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A comment on Giant Pacific Octopus. Parent comment

Re:Giant Pacific Octopus by MayeulC on Friday September 18, 2020 @12:45PM (#24518990)
Well, thus is, strictly speaking, the difference between "I don't know' and "I dunno". Speakers know this is a colloquial saying.

There might be a few areas where official bodies are lagging behind usage ("postuler à" being one I have in mind), but I'd say that grammar nazis and teachers alike are actually somewhat effective IMO.

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Re:Giant Pacific Octopus by jacobr1 on Friday September 18, 2020 @09:25PM (#24523942)
> but I'd say that grammar nazis and teachers alike are actually somewhat effective IMO.

We have no evidence this is true. Certainly historically we know it isn't the case, there very strong evidence surrounding how languages drift over time that exist alongside contemporary pendants later proving to have not made a difference. But we also haven't really had a society with near universal literacy before so maybe that changes the dynamic.

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Re:Giant Pacific Octopus by simlevesque on Friday September 18, 2020 @02:40PM (#24520401)
> "postuler à"

Today I learned that I used it "wrong" all my life.

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Re:Giant Pacific Octopus by MayeulC on Saturday September 19, 2020 @06:56AM (#24526559)
I know, right? Languagetool brought it to my attention the other day. "postuler" == "to candidate" seems absent from the dictionary, though it's in common use.

http://www.academie-francaise.fr/postuler-postuler-pour

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