The Grammar Group
I have a few grammatical pet peeves, not that I am super grammar woman. Still...there are a few things that irk me to no end.
"Irregardless". Irregardless is a slang/made up word combining irrespective, and regardless. I understand that when people use it, they typically mean to say "without regard (to)" or some other form of that meaning. The "ir" is not necessary, because the "less" already indicates that! It's like fingernails on a chalkboard for me.
A less picky pet peeve of mine is "Ahi tuna". Ahi is Hawaiian for tuna. So you are essentially saying "Tuna tuna". Same peeve applies to "ATM machine" or other variations of the same problem.
Last but not least, the misuse of "There, their and they're". I know everyone makes mistakes, but I am convinced that some people don't know the difference.
Other than that, I am a grammar nightmare 
User Comments
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Just last night I took out my copy of "Elements of Style." Need to stay sharp for this group.
My current irritants include
> could care less
> different than-
Oh that's another one. It's "couldn't care less"! Could makes no sense.... -
Well, technically I *could* care less about grammar than I do, right? -
Lulubelle, I too love Strunk and White's Elements of Style -
@ robertstevenson
We used to have "battle of the style books" arguments when editing copy for our PR department. Usually it was AP vs. Chicago vs. NY Times. Strunk & White was the tiebreaker.
BTW - have you seen "Elements of Journalism" by Kovach & Rosenstiel? It tackles "news" much the way S&W addresses writing.
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Craigslist is a killer these days. I like using Craigslist, but I hate reading the ads that people place there. I think it's a great snapshot of where the general public is as far as grammar and spelling is concerned.
People misuse words like crazy on our local Craigslist site (Spokane, WA). The homophones are the worst (as Anok described)..."for sail", "better then new", "must sale", argh...the list goes on and on. -
I agree, Tim. When something ends up in print, many folks seem to absorb it unconsciously as "must be correct it's in print."
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The misuse of "there" they're" and "their." So simple to understand yet so many can't take the time to get it straight. And confusing "it's" and its" is another common screw-up that grates on me.-
These have to be two of the most abused grammar faux pas around.
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I cringe whenever I hear people say "stuffs", "medicines", and "furnitures". I mean, really? Who told these people that they can pluralize these words?-
It's funny, as a parent (of a very young child) I find that I pluralize words that ought not be pluralized with an "s" almost unconsciously. Words like Foot, and feet. I will use "Foots" and "feets" when talking about both feet, to my kid. I think it's a weird way of teaching your kid that non "s" pluralizations are still plural.
Seriously! I have no idea why, but I do it. Only with my kid, though.
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Interesting how we talk with our little ones; isn't it? It's kind of like the Junie B. Jones book series for elementary school kids. The main character uses atrocious grammar. It's on the Accelerated Reader book list; then we're surprized when are kids can't make subjects and verbs agree.
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Sometimes though, you just have to talk to them on their own level. Plus, kid's words are funnier
Punky will say things like "municorn" and "shugel" instead of unicorn and shovel.
Shugel is a lot more fun to say
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My mom can spell word like cephalalgia but she can't get her there, their, they're, peace, piece, to, two, too strait. I don't know what that is but she can spell any big word the small words tend to be a mountain. -
I hate the word "had" a great deal. It's overused and abused and left to rot in the warm, moist heat of the rainforest until it's so disgustingly decomposed that even the mutant maggots of the jungle won't touch it. Some random examples:
"She had turned off the phone earlier." Why is had there, exactly? Earlier, she turned off the phone. Period.
"He had had to turn off the phone before the movie started." Oh he did did, did he? Bah. I hope you can feel my scorn, because I'm doing it as hard as I can. -
I have two teenage children and two more that aren't far from being teens. I also work with the youth at our church. I am so tired of hearing the word 'like' used multiple times over and over in their conversations. Sometimes they will use it multiple times in the same sentence. I always ask the kids why they use it so much. I never get a good answer. Or, should I say, "I like never get a good answer"...
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At least it's better than "enomsay" - translated: "You know what I'm sayin'?"
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I kinda like find those mumblephrases, like as irritating as using like.
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Regarding my earlier post about Craigslist, I give you this prime example:
Date: 2008-05-15, 1:43PM PDT
1981 Honda Trail 110. Just like the trail 90s with a little more go. New tiers, struts etc. Low milange
Talking job outside the US. Have boat, 2004 F-250 4x4 truck, 96 Geo, 19 ft travel trailor, and Spopsmith for sail as well.
Yikes...-
Ow. My head has exploded. That sort of thing acts on me like Kryptonite does on Superpeople. -
Double ow
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My peeve: People here in India are used to saying "isn't it" after each sentence. I did it right, isn't it? Edison invented bulb, isn't it and so on
Here, people also use too many "I think" "I think it should be that way which I think is this way and no, I think it is not both ways" and so on
Another peeve is the use of extreme slang in narration, as used by steven king. He uses too much "a**holes and f**ks" in his narration. As a writer, I prefer it to be kept only in dialogs. In narration, we should use only straight language.
Another peeve is it's vs its. no matter how many times educted ppl tell them, they still make mistakes in this. and "it's" one of the foulest things in grammar due to "its" stinking nature...
And other pet peeves other guys have mentioned here..
but generally I despise when I see anything against grammar rules. Read my writing help blog in which I scorn all grammar errors!!!!
cutewriting.blogspot.com -
vjlenin, good observation.
Slang, dialect, or colloquialisms get picked up and repeated. One-liners like catch phrases on TV become part of our vocabulary. The problem is sometimes those phrases are grammatically incorrect. -
Okay! Okay! I admit it! It's me! I always write there instead of they're! Sigh!
I have caught myself doing this at least a hundred million times, and this is no exaggeration.
I am sure someone will find it on my writings; I try to catch stuff like this, but I don’t seem notice it most of the time.
Makes me so mad when I do find the mistake, because I know better… could there be such a thing, as developing a habit on writing the wrong meaning word?
Since I am basically not a grammatically correct person, I tend to let these things slide.
I have noticed this one: the word ain't. And then using it like this: It ain’t that bad! Or I ain’t afraid!-
I thought you were the one that did that. . . It's that arctic climate.
Seriously, I slip with their, there and they're too. As a matter of fact. I write pretty sloppily at first. Things start looking right by my second or third edit.
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I go for the old standards, beginning with the disagreement in number of subject and verb, something I was guilty of myself on the forums earlier today, though forums don't count. As a historian I also don't like it when people mix their tenses, or switch unnecessarily.
Not errors, but things I'm pretty hard on: passive voice, unnecessary adverbs, and overuse of the verbs to be and to have.
My current checklist for students writing essays: homepage.mac.com/markstoneman/proofreading checklist.html
Most are about style, not grammar per se, but it's sometimes hard to separate the two.
I might as well give you the posts I've done on proofreading too: language4you.wordpress.com/category/writing/proofreading/ -
Seeing people using "loose" when they mean "lose" drives me to distraction. -
Aside from overuse of passive voice (i.e., the word "had") and verbal flatulence such as "you know," the most stridently irritating phrase is "... a number of ...," which is becoming increasingly prevalent, and which I regard as an indication of both innumeracy and illiteracy. "A number of" is tenebrously vague, and requires the pronunciation of more syllables, and the use of more print space, than its alternatives, such as numerous, a few, several, many, lots of, plenty of, 142 (or any precise figure), innumerable, or "a couple of" (a more informative expression, although requiring the same print space and number of syllables).
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