Monday 18 July 2011

Failbook: Vocabulary/pattern recognition

You may have gathered that I am a man of words. This is true. Despite the fact I had to take my English 'O' level twice (youngsters would know it as a GCSE these days), I take great pride in having a better-than-average grasp of my mother tongue. Mind you, as with most people with a little pride and not much talent... don't I just know it?*
The other day, one of my friends posted a link to something via Facebook, a survey called Test your Vocab. Before you get all sniffy, let me assure you that it's not a Facebook app, so you don't have to allow it access to your sex life, bank details and your genetic code. In fact, you don't even have to go to Facebook at all, so all you trendy Twitter-philes and hipsters on Google+ can enjoy it with impunity and dignity intact.
</facetious mode>

I'm getting off-topic, aren't I? Sorry about that.
Anyway, I naturally thought to have a go and see if I really was as good as I thought I was. The result? Pretty much so. Me being me, I thought to brag about it and so posted about it on Facebook.
Julie saw this and decided that she, too, would chance her arm. There were two problems with this idea. The first was that Julie has a habit - an entertaining one, to be sure - of making up her own words when the real one finds it can't make its way any further than the tip of her tongue. The other... well, just see for yourself in this screencap from the actual conversation thread on Facebook.


(Don't you just love the thinly-veiled threat at the end?)
So - How did you fare on the survey?

*For a top-notch explanation of this turn of phrase, please enjoy this short film by The Streets.

No comments:

Post a Comment