language can be a tricky thing for all intents and purposes it's always evolving and you need
to stay on top of all the changes if you don't want to be treated like an escape goat
after all it's a doggy dog world out there and you need to be careful not to make any faux pas that
might turn you into a social leopard you found that previous paragraph annoying even
perhaps slightly rage inducing like i found it reading it then you might have
spotted that it contained a few tongue and cheek mistakes to be specific it included
a bunch of common sayings that people tend to use incorrectly and there are others such as
number 10 you've got another thing coming out there is a fortune waiting to be had if you
think i'll let it go you're mad you've got another thing coming these are the immortal words of rob
halford and really who are we to argue with judas priest and yet argue we will because the correct
version of the expression is you've got another think coming that is the saying that you will find
in the oxford english dictionary and most other dictionaries although it would be fair to say
that the alternative version with thing has become more popular thanks in no small part to judas
priest's 1982 metal anthem the phrase is a great example of an egg corn a linguistic slip up where
people replace one misheard word with another one they feel makes sense within the context of
the phrase because there is some logic behind the switch these incorrect sayings are some of
the most persuasive ones that you can find so it's likely that both versions are here to stay for the
time being 9. toe the line another very common egg corn is the expression toe the line meaning
to conform to an established standard the correct phrase is toe the line it's toe with an e instead
of a w the origins of the expression are debated although one popular myth claims that it came from
british politics the house of commons has a pair of three lines painted on the floor separating the
front benches of the two main parties then during a heated debate if an mp got a little too close
to his opposing members the speaker of the house reminded him to toe the line meaning to get back
behind the line on the floor as we said this is a myth but during the 19th century expressions using
toe as a verb were more common such as toe the mark toad the trig and toe the scratch therefore
back then the expression toe the line would not have caused too much confusion but nowadays the
word toe is more commonly used as a verb so people who first heard the phrase assumed it was written
with a w they disseminated this misinformation and thus a new egg corn was born number eight
on tender hooks when someone is on tent hooks it means that the person is waiting nervously
for something to happen it's still a pretty common expression although many people incorrectly say on
tender hooks which if you think about it doesn't really make any sense since hooks cannot be tender
the problem here is that most people have no idea what a tenter is so they replaced it with a more
familiar word a tensor is a simple device that has been used for hundreds of years in making
cloth it is a wooden frame with loads of hooks on it and the cloth is stretched out and it prevents
it from shrinking and decreasing when it dries so you can see someone with anxiety being on tender
hooks does make a bit more sense 7. nip it in the butt to nip something in the bud means to
suppress something at an early stage before it has a chance to turn into too much of a problem
if you are gardening or simply know your idioms then you've probably been using this phrase
correctly other people however have a tendency of using the similar but incorrect variant of
nipping it in the butt the meaning behind this expression is actually pretty straightforward
when you are tending your garden if you don't want a flower to blossom for whatever reason you simply
cut or nip it while it's still a bud before it gets a chance to bloom the phrase has been
around for hundreds of years and even replaced the older idiom of nipping it in the bloom the
alternative nipped in the butt is yet another example of an egg corn but no posteriors need be
harmed in order to use this idiom correctly number 6. boldfaced lie if you ever want to accuse
someone of saying an obvious and shameless lie make sure you called them a bald-faced liar not
a bold-faced one at first glance the second option makes some sense if someone is being an evident
and unapologetic deceiver you could imagine them doing it with a brazen or bold expression on their
face hence boldfaced but the correct expression is bald-faced meaning a face that is completely
uncovered by facial hair or a mask or anything of the sort if you want an alternative you could
use bare-faced liar in fact that was the original expression which has been in use since the early
1800s however around the halfway point of the 20th century american publications started using
bald-faced lie for whatever reason in that case the substitution was correct because the two words
still meant the same thing whereas boldfaced has a different meaning 5. wet your appetite the right
form of this expression is to whet your appetite spelt with an h this is a tricky one however
because the similar idiom wet your whistle spelled without an age which means to have a drink is
correct therefore it is understandable that people would think to wet your appetite without the h is
also correct you use one for food and another for drinks right well not really because the
two expressions do not mean the same thing while wetting your whistle means satisfying your thirst
wetting your appetite means almost the exact opposite to stimulate or when used metaphorically
to increase your eagerness to wet something means to sharpen it so that it makes a lot more sense in
the context of the idiom like tender this is a word that has been around for centuries but has
fallen out of use in modern times since most of us rarely take a trip to the blacksmith nowadays to
sharpen our swords that plus the popularity of the similar expression wet your whistle likely
explains why people started replacing wet with it's more commonplace homophone 4. hunger pains
if you have ever experienced a sense of discomfort even pain in your stomach area because
you've not eaten in a while you might say that you are feeling hunger pains when in fact the
correct term is hunger pang this mistake is pretty understandable even logical i mean what is a pang
anyway it's defined as a brief piercing spasm of pain and in a medical contest it specifically
refers to hunger-induced cramps again we are dealing with an antiquated word which most of
us will never use outside of this particular expression but unlike many other egg corns its
replacement word also makes perfect sense within the context of the phrase since pang and pain are
synonyms that is why this is one saying that has not only stuck its way into everyday speech but
can also be found in published texts so even the professionals get this one wrong every now
and then number three pass mustard it's time for you to inspect something and see if it meets your
expectations let's say that it does in that case did it pass muster or did it pass mustard it's the
first one if you were wondering passing mastered might be common around the dining table but it
does not make a lot of sense in this context to muster on the other hand is an old military term
which means to assemble the troops for a variety of reasons such as exercises inspection or battle
therefore when the soldiers passed master that meant that they passed inspection the confusion
here likely stems from several sources obviously the words muster and mustard are similar so some
people are bound to mistake them based on that alone but there is also the expression
to cut the mustard in that case mustard is the correct word and the idiom means the same thing as
passing muster so it is relatively easy for people to get the two jumbled in their heads number two
damp squid although many american audiences will be unfamiliar with this term an english poll
suggested that dam squid is the most misquoted phrase in britain if you're unfamiliar with the
term it refers to something greatly disappointing which fails to live up to expectations and the
correct phrase is damp squib not squid once again the problem stems from the fact that the
original saying uses an antiquated word that most people simply do not use anymore a squib
is a small firework that burns with a hissing stound before going off with a mild explosion
fireworks should be kept dry for best results so you can see why a damp squib would be seen as a
disappointing and underwhelming thing it would literally go out with a fizz instead of a bang
number one i could care less let's finish up with the most contentious entry on our list which is
also probably the most common the phrase i could care less meaning that you are not interested in
something or someone at all the correct phrasing is i couldn't care less which makes sense if you
have zero interest then it would be impossible for you to care any lower but if you said that
you could care less then that means you do care to some degree at the moment a lot of people
get really a rate when they hear this expression used incorrectly after all could and couldn't are
opposites of each other so they cannot be used to mean the same thing right well there are some old
examples of i could care less being used properly with the same meaning as i couldn't care less
an 1840 edition of london's morning post wrote it is impossible that he could care
less in 1864 the dundee courier wrote his bearing towards male acquaintances of whom he knew little
or nothing and could care less in both instances the negation is included somewhere else in the
sentence so the expression is used correctly this not only shows us that the phrase could care less
has been around for a long time but also reveals the potential origins of this alternative spelling
of course without including the negation the saying still doesn't make sense but it has become
so popular and so common in everyday speech that it probably isn't going to go away anytime soon