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Comment by robotron | Hacker News Reader

I have never heard anyone pronounce "oriented" by saying "orientated". Maybe if they were 12?

Personally I've never heard anyone saying "oriented," or even picked up that it was different from "orientated" until today. The dictionary on OS X says:

orientate |ˈôrēənˌtāt| verb another term for orient.

I suppose that this is just the way that people speak in South Africa? And maybe Britain?

We interview quite a few developers, and I'd say about 25% of them pronounce it 'orientated'. Maybe it's a British thing? Most are graduates too, fresh out of college.

I've heard plenty of US-born / US-raised developers use the term as well. Moreso when I lived in the South than when I moved to the DC metro area.

Another pet peeve of mine are people who "Administrate" computers. I don't know of a polite way to correct them short of correctly using "Administer" in sentences that follow, but I usually come away from that feeling as if they think I'm the one using it incorrectly.

If someone said they "administer" computers, I would think they're MCSEs. Real BOFHs sys admin (could have been just "admin", but the sys prefix is there to importantate.)

Interesting. I ADMINISTER computers, but I used to BE a SYS ADMIN. Administer is a verb to me, and admin a noun. Either way, your suggestion doesn't offend me 1 millionth as much as administrate does, in either usage.

there to importantate

Clearly you meant "importantize". Sheesh.

iMuy importante! :)

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