4 ms·

Are you: - weary of these getting downplayed (pron. wee-ree = you are tired of it) - wary of these getting downplayed (pron. way-ray = you are suspicious of i

by smcl 4y ago

Are you: - weary of these getting downplayed (pron. wee-ree = you are tired of it) - wary of these getting downplayed (pron. way-ray = you are suspicious of it)

missedthecue 4y ago
I think people combine leery and wary in their mind and end up with weary, which they don't intend. I see it a lot. In the case of the parent comment however, weary does work.
- whamlastxmas 4y ago
  The rare occasion that it does work both ways
- nerdponx 4y ago
  And/or they've seen the word "weary" and assume it's pronounced like "wary", so they spell the word "wary" as "weary".
  - smcl 4y ago
    This is it - if you hear the word "wary" and know the verb "to wear" before encountering the written word "weary" it's totally understandable to assume that is how "wary" is written and to mix them up. What I wanted to do with my comment is show this without coming across as a mean or pedantic - especially since in the context both work ok. I've no idea if I accomplished that, I probably come across as a dick but I hope I don't.
BalinKing 4y ago
Isn’t “grow weary” a common phrase, though?
- ska 4y ago
  so is "grow wary", which is the potential problem.
  - snozolli 4y ago
    "Grow wary" isn't a thing. https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=grow+weary%2Cgrow+wary&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=en-2019&smoothing=3 https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=grow+weary%2Cg...
    - mkr-hn 4y ago
      Always remember to mind the y-axis and scale when looking at and thinking about graphs. They can be deceptive even without meaning to. https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=grow+wary&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=en-2019&smoothing=3 https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=grow+wary&year...
      - snozolli 4y ago
        I'm not sure what your point is, since you looked at the vanishingly uncommon phrase alone, giving the false impression of popularity.
        mkr-hn 4y ago
        You said it's not a thing. It is, in fact, a thing. I've heard it and said it often enough to be sure it's not so uncommon that it's reasonable to say it's not a thing. You also need to keep in mind what Google Ngram is. https://books.google.com/ngrams/info https://books.google.com/ngrams/info >> "When you enter phrases into the Google Books Ngram Viewer, it displays a graph showing how those phrases have occurred in a corpus of books (e.g., "British English", "English Fiction", "French") over the selected years." It's a collection of books. Books remain relevant, but it tells you nothing of usage outside that. You only have to run a search on Google to see that it's used in a wide range of unrelated contexts. It's not some obscure anachronism or regionalism.
stronglikedan 4y ago
Both are valid phrases, and both can be true, even at the same time.
- smcl 4y ago
  They are! That's why I asked which it was.
madaxe_again 4y ago
Where do they pronounce wary way-ray? I’ve always said it “where-y”.
- smcl 4y ago
  Scotland - and the emphasis is on the first syllable ("wea-" is about 1.5-2x longer than "ry", with the "r" short and rolled). But remember mapping pronunciation of spoken-English to Latin characters is a little bit ambiguous due to accents. For example you use the word "where" to help describe how you pronounce "wary", but for me that "wh" in "where" is slightly aspirated.
OJFord 4y ago
Those pronunciation guides confused me a lot before I scanned back, and read the words themselves (trying to ignore the pronunciations I'd already seen!) - so let me proffer: - weary 'weir[in a river]-(r)ee' - wary 'wear[clothes]-(r)ee' Which just goes to demonstrate how weird and multi-sourced English is, doesn't it. And also maybe we just pronounce these very differently (I'm British) - 'way-ray' is way off to me. I add the '(r)' because being British (and I believe some of the US) an 'r' following a vowel is under-pronounced (in the opinion of some other accent holders), as in 'wear', but not when followed by another (pseudo)vowel, in 'weary' - but that may not be the case for you.

by smcl 4y ago

Are you: - weary of these getting downplayed (pron. wee-ree = you are tired of it) - wary of these getting downplayed (pron. way-ray = you are suspicious of it)

missedthecue 4y ago

I think people combine leery and wary in their mind and end up with weary, which they don't intend. I see it a lot. In the case of the parent comment however, weary does work.

whamlastxmas 4y ago
The rare occasion that it does work both ways
nerdponx 4y ago
And/or they've seen the word "weary" and assume it's pronounced like "wary", so they spell the word "wary" as "weary".
- smcl 4y ago
  This is it - if you hear the word "wary" and know the verb "to wear" before encountering the written word "weary" it's totally understandable to assume that is how "wary" is written and to mix them up. What I wanted to do with my comment is show this without coming across as a mean or pedantic - especially since in the context both work ok. I've no idea if I accomplished that, I probably come across as a dick but I hope I don't.

BalinKing 4y ago

Isn’t “grow weary” a common phrase, though?

ska 4y ago
so is "grow wary", which is the potential problem.
- snozolli 4y ago
  "Grow wary" isn't a thing. https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=grow+weary%2Cgrow+wary&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=en-2019&smoothing=3 https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=grow+weary%2Cg...
  - mkr-hn 4y ago
    Always remember to mind the y-axis and scale when looking at and thinking about graphs. They can be deceptive even without meaning to. https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=grow+wary&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=en-2019&smoothing=3 https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=grow+wary&year...
    - snozolli 4y ago
      I'm not sure what your point is, since you looked at the vanishingly uncommon phrase alone, giving the false impression of popularity.
      - mkr-hn 4y ago
        You said it's not a thing. It is, in fact, a thing. I've heard it and said it often enough to be sure it's not so uncommon that it's reasonable to say it's not a thing. You also need to keep in mind what Google Ngram is. https://books.google.com/ngrams/info https://books.google.com/ngrams/info >> "When you enter phrases into the Google Books Ngram Viewer, it displays a graph showing how those phrases have occurred in a corpus of books (e.g., "British English", "English Fiction", "French") over the selected years." It's a collection of books. Books remain relevant, but it tells you nothing of usage outside that. You only have to run a search on Google to see that it's used in a wide range of unrelated contexts. It's not some obscure anachronism or regionalism.

stronglikedan 4y ago

Both are valid phrases, and both can be true, even at the same time.

smcl 4y ago
They are! That's why I asked which it was.

madaxe_again 4y ago

Where do they pronounce wary way-ray? I’ve always said it “where-y”.

smcl 4y ago
Scotland - and the emphasis is on the first syllable ("wea-" is about 1.5-2x longer than "ry", with the "r" short and rolled). But remember mapping pronunciation of spoken-English to Latin characters is a little bit ambiguous due to accents. For example you use the word "where" to help describe how you pronounce "wary", but for me that "wh" in "where" is slightly aspirated.

OJFord 4y ago

Those pronunciation guides confused me a lot before I scanned back, and read the words themselves (trying to ignore the pronunciations I'd already seen!) - so let me proffer: - weary 'weir[in a river]-(r)ee' - wary 'wear[clothes]-(r)ee' Which just goes to demonstrate how weird and multi-sourced English is, doesn't it. And also maybe we just pronounce these very differently (I'm British) - 'way-ray' is way off to me. I add the '(r)' because being British (and I believe some of the US) an 'r' following a vowel is under-pronounced (in the opinion of some other accent holders), as in 'wear', but not when followed by another (pseudo)vowel, in 'weary' - but that may not be the case for you.