Austin Texas Real Estate Blog

This is something that never ceases to irritate me, despite the fact that I should probably be immune to it by now.

The word "REALTOR" has two syllables, not three.  I realize the confusion, since it's spelled "Realtor", yet pronounced "Realtor".  Sorry to be sarcastic here.  

It's not pronounced "real-uh-ter".  You cannot buy a vowel.

I hear this from many people in the industry as well, sometimes from lenders and title companies.  Occasionally, I hear it from licensed Realtors as well.

I was thinking of turning the tables on other industries when I hear people mispronounce this word.  I will tell them that I have a doc-a-tor appointment, or that they need to meet with a len-a-der to see about getting pre-approved for financing.  God forbid that we ever have to consult a law-a-yer, or a chiroprac-a-tor.

I realize it may seem petty for me to mention this, but it's my sincere aim to inform and help my friends (and even some non-friends).  

If it makes you feel better, I get equally bothered by non-word usage, including the following somewhat prevalent examples that I hear way too often:

• "anyways" - not really the right word.  It's "anyway".  This one even managed to make it into some dictionaries because so many people said it.  Still wrong.
• "orientated" - not a word at all - it's "oriented".  
• "conversate" - this was formerly limited to the truly ignorant, but I heard someone use this the other day and almost did a full-on spit take
• "irregardless" - it's just "regardless", no "ir" needed or used here.
• "utilize" - this is sort of the pretentious version of "use".  I learned somewhere from a writing teacher "don't utilize utlize, use use."  

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/calliope/72949752/ 

I was thinking about some phrases that I hear regularly from friends, acquaintances, and family members of mine, and I wanted to share a few observations.  These are sort of pet peeves of mine, if you will.  After you read this, you may think of me as a sort of grammar disciplinarian.  I guess I'm okay with that.  I was a raised by a former English teacher, and I was spelling bee champion in sixth grade.  Sue me.  If there is a chance that I can help someone who reads this to do a better job of communicating via the written (or spoken) word, I am happy.

"Anyways" - This is not a word in the English language.  "Anyway" IS a word, however.  I cannot count the number of times I hear this misused each day or week.  I finally had to tell my title rep to stop saying it, and that I thought it made her seem less educated.  If you are using it, too, don't feel bad.  You are definitely in good company.  It has become widely accepted, unfortunately.

"Irregardless" - Again, not a word at all.  "Regardless" is the term.  These are sometimes used interchangeably in emails that I receive. 

"I could care less" - This implies that you care at least a little bit.  In other words, there is actually less caring that you could possess.  The correct phrase is "I couldn't care less".  I hear both of these all the time, sometimes from the same person.

When writing, "to" does NOT mean "also".  "Too" means also.  If you write "two" in this case, however, that is a whole different problem.

When I speak to other agents, or friends, and they say, "Where is your office at?", I want to correct them, but I bite my tongue.  The "at" is superfluous and improper here. 

"I" vs. "me" usage - "I" is a word used as a subject, "me" is an object.  To say, "Me and you are going to save the world" may sound like a noble cause, but it's grammatically wrong.  When I hear this, I cringe inwardly.  To me, it sounds like someone saying "Me is going to save the world".  Conversely, sometimes people try to be overly proper with their language skills, erring too far on the side of caution, perhaps because of an overzealous parent or teacher in their past.  These are the ones who say, "I got reservations at Melmo's for you and I."  In this case, "me" was actually the right word, because it is the object of the phrase.

One that I will admit I have never understood is the fact that "flammable" and "inflammable" mean the same thing.  Why use them both?  No wonder English is one of the most difficult languages in the world to learn as a second language.

One thing I see in emails and the blogosphere constantly is a lack of understanding with regard to the difference between "their" and "they're", not to mention "there".  Look this one up, as the explanation might be longer than I really want to provide in this post.  The same goes for "you're" and "your". 

For some reason, we have entered an era wherein the word "literally" is used FAR too often.  I heard it used yesterday thusly, "Her speech caused a firestorm...literally"  Really?!?  That is amazing.  That woman was able to speak fire into existence with her words?  It sounds a lot like "Firestarter" by Stephen King.  Be careful not to say "literally" unless you really mean it.  To say that we "literally had dozens of phone calls" sounds believable.  To say that "the phone was literally blowing up with calls" sounds silly.  Thanks to Dinah Griffey for bringing up this one in the comments so that I could edit the post.

Lastly, I was watching a show yesterday, and a lady mentioned that the girl standing next to her was her "oldest" daughter.  She has only two children.  "Older" implies that you are comparing two things, "oldest" pretty much requires three or more.  I have one son, and he is the oldest of our three children.  My older daughter is our middle child, and our youngest is now two years old.  See how that works?

Sorry for the slight rant that this ended up being.  I thought it would be more humorous, but I guess I get easily irritated sometimes. 

I have noticed that I hear "anyways" more and more often.  This is NOT a word.  "Anyway" is an actual word.  I am surprised by how often I hear this.  I even corrected our title agency rep once in order to help her seem more professional, because she was using "anyways". 

Another interesting thing that I recently discussed with my wife - have you noticed that "I could care less" is used as much as "I couldn't care less"?  Only one of them is correct, right?  If you say that you could care less, it means you do care at least a little, and that is clearly not what is meant.

There are a lot of common grammar mistakes and misspellings in the MLS as well, such as "hugh" for "huge".  Any others that you would like to share?

Austin Texas Real Estate