Hare's breath

Has anyone else noticed the increasing misuse of 'the' (pronounced th' ) in front of a word beginning with a vowel instead of 'thee' -- very common nowadays especially '"th' EU" instead of thee EU, th' apple and not 'thee apple. '
I always thought that was a basic tenet of grammatical speech in English! I recall learning the difference between 'th' and 'thee' in primary school.
Sadly it seems teachers cannot be arsed to correct basic grammar these days (and DH is one, and admits it! And neither does he correct spelling.....)
Also 'likely' as is 'he will likely do that' is an Americanism and is replacing 'is likely to' more and more -- but it sounds jarring and ugly to me.
As does th' extra money' etc.

On the request programme on Classic fm a few weeks ago, someone phoned in to ask "Can I get (X piece of music)" Grrrrrrrrrr!

Ha ha. Loving this thread! Thought it was only me that snarls in disgust at the mispronunciation on TV.
Surely the answer to "Can I get a latte?" is "I don't know, can you?"

I get so annoyed when i hear that something is 'for free'

As someone who now preserves her sanity (just) by spending most of her waking hours acting as an unpaid grammar guru on a certain website, I find all these comments (including the misconceptions) fascinating. My own pet hate is that dissect – which, if you look at its spelling, can surely ONLY be pronounced one way – seems now to be universally pronounced as dye-sect.

Another one.....people who write 'Should of" instead of "Should have"......

How about weather people telling us it will be 'marled' instead of 'mild'.

Also, I get so angry when I hear 'sarfnoon' instead of 'this afternoon'

I get really riled at TV ads that say something costs eg 299 PAHNDS instead of POUNDS. And the ones that just say "only 299". 299 what? Jellybeans?

They seemed to have calmed down with using "So" on Radio 4....now all we have to do is to get rid of "at the end of the day" and "basically" on other TV stations!

Lily flower, I have always said "may I have" rather than "can I have" or "could I have". Is this wrong?

Agree totally with Shortlegs starting sentences with 'so' is my current pet hate. Read this am that 'so', 'like' and split infinitives are now acceptable! Why do we always seem to dumb down to the lowest possible denominator - because it's less hassle???

Hm999 Very interesting. I had always thought that spitting feathers meant foaming at the mouth with anger.

I know I've said before but Bregzit drives me round the bend! Presumably they say egzit instead of exit?

Deteriation instead of deterioration - they say it all the time - drives me mad.

The specifically/pacifically error gets my goat and the use of 'disinterested' instead of 'uninterested' is a sad loss of a useful word meaning 'objective'. 'Can I get a coffee?' instead of 'Could I have a coffee?' is an irritating Americanism as is 'different than' instead of the (correct) 'different from'.

These have all been endlessly remarked on but the one solecism I have begun to notice that no one else has commented on to my knowledge is the odd usage of 'likely' as in 'He is likely absent' instead of 'he is likely to be absent'. Now I have noticed it I read and hear it everywhere. Perhaps it's me who's wrong or perhaps we have all just given up on the correct version as the incorrect one has become ubiquitous in the same way that 'Can I get?' has now passed into current usage.

Two things that really annoying me:
1) "The proof is in the pudding". Wrong. The proof of the pudding is in the eating.

2). Why do people being interviewed insist on starting with "So......"

What drives me potty is the use of the word "like" - e.g.: "you know like, I said to him like, what is it you want and he said well, like, I would mind a cheese sandwich" ugh.

One of our local newsreaders was referring to an item about "whooping cough". He said the word several times ,every time pronouncing the W as in wooping cough. I don,t think some of these newsreaders would have made the grade years ago.

Not to mention "a damp squid" (aren't they all?) and "the proof is in the pudding."

Well I don't like it - spits out dummy!

annsixty I googled 'hare's breath' and most sites describe it as a malapropism. They do find their way into the language though - like abdicate responsibility for abrogate.

mernice. I agree. Kneeled is more common in America but it is an acceptable form according to the major dictionaries.

Hare's breath - I like that!

Spitting feathers means very thirsty. Spitting fire/flames means angry. However quite often on TV you hear spitting feathers meaning angry! Why??!

Kneeled is fine grammatically.
.