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a space for me and other teacher-writers to share our stories.
Being an English teacher, I know how to make words plural. I know the spelling changes and the rules. But my son has pointed out one word that I say incorrectly, and he takes great pleasure in reminding me.
Maybe you do this as well.
Aldi is a grocery store that is found in 30 states across the country. One recently opened here in my small hometown.
Me texting my son: I'm going to Aldis, do you need anything?
Son's reply: Oh, is there more than one now?
Yep, I make Aldi plural and call it Aldis. I do the same thing with JC Penney. I never call it "JC Penney." It's just "Penneys."
I try to be intentional now and try to say correctly, but some habits are just hard to break.
I’ve noticed that my mother in law says “Walgreen” while I say “Walgreens”. But Walmart is always singular. I think I would say “Aldis” and not “Aldi”.
ReplyDeleteThis is Margaret. It only published as Anonymous. Sorry.
DeleteThere are a handful of words I do this with. For us, it's with our favorite restaurant. Instead of calling it Devon Steak and Seafood, we ALWAYS refer to it as Devons. Gah! I need to fix that.
ReplyDeleteBTW: Will you be participating in the 19th Annual SOLSC in March? If so, I'd love to use this post as a Be Inspired. I appreciated the way you brought an evergreen problem to light by sharing a text with your son. Please email me by 1/10 if you'd be open to this: stacey[at]staceyshubitz[dot]com. Thanks!
DeleteEveryone I know, including myself, says 'Aldis'...so why change a good thing? haha
ReplyDeleteI do the same thing! It's the store belonging to Aldi or JC Penney! Well, that's how I use it and use that dreaded apostrophe!
ReplyDeleteSO true! The "smart" stores go with the flow and call themselves, Macy's or Sam's Club!
ReplyDeleteI do that ALL THE TIME! Meijer, Aldi, Kroger, wherever! Thanks for making me think!
ReplyDeleteAn Aldi is opening near us soon, so now I know to watch out for that tricky trap! Thanks! (And congrats on writing two weeks in a row--you're starting a streak!)
ReplyDeleteI was totally surprised by your post. It led me to thinking about stores that keep the 's (Trader Joe's, Macy's) and those who don't. I've never shopped at Penny, it's always been Pennys. Our language is interesting for sure.
ReplyDeleteToo funny. We don't have Aldi here, but I already know I would say Aldis. Now I'm thinking about which stores I do this with. I'm not sure I've ever noticed before!
ReplyDeleteI call it Aldis as well. I read your post to my husband, and we could connect on multiple levels to your post.
ReplyDeleteI call it "Aldis" and "Penneys" too, that never occurred to me it wasn't right! Such a small connection, but a connection nonetheless across the world. I'm from Pittsburgh, where we have our own dialect of English and my mom used to get on me when I would say things with the "Pittsburgh accent" or in "Pittsburghese". What's funny is I learned the days of the week from her, so I would say them like her "Mondee", "Tuesdee, etc. She will swear up and down she doesn't pronounce them that way even as she's saying them!
ReplyDeleteHahaha, where I'm from we call that the Black -s b/c Black people (especially older ones) are notorious for adding an -s when there isn't one and dropping an -s where there is one.
ReplyDelete