Grammar Pet Peeves

[DevilishlyHandsome49]

I'll start off with mine:

When I say something like "Do you mind if I sit here?"

The person responds with a polite "Yes" giving the idea that they do mind if I sit there and don't want me sitting there when that actually isn't the case at all.

The correct way to respond to my question would be, "No, I don't mind" but I think when I ask a question like that, all people hear is "Can I sit here?"

Edited October 6, 2015 by DevilishlyHandsome49

[GarthTheWereWolf]

I hate when people ask, "Can I ___?"

I don't know. Can you? Is "may" really that hard to use when asking permission?

[Llamapotamus]

One that's been bugging me lately is the use of 'there's' with a plural subject.

For instance: There's so many interesting topics to talk about on this forum! It boils down to saying 'there is topics', which is a no-no.

But it sounds and looks better than ther're, so the only reasonable course of action in those situations is to type out or say the full 'there are'. What a hassle...

[yell0wf0x]

Doge. Much funny back when. Such OK now still. Actually quite alright for me. It ain't no peeve o' mine. 

I has this one pet peeves tho. Is when someone at work emails me and used past tense verb when you clearly not supposed to be past tense. Or vice versa. Like. "Kindly helped us check to other group if they have this"

[DevilishlyHandsome49]

Doge. Much funny back when. Such OK now still. Actually quite alright for me. It ain't no peeve o' mine. 

I has this one pet peeves tho. Is when someone at work emails me and used past tense verb when you clearly not supposed to be past tense. Or vice versa. Like. "Kindly helped us check to other group if they have this"

*reading your post*

[yell0wf0x]

*reading your post*

it was actully quite hard to be grammatically wrong on purpose. 

[Alexxx-Returns]

When people wrote out a statement/paragraph, and use the same thing (form of their/they're/etc twice, get it wrong once and get it right the next time!

I mean, come on! How can you get it wrong when you get it right other times?! It's right there in front of you! Are they just guessing which one to use at each hurdle?

[Little_Dragon]

https://youtu.be/8Gv0H-vPoDc

This would seem relevant.

[yell0wf0x]

https://youtu.be/JmXWHW-I32E

This is rather relevant too.

[Vallium]

TBH I know the difference between They're/Their/There and You're/Your but sometimes end up using the wrong word anyways. It pisses me off more than anyone elsw

OT: I sometimes use two/too instead of 'to' and I have no idea why. I know other people confuse lose/loose and that one really gets me. Also I dislike when words are obviously mispelled, I tend to do that a lot when typing on phone and it drives me nuts.

[Kaedal]

"I could care less."

Okay. So that means you actually care quite a bit, but you just found it worth pointing out? It's such an obnoxiously common mistake, that it even appears in professionally written media. 

[Revates]

My grammar is terrible I'll admit that, so I don't really have much room to talk.

But what annoys me isn't so much a grammatical error within itself. I hate it when people get all bitter and annoyed about people correcting them. Personally I appreciate it, since it allows me to stop making the same mistakes in the future. Also I can already tell there is going to be something profoundly wrong with my sentence.

[Skylar Husky]

TBH I know the difference between They're/Their/There and You're/Your but sometimes end up using the wrong word anyways. It pisses me off more than anyone elsw

OT: I sometimes use two/too instead of 'to' and I have no idea why. I know other people confuse lose/loose and that one really gets me. Also I dislike when words are obviously mispelled, I tend to do that a lot when typing on phone and it drives me nuts.

Thank you. You covered three of the mistakes i wished to point out. 

Another big one which screams ignorance when I see it is confusion of "then" and "than"

"Then" is used as a nonspecific time or part of an "If/Then" statement or remark.

"Than" is used in comparison.

Examples.

We need to purchase our tickets for the movie. Showtime is 3PM but the house lights go dark before then for previews.

I have a 454 cubic inch displacement V-8 in this truck; there are few modern engines bigger than that.

 

There used to be a time when handing in some homework in English, you might get an "F" on the assignment if these blunders were a part of it. You might even see this bleed over to your other subjects too. Most of the time it meant a drop of one letter grade, say in science if I handed in a report with a grammatical error such as these on them.

Sometime while I was coming up through school, there began this movement to really soften things and to think more about the students' feelings and try and make what was seen as rigid and unnecessary go away. There was a reason these English teachers were like this. In community college, English Composition 1100, specifically, my freshman level course, the professor went through all these rules again. It was just a "how-to" course on paper writing, basically. It was helpful with the textbook that we had. It was arranged systematically with each of the subjects broken down into individual sections. I still use that textbook as a reference when I write papers, proposals and reports.

My community college professor warned us about handing in papers with such mistakes in the University level. And without a doubt, I saw it happen. I had a classmate hand in a midterm report for Biochemistry, only to be handed the paper back without a grade. He found out from the professor had not even graded it and was docking my friend at least a letter grade for it, perhaps more. If he found the error and corrected it, handed it in the next day it would only lose a letter grade. Together he and I poured over it and found he had confused there, their and they're. He fixed it and got a B. Sometimes this stuff isn't a game. I have wondered how often there is one of these things going on in American business. I have wondered how many times I have let one get by and whether it has cost a promotion or recognition because of it.

 

Edited October 6, 2015 by Skylar Husky

[Taralack]

Doge. Much funny back when. Such OK now still. Actually quite alright for me. It ain't no peeve o' mine. 

I has this one pet peeves tho. Is when someone at work emails me and used past tense verb when you clearly not supposed to be past tense. Or vice versa. Like. "Kindly helped us check to other group if they have this"

It sounds like you live in an asian country

The usual their/they're, weather/whether, your/you're (this happens at work a lot and it pisses me right off), unnecessary apostrophes 

My boss in his email sig has "Thanking you" and it drives me nuts

[Ayattar]

You should be happy you don't have double or triple negation, as we have.

Passage from wiki:

In Slavic languages other than Slavonic, multiple negatives are grammatically correct ways to express negation, and a single negative is often incorrect. In complex sentences, every part that could be grammatically negated should be negative. For example, in Serbian, Niko nikada nigde ništa nije uradio ("Nobody never did not do nothing nowhere") means "Nobody has ever done anything, anywhere", and Nisam tamo nikad išla ("Never I did not go there") means "I have never been there". In Czech it is also common to use three or more negations. For example, Nikdy jsem nikde nikoho neviděl ("I have not never seen no one nowhere").

A single negation, while syntactically correct, may result in a very unusual meaning or make no sense at all. Saying "I saw nobody" in Polish (Widziałem nikogo) instead of the more usual "I did not see nobody" (Nikogo nie widziałem) might mean "I saw an instance of nobody" or "I saw Mr. Nobody" but it would not have its plain English meaning. Likewise, in Slovenian, saying "I do not know anyone" (Ne poznam kogarkoli) in place of "I do not know no one" (Ne poznam nikogar) has the connotation "I do not know just anyone": I know someone important or special.

And now, because of that, when you're being asked about something you need to respond using full sentence, as simple "yes" or "no" can be interpreted in any way possible.

Edited October 6, 2015 by Ayattar

[ArielMT]

Native English writers seem to make more spelling and grammar mistakes on the 'Net than those who write English as a second language.

My pet peeve: decade names and year abbreviations.  They're contractions, so the parts left off get the apostrophe.  For example, disco was big in the '70s as in the decade of the 1970s, not in the 70's which septuagenarians don't actually possess.

[Sidewalk Surfboard]

When you type a name down and then somebody still spells it wrong. You don't even understand how annoying it is when you type "Rolfe" for example and somebody still ends up spelling it "Ralf".

Also, the beauty of Youtube Closed Caption's system. Ahhh, that Grammar is amazing, isn't it?

[Zytan]

Than and Then winds me up something chronic... you want me to do that after or you prefer the former?

[Umbra.Exe]

I hate when people use the wrong spelling of a word in a phrase.

"Flush out the details" instead of "flesh",
"Peeked/Peaked my interest" instead of "piqued",
"Cue" instead of "queue" when referring to a waiting list or line,
"Taken for granite" instead of "granted",
"Waiting with baited breath" instead of "bated",
"Test one's metal" instead of "mettle", etc.

I could go on all day...
As others have mentioned in this thread, it irritates me much more when I find myself making the same mistakes.

[Sidewalk Surfboard]

I hate when people use the wrong spelling of a word in a phrase.

"Flush out the details" instead of "flesh",
"Peeked/Peaked my interest" instead of "piqued",
"Cue" instead of "queue" when referring to a waiting list or line,
"Taken for granite" instead of "granted",
"Waiting with baited breath" instead of "bated",
"Test one's metal" instead of "mettle", etc.

I could go on all day...
As others have mentioned in this thread, it irritates me much more when I find myself making the same mistakes.

I'm guilty of doing this.

[Zytan]

My grammar is terrible I'll admit that, so I don't really have much room to talk.

But what annoys me isn't so much a grammatical error within itself. I hate it when people get all bitter and annoyed about people correcting them. Personally I appreciate it, since it allows me to stop making the same mistakes in the future. Also I can already tell there is going to be something profoundly wrong with my sentence.

The problem with this is it promotes being a total twat when it's not appropriate.  It's like they're being that creepy kid who walks up to a group of strangers after hearing about something wrong in some way, leaning over one of their shoulders and correcting them.  Like who the fuck are you?!

Edited October 6, 2015 by Zytan

[Revates]

The problem with this is it promotes being a total twat when it's not appropriate.  It's like they're being that creepy kid who walks up to a group of strangers after hearing about something wrong in some way, leaning over one of their shoulders and correcting them.  Like who the fuck are you?!

There is always 'that' guy. I think rather than me saying people, I should've said friends and even then it's easy to look like a total knobhead.

[MuttButt]

Im a pretty laid back guy but what really gets under my skin is when people dont use punctuation ever like the punctuation keys on their keyboard are broken or something and their post just comes out as this one big run on sentence stream of consciousness thats impossible to follow isnt that irritating I dont care for it very much myself no sir

[MissFleece]

Bad grammar doesn't bug me, it's copious amounts of bad spelling that get under my skin. One of my friends cannot spell for the life of her.

I'm her editor sometimes -_-; 

She's 23 and in college. 

[MuttButt]

 

She's 23 and in college. 

yikes.

I know a guy that I talk with on skype frequently who ends all of his sentences in commas. I'm like, dammit John, I never know when you're done talking! So much unresolved tension T.T

[Joel]

Furry puns and furry speak :V

I'm knot going to shake your paw get away from me befur I call some furry ! >:V

[Little_Dragon]

Also, the beauty of Youtube Closed Caption's system. Ahhh, that Grammar is amazing, isn't it?

I'd like to see that video if only to determine whether the mangling was a result of unsuccessful speech-recognition or poor machine translation.  Neither technology is quite ready for prime-time as yet.

I usually write and upload my own captions for this very reason.

[Skylar Husky]

One I am surprised I have not seen yet is effect and affect.

Affect is a verb.

Effect is a noun.

Example:

• Changing time honored traditions can have profound adverse secondary effects on the society being changed.
• Changing time honored traditions can profoundly and adversely affect society in a secondary manner.

It is astounding how many confuse this one too. It is almost as prevalent as then and than confusion.

 

Edited October 6, 2015 by Skylar Husky

[Sidewalk Surfboard]

I'd like to see that video if only to determine whether the mangling was a result of unsuccessful speech-recognition or poor machine translation.  Neither technology is quite ready for prime-time as yet.

I usually write and upload my own captions for this very reason.

I'll link you when I get home

[Gator]

i don't mind when people knowingly and intentionally use improper grammar, spelling, or punctuation.  i do it all the damn time; doesn't mean i don't know the difference.  it's just a part of self-expression, and unless you're in a professional or educational setting, there ain't nothin' wrong with that imo.  it does not matter how you talk or type so long as you can be understood.

that said

when it's done out of pure ignorance, yet english is the person's main language, sometimes the shit just drives me up the wall.  mostly because so much of it does actually change the meaning of a sentence and make it hard to understand.  but if it's purely conversational, i'm not gonna say anything.  people make mistakes, and if they're not asking to be corrected, i don't see much point in doing so. 

BUT IF IT'S NOT CONVERSATIONAL, THEN LORD HAVE MERCY.

 

shit like:

then/than, your/you're, there/their/they're, whether/rather, except/accept, past/passed, effect/affect, and so on

"irregardless", "tooken", "mischevious", and the like

crazy apostrophe placement.  "kittens", "kitten's", and "kittens'" all have different meanings.

switching between past and present tense.  "she went into the bedroom.  her heart is pounding."  no.

and the lack of an oxford comma makes my body hurt.

 

do what you want on forums or in your text messages, but please don't try to publish serious documents, essays, or books with that shit in it.  and please don't do that on your company's website.  or else i will have to come and eat you.

 

 

 

 

[ccc]

"I could care less."

Okay. So that means you actually care quite a bit, but you just found it worth pointing out? It's such an obnoxiously common mistake, that it even appears in professionally written media. 

Fuckin' idioms, how do they work??

 

Affect is a verb.

Effect is a noun.

Except when they're not.

 

I hate when people ask, "Can I ___?"

I don't know. Can you? Is "may" really that hard to use when asking permission?

Apparently so, since it's been a thing for longer than you've been alive. "May" can have connotations of excessive formality. It's okay though, because English has this cool feature where the same word can mean more than one thing.

 

 

 

Edited October 6, 2015 by ccc

[MalletFace]

Mistakes in grammar, spelling, and other similar areas of writing are something I largely ignore when I read what others have written. Most of those rules arise from linguistic purism and are not the best way to communicate.

I hate it when I see two things, though: Poor grammar and spelling in the writing of somebody correcting the same and inability to carry meaning.

I shudder when threads like this pop up. These threads are havens for people to feel superior while ignoring their own failings in grammar, spelling, and meaning. I would guess that this is an issue falling within the Dunning-Kruger effect, but I hold no interest in psychology deep enough to know.

[TrishaCat]

LITERALLY

[ArielMT]

The Oxford Comma could be a crime drama skit from "The Electric Company."  It could've saved a parking ticket, Nelson Mandela's reputation, and 41 lives.

[yell0wf0x]

It sounds like you live in an asian country

The usual their/they're, weather/whether, your/you're (this happens at work a lot and it pisses me right off), unnecessary apostrophes 

My boss in his email sig has "Thanking you" and it drives me nuts

pretty much lol. And I see that a lot in emails too.

I deal with a lot of report writing and its both funny and irritating to see comments like "for determination in end system" and "taken into the considered"

[Zop]

Peeple r so bad with there their and there

Here r sum good uses as xample to learn from

They're are several children over their

There pinapples r the best in there state

Look over they're, there having problems tying their shoes

cmon guys isn't rockit science

 

[Sidewalk Surfboard]

Little_Dragon, here's the video. Turn on the captions for the lulz.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hx37dCMi29w

Edited October 7, 2015 by Sidewalk Surfboard

[#00Buck]

Yo dis thread be tite homie.

[ChaosCalix]

How has no one mentioned "alot" yet?

[Sarcastic Coffeecup]

I hate it when people fuck up their, they're and there. Also your, you're.

Most of all, then and than. I mean how do you fuck that up, and why is it an epidemic?

[Lisek]

One I am surprised I have not seen yet is effect and affect.

Affect is a verb.

Effect is a noun.

Example:

• Changing time honored traditions can have profound adverse secondary effects on the society being changed.
• Changing time honored traditions can profoundly and adversely affect society in a secondary manner.

It is astounding how many confuse this one too. It is almost as prevalent as then and than confusion.

 

Thank you! There was an official bulletin at work that used "insure" instead of "ensure", and I got really riled up. It was posted near the punch clock, so I actually delayed punching out just to find a pen and correct it. The bulletins always have some glaring errors in them that I can't help but notice, how are these people getting office jobs?

[DevilishlyHandsome49]

There was one time I almost commited the ultimate sin of saying "Lol" in a conversation face to face. If anyone does that to me...I'll be speechless

[Skylar Husky]

Thank you! There was an official bulletin at work that used "insure" instead of "ensure", and I got really riled up. It was posted near the punch clock, so I actually delayed punching out just to find a pen and correct it. The bulletins always have some glaring errors in them that I can't help but notice, how are these people getting office jobs?

Ha! That is funny. You sound like me, especially with workplace bulletins. I think one of the best ones I did was one time when I worked as a research chemist at a chemical plant and laboratory. Management was always a little at odds with the laboratory personnel because most of the scientists in the lab had more education and more advanced degrees, (Ph. D.'s and Masters) than management. It was a small company, started and privately owned by the same family until they sold it almost 60 years later in 2011  Those who were exceptionally good at sales could really rise through the ranks there and into upper management. This meant that businessmen with two year associate's degrees in business could be put in charge of the research and development business unit, for example. 

Management there had typed an official bulletin and posted up everywhere that a major new safety protocol was going to start and mandatory compliance was expected and required in order to remain employed. I forget what the protocol was now because it was at least 8 years ago now, But the date was what was funny. Effective 31 September 2007. I could not help myself, I got a Post-It note and wrote on it and put it in the bulletin board in the main cafeteria and break room next to the official notice. I wrote "I guess this means Never, since there is no 31st in September!!!" and signed it "the masked avenger."

I told no one about it, just quietly left the silly Post-It note with the arrow pointing to the date and silently listened to what was said about it. The other chemists noticed it and everyone got a chuckle about it but no one I knew about told management, Or they at least didn't tell them from the phone in the cafeteria. It actually had become a joke that everyone would laugh about outside of the lab and plant, say if we went off site for lunch.  It took four days for Management to notice and take down the signs and post new ones up. They changed the effective date 1 October 2007 instead. FOUR DAYS.

 

Insure and ensure! WOW! That is a good one too. I have seen that one but it is rare.

Insure - a financial maneuver to protect assets or minimize liability

ensure - action(s) taken to prevent something negative from happening.

 

Edited October 7, 2015 by Skylar Husky

[Hewge]

Quite/quiet. So weird but common mistake.

"I could care less."

Okay. So that means you actually care quite a bit, but you just found it worth pointing out? It's such an obnoxiously common mistake, that it even appears in professionally written media. 

Or it means the subject is so lame that they care oh-so-little about it, and they could consider even less about if it was worth the effort of caring. But it's not

"This thing is so shit I could take a dump on it, and it would be even more shit. It some how sucks that much" - Is how I see that :v

Edited October 7, 2015 by Hewge

[PheagleAdler]

Nearly everything in Weird Al's Word Crimes.

Also, seems relevant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4vf8N6GpdM

People who use the homophones brake/break, chord/cord, etc. incorrectly: I'd give em a dictionary for Christmas, these aren't complicated English words, do try to spell them correctly.

[yell0wf0x]

There was one time I almost commited the ultimate sin of saying "Lol" in a conversation face to face. If anyone does that to me...I'll be speechless

I do this all the time With my sisters.

[Conker]

The Oxford Comma is the one that drives me up the wall. FUCKING USE IT PEOPLE >:[

[Skylar Husky]

The Oxford Comma is the one that drives me up the wall. FUCKING USE IT PEOPLE >:[

I have actually had a professor who did not like that particular comma. You are talking about the comma immediately before the conjuction, right?

For instance if I was talking about spice flavored gumdrops. 

There are spearmint, peppermint, licorice, cinnamon, and clove flavored gum drops in this package.

Edited October 7, 2015 by Skylar Husky

[MalletFace]

The Oxford Comma is the one that drives me up the wall. FUCKING USE IT PEOPLE >:[

It can aid clarity when used correctly, and it can inhibit clarity when used incorrectly.

The best policy for all "rules" is to use them when they improve clarity and remove them when they don't. There are always cases in which any rule leads to confusion, and I have never had an instructor, professor or teacher that has taken off points when I exclude something to improve clarity.

Did excluding the serial comma there improve clarity? No, as the sentence's structure did not allow confusion. Did excluding it there reduce the clarity? No, as there is no punctuation after teacher.

Did excluding the serial comma there show that demanding the Oxford comma in all cases is simply pedantic? Yes.

Edit: I can see some people purposefully misinterpreting my statement in order to defend their purism. Anyone can completely understand what my statement was unless English is not their native language, just to clarify my point on clarity.

Edited October 7, 2015 by MalletFace

[Conker]

It can aid clarity when used correctly, and it can inhibit clarity when used incorrectly.

The best policy for all "rules" is to use them when they improve clarity and remove them when they don't. There are always cases in which any rule leads to confusion, and I have never had an instructor, professor or teacher that has taken off points when I exclude something to improve clarity.

Did excluding the serial comma there improve clarity? No, as the sentence's structure did not allow confusion. Did excluding it there reduce the clarity? No, as there is no punctuation after teacher.

Did excluding the serial comma there show that demanding the Oxford comma in all cases is simply pedantic? Yes.

Edit: I can see some people purposefully misinterpreting my statement in order to defend their purism. Anyone can completely understand what my statement was unless English is not their native language, just to clarify my point on clarity.

Yeah. Like that example drives me nuts. I get it when you have some crazy compound-complex sentence with a bunch of serials and commas and shit, then don't use it. That can be too many commas. But otherwise, get it the fuck in there.

Ya cunts.