suppose to

[Jonathan Lighter]

Cf. the title of James Herndon's 1968 book on elementary-school teaching, _The Way It Spozed to Be_.

  JL

Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Charles Doyle
Subject: Re: suppose to
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And "suppose(d)" in this construction is often monosyllabic. Google gives 226,000 hits for the spelling "sposed to," 77,600 for "spose to" (some of those spellings are intended jocularly, no doubt).

--Charlie
_______________________________________________

---- Original message ----
>Date: Wed, 20 Dec 2006 19:21:23 -0500
>From: Amy West
>Subject: Re: suppose to
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>
>Yes, I noticed that popping up as well in the papers. I suspected that it was pronunciation-related, as was made clear to me.
>
>---Amy West
>
>>Date: Tue, 19 Dec 2006 20:41:01 -0500
>>From: Beverly Flanigan
>>Subject: suppose to
>>
>>This is related to the "use to" variant noted earlier (can't recall by whom). Tonight's local newspaper says: "Council was suppose to consider approving the version of the plan . . . ." Nothing surprising here; just adding to the attestations.

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org


 __________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org