There are so many times when we say things we think they are correct. I was having a conversation with two friends of mine and it went like this:

Sherry: “Have you ever wondered if there was anything wrong in saying ‘today is school’?”

Joie: “I don’t think there is anything wrong in saying it. The sentence is perfectly correct.”

Sherry: ” Well, it’s not correct. How can a particular day be school?”

Sally: “That’s true”

Sherry: “Yes. You can’t say today is school”

Joie: “Ok, I get it. You can say it’s school today”

Sherry: “… or you can say it’s a school day today”

Sally: “What about writing and handwriting?”

Sherry: “I don’t think handwriting is correct because you can’t say in my own handwriting, you say in my own writing. I think it’s tautology when you say handwriting”.

A friend: “No, I think handwriting is correct because there are people that use their feet to write or their mouths to write. So you can say handwriting.”

Joie: “Okay, but I still agree that handwriting is tautology”.

Sally: “Now, will you say older sister or elder sister?”

Joie: “Elder sister”

Sally: “Ennh! Why?”

Sherry: “It’s correct”

Joie: “Why is it correct?”

Sherry: “I don’t know, it’s just correct”.

Sally: “Hey another one”

Joie: “Which one?”

Sally: “Single-handed and single-handedly”

Sherry: “Ok. single-handed is already an adverb, so why would you want to put the ‘ly’ since the word is already an adverb.

Joie: “Oh yeah, that’s true”.

Sherry: “I’ve got one, I’ve got one.”

Sally: “What one?”

Sherry: “hmm like reverse and reverse back”

Joie: “Yeah that’s true. You can’t say reverse back…

Sally: ” …it’s tautology. That’s true.”

Sherry: “Exactly. Reverse is the correct one”.

Joie: “I remember when I was talking to my dad and I made a mistake saying, ‘return it back’, he said it was tautology. You say return it.”

Sherry: “Yes! Return it. It’s deinitely correct.”

Joie: “I could have turned red all over… if it were possible”.

Sally: “It’s funny when people think they are saying the correct thing because they feel it’s correct.”

Sherry: “Sometimes, it doesn’t even strike them that what they said is wrong…”

Joie: ” …and many times, even when they are corrected it sounds strange because they are so used to saying the wrong things.” It happens everytime.

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