Im writing from Chile... (south america) just to say That I love the program

@ Julie:

"Il faut" or "il faut pas" means, roughly, "one must/must not." It's a perfectly grammatical phrase in French, but it isn't related to faux pas.

"Faux pas" is completely independent of "il faut." Faux/fausse is one of a handful of adjectives that precede the noun.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

From "Cecilia" by Paul Simon (still one of my favorites, for obvious reasons!):

Jubilation, she love me again.
I fall on the floor and I laughing.

But I can forgive Paul Simon just about anything...

PS - the first word of the song, btw, is "CELIA"!

@Julie. And you, dear Julie, sound delusional. No, I'm not "threatened". I don't see how I would feel "threatened" by your ignorance, and your delight in persisting in remaining ignorant, and your pride in your ability to spout such bilge.

But a question: did you bother to actually look this up?

No? Didn't think so.

"Hence It Don't Make Sense"- title of a 1944 song by, of all people, Cole Porter.Porter also wrote "Riding High" which is very interesting coming from a guy who wrote that he gets no kick from cocaine.

Paradigm comes from a particular book. Thomas Kuhn, "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" where he talks about "paradigm shift."

People in NYC, young people, now call the sidewalk and street the "floor." They can be heard admonishing their dogs and toddlers not to eat the tidbit off the floor. (I mentioned this to Larry Josephson, whom I met in linguistics graduate school at Berkeley, and he said this substitution is not happening. Moreover, we were taught in linguistics not to be prescriptive, language is whatever people do, but I can't help it. I am.) I also complained to him about the overuse of "prior" instead of "before" and "previous." I find it pretentious, irritative and frequently used ungrammatically, e.g., "when I went there prior, the gun was not on the table" and "Leonard's prior remark." I also have many colleagues who not only say but write, "Send it to Melissa and I by next week." Years of complaining have served only to alienate them but not reform. When I once asked, "Send it to I?," the response was, "No, YOU should send it to US." (Note they do not say "send it to we," but they do not note.) These individuals have advanced degrees and are believed to be extremely competent writers. Oy.

A paradigm may be a model, but every model is not a paradigm. Paradigm is useful to refer to something "set up" as a model: from Greek roots meaning "by+example"
I see that until the 1960s the use was almost exclusively in grammar.

"Paradigm" took off because of T. Kuhn's "Structure of Scientific Revolution," off-putting title for influencial idea that science doesn't just accumulate truths, but morphs across paradigms -- broader than "model", it includes questions, vocab, a more overall framework. Then alas it was embraced/warped by Business discourse, hence popularized.

Somehow penultimate has become even more or "more last" than ultimate. Whatever that would be.

One of the reasons I LOVE it when Professor O'Connor is on the air - apart from REALLY enjoying her wisdom - I love the fact that Leonard seems to really have fun and enjoy himself!

A pet peeve - A cable network has "less commercials" as a tag line.. The use of less when fewer is correct seems to be becoming universal. Drives me nuts.

Math abuse alert! The use of parameter is absolutely correct. It's the terms by which a problem are defined.

Paradigm --

Perhaps it is more correctly used in its academic sense, as a scientific weltaunschauung, as elaborated in Kuhn's "Structure of Scientific Revolutions."

paradigm didn't pop out of nowhere. It first became popular with the publication of Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962) which coined the term paradigm shift. This book was very influential in making this term popular.

Thanks for breaking the Paradine Case.

-- Alfred Hitchcock

The parameters of the algorithm to compute the perimeter of a rectangle are the length and the width. Just sayin'.

You sound threatened, Marc. Is it a problem for you to be corrected by a woman?

The word 'hopefully' is always used wrong, isn't it? It's an adjective so 'she waited hopefully' would be correct not 'Are you going to the show tonight?' 'Hopefully!'

What's the deal with weather terminology? Rain Event? Wind Event? When did meteorologists become so whacky?!?!

When did "enthused" enter the language? In grammar school in the 40's and 50's, we were taught never to use it.

A pet peeve - A cable network has "less commercials" as a tag line.. The use of less when fewer is correct seems to be becoming universal. Drives me nuts.

@Julie. Howzabout you look it up? Just how does finding that "il faut pas"* prove that "faux pas" is wrong? This is a little bit sad. A "faux pas" in both French and English is a misstep. You seem to know how to use Google and other search engines. Search for "faux pas". You'll even find it on Le Monde's website (or any French dictionnary). Sacré bleu!

Confusing Yes with America seems an unlikely error for someone as musically knowledgeable as Leonard seems to be, but maybe the confusion results from the fact that Yes performed an arrangement of the Paul Simon song "America"!

I recall you saying "logarithm" the other day, but I knew from the context that you meant algorithm.
I chalked it up to your automatic anagram function kicking in due to a flaw in your algorithms.

I have always wondered about the music "genre" Rock and Roll or is it Rock n' Roll... how and when did the use of the word come about?

I recall you saying "logarithm" the other day, but I knew from the context that you meant algorithm.
I chalked it up to your automatic anagram function kicking in.

Regarding the expression "passed," in the South this is very commonly used as opposed to "passed away/on."

When did "with no" instead of "without" become accepted? As in "a glass of water with
No ice" as opposed to "without" ice?

I know this has been addressed before,
but I notice that the word suppos ABLY
(as opposed to suppos EDLY) is now being found in network TV shows. Between that and nucUlar and relATOR I may have to hurt someone!!!!

Please tell me the difference between on line and in a line when referring to a line of people waiting. In the South where I grew up we use in line. In NYC it's on line. Why?!

Big Time Rush (the Monkees of 2010)

Any kind of guy you want girl, that's the kind I'll be. If you're staying I'm leaving.
I'll follow your lead.

Leonard, can we all agree that it's time to stop saying "narrative" and "space"?

Have you noticed some affirmation inflation going on? For the past few years people have been using "absolutely" when a simple yes will do.

I believe the phrase "man up" came from basketball. When playing defense and switching to the more intense man to man from a zone.

Sorry, meant to write "There are..."

There a presently a lot of campaign ads on TV and, at the end, they say "I approve this message". It sounds so awkward. It's more common to hear people say they "approve of" something. Which is correct?

Is 'irregardless' a word?. if so how would it be used?

My colleague and I were wondering about the etymology of the word "hipster", which does not appear in a grammarphobia search. Although the definition of the term can be debated endlessly, what is the specific etymology? How did the word originate?

I believe that the use of "passed" rather than "passed on" is more common among African Americans.

"algorithm" is a series of steps used to solve a problem, most notably in the field of Computer Science. (Take it from a one-time, now disillusioned, Comp. Sci / "IT" guy...)

MAN UO was used in Traning Day, the movie and it caught on.

Passed is black English for dies,

Regarding "Baby I'm-a Want You": I've always understood "I'm-a" to be a contraction of "I am going to," as in "I'm-a go upside your head." Therefore, to say "I'm-a want you" makes no sense; it's like saying "I'm going to want you."

I believe that the use of "passed" rather than "passed on" is more common among African Americans.

Last summer you featured signs with strange syntax. Later I saw many highway signs in both Maine and Massachusetts which said, "Trucks prohibited from left lane." I believe that "prohibited in" or "excluded from" would have been less inventive and more conventional.

On the matter of conventions, I keep hearing of people who "advocate for" something, rather than simply "advocating it." I have always thought that colloquial English moved toward brevity, but here an unnecessary word has been added.

An algorithm is any procedure, process, methodology, or set of instructions. Since computers can ONLY follow instructions, people who write computer software are said to write algorithms. Typically in software, it is used for procedures that solve specific, complicated problems, but any computer program is an algorithm in a sense.

An algorithm, used primarily in mathematics and computer science, is a method for solving a problem in a set of discrete steps.

Hi -- Mr Lopate *definitely* said "logarithm" the other day. I heard it and winced, realizing that he meant to say "algorithm".

I've always had a big problem with "Copacabana"; the lines, "There was blood and a single gunshot, but just who shot who?".

In addition to the subject/object problem, if there was a single gunshot, and blood, isn't the victim self-evident?

Homeward bound, I wish I was...

Bon Jovi: "I've seen a million faces, and I've rocked them all."

Physically impossible!

Phil Ochs: "Here's to the land you've torn out the heart of. / Mississippi, find yourself another country to be part of." (Later changed to "Richard Nixon, find yourself.....").

I've always said "on behalf" but occasionally read "in behalf" -- especially in Philip Roth novels, for some reason. Any explanations? Can't think of what the difference might be.

NO, LOPATE - YOU SAID "LOGARITHM!"

Go back and listen to the recording. (Please.)

Oh my lord. Leonard meant algorithm, but said logarithm. Algorithms are step by step instructions. That's it.

Paul McCartney's Live and Let Die (from the James Bond movie)

This one drive me NUTS. Paul should have known better. It just because he needs an extra syllable:

You used to say live and let live
But in this ever changing world in which we live in Makes you give in and cry...
Live and let die

Big Time Rush (the Monkees of 2010)

Any kind of guy you want girl, that's the kind I'll be. If you're staying I'm leaving.
I'll follow your lead.

What about "Ironic" by Alanis Morrisette?

She lists things that are not ironic, then proceeds to the chorus: "Well isn't it ironic, doncha think?"

No! But it is ironic that you are singing a song about irony and misusing the word ironic, while asking, rhetorically, whether what you said is ironic!

Bon Jovi: "I've seen a million faces, and I've rocked them all."

Physically impossible!

A friend of mine used to complain about The Eagle's line "stared up at the stars up in the sky." Anything wrong with that line?

The Rolling Stones. "I can't get no (Satisfaction).

Seems to me (did you say this already) that these locutions are the verbal equivalent of blackface.

@julie Marc is correct. The expression in French that the French use is faux pas.

regarding "ain't" - I've read tons of Trollope & find that ain't is often used, even by educated characters. what's that about?

"She's got freckles on her, BUT she is nice..." (Larry Vincent)

Oh no, Don't you dis Neil Diamond
The man is indeed a poet
Great songs are poetry set to music
and Mr. Diamond is a master at it
This whole vein is silly

elton john's "rocket man", verse 2:

Mars ain't the kind of place to raise your kids
In fact it's cold as hell
And there's no one there to raise them if you did
And all this science I don't understand
It's just my job five days a week
A rocket man, a rocket man

oh yeah!

Pish posh, ain't is the vernacular, that's nothing. I hate the song "Live and Let Die" when Paul McCartney sings, "....the world in which we live in." Department of redundancy department much?

What about Alicia Keys' Empire Sate of Mind... "concrete jungle where dreams are made of". Great song, but makes no sense!

"I was made to love her by Stevie Wonder...

"...You know my papa disapproved it, My mama boohoohooed it..."

Pish posh, ain't is the vernacular, that's nothing. I hate the song "Live and Let Die" when Paul McCartney sings, "....the world in which we live in." Department of redundancy department much?

"I only have eyes for you," drives me crazy. He doesn't have lips for her, or ears for her, or...

Also lie lady lie could have meant prevaricate lady prevaricate.

I hear young people and some adults using the word "versing" often
i.e., "what team are we versing today?"
(As in sports not literature!)

Question in this election year: Where did the term Man Up come from? And what are the origins of referring to gay men as Nancy's or calling some one Brucie. And in terms of musical lyrics: What is a Mojo?? And if you Man up, do you therefore have Mojo?

Pet peeve: increasing use of "less" rather than "fewer" for countable nouns. (You'll have LESS cavities with Crest!)

Neil Diamond, I can never forgive you for this: "Songs she sang to me, songs she BRANG to me..."

Aargh!!1

Indeed? This from Le Monde:

"...il s’agit d’enfants en danger. Il faut pas tout mélanger et amalgamer."

http://jprosen.blog.lemonde.fr/

Well, when it comes to ungrammatical song lyrics, Ms. Aretha Franklin takes the cake in "Bridge Over Troubled Water".

"Yes it do..."

Can you please address the proper and various uses of the word nonplussed. Most definitions describe it as a state of being surprised, confused or bewildered. Yet I have also seen it defined as "not disconcerted" and "unperturbed". When I see it used in newpapers and magazines, it seem to tilt more towards the latter. Is there any contradiction in the meanings of the word? ?

@Julie. No, in French, it's "un faux pas". Certainly not "il ne faut pas". "Faux" is one of those adjectives (as is "vrai") that usually comes before the noun.

This isn't strictly English, but why do Americans spell "faux pas" with an X ? It's supposed to be a contraction of the phrase of "il faut pas" -- with a T -- meaning "one should not".

Americans think it means "false step", but that would be "pas faux". In French the adjective follows the noun.

Patricia T. O'Connor should have a regular program on NPR...her program is delightful... and her laugh is the best on radio....thanks, Ron Johnson

I just wanted to share a recent (like over the last two years) contamination of French by English. It's the word "juste" used in front of every adjectif and adverb, copied from English "just", as in "it's just perfect", "she's just too fat"... Of course "juste" exists in French, but it has now gotten totally out of hand. It's just too much me to bear.

Here's a peever on this:
http://www.rue89.com/tribune-vaticinateur/2009/08/03/juste-ceci-ou-juste-cela-franchement-cest-juste-con