable', actually. But I'm pretty sure I use the first one more often.

This poll reminded me of another word that I've noticed people pronounce different ways. 'Mature'.

I've always said it like "Muh-CHUR". But I've also heard "Muh-CHOR" and "Muh-TOUR". Very strange.

I never even considered pronouncing "comfortable" another way until I started hearing, just in the past 6 months, really, people pronouncing it the first way. And then I just assumed I was weird for pronouncing it the second way because it doesn't really make sense, based on how it's spelled, but so far (according to my highly scientific and wholly representative poll) it seems like the second actually is the way most people pronounce it, which I didn't expect.

I've also always pronounced it "muh-CHUR," but I think I have heard a few people pronounce it "Muh-TOUR." I feel like the few times I heard it pronounced that way, though, the people were British. I could be totally wrong, though. I've never heard anyone pronounce it "Muh-CHOR."

I say comfortable how you do but I know the correct way of saying it is the first. Or rather, the proper way. Our way is just...'lazy'. heh I think Americans for the most part try to speed up anything they can, right? Same goes for pronouncing words.

You know, until recently when I was watching my mother type something out, I totally forgot you are suppose to put two spaces after ending a sentence or what have you. But I don't think I can get out of the habit of only doing it once now. :\

Heh, that makes sense, then. Because I can't see WHY you'd pronounce "comfortable" the second way, since the pronunciation totally doesn't match how the word looks. I just assumed that I had learned how to pronounce the word wrong when I was a kid and had never been corrected, so it stuck with me. But apparently not! It makes sense that we're all just too lazy to sound out the syllables properly and instead mush them all together.

I think that in some systems you are supposed to use only one space, as is evidenced by the fact that the majority of people who voted in the poll use one space. But I was definitely taught to use two spaces. Neither is probably wrong. I was just taught so firmly to use two, that I really cannot force myself to use only one. It just seems wrong to me.

It was an interesting topic for you to bring up! :)

I mispronounce a lot of stuff. My History teacher used to laugh at me when I was reading out loud or something for the way I said water. I say it like wauter and he's like No! It's Wahter. And I had never even heard it pronounced like he said it. And then he was like "you must be from New Jersey." (I am lol) I guess it depends where you're from.

I mispronounce a lot of words, too. I can never pronounce "via" or "hiatus" correctly. For "hiatus," I'm pretty sure it's just because I first saw the word on the internet and pronounced it in my head wrong, and it took me years to actually hear it pronounced out loud. And for any word that I've never seen before, I always pronounce it as if it were a French word, just because I took French for 5 years and the majority of new words I learned were French, so I got in the mindset of pronouncing new words I learned how they would pronounce them in French.

I think it really does depend on where you're from. The spacing thing I think just depends on who taught you to type. I know that two spaces were heavily emphasized when I was learning to type in elementary school, but obviously most other people were taught only one space (at least, based on this poll).

I'm actually pretty sure when I took typing classes in school we learned the two spaces thing after sentences. But me being too lazy (because omg all that energy for that extra space bar click...) just kind of never did it. :)

I was taught to use two spaces between sentences, but I heard that the MLA officially changed it to one space between sentences at some point a few years ago. I managed to adjust pretty quickly, but sometimes it does feel *odd* like you're using awful grammar.

I didn't realize that MLA had an official stance as to how many spaces should be between sentences. But that must be why my professor insisted on only one space, since the paper is supposed to be in MLA format. (Although I have written several English papers that were supposed to be in MLA format and used two spaces and the professor didn't notice/care, so it's still weird to me that he'd explicitly state that we have to use only one space). It really does feel like I'm using awful grammar. I think I'd feel the same way if I were forced to not use the Oxford comma; even though it's technically right, I've been doing it this one way for so long that it just feels wrong.

Some professors are *total* sticklers when it comes to applying the MLA format. I had a professor who was absolutely obsessed with proper comma usage. If you put a comma in front of and or "or", it could cost you an actual grade point. Glad those days are over lol, good luck :)

Edited 2008-05-01 03:16 (UTC)

O__o I've never heard anyone pronounce prevalence the 1st way you spelled it, wtffff? Lol oh and I definitely was taught to do 2 spaces when I first started typing tooooo but a few years ago someone told me the "proper" way now is to only use 1 space, so I fiiiinally taught myself to do only 1 space now. I don't know why I forced myself to do that honestly, lol I was definitely really used to doing 2 spaces....I AM WEIRD kthx.

I think most of the people I heard pronounce it the first way had learned English as a second language, so that might have something to do with it. But then other people did vote for the first option in the poll, so I guess some people pronounce it that way? I don't know. But it seems like most people agree on the second pronunciation.

Heh, yeah, I guess MLA officially changed it to only one space? But whatever, I'm probably going to be a psych major anyways, and they use APA instead, which... I don't think has that rule? In any case, I probably would refuse to teach myself to do it with only one space on principle, since I was so explicitly taught it should be two spaces and that's just ingrained into my mind now.