I hate the whole comma after the last item in a list thing, too. But I was under the impression that it was "correct" to do it that way. I've always yelled at those who don't. Is ommitting the last comma actually correct? THE PAIN!

The last comma in a list is a stylistic difference. The comma is usually left out by journalists, but put in by more formal writers. Personally, I prefer leaving it in for the sake of sense.

As for 'forte' and 'cheque'...they're French words that have been Americanized. Language is ever-changing. There are cases where it's good to resist, but others where it is not.

As for "Where are you from?"...I suppose you could rearrange it thusly: "From whence are you?" or "From where do you come?" However, those are quite awkward and a good example of why the "never end with a preposition" rule is crap.

I think my pet peeve is the misuse of the word "an" when used in front of words starting with "h." Example: "an historic occasion."

It's not an historic occasion, it's a historic occasion. H is not a vowel. If the H is pronounced, it's a, not an. You don't say "an harp" or "an horse" do you?

It's my pet peeve because when I say "a historic" I almost ALWAYS get some doof adopting a (not an) holier-than-thou attitude trying to smugly correct my grammar.

shakran, that's another rather fluid rule that you've struck upon. It depends on what accent you speak with - whether the 'h' is silent.

See <a href="http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/anhistoric.html">this</a> for more.

well that site kinda supports me ;) All it says is that if you use "an" wrong, it probably won't get you in trouble.

grammar is grammar, no matter what your accent. I've never heard anyone from Brooklyn say "an 'arp" or "an 'orse," and I've heard many Brooklynites refer to "a yooman bean" (a human being) without using "an."

My pet peeve would have to be people that send me emails that I have to unscramble. I mean, if you've got enough time to sit and write me an email, at least spell check it. I've always been one for spelling anyway, so I don't even read the email for content first. Now I read for spelling and grammar first. I've even been such an asshole as to correct the errors and send the message back to them without even reading it first. Kinda funny now that I think of it, I never got that message back. Hope it wasn't too terribly important!

'yooman bean'...that's an awesome example of glide insertion. I guess I actually did learn something in my Linguistics class. =)

You're right about the site supporting you, but I'm just mentioning that it's a common point of contention.

When I was in school that went something like this:

Engineering student asking direction from Liberal Art student:

Engineer: "Hey, where is the student center at?"

Liberal Art: "At the College of Inane Studies, we do not end our sentences in prepositions!"

Engineer: "O.K., where is the student center at, asshole."

My number one peeve is people who write like they talk, especially when their language is very loose. Trying to read a paper where there's a like, um, you know? at the beginning or ending of every sentence is enough to make me nauseous.

amonkie, s'much better for someone to convey their normal cadence than for them to use txt talk.

The substitution of "esoteric" for "aesthetic" riles me, and I'm amazed at how often I hear it.
My boss abbreviates "information" as "infro" rather than "info," and my wife, when faced with a connundrum, is in a "Catch 20-20." I feel it best for my personal well-being to not correct either one.

FIRST ANNUAL

Aaarrrgh! Nothing sends me into fits of rage so easily as this one does.
NOTHING is first annual, EVER!
You may call it "first ever" and then, after you have the second one a year later, then, THEN you may attach the word annual to it.
The world may explode tomorrow, and then, when it does, the resulting lack of existance would pretty much ensure that you won't be around to have your second annual whatever-the-fuck you had, thus rendering your Goddamned First annual thingamagig not very annual, now wouldn't it?
**Unclenches teeth**

As for my other pet peeves...
eXpecially v. especially
waRsh v. wash
affect v. effect
and finally,
the switching of lend and borrow.

For Fucks sake people, lend = to give, borrow = to take.
So no, I cannot borrow you five bucks, and don't even think about borrowing your best friend that DVD they wanted to watch.

This was forwarded to me a few months back. It's not all grammar, but it seems to apply:



Actual Analogies and Metaphors Found in High School Essays.



He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a Guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the danger of looking at a solar eclipse without one those boxes with a pinhole in it.

She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.

Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.

He was as tall as a six-foot-three-inch tree.

The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't.

From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you're on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30.

Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19p.m. at a speed of 35 mph.

John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met. He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant and she was the East River.

The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.

The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.

He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame. Maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.

The ballerina rose gracefully en pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.

It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power tools.

He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.

She walked into my office like a centipede with 98 missing legs.

It hurt the way your tongue hurts after you accidentally staple it to the wall.

I am learning disabled. I was born to drive you crazy.

I love how many posters in this thread have expressed their grammatical and idiomatic dislikes of the english language without verifying the accuracy of their pet-peeves. Yes, I'm sure someone will find an error in what I'm posting as well, but consider these points:

1) irregardless is not an accepted word. The supposed origin is that it's a hybridization of "regardless" and "irrespective", and though it has appeared in speech and some edited works, it will continue to be mocked as long as it is used. It is not the same as flammable/inflammable, and most dictionaries I surveyed suggested the word "regardless" instead of "irregardless."

2) the use of "an" before words that begin with "h" is dependent on the sound of the "h" in the following word. If the letter is prounounced as "huh" (like Howard, huckster, and hilarous), the "an" is not necessary; "a" will do.

from: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/esl/esliart.html
OK, now time for my pet peeve, and it's really just a bastardization of an english idiom:

3) The use of the phrase "begs the question". Truthfully, this phrase will soon mean nothing more than "so...", as in a logical statement/question, or "raises the question".

e.g. current usage: "Many children die in school bus crashes every year. Which begs the question, Why do so many children continue to ride the bus?"

this is wrong, wrong, wrong....

"Begging the question" is the answering of a problem using the question as basis for solution, or reverting to circular reasoning.

We know God exists because we can see the perfect order of His Creation, an order which demonstrates supernatural intelligence in its design.

This answer "begs the question".


Listen to your newscaster on the radio/television, and count how many times it is used and misused. I would guess that 99% of the time, it's being used to mean "raises the question."
/end :)

when people say liberry instead of library. it's annoyed the hell out of me for as long as I can remember.

This is a valid use of "quote." It can be transitive, intransitive, or a noun. http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=quote

I'm writing a story for the school newspaper, and a company's new release says:

It took me a few reads to find the error in that one. Not to defend atrocious grammar or anything, but "The health and safety of our customers are always our highest priority" reads awkwardly.

Is there another word for "anal retentive" that doesn't sound like you're holding your shit in? If there is, the word would describe my hypercritical reading. That's not to say that I don't make frequent errors.

Also, spellcheck has ruined my once flawless spelling. Alas, I am still one to call the kettle black with great frequency.

I am particularly bothered by menu misspellings which I notice nearly every time I eat out, ever in restaurants that have $25 entrees.

***edit*** People who say ecksetera instead of etcetera drive me fucking crazy! Also, lie-Barry in leiu of library.

I have training in choral singing, so not surprisingly, most of my grammatical pet peaves stem from my experience there...

Lute: It is pronounced "L'yute", not LOOT!!!

Our: Like hour, it has two syllibals!! Not ARE!!

Anything two words where the first ends in "t" and the second word is "you". This is usually butchered, as in "I wantchu" or "I see thatchu". ARRRGH!

*edit: oops, thought of another,

From the two books of the same titles:

There is no "cow" in Moscow (long O sound at the end) and There is no zoo in Zoology (the zoo part is more like "oh" when in the longer word)

My english major of a brother has recently gotten me to notice gramatical mistakes. I think the ones I hate the most are "the reason is because" and "very unique".

Definately. Then there's the ole' they're/there/their confusion as well, which I completely despise.

I friggin' hate marketspeak. Like people saying i have "T" instead of I am tired. Why make up ridiculously stupid phrases instead of using perfectly good and real english?

Also the 110% thing bugs me because by default 110% will revert to 100% by default.

Two words: "should of"

Maybe that's a spelling issue. I don't know...

EDIT: Someone had that one. How about this: "very original"

"prolly"

when people use " ` " instead of " ' ". my friend does this, one example is the word "It's", he will put "It`s" and i can't stand it

Too lazy to read ALL of the posts... but

Their vs They're vs There
and you're vs your drive me nuts if people screw it up while trying to correct someone else.

I must restrain myself from trying to beat down people who respond with "your all stupid" Ack - it hurts to even type it.

(Oh yes, ditto on the whole I'm not perfect thing either ;) - but c'mon people!) heh heh

I would hope it sounds wrong to you ;)

I cringe the most when I hear "yous" as in "yous guys" and yes, I do hear it..

My mother was a teacher, two of my aunts were teachers, and both grandmothers were teachers..

i hate the people who dont know the difference between "too" and "to"
also the people who dont know the difference between "their", "there", and "they're"

argh

I dislike it when people use me when it should be I, or vice versa, and when they use good, when it should be well.

My pet grammar peave would be bloody Wendy's. I'm not sure if you know it but in australia its a sort of icecream, milkshake, smoothy take away shop. I understand the shop is named Wendy's and the 's is appropriate because it says that the shop belongs to wendy. What gets me however is when advertising Wendy's products such as the smoothies, ice chillers etc. all the advertising material uses an 's i.e. smoothy's or chilla's - i would like to ask just what exactly belongs to wendy's smoothies and chillers - I was not aware food and drink could own anything??

i understand this may be some marketing genius at work but it shits me.

my peeve would have to be subject-verb agreement. I HATE it when people say things like "those trucks is driving really fast" and "wow, that bird are flying high". these are both things i heard fairly recently. also "ain't" and "ya'll". i guess not being from the south and living in the south caused this, but damn!! "i ain't got no money"? ain't got no friggin common sense, either

I hAtE iT wHeN pEoPlE tYpE LiKe ThIs.

Provably instead of probably - similar to the supposably vs. supposedly that was listed earlier.
Using "on" before a date instead of just beginning with the month.
"Ya know" before every sentence and "like" interspersed within.
The improper use of ellipsis...
Towards instead of toward.
Young child - all children are young!!! Ooh do I hate that one...
Anytime anyone says "any hoo" or "I'll talk at you" instead of "let's speak/I'll call later". Another one that makes my skin crawl.:mad:

i hate it when people say 'supposed to', 'post to.'

the hicks in my town pronounce 'both', 'bolth.'

'you's guys.'

Lastly. and this one drives like a nail into my skull.

NUCLEAR

NU-CLEAR. How anyone can manage to be so stupid as to fuck this up is beyond me.

(I know i should be a bit more understanding, but my hatred of 'nuculear' goes beyond any logical explanation.)

This has been mentioned but, the misuse of homonyms absolutely infuriates me!!! The most common error seems to be with: There, Their, They're

I also hate problems with agreement:
These are worth a rant:

"I'm not afraid of nothing".
Should be: "I am not afraid of anything".

"She literally died when I told her".
Really? So, when is the funeral?

This is called a double negative and a lot of people have trouble with it, even when it's done intentionally. For instance, a lot of people will be confused by a sentence like "I haven't had no luck with the post office."
It's not even necessarily their fault. A common English protocol is to ignore the negative, like in the question "Don't you like it?" If they do like it, their answer is typically "yes," even though the question asked the opposite. So, if the question was "Do you like it?" and the answer is "Yes," then the answer to "Don't you like it?" should really be "No." This problem seems to be specific to English, too. For instance, the Japanese, have no problems with their inversions or their double negatives.

Another one (although I've already said this but it's a long thread and, already, people have been skipping the middle parts to read the end) that's similar to this is the use of "by definition." "By definition, women should stay at home." Really? The definition of a woman is someone who stays at home?
Although one might be generous and just call these misuses "exaggerations" but I honestly think they're born out of ignorance. If you don't realize you're "exaggerating," can you really be exaggerating? It doesn't mean this literally by definition but "close" to it? I don't mean literally literally but close to it?

I struggle with the preposition at the end of a sentence.
"where are you going at?" NO! NO!
Simply ...Where are you going?

And when people don't know when to use I or me.

when you ask how someone did on a test etc and they replie 'I did GOOD'