My graduate school advisor once corrected my proper use of "militate" ever since then the "mitigate" versus "militate" issue has been a peeve of mine.
I'm not fond of people using "mitigate against" instead of "militate against".
I'm also not fond of people using "myriad of" rather than "myriad". (As in “I have myriad tasks to complete at work” versus "I have a myriad of tasks."). In the case of myriad, I think both usages are acceptable, but I prefer the usage minus "of".

Both issues are just peeves. I'm not up at night worrying about how other people use language.

Speaking of AOL speak like 4 and u, abbreviating words with numbers drives me crazy: 4get, 2gether or gr8.


I see on dictionary.com that null can refer to zero, but in the world of database programing, null means no value, while 0 and spaces - " " - are values. If you're working with SQL databases, confusion on that point gets you into trouble. That's why it sounds wrong to me when computer people refer to a "null value."

i find grammar and vocabulary "peeves" to be irritating.
i dont see the point of collecting them.

to my mind, an emphasis on correctness is fundamentally an emphasis on deference.
deference is not interesting.

When stupid people use big words to sound smart.

Also, people who say "not necessarily" more than once per conversation is really over doing it.

So says the man who took a chisel to his "shift" key.

Ahem. :)

It does remind me a little of L'Académie française attempting to control the content of the French language on a smaller scale (to which I contribute above).

Collecting "peeves" may not be that interesting, but I do think that it is interesting to think about why people find "violations" of grammar annoying. To that end, my militate/mitigate issue may be more about someone attempting to control my language usage than anything else. Why do people have language "peeves"? I'm sure there are a myriad reasons.

Why isn't deference interesting?

I would get wacked badly by the grammar Nazi in grade 13 English if I used a split infinitive. And I tried to get away with it because, as onesnoweyowl pointed out, I am a Trek too.


But my pet peeve is the use of the word "Absolutley" everyhere, all the time to indicate agreement. This absolutely has to stop!

this one actually makes sense to me. It shows a different pronunciation. We usually say "what," but when someone does something especially bizarre or stupid, we tend to say "whuut?" "Wut" reflects the latter.

I'm not irritated by common poor grammar like double negatives, but I do tend to judge people who use them as less intelligent - even though they may not be.

The point where I do get annoyed is the TRIPLE negative, when people tink that the more negatives they add to their sentence the more nagative it is. If someone says "Nobody didn't say nothing!" (an actual quote I read a a newspaper) I have no idea what they mean.

I hear someone say what -and it's a pavlov's dog reaction - I flinch and expect to be smacked in the head and say - Say, Excuse me, Insert first name and middle name here :)

Around here.. people use quite instead of quiet.

"Would you be quite?" Quite what?

"No one said anything."

Is it really that hard to understand?

I'm sure the nuns would be pleased to hear this.

Didn't say nothing ≠ said anything.

pronouncing "you" as "choo" and "your" as "yer"

saying lie-berry instead of library

the phrase "where you at?" or anything along those lines, such as the recent Doritos commercial with Missy Elliott where she says "It need something" and "I know what it need." The proper word is needs. It needs something more.

i know it has been said before, but "dis" and "dat"

Ahhh thanks Squeeeb, I hate being lumped in with a rug that is only called that because it is an artifact of western imperialism.

I can't stand doofy scenester/emo hipstersuck internet speak:
"rawwr" "kiiid" "baaby" "bro"

Ok, basically anytime that people get too lazy to use language effectively & words get flaccid.

I love me some hip hop though - some of it is really witty and sharp. I can't think of any other way of expressing those experiences. Can you?

EDIT: if you check out ANY hip hop at all, check out Dead Prez (the first album). Check out their lyrics, even.

It's tenterhooks, not tenderhooks.


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

The actual original Greek says either "Truly" or "Very truly" depending on how truly the statement is being said unto you. If we knew what He meant when He designated some pronouncements as true and others as very true, we would come a lot closer to understanding the damn thing.

These are the phrases that make me insane. When we lose the meaning of a normal word or phrase and use something that sounds similar in its place, such as "beck and call" as opposed to "beckon call".

The other that I often correct people on is nauseous versus nauseated. If something "makes you nauseous" you are causing nausea in those around you.

A few others...

Saying "as it were" or "notwithstanding." These sound pretentious.

Pronouncing "issue" or "tissue" with no "sh" sound.

Pronouncing the "h" in vehicle - vee-hic-il

Well, it wouldn't sound as good as, "AT-Machine"...
Actually, that would work quite well.
Does ANYONE say, "I'm going to use the Automated Teller Machine later to withdraw my hard-earnt money."?

Spelling ticks me off.
Honour has a "u".
Colour has a "u".
Chips are cooked in oil and eaten hots.
Crisps come in bags and the main producer is Walkers, (Lays).
This list could go on forever.

People who talk about what they don't understand, and then try to pass on their non-understanding onto others, which in due cause, cause ME problems.
The amount of times THAT'S happened to me is unbelievable.

You need to allow for regional language differences.

The Brits can keep their u's in color and honor.

In America, chips come in bags, are crispy and are no more than one or two milimeters thick (and anything thicker than 2 cm or so is described in inches, not mm or cm). Thickly sliced potatos cooked in oil are French fries, except when served with fish. Then they are chips.

Buscuits are served with gravey, and don't generally come in bags or have sugar sprinkled on top.

A bonnet is a frilly thing for covering women's heads, not your car's motor.

And if a woman is wearing a snug-fitting pants or skirt, you can see from behind if she has a nice fanny.

Jesus: "Foshizzle, my Chrizzlets!"

At the moment I'm annoyed with sentences starting "I believe.... that".

Whenever I hear it, I think of a teenage beauty pageant or something.

"I believe (pause)... that the environment should be protected".
"I believe (pause, thinking)... that we are all special".
"I believe (thinking).... that ___________

But...that's how it's said...VEE-hickle. There's another way?

Most of this stuff doesn't bother me at all. The pet peeve I have is my stuttering. My inability to use language the way I'd like to do so. Worst yet, there are times when I have trouble saying someone's name, and I have to resort to, "Hey you."

Sorry to hear that. It puts this all in perspective.

vee-icle

Keep the h silent please. No "hick" in the vehicle, OK?

The vapidity of our rhetoric in general is appalling.



Though the most influential factor that I have come to notice is the unpardonable increase in 'leet-speak'(?); this can come to include, yet is not limited to: unspecified jargon unrelated to any topic, uncalled for abuse of unheard of or made-up acronyms, unauthorized use of obscure slang and/or cultural references, et al. This is mostly due to the ever-increasing exposure to mainstream pop culture by means of syndicated television programs and stale music genres.


This is only a broad intrepretation on my part, though. (I had to write a thirty-page thesis on the topic, so I have experience in the matter.)


What more can I say?
Restrict the following perturbable parts of dignified speech and writing:

• Abandon the uses of "um, like, okay, and...uh, you see, what?, huh?, yeah, unh-huh", which either seek to give the person appropriating them a failing chance to think while speaking or to allow an uncomfortable break in narration that lends itself most likely to end up in the speaker trailing off (it doesn't work in any regard, one or the other; it only illustrates a foolish attempt at coherent speech, and perhaps creating a false representation of an underlying speech impediment that no one wants to correct)
• Ellipses(...) is not meant to be substituted for every other correct punctutation in a sentence or thought.
• Have little patience for sarcasm and those who use it often.
• When others correct you, solely recognize faults in your pronunciation, not faults in yourself.
• Tone is key.
• It is most difficult to discern your intentions when you run-on without pause.
• Enunciation is important, yet do not let yourself become anal-retentive about subtle and minute nuaces in others' speech and elocution.

I find it difficult to think in exactingly, instead I resort to broad generalizations. I'll try to amend this.
:surprised: