Friday, January 11, 2008

Confession Number Four

I must confess...

... that I absolutely hate when people say "This is true."

It bugs me so much when people say this. It is very difficult to explain, but if there are certain words or phrases that you hate, then you might understand a little better.

I will illustrate why I don't like this phrase with the following example...

Two people walk up to another person after class.

The first says, "You should have seen our teacher."

The second says, "Yeah! It was crazy!"

The unknowing person questions, "Well what happened?"

The first says, "He flexed his pec muscles and said 'i'm a dirty, dirty man'!"

The second says, "This is true."


This is not true. I believe that the second person must say "That is true." Not "This is true." Let's compare the fact of the teacher flexing his muscles and saying what he said to an object. The first person presents this fact, or object, so let's say he is holding it. If the second person wanted to say the fact (object) was true, then he would point to the object and say "THAT is true." By saying "This is true," the second person is taking ownership, or holding, the fact, or object.

I hope you understand why I believe saying "This is true" is wrong in certain situations. It may have been a little confusing. If you are confused leave a comment saying why you are confused.

3 comments:

deelirious said...

I am not confused, I understand completely. It doesn't really bother me as it seems to bother you, but I understand and will work not to make this mistake. :)

Anonymous said...

Wow Justin, I had no idea bad grammer bothered you so. I promise to pay more attention and never use that phrase ever.

That is true. ^^

justdpl said...

cori.. bad grammar usually doesn't bother me. only that phrase bothers me... but most people don't use the phrase often. so it happens rarely