May 15, 2008
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All of them? How many did he have?
Not long ago, I developed a small pet peeve to something that doesn't occur often, but when it does, I always decide to meet it with sarcasm. It's the use of "all of" when talking about a small number of items. I mean extremely small. As in two.
I forget what the context was, but I'm sure it was prompted by someone saying, "... and he broke all of his thumbs."
All of them? You mean, both, right? Because you can either break your thumb, break your other thumb, or break both thumbs. I mean, unless this is a person who has collected a large number of thumbs, and had all of them break for some reason. I mean, if he broke 100 thumbs, and they were all his, I can definitely understand saying this.
You would think something like this would not be a regular occurrence. I saw it again today, in comments for a video. Around the third comment down, someone leaves the comment "and probably a couple of broken ankles." You meanm like a broken ankle, or two. Unless the guy in the video will be breaking other people's ankles.
Black 6, out.
Comments (2)
Hi, Oh, that is so true. The other ones that just bugs me are "real" and "live". Other week I passed by a restaurant and had a sign saying "real live band" performing that night. Like WHAT??? It's a wonder why some people gives up trying to learn our language. Take Care, Sharon
@justhopingnow - No, even better is "new and improved." It can't be both. It's either new, meaning that there was nothing like it before, or it's improved, meaning that it is better than it was before.
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