No, not *those* words! That would be way too obvious! The words my mom wouldn't let us say are the following.
1) "At." This one *is* rather obvious. "Don't end a sentence with 'at'". Most of the time, I don't.
2) "Ain't." In the immortal words of someone whose name I don't remember, "Ain't, ain't right to say." We never really did get into the habit of saying ain't, probably because of her continual insistence.
3) "Lost." Mom's bit of wisdom on this word was, "Don't say 'lost', say 'misplaced.'" Don't know why...and I still say "lost".
4) "Alley" We grew up at the end of a dead end street. Most of our friends lived across the alley...oh, excuse me...across the LANE, as my mom insisted we call it. I guess alley conjured up too many images of mangy cats (and other things I didn't want to think about as a small child.)
So, yeah, those are my mom's words you shouldn't say.
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Ok, I definitely agree with 'at'. Also add 'to' to that list. As in, "Where are you going to?", etc.
ReplyDeleteWe used to say "ain't, ain't in the dictionary." Sadly, it now is. We don't use "ain't" either.
"Lost." Well, lost is lost. I mean when I'm feeling stressed, saying "I've misplaced my mind" just doesn't sound right. You know what I hate about "lost"? When I lose something and someone says, "Where's the last place you remember having it?" Well, duh, if I remembered, it wouldn't be lost. Dh says this a lot! Drives me nuts. And my Mom used to say, "It will be in the last place you look." Well, another duh, of course, because then I will stop looking.
"Alley" ... hmmmm. We had "valley". See, we lived on that big old hill. Some of our friends lived in the "valley". So we would walk to the "valley" to get them. Mom didn't like that, because "bad people lived in the valley."
So, may I ask ... what brought this post on? LOL
I was watching one of those Britcoms last night and there was a quote about lost versus misplaced. Then ds reminded me about "alley" and I was off!
ReplyDeleteI didn't know "bad people" lived in the valley by your house! :0 Every neighborhood has its area, I guess, at least in the mind of our parents!
When I was a kid, things were always blamed on "bad boys" which was easy since we didn't have any boys in our family and hardly any in our neighborhood.
Oh that is so cute really, mothers have some cute and different ways about them!
ReplyDeleteI love the "lost" one, and I don't say "aint" unless i'm joking around.
"Ain't" makes me crazy. Down here in VA, there are some people that say "cain't" which makes me even crazier.
ReplyDeleteWhenever we ended a sentece with at: like "Do you know where my shoes are at?" my mother would reply "right before the at!"
ReplyDeleteIt used to drive us crazy, but it did break us of the habit of ending a sentence with at.
Maggie
"Right before the at." I like that! I had never heard that before.
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