Hey, Americans ...

[blamebrampton]

Do you ever use forms of cliché other than plain old cliché? Such as clichéd or clichés? I see it used in a manner that I would consider wrong so often that I am wondering if it is one of those wacky idioms that English develops up all around the world. Or it could just be young people today with their emo music and Twittering ...

Comments

[azurelunatic]

It's young people. I often whack their knees with my cane as I pass.

[cinnatart.livejournal.com]

I do not use inappropriate forms myself, however I have seen it in abundance. I'm convinced it's either Americanism or, like you said, the youth of the day.

*scratches head and wonders when she stopped considering herself part of that youth* EEP

[nolagal.livejournal.com]

Pretty sure it's us wacky Americans with a complete disregard for the English language.

How have you seen it used incorrectly?

[adevyish.livejournal.com]

Canadian of the younger generation, and "clichéd" and "clichés" both sound right to me. I suppose I'll have to punish myself now by retaking French.

[old-enough.livejournal.com]

I'm almost 60 and spent the first 40 years in the US and the next 20 in various places in Europe. To my ear it is perfectly OK to say clichéd and clichés, but I have developed a severe allergy to the US "gotten".

That said, there appear to be lots and lots of what I learned as irregular past tense verb forms that are changing to be more regular in their conjugations. I am willing to be flexible on that issue, but have threatened to make several people "gender neutral" if I ever hear them say "drugged" instead of "dragged" again. :)

[shiv5468.livejournal.com]

I've always assumed it was an error brought on by poor diction. Unlike gotten which is just an error. Sniffs. I suggest the use of trite, which avoids the problem.

[glorafin.livejournal.com]

Isn't "clichés" an acceptable plural for "cliché"? If not, it should. :)

As for clichéd, I find the word quite ugly, with that unpronouncable 'éd' at the end. Actuall, I'm not quite sure why one could not use 'cliché' as an adjective. I would have thought that a "cliché story" would be understandable by all, as is "love story" or "horror story". But then again, that possibility of using substantives as adjectives is on of the most puzzling features of the English language, at least for French native speakers.

[norton-gale.livejournal.com]

I've always said clichéd or clichés. Is it a technically incorrect usage? And if so, why?

[sesheta-66.livejournal.com]

Both sound correct to me, and I may have used either or both myself over the years. I've certainly heard (and seen) them both used frequently, and would never have considered either one of them to be wrong. *shrugs*

It's not limited to the young today, though I'll happily accept the young label if you're offering. ;D Perhaps it's just a North American thing, because it's common in Canada too.

Both forms are listed in the Merriam Webster online dictionary also.

I also checked Oxford, which lists clichéd as the adjective. Since it lists cliché as a noun, it makes sense that clichés would be the plural, no?

[rosathome.livejournal.com]

Oh, that irritates me beyond all reason too. I do see it as part of a wider trend to abandon the past participle for some unaccountable reason. People regularly seem to write things like 'I use to do that...' And particularly in the adjectival form, the -ed ending seems increasingly optional. Poor diction must, I think, have quite a lot to do with this.

But, to be fair with respect to your actual example, I suppose one could make a case for using cliché in its French form, rather than as an Anglicization, in which case you would still have clichés but not clichéd.

[suttonwriter.livejournal.com]

Both have been common usage most of my life. And how a word is used determines whether or not it's correct, not what language mavens and English teachers think (believe me, I've tried to stamp out utilize and finally had to give up).

[bryoneybrynn.livejournal.com]

I use cliched. Also, I use the accent, I'm just too lazy to figure out how to do it on my keyboard (Word always supplies it for me). That said, I've only ever used it in conversation - I've never used in a paper or something.

[raitala.livejournal.com]

Just to add to your confusion, I was also not sure whether you were telling me that clichéd and clichés were the constructions you actually had a problem with or not - so it isn't just North Americans who could misread those sentences. Just goes to show that keyboard-English has a WHOLE other set of communication difficulties :)

[faynia.livejournal.com]

I read your post twice trying to decide if the issue was clichéd vs clichés (neither of which my Firefox spell check appreciates) or with the way we young people tend to bandy it about for everything.

I've decided that the usage works for anything that's at least two months old. Owning an Ipod? Tch, so cliché. XD

[silvershinigami.livejournal.com]

I saw this post and got horribly confused as to whether I was wrong for using clichéd and clichés. ;_; You made me run for a dictionary!

I think it's one of those things where it's kind of tricky to hear the difference in speech, so if people don't read enough to stumble across the correct usage, then they just assume it's cliché and only cliché.

[empress-jae.livejournal.com]

it might have to do with dialect in some cases, and also folks just never having heard the word properly which in turn means they have never been corrected. man, what community was i perusing the other day?...anyway, while trying to make her point, a commenter threw in "intensive purpose" into her rambling. after a couple of WAT? responses from the masses, i finally realized she was trying to say "to all intents and purpose" and decided to gently correct her. in a hissy fit, she said i was wrong, and then an argument broke out after others told her that SHE was in the wrong. i just sat back and palmfaced. youth.

regardless, i like your twittering theory, or as my Finnish boss calls it "twooting"

[sporkmetender.livejournal.com]

I must confess to using "gotten" on a fairly regular basis (it's part of an American upbringing, I suppose), but I strenuously object to using "cliché" in place of "clichéd" and "clichés." I have a friend who does it a lot, and it bugs me to death. So I guess I'm some sort of weird hybrid formation :)

[calanthe-fics.livejournal.com]

I'm surprised you even have to ask the question, because it's not like we don't know the answer.

:D

And zombies.

[mabonwitch.livejournal.com]

I am both young and American, but perhaps am no longer "youth" because emo music, Twitter, and incorrect use of the word "cliche" bother me...

[grey-hunter.livejournal.com]

Not American but when I IM with Kes (who is American) and say something like "that's just so cliché" she always corrects me that it's clichéd. *shrugs*

[mific.livejournal.com]

Dangerous to get us going on a grammar thread, as evidenced above!
Clichés and clichéd for me.
The other thing I frequently have to grit my teeth and bear is disinterested used to mean uninterested.
But again, I found a grammar-nerds site which in the end concluded that that battle was lost, in the New World anyway. Which is actually a supermarket chain here.
I'm a hold-out though - I refuse to use disinterested for not interested - and it's not just because my false teeth make the sibilants harder to say these days. ;)

[arcanetrivia]

"Clichés" is a valid plural noun to me (for example, a list of overused proverbs could be some clichés) and I have been known to use "clichéd" as a descriptor. This is incorrect? I had no idea. It strikes me as another example of our passion for nouning and verbing, TBH.