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What's the most petty/pointless/pedantic hill you're willing to die on? (programming.dev)

submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

1242 comments fedilink hide all child comments

For me, it may be that the toilet paper roll needs to have the open end away from the wall. I don't want to reach under the roll to take a piece! That's ludicrous!

That or my recent addiction to correcting people when they use "less" when they should use "fewer"

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (2 children)

You're right but also it's weird that we have a common phrase that means "exactly two" when we could just say "two". I think about that sometimes.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

It gets weirder because you can also say "a pair". And it gets even weirder because "a pair" means "2 that are meant to be together" whereas "a couple" means two that were put together, which is why it sounds weird to say you got a "couple of socks" (most people would understand this as 4 socks) instead of a "pair of socks".

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago

I'd understand it as two mismatched socks.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

Why is it weird?

You could just say 'two weeks', but you could also say 'a fortnight'.

Come to think of it, you could even say 'a couple of weeks'