Just some word dessert to savor.
I love the hidden mystery of language. The why "it just sounds better this way"...has actual reasons.
No, I don't always understand it, hence the mystery...
Also, my day is not complete unless can correct someone's random grammar sin. 
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2 comments
Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.A clock sounds 'tick tock', not 'tock tick'.
The 'pitter pat' of tiny feet, not 'pat pitter'.
evidentialist
Level 8
Sep 16, 2019
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To my ears I agree about tick tock. Pitter pat or pitter patter proves the rule (I before A) as when you try to describe something it sounds better to your ears. I don't think anyone would say feet actually sound like pitter pat, I think it's more of a rhythm quality.
Clippity clop might be another example, sometimes it hard to tell though. What do you think?
@Nakedterror -- I prefer 'cloppity clip'.
Yes, I'm kidding.
This is also subject to the language in which a given set of words developed. In English things follow the I-A-O order. Things like bIg bAd wOlf emerge. This is apparently inviolable. If there is no 'A', then it is solidly I-O as in 'tIck tOck'. I don't recall ever coming across an rational answer as to why this is so, but I suspect it came from habits formed over time.
@evidentialist like most everything else, I suppose!
Famous grammar sins;
"To boldly go where no man has been before" - Should read, to go boldly... It is like saying "to quicky run".
"To take arms against a sea of troubles" - Is a mixed metaphor. One cannot take arms against a sea, King Canute tried it and was less than successful
273kelvin
Level 8
Sep 16, 2019
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