Big Nate by Lincoln Peirce for April 30, 2013

Ah, incorrect usage becoming the norm from common usage.

One of my pet peeves (and I have a few of them) is that 12 a.m. is noon and 12 p.m. is midnight. It is up to and including the hour. 1 second after is the next a.m. or p.m.

“I could care less” isn’t wrong — it’s just unfinished. The whole statement is “I could care less, if I tried.” But the person doesn’t even care enough to finish saying it. Now THAT’s not caring.

He always cant care…

This isn’t stuff like the subjunctive mood or ablative case where they start to go away because they’re able to be easily inferred by context or with another case and prepositions. This is about being just plain wrong :P-And this is coming from a grammar nazi (with a BA in linguistics) :)

i wonder why Francis gets all worked up about these little things

He means I COULDN’T care less. My science teacher does that, and it drives me NUTS!

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language has a usage note on this topic: “By convention, 12 AM denotes midnight and 12 PM denotes noon. Because of the potential for confusion, it is advisable to use 12 noon and 12 midnight.”15

Here we go again……

“I could care less”

Me neither

Let it go, Francis. It’s a battle you won’t win. Someday, years down the road, Nate will say a word correctly and remember you. Until then, don’t get so worked up about it.

It’s Pet Peeve Day!

Get your leashes here!!

My pet peeve – people who feel it is their duty to correct other’s grammar. I will talk and type how I want to, thank you very much.

better yet, just say 11:59 am, or thereabouts

My pet peeve is saying “these ones” and using less instead of fewer (you say less when referring to bulk and fewer when speaking about items)

Actually, Francis overdid it this time. “Towards” is a perfectly acceptable word dating back over 1000 years. (Or so says the OED!)

Aw come on Francis!

It’s a euphemism for Christ.

Fine. But don’t get upset if no-one knows what you are trying to say. This is why we have grammar rules.

very careless to miss use frases and englush

A losing battle in the ‘dumbing down’ of America.

Forget it, Francis! It’s obvious Nate is a lost cause.

Yeah, well, one of MY pet peeves is people who make it look like anything but the American usage is uncouth, untowardS and dead wrong.

Toward = American spellingTowards = British spelling.

And perfectly good English, thank you – IF you don’t mind. Sheesh.

And this is why are children are undereducated. Too many of them are like Nate.

I agree with Francis so much on this. It is so annoying when people, especially teachers, use incorrect grammar! My science teacher says “exact same” a lot, and I can’t help cringing. It also really annoys me when people say that they could care less, rather than “I couldn’t care less”.

take that Francis

silly francis, always expecting correct grammer.

In Australia we say “towards” – there is no right or wrong on this one.We even had a TV show called “Towards 2000”. We also say “I couldn’t care less”. Global variations – quite reasonable.

In panel 5, not shown here, Francis’ head explodes.

I COULD care less (but I don’t)

He said he COULD care less. That means he couldd reduce his level of caring.

I could care less, too!

If those words become the norm in the future, why bother correcting it, Francis?

I just say “head home.”

OOOOOOOOOOOO…. I hate “I could care less.”