Our Evolving Language!

It's interesting the way language changes. If you talk to a child under the age of nine, he will probably tell you he lost the remote control "on accident." If you talk to someone over the age of thirty-five or so, that person will probably use the phrase "by accident." For anyone in between, you could get either one.

A lot of the time language changes because we simply hear things wrong, and we repeat it, and on and on. Some of these are things I've been guilty of. For example, my whole life I said "All the sudden ..." (the correct phrase is "All of a sudden").

Here are some common errors in English—things you probably don't even realize!

* ATM machine (--> ATM)

* beckon call (-->beck and call)

* butt naked (--> buck naked)

* card shark (--> card sharp)

* case and point (--> case in point)

* center around (--> center on/revolve around)

* cohabitate (--> cohabit)

* heart wrenching (--> gut wrenching/heart rending)

* in shambles (--> a shambles)

* just assume (--> just as soon)

* neck in neck (--> neck and neck)

* one of the only (--> one of the few)

* once and a while (--> once in a while)

* plays a factor (--> plays a role/is a factor)

* prophecize (--> prophesy) Sorry, Bob Dylan!!

* Scotch free (--> Scot free)

* simplistic (--> this is kind of derogatory, you usually just mean simple)

* step foot (--> set foot)

* supremist (--> supremacist)

* safety deposit box (--> safe deposit box)

* unthaw (--> thaw)