Words I Hate, Vol. 3

I am somewhat indignant. I make a habit of stopping by either Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts on the way home from my daily walk, and generally I will get some form of a nonfat vanilla latte. On occasion I will "splurge" on a coffee (light) frappuccino or Dunkin's answer to that, the coffee coolatta. I am indignant because today I stopped by one of my local Dunkins (they are nearly as prevalent as Starbucks around my area) for a coolatta (it was hot today, so I wanted the ice). What I got was the color of mud and didn't taste much better. Mind you, I ordered my drink with nonfat milk to cut the fat and calories, so I expected it to be a bit darker than the pictures, but I have ordered the same drink before and it had been lighter colored. I asked the girl who had made it, and she told me that it always looks like that when you use nonfat milk. I tasted it while there and it didn't seem too bad, so I left. Bad move...it got worse with every sip. It tasted like she had made it with 90% coffee syrup and 10% ice. I went home and dumped it in a blender with more ice, and actually put milk in it this time...and lo and behold, it was actually the drink I ordered. Sheesh, people, don't say you made it right when you clearly didn't!!

I have Cicely to thank for my second rant today, and the third about words I hate. I apologize to those who already know the difference, but it really irks me when people confuse their, they're and there. For the uninitiated, here's a little trick to tell the difference. They're is easy to remember, since it's the only one with an apostrophe. It is the contraction for the words "they are." If you are not using a sentence where you can replace "they're" with "they are," you are using the wrong word. For the other two, you need to look at the words without the initial T for a clue. Their is a possessive, like "my" or "our." When you remove the T from "their", you are left with the word "heir," a person who receives property, reminding you of the possessive. When you remove the T from "there," you get the word "here," a location. "There" is also a location, so "here" will remind you that "there" is the location word. I hope my written explanation will help at least one person not confuse them anymore! 

English lesson/rant over.

Stay tuned tomorrow for a new Poetry Challenge! That means tonight is the last chance to submit a found poem.

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