What are your grammatical pet peeves?
 

Now I'm not an English major and am by no means even all that good with my grammar (see my terrible use of commas), but there are certain things that just bother me when I see or hear them. I'm leaving out some of the more obvious ones, but feel free to post them if you like.

Anyways - There should be no 's' at the end of this word. I don't know why it bothers me so much, but for some reason it does. "Towards" doesn't bother me quite as much, perhaps because I don't hear it as often.

Myself - "If you have any questions, feel free to contact Bob, Karen, or myself." I'm convinced that people who say this are just trying to make themselves sound more important. Just say "Bob, Karen, or me."

Coincidence does not equal irony. I don't have much else to say on that one.

Grammer - Okay, this is a spelling pet peeve, but I had to say it anyway. This one is especially funny when people are trying to point out other people's poor "grammer."


Okay, now feel free to rip apart my grammar in this post if you like. I'm sure I've given you plenty to work with.

Re: What are your grammatical pet peeves?
 

:lol:

y'know, i've never actually seen that one..

hmm, i cannot think of mine atm, other than the obvious irkers like to/too, than/then, your/you're, etc...

perhaps just because i *try* to ignore them.

i kno there are more tho.

hmm, and my grammar is far from perfect, and oft my spelling is intentionally perverted...

the key here is intentional. and not that i intend to look stupid either. just a way of personalising i suppose.

Grammar knowledge is one thing i would like more of.
Perfectionist.

Right now though my focus is learning a 'foreign' language (German) and its associated grammar.

(dear god, is there supposed to be an apostrophe in that 'its'? It's obviously not a conjunction of it and is, it is perhaps similar to a possessive pronoun? eek. ok, i'm feeling more stupid now)

good thread.

I can't always spell correctly... but I HATE IT WHEN "DAMMIT" IS SPELLED "DAMNIT". I see it all the time while playing online multiplayer games.

The correct would be damnit wouldn't it? "
Damn", and "It"

DAMN IT is correct as two words ... as one word, it can be spelled DAMMIT with as much legitimacy as "gonna". Not a "real" word, but that is how people use it, so fine outside of formal writings. Like my friend's kid asked her "Mommy, how do you spell BIGOL'"
( like, a big, old truck ... ok works better when spoken)

BTW: "Its" as a possesive (I like German and its associated ... ) is not apostrophe'd.

Can you conjugate apostraphe as if it's a verb? That's interesting, I hadn't done that before. Although, I do think in general it is funny to use nouns as verbs.

*EDIT My sense of humor was not respectful. *

Supposedly pronounced with a "b" in it instead of a "d". Brings my opinion of someone down real quick.

You ask someone a question and they start of with "honestly." As in - Q:How much did you donate to charity last year. A: Honestly, about $20. Does that mean all the rest of the answers you gave me without the "honestly" before it isn't true?

Also, anyone who uses Mike Tyson-speak. Injecting large syllabled words into sentences to prove how intelligent you are.

/end of rant

erm...what if they mean 'supposably'??

sup·posa·bly adv.

Supposable \Sup*pos"a*ble\, a. Capable of being supposed, or imagined to exist; as, that is not a supposable case. -- Sup*pos\"a*ble*ness, n. -- Sup*pos\"a*bly, adv.

When you're talking with someone and they start their sentences off with, "I mean, ...".
Drives me bonkers! :crazy:

I don't know exactly who the 'a' or 'an' thing is supposed to work, but from what i remember 'an' goes before any word starting with a vowel. For some reason it drives me nuts to see an 'an' before a word like monkey or something. Just doesn't sound right to me. Hell I may be wrong but it still sounds stupid

Shoving the word "like" inbetween other words where it doesn't belong. I mean like it's so like horrible to like think that people can't like form a sentence like without using like words that like don't like belong. If you like know what I mean, like.

And uhm, when people are uhm talking to you and uhm they constantly stop and uhm think about what they are going to say next and uhm always start with the word and. And uhm turn like twenty or so sentences into likeone long run-on sentence with lots of "likes" and "and uhms".

And don't forget the whole who/whom disaster. People, remember if it can be evenly exchanged with the subject of the sentence, use "who". Who is it? If it is the object of a preposition, it is "whom". To whom are you referring?

I don't have any pet peeves that affect me as drastically as they seem to affect you guys ( ;) ), but the ones that are slightly more than a minor annoyance are your/you're, and then/than.

I just hate when anal bastards just have to correct my grammer mistakes - It's normally my boss at work !

- When people think quotation marks are used to emphasize a point. I see this a lot on store signs, such as: Buy one, get one "free".

- When people end sentences with prepositions. Such as "Grammar knowledge is one thing i would like more of." from an above post. Sometimes it's allowable because the correct form would be awkward as hell ("Grammar knowledge is one thing of which I would like to know more.") and there may not really be a better way to put it otherwise.

Lose and loose.

Every time somebody types, "I'm always loosing things," I have to reply, "Why - are they all too tight?"

I also notice a lot of "to" instead of "too", and "should of" instead of "should have."

And - again - the infamous "your" and "you're."

Oh - and while we're at it - how about "yah," "yea.', and "yeah."?
If you're cheering for a team - it's "yea" (rhymes with 'hay')
If you're responding in the affirmative, it's "yeah." (rhymes with "nah" - its opposite)

/rant over - goosesteps back to grammar nazi barracks

I think yay is what you do when cheering for a team.

My pet peeve is confusing your and you're, but you'renamehere beat me to it.

I also hate to see there and their confused.

Yes, I messed his name up on purpose. :p

Ohh, that's a good one. That one bothers me a lot too.

how about irregardless instead of regardless. people are always using this and i have to grit my teeth every time.
I have several friends who unthaw stuff too! I always ask them if they are putting the whatever back in the freezer.

It really bothers me when people type and don't use capitalization and punctuation.

Yup, that has bothered for a very long time. Good to know I am not the only one who notices this error.

Ha ha, that reminds me. In the Math department at my college, a sign posted read "Did you loose you're bracelet? Come buy room 320 and identify if you want it." I wanted to rip the poster down.

My main pet peeves for grammar are the you're/your, too/to, their/there/they're, and when people use "shorthand" Internet speak. I hate LOL, LMAO, IDK (a new one, means I don't know), and other various Internet crap. I also hate it when people say tho/kno and atm. In other words, I hate Internet abbreviations. I understand when people use them because it saves typing time, but when people that type fast use them, it drives me insane.

Two new atrocities are meh and feh. I fucking HATE those two words. I can't stand them at all. My friend at college said them on AIM until I told him to stop in real life. Something about those two "feelings" or "state of beings" annoy the shit out of me.

I hate ur. It's not even abbreviated; this is one of those words that are completely made up based on how the original word sounds. When people say "ur" to me on AIM, I ask what the hell a "ur" is. Is it that hard to type you're? Or even your, if they fuck up worse than usual?

And for the finale: plz thx. Holy shit. If I see anyone saying this that I talk to on AIM, I go apeshit on them. I ask them how it's faster to type the z and x than please and thanks. PLZ doesn't even resemble please. PLZ would be pronounced something like "pillz." And the God-forsaken THX. THX is a theatrical sound encoding medium, NOT an abbreviation for thanks. Again, THX would be pronounced as "Thux."

Maybe I went a little overboard, but perhaps this thread really needed to be made for people to vent. There's my ventings. :) Oh, and I don't mean any of this personally, I'm just stating what irks me. Have a nice day!

-Lasereth

Quanitfication of absolutes. For example: I have a very unique computer. That's the most unique thing I have ever seen. He gives 110 percent effort.

Those just drive me nuts. I know that language is always evolving, but I just hate it when I see it used in such ways.

I'm not sure if this is wrong, but I hate it when people say something is an "over-exaggeration". Well, is there another kind?

Tail now appropriately tucked between my legs.

There is a friend of mine who has the weirdest form of typing online. He makes sure to start every single messege on AIM with a capital letter, and end with a period, but for some reason still manages to spell just about every single word wrong. His argument is always that he doesn't take the time to proofread his sentences, but in that case, why does he always take the time to make sure there is a capital/period at the beginning/end? WTF? Who knows, but some of his more common errors are switching "us" with "use", "want" with "wont", "ho's" with "hoes", and the name of a local club "Aquarius" with "Aquariouse". So a sentence that would be completely innocent and go a little something like "Hey dude, do you wont to come with use and pick up some hoes to go to Aquariouse?" No thanks man, as much as I want to take a bunch of garden tools to a club, I think I'll pass... Another thing that kills me is when people use "u" and "2" instead of "you" and "to". Is it really that hard to spend the extra two seconds and just type the other two letters?

Like I said in my first post, I am by no means an English major. What exactly is wrong with this?

Lasereth: I agree with you on most of those. "Feh" and "meh" don't bother me, and I can put up with "lol." Most of those I just find annoying though. I can't understand why people would want to look stupid. Or maybe they think that if they actually try to speak proper english, they'll screw up too much, so they just go straight to full-blown bad.

I at least want to look like I'm trying, even if I don't always have perfect grammar.

People who make non-words part of their conversation.

AT work, people commonly say "It was inputted".

INPUTTED? That is the one thing that drives me nuts! It makes me think less of whoever is talking.

making a lot into one word ... "I hate it alot."

This is not grammar, but definitely an annoyance of mine. I can't STAND it when I see someone use 'ect...' Augh! It is 'et cetera.' If you will be abbreviating the latin, please 'to be using' 'etc.' Thanks :P.

Jdoe

The only one I can think of is ending a sentence in a preposition, e.g. "Where's the white women at?"

Other than that, simple subject/verb agreement (see the above example) and dangling participles are bad too. Lord knows I hate to get caught with my participle left dangling!

Not to fear Batman (love the name). I am not an English major either. Actually, fighting this bout of bronchitis I'm not even sure if I can spell correctly. The problem with quantiying a word like unique is that it is already and absolute. Something is either unique or it is not. Same principle about being pregnant. You are pregnant or you are not. As far the percents, they are a bit trickier. Things can rise more than 100% (this quarter has seen sales rise 300% over last) and can run more than 100% over capacity. You will give my math professor father fits though if you ever say "he gives 110% every night". It is something of an acceptable expression now, but strictly speaking impossible. Hope that clarifies it a little bit.

This is a constant geographical grammatical dilemma: (huh?)

I was born down South, raised up North, moved back down South, then moved out West, then back down South.

It sure is hard to keep switching from "You guys" to "ya'll".

If you say "ya'll" anywhere but down South, they make fun of you.
If you say "you guys" down South, they make fun of you.

There should be a third generic term for the entire country.

Do you guys have any suggestions? Because ya'll are pissing me off if you don't.

I HATE the confusion of good/well.
I'm not even sure what the exact rule is.
But I hate it when someone says something like "I heard that he did real good".

Also, I hate, when people, use, too many, commas. I'm guilty, of that, quite often myself.
:)

I just hate getting my muckin furds wuddled.

It's been a while for me but I would have to say the adverb modifying the verb. An easy example, "You do a good job, but you do it well."

Jdoe

"Where's the women at, asshole?" :lol:

The thing....that I really hate....is people....who can't seem to find the....comma button....on their...keyboard.

One of the funniest episodes of television was the old show, 'Designing Women'. Delta Burke, the loud obnoxious one, went to some fancy party and approached a group of women with the question, "Where are all of you from?"

A snooty woman looks at her and says, "We're from a place where we don't end our sentences with prepositions."

To which Delta Burke responds, " I'm sorry. Where are all of you from, bitch?"

Hehehehe.

I can't stand the way some folks say something like "That needs washed." What the heck? It's too much effort to put in to be?

My friend constantly types out we'll instead of well, pisses me off something fierce.

1) Sherbert instead of sherbet.
2) Ax instead of ask.
3) People who insist on including "an' stuff" after every thought uttered.
4) People who feel it is thier right to add explitives to nearly every sentence...way too much Tony Soprano.

Most of my pet peeves have been posted by others, but I'd like to add a few more:
Adding an apostrophe where s indicates a plural, not possessive. (ABC's) While it's now accepted as correct by some institutions, it still bothers me.
Incorrect punctuation around "quotes." ("Like this".)
Confusing "a" and "an." With some words (and many acronyms), depending on how you pronounce it, both are acceptable. However, people still really botch this one. (a article)
When people say "mispelling," or even worse "mispeling."
*I am adding:* Confusion between "then" and "than."
And "it's" v "its."

This thread reminds me of last night. I went with my friend to a bail bonds place because a guyfriend of hers was arrested (AGAIN). While I didn't agree with what she was doing, I still went for support and such. On the wall were two green folders labeled: "Warrent's" followed by another word.
It pissed me off to the point of being comical. Especially since a paper hanging out of the folder was titled in a nice, big, bold font, "WARRANT." Not to mention the additional apostrophe.

I have to admit I am a big-time offender when it comes to using "like." I also use way too many parentheses.