Grammar pet peeves!

[pooh6890]

It's definitely, not definately.

It's "toe the line," not "tow the line."

Plural of Jones is Joneses, not Jones' or Jones's or Jone's. If you put a sign on your front door to say the Smith family lives here, it should read "The Smiths" not "The Smith's".

It's October 2008, not October, 2008.

It's "could have" or "could've," not "could of".

Are you sure about "toe the line"? I think it's "tow the line" but I could be wrong.

 

[pooh6890]

Blah blah blah people. Life is too short to pick apart how someone speaks, spells, whatever. This is a family board not a college essay. Often when I am sending out a quick email to someone I don't pay close attention to all that. This all sounds overly critical to me. Who cares!!?? No one is perfect and all of us make mistakes. Good Grief!

Come on.........join in the fun

 

[PanamaMike]

Blah blah blah people. Life is too short to pick apart how someone speaks, spells, whatever. This is a family board not a college essay. Often when I am sending out a quick email to someone I don't pay close attention to all that. This all sounds overly critical to me. Who cares!!?? No one is perfect and all of us make mistakes. Good Grief!

Sadly, it isn't just on this board.
It is in college essays.
It is in the news.
It is in advertising.
It is everywhere.

 

[sweetandsassyfl]

I amnt? Sorry, I didn't know.

Cute I'm just surprised to find someone else that did that as a kid (I'll do it now just to be funny.)

 

[J.C.&ALI'SMOM]

• Irregardless - Again, no such word. The word is regardless.

Okay, I really think I am done now. Of course I said that before.

Irregardless is irritating!


I "could care less." No, actually you mean "you couldn't care less." If you could care less it implies that you do care somewhat..

"This is just so flustrating." No, it is frustrating. I think people have put the word flustered and frustrated together to make this one.

The traffic was backed up because someone wrecked their car in the medium. No, they wrecked in the median.

There is no Disney DINNING plan- it's DINING!

I hate it when you see things on menus like "Nacho's"... "shrimps" also bothers me. The country is BelgiuM, but they are Belgian waffles.

I hate it when a realtor cannot pronounce "realtor." I refuse to use the services of a person who cannot properly pronounce their own profession. It's REAL-TOR, not REAL-A-TOR. It's realty not real-a-ty. There is a commercial on a local station here for a realty company and I really do change the channel when they mispronounce it! I know, it's weird.



A DIS related peeve is when a post is long and there are no breaks in it. When it is just one long, massive jumble of words it is so hard to read. I just tend to skip over them. Use the enter key once in a while people!

 

[CraftyMouse]

Sadly, it isn't just on this board.
It is in college essays.
It is in the news.
It is in advertising.
It is everywhere.

Exactly. "Lowering the bar" seems to be acceptable lately, but not with me. Of course everyone has a mis-step once in a while and that's to be expected, but the "dumbing down" of America just makes me sad.

 

[Aliceacc]

Ooh, ooh, two more...

• Nother - as in "a whole nother thing". It's other. There is no such word as nother.

• 
  
  Oh, I forgot all about that one. It drives me insane!!!

 

[froggygrrrl]

"nucular" instead of nuclear and "supposably" instead of supposedly are my two biggest grammar pet peeves. I also can't stand when people add an "r" to words, like "warsh" instead of wash. Ugh!

 

[Shyvioletisme]

Ooh, ooh, two more...

• Nother - as in "a whole nother thing". It's other. There is no such word nother.
  

Okay, I really think I am done now. Of course I said that before.

Our state tourism board is guilty of this one. As if people don't already think those of us in Texas are a little bit stupid, the tourism board uses the tag line "It's like a whole nother country." This annoys me. C'mon people, don't encourage stupidity.

 

[#1hockeymom]

I agree with many of these posts! My pet peeve is the new slogan, "I love me some_______" arghhhhhhh!

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

You know that commercial is a joke, right? The man in the commercial is a comedian, Frank Caliendo. He's impersonating George Bush and his ability to make up words.
www.frankcaliendo.com

I know this commercial is a spoof, but that does not make it any less grating on my nerves. Joke or no joke, I can't stand it.

For me, I think it comes down to the fact that I am a prolific reader. I also write books and poetry and teach reading/writing in elementary and middle school. On my college admission essay, I had to write what my biggest pet peeve was, and as a fifteen year old I wrote about the use of good instead of well and other equally poor grammar.

 

[mafibisha]

When people say I seen something. It's like nails on a chalkboard for me. Also when people say me and so and so. And the their, there, they're thing and we're and were.

Yes, those things drive me crazy, too!

* I have seen and read that way too often!

And yes, it makes me nuts too, when people say, "Me and so and so are going to WDW."

* But it's also NOT: "Her and I were going to WDW." (it's "She and I are going to WDW.")

* And, yes! The interchanging of they're, their and there!

* And lose and loose. ("If it's too loose, you might lose it".)

* And advice and advise. ("If you want my advice, I would advise you to google it".)

* But my #1 pet peeve: the interchanging of your instead of you're.

" You're likely nodding in agreement to these comment as they're likely your pet peeves, also."

It makes me wonder not only what is being taught, but also what the kids are learning in school these days.

In addition, there is definitely (not definiAtely) a problem with spelling in America, too.

 

[mafibisha]

My pet peeve is punctuation when I am reading. I can't stand too many commas. I read a paper last term in my writing class that was 6 pages long and it had 196 commas in it. Yes I counted them. It was so hard to read.

Yes, that is too often the case!

But when one long run on sentence is posted which makes a most likely intelligent person look not too smart its even more annoying even here on the dis there are posters who write as they're speaking you know the kind they write like they may be speaking to a friend the difference is that when you're speaking in person there are breaks in the voice but if you're writing and you don't use punctuation including commas periods semi-colons colons then I'm sure there are many other dissers besides myself who don't even bother to read the post do you get the idea of what I'm trying to say

 

[ford family]

Two today.

You ensure something happens, not insure (that is for the car).
When you cross into Canada that is the border. The boarder is the lodger.

ford family

 

[mafibisha]

By biggest grammatical pet peeve is the use of that and which in a sentence.

The concept seems simple. You use that when a dependent clause follows it and you do not use a comma. You use which when an independent clause follows and the use of a comma is required.

It drives me batty when people cannot get this right. It drives me battier when they don't care that they got the concept wrong because "everyone else" writes it their way. UGH! No they don't!

I also hate the misuse of who and whom.

Somehow I missed your post and ITA!

I also agree with the poster who mentioned The King's English. I love listening to the British speak; most of them sound delightfully refined!

So what do y'all (J/K) think; why are so many people desecrating our English language? Is it haste? Ignorance? Trying to be cool, like ya know what I mean? Like I just don't have time to speak or write properly, teehee? Thoughts? Opinions? Ideas? It's ridiculous! (Not Redeculous, as another poster pointed out LOL)

 

[goofinoff]

I also agree with "You's guys". A manager at work says it all the time and I have to bite my toungue.

My MIL says "I seen you at the store." Drives me nuts!! Especially when she says it around my kids. She also says "Aint" all the time and uses double negitives.

My SIL say "fustrating." Again, annoying.

What really drives me crazy and when people are refering to themself and another person and they say something like "Steve and I's relationship is great." How about "My relationship with Steve is great." Or I hate when people don't know how to use I, me, he, she, him, her.

 

[Laura]

Are you sure about "toe the line"? I think it's "tow the line" but I could be wrong.

Yes, when you "toe the line" you are "falling in line" or conforming. When you tow a line, you're just pulling a rope with nothing on the end of it. It makes no sense.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toe_the_line

 

[TwinsinCA]

Two that grate on my nerves-

Many people forget the "d" on the end of use and suppose. They'll write: "I'm suppose to go to the store after school". I see that often the DIS and it drives me nuts.

The other thing is the misuse of the word mortify. If you are mortified you are embarrassed/humiliated. If you see a horrible accident, why on earth would you be mortified?? Horrified? Yes. But not mortified.

( I realize I didn't write a complete sentence there!)

 

[marciemi]

That's making me mad too, and I'm now seeing it all the time. Just yesterday I was at a shopping center where there is a gym, and one of the signs for it showed "Gold's Gym Athletic's"........Athletics isn't possessive!!!!!

I also see "lose" as in the opposite of "win" ALWAYS spelled "loose". It's as if some textbook that every kid read was wrong and it just spread from there.

Sadly, I think proper grammar is dead and the internet is spreading the killing of it.

I thought of the same thing. Our local YMCA has a big sign on the door that says "Aerobic's Studio". I always wonder, "Who is Aerobic, and why does he have a studio here?"

A new dentist's office just opened near here too and had a big sign proclaiming "New Patient's Welcome". Again, my thought was that it was only correct if they wanted ONE new patient as in "New Patient IS Welcome".

I think the worst example I've encountered though was at a closeout (dollar type) store back in 2000 when they were selling Millennium puzzles, with the big word across them - Millennium - spelled incorrectly! I mean, I understand that a few years before that, probably not a lot of people knew how to spell it. But if you were in charge of designing a puzzle, with the word on it, wouldn't you think to just maybe look it up?

 

[RUDisney]

So what do y'all (J/K) think; why are so many people desecrating our English language? Is it haste? Ignorance? Trying to be cool, like ya know what I mean? Like I just don't have time to speak or write properly, teehee? Thoughts? Opinions? Ideas? It's ridiculous! (Not Redeculous, as another poster pointed out LOL)

I asked my neighbors next door about this. The husband teaches HS History and his wife teaches HS English. I asked if they were actually teaching students to write like the newspapers do or if they were still teaching correct grammar. Both said that they teach correct grammar, but there are too many outside influences that derail their accomplishments. Isn't that sad?

He said that the one class that perks up the students who don't listen for the rest of the year is the one he teaches on social programs. He said that they sit up straight and tell him all the ways to get around the system. Nice, huh?