The other day I was texting with a friend when she asked me what my plans were for the day. I began telling her that I needed to take my grandma to Sam's Club, but stopped when I wasn't sure whether or not I was "suppose" to take my grandma shopping or "supposed" to take my grandma shopping.
Somehow, neither seemed correct and thus this blog was born.
According to this website, it's a common error in the English language.
When it comes to suppose vs. supposed, Brian's Common Englihs Errors says: "Because the D and the T are blended into a single consonant when this phrase is pronounced, many writers are unaware that the D is even present and omit it in writing. You’re supposed to get this one right if you want to earn the respect of your readers."
Thus, I should have said: "I'm supposed to take my grandma to Sam's Club."
2 comments:
Hey, Chan. Thanks for the post about "supposed to." I wonder if the British actually pronounce that "-ed," since sometimes original pronunciations are left intact in British English.
Another one that I think is like that is "used to." In speech, I think most of us say something to the effect of "yoostoo," which is neither the pronunciation for "use" NOR "used," which both use the voiced "z" sound for the s. Instead, in "used to," we use the unvoiced "s" sound.
I'm inserting a random interjection here: Isn't it strange that "used to" in "I used to play baseball" means I played baseball in the past (and now I no longer play it), but "used to" in "I'm used to working hard" means you're familiar with working hard (and it's something you've grown accustomed to)? I feel sorry for ESL students sometimes. :-\
I also noticed one day that a lot of people voice the x in "exit" so that it comes out sounding like "eggzit" because the ks sound of the x gets changed to the voiced gz sound. The same goes for "eggzactly" instead of "exactly."
And this one isn't really directly related, but I know that a lot of people write "should of" for the contraction of "should have," which is "should've," because it sounds the same.
Hmm, I thought about it, and I'm making a correction about how "yoos" is not the pronunciation for use, but I was thinking of the verb. As a noun, use is pronounced with the unvoiced s sound like in "everyday use."
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