Wednesday, January 9, 2008

"Bath"-ing the Babies!!

You may find this hard to believe, but I don't go around correcting people all the time.  I can think of one time that I did actually correct two of my sisters, though.  It was done out of exasperation and after I had totally reached the end of my rope.

My two eldest sisters and their kids were staying with us for a long weekend.  By "us" I mean my parents and me; I was about fourteen at the time.  Each evening I would hear one or the other of them mention "bath-ing" the kids.  "You can bath Bill and then I'll bath Sheila."  "I'll bath Evonne and put her to bed, and we'll let Bill and Sheila play outside a few more minutes.", & etc! 

On the last night they were there I couldn't take it any longer.  I looked up from the book I was reading as Maxine walked past on her way to "bath" one of the kids.  "You know," I said, respectfully, "it isn't 'bath', it's 'bathe'.  Bathe is the verb."

Maxine raised her eyebrows at my fourteen-year-old presumption and asked, "Oh really?"

I said, "Yes, and it's been driving me nuts, everytime you guys say 'bath'!"

From the height of her 28- or 29-year-old superiority, she sneered, "Well, if it was 'bathe' it would have an . . . Oh!"  There was a pause and she looked a little chagrined.  "It does have an 'e' on the end, doesn't it?"

Maxine teaches first grade, by the way. lol


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8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Being British we always say Bath and very Bathe, same language just different ways of expressing it. Couple of other:

Realise as opposed to Realize
Cosy= Cozy
Colour=Color

Yasmin

Anonymous said...

lol...
wow..I didn't know that the word bath ends with an e...now I know...thanks!
Gem :-)

Anonymous said...

I grew up with hillbillies.  They didn't know any better.  The English language there was butchered, mauled, and chewed in their mouths, and rarely did they even move their lips when speaking it seemed to me. But I have never ever,ever heard any one say bath instead of bathe in my life.  You must have been giggling everytime you heard them.  I hope your sister has it right by now.  I'm sure she does.
lol

Nelishia
http://journals.aol.com/nelishianatl/PrayingandBelieving/

Anonymous said...

Oh my goodness! So funny you should mention this. My husband used to say the very same thing. Finally, I couldn't take it anymore and one night I was sure to correct him. It was driving me CRAZY.

LOL
~Heather

Anonymous said...

lol funny story, I'm sure she loved having her 14 year old sister how to say something.

Anonymous said...

My pet peeve is when someone pronounces the "s" at the end of Illinois.  

Anonymous said...

Love that story!  
Traci

Anonymous said...

My mother has always used the word "bath" that way too -- then again she also says "libary" instead of library, heel when she means hill and she let's me know when she has a great "idear."
I'm just glad that my language arts perfectionist daughter lets me know when I say something incorrectly. I often seem to mess up the use of gone and went somehow.
I'm lovin' this journal (am I allowed to say things like lovin' here? ;-)
Martha