It's National Grammar Day! Post your grammar pet peeves here.

[lapislzi]

There = location. "The octopus shot an ink jet over there."
Their = possession "The octopi depleted their ink jets."
They're = contraction of "they are." "They're going to think twice before trying that again."

Your = possession "The octopus shot brown ink all over your new sweater."
You're = you are "You're going to have a tough time getting that stain out."

(climbs into flak jacket)

[Zebedeo]

1. I could care less

about grammar. ;)

[lapislzi]

8. I think that means you care about grammar

You're (see what I did there?) being facetiously ungrammatical. :P

[Bicoastal]

28. No, it's "I COULDN'T care less..."

Just kidding--technically, they're both correct...:P

[ShortnFiery]

46. :-)

:thumbsup:

[Warpy]

2. For everybody else? That apostrophe for a plural

Cats = My cats have always been on the neurotic side.

Cat's = My cat's toys always seem to be underfoot, sometimes along with the cat.

For myself? It's the flowering of commas whenever I pause in typing, of course.

[wryter2000]

23. I was raised a comma freak

I had a really punitive English teacher who drummed commas into our heads. I'm having to learn to relax about them because publishers have cut back drastically on the number of commas they use.

[patrice]

75. I like commas and semi-colons.

[tblue37]

118. I tell my college students that overusing commas is like putting a speed bump

every 10 feet along a street. Certain commas are necessary, some are preferred but not necessary, and some are merely permissible. The trick is to avoid permissible but not required commas wherever possible, and sometimes even to avoid the preferred commas if the sentence already has more "speedbumps" than your reader is likely to feel confortable with.

[GoCubsGo]

34. That's mine, too.

I am to a point where I want to carry around a black Sharpie to cross out any misused apostrophes.

[arbusto_baboso]

3. Why does Grammar get her own day...

And Gramper just sits there ignored, once again? Hardly seems fair.

[HereSince1628]

29. Series111! And what about Perry Comma?

[Berry Cool]

43. Comma, comma, comma, comma, comma chameleon

You come and go, you come and go...

[ThomWV]

31. Because Spelling is a filthy pinko commie underserving of its own day

[lame54]

4. This video was made for this day...

http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=PZoq3gPTgnE

[ret5hd]

5. decimate

[YOY]

9. Yeah...I keep hearing it being overused for total destruction...

instead of decreasing by 1/10.

[YOY]

6. I mean I liked Frasier and his solo show was alright.

It's just all of his other attempts to get back into TV aren't funny.

[Jim__]

7. Wasn't yesterday National Grammar Day?

http://nationalgrammarday.com/

[lapislzi]

11. Oh, crap. You're right.

Cancel that. Be as ungrammatical as you like.

What was I thinking?

Thanks for the schooling.

[Jim__]

16. I only knew because there was a thread on it yesterday.

:)

[lapislzi]

21. I was busy splitting infinitives yesterday.

That explains it.

[tblue37]

84. Even the OED accepts split infinitives as acceptable. nt

[hatrack]

10. "Very unique"

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Captain Hilts]

70. "Safe haven." "Looking back in retrospect." nt

[Bicoastal]

12. "The dog raised ITS head up, as if to say, "IT'S a very nice day that wer're having today."

[proud2BlibKansan]

13. Lose - Loose

It's - Its

affect - effect

Actually these are spelling errors but they do bug me:)

[EFerrari]

33. My brain doesn't do homophones or near homophones very well.

I still have to check for these every single time.

[proud2BlibKansan]

42. It's about remembering the tricks

You only want to lose something once, so only one O.

It's is always a contraction. It is. Never possessive. All contractions have apostrophes.

Affect = verb

Effect = noun

You want 2 desserts but you only want to be in the desert once.

[Ms. Toad]

48. Affect/Effect - usually, but not always.

"He had a flat affect," uses "affect" as a noun which combined with "flat" means an expressionless appearance or tone, and "Her plan was to effect a change" uses effect as a verb meaning "to bring about"

[proud2BlibKansan]

49. I teach elementary school

You're talking above my head. LOL

[Ms. Toad]

102. I used to teach writing in law school -

They still make the same mistakes...

[cherokeeprogressive]

14. The usual ones. They'll all be posted here on this thread. n/t

[no_hypocrisy]

15. Who did it to whom?

[Individualist]

17. ...

could of, should of and would of

Who's instead of whose

It's instead of its

[jtuck004]

18. Thank you for this.

[SidDithers]

19. Misuse of your / you're is big for me too...

I was just told in one thread "Sid your such an obvious right wing plant"

It's pretty funny to be insulted by someone who doesn't know their ass from their elbow :rofl:

Sid

[liberal_at_heart]

20. I've never been very good at grammar

We all have our strengths and weaknesses.

[LWolf]

22. I could of been a contender.

We're loosing seats next November.

[tularetom]

24. The word "media" is plural

Don't say "the media does this" or "the media says that"

The media DO this and the media SAY that.

Why I care, I'm not sure, I'm probably guilty of a lot worse grammatical sins.

[SCantiGOP]

26. I ani't got no grammer peeves

[Odin2005]

58. It's a collective singular.

treating it as plural makes one sound like a pretentious twit.

[patrice]

69. There's a lot of new collective singular nouns now.

[tularetom]

97. From the pretentious twits at dictionary.com

me·di·a1    –noun

1. a pl. of medium.
2. usually used with a plural verb) the means of communication, as radio and television, newspapers, and magazines, that reach or influence people widely: The media are covering the speech tonight.

BTW, "pl." means "plural" just so you know.

[Odin2005]

113. They haven't updated the usage, apparently

When a singular form of a word is very rarely used by most people the tendency is for the plural form to develop into a collective singular.

[wryter2000]

25. Lie and lay

Drive me nuts. Also people that.

But the worst of all time is using me as the subject of a sentence. "Me and him saw that movie last week." "Me and my wife were able to quit our day jobs," as heard in an commercial on radio programs.

:argh:

[CTyankee]

35. I tutor ESL and I sometimes have to correct these horrible examples because new immigrants

often hear English spoken in the way you cite.

However, I think we are going to see an end to the correct spelling of the 3rd person singular verb in the present tense. I have heard "he go," "she say", for instance. It seems to be growing in usage and since all language is, in the end, dialect, this I fear will be the fate of English...

[suede1]

89. While I am a bit of a 'grammar Nazi'

I still have hard time saying, "I was lying out" as opposed to "I was laying out". I always get this image of myself standing on my deck and spouting untruths.

My punctuation has gone to hell in a hand basket over the years because I've come to rely on Grammar Check. My math and joke telling abilities have also taken strong hits after years of relying on machines to do the work for me.

[suede1]

90. ;)

[tblue37]

117. My article on "lie" and "lay" has been praised by many as the explanation that finally

made it all clear to them:
http://www.grammartips.homestead.com/lie.html

One reader emailed to tell me that despite earning a master's in English from a respected university, she never could get "lie" and "lay" straight until she read my article.

[chemp]

27. i have no peeves

I understand the meaning irregardless of how the word is used...:rofl:

[ellenfl]

30. irregardless!!! my grammar pet peeve. ok, one of them. eom

[EFerrari]

32. I would of but its time for more coffee, so their.

:)

[deaniac21]

36. Irregardless of my finiancial situation, I'm going to have to buy

a new hot water heater.

[TheMightyFavog]

37. "Li-berry" and "Ex-scape"

More pronunciation than grammer, but they irk me a lot.

[Warpy]

39. "JOOLERY"

I can't tell you how much that one sets my teeth on edge.

Honey, if you're going to sell something, learn how to pronounce it first!

[That Is Quite Enough]

47. "Joolery" sounds like a fun word.

[Dulcinea]

38. Whatever happened to subject-verb agreement?!

"I go to the store." "She walk down the street."

That drives me nuts!

[lapislzi]

41. It goed the way of the dinosaurs

Probably wiped out by an asteroid.

[Captain Hilts]

71. They shouldn't have went. nt

[marybourg]

40. "Him and me" went to the . . . nt.

[billyclem]

45. Why didn't you take John or I? n/t

[Odin2005]

61. Fact: anyone who denies using "me and" subjects is a liar.

It's not standard, but it's part of the grammar of English as it is actually spoken.

[Still Blue in PDX]

81. Not I!

Nor do my kids, but we are all persnickety about such things.

My husband, however, says "ain't" and "birfday," and all kinds of things that make us crazy.

[marybourg]

103. Not by me, or should I say "not by I? and not by anyone of my generation

(immediately pre-baby boomer)who spoke within my hearing (I don't watch commercial TV).

[annabanana]

44. your, you're

positively puts my teeth on edge.....

[scarletwoman]

50. Only one day? No wonder proper usage is going all to hell.

Even a "Grammar Week" would barely scratch the surface. And a "Grammar Month" might barely begin to be helpful.

Personally, I'd like to see a "Grammar Decade", with strict punishments for violators. Heavy fines for "irregardless". Jail terms for not matching subject and verb tenses. Public lashings for mixing up the punctuation of possessives with plurals. And beheadings for using "of" instead of "have" in sentences -- such as, "I should of..." when what's really meant is, "I should have...".

When I'm Goddess Empress of the World, such lapses will NOT be tolerated!

All shall fear me and despair!

Bwahahahahahaha...

sw

[SusanaMontana41]

51. misuse of apostrophe's

n/t

[scarletwoman]

52. ...

:banghead:

[Kip Humphrey]

53. ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;

[Withywindle]

54. Using quote marks for "emphasis."

"Apples" on "sale"!


They're...allegedly apples but not really? And the sale might not be real either? I'll pass, thanks.

[RedCloud]

59. Or quote unquote with nothing in between.

[lonestarnot]

55. Gotten. I didn't gotten mine.

[patrice]

72. Well, you could of, so its you're own fault.

[gateley]

78. Isn't have gotten correct?

I get
I got
I have gotten?

Or have I been wrong about this - and lots of others - all my life?

[HCE SuiGeneris]

56. To many too list. n/t

[Odin2005]

57. People not using the Subjunctive.

It's "If I were", not "If I was", unless you are British and use "should" constructions instead.

[gristy]

60. commas used like salt on a steak

commas between subjects and verbs and everywhere else

[K8-EEE]

62. When people misuse apostrophe's

Like THAT!

[Name removed]

101. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[BrklynLiberal]

63. Doesn't anyone use adverbs any more??????????

Newscasters, advertisements...even ones that are supposed to be "smart"..like NPR guys.

e.g. They all say
"This will get it done quicker"
....instead of........
"This will get it done more quickly."

[Captain Hilts]

73. What happened to 'complicated'. People now say "it's a complex problem." Is that correct? Is

'complicated' just used as a verb.

I don't understand this one.

[SnoopDog]

64. My pet peeve isn't grammatical errors...

I think that if a DUer wants to have any credibility and to be taken seriously...

That, 1) every sentence starts with a capital letter and 2) proper names also starts with a capital letter.

[Danmel]

65. Plural/singular disagreement

"have your CHILD bring THEIR permission slip"

makes the hair on my neck stand on end.

Closely followed by misuse of "well" & "good"

[patrice]

Yep. I encounter a lot of new collective nouns too, more than the standard ones like "team", they

get singular verbs.

[pink-o]

105. That one is people's clumsy attempts to be gender-neutral

"Have your child bring HIS permission slip". Sexist. His or hers? Tedious. "Their" solves that problem for some people, but for you and me, it sets our teeth on edge.

(and BTW, you and me is proper grammar, as I am using first-person pronoun as the object of the preposition "for".)

[patrice]

66. Objective Pronoun case is DISAPPEARING. People tend to use either mostly Subjective or mostly

Objective for most things.

There's a simple test to tell you which one to use for compound subjects or compound objects, most people don't seem to be using that simple test.

Everyone seems to have forgotten that Prepositions get Objective case Pronouns, because they often indicate the relationships of action doer/or be-er/subject (of the predicate) - to - action receiver/object or-state-of-being (predicate nominative or an appositive((?))).

Anyway, you hear even educated people using the wrong pronouns frequently. I suppose it still works okay, but I imagine it is confusing to foreigners.

[Captain Hilts]

67. "Less calories." It's FEWER calories, LESS fat. If you can count it, it's calories. nt

[Smashcut]

68. .

[patrice]

74. I know it's not PC, but "ax" drives me almost as nuts as "Democrat Party"

a - S - k

[patrice]

76. rill instead of real; sell instead of sale and . . . careless handwriting.

[pink-o]

106. That's a California accent. We also say "Melk" for Milk. n/t

[patrice]

108. And, East L.A. anyway, "reefer" for refrigerator.

I am known to say "crick" instead of "creak", that's either just Midwestern or Arkansas, I'm not sure.

[yodermon]

77. "literally" figuratively means "figuratively" now, while

"literally" still literally means "literally".

"he was so mad he literally exploded". Um well no.

[kskiska]

79. imply/infer

The sender implies. The receiver infers.

[Hutzpa]

80. LOOK MA, WE ARE SURROUNDED BY ANTAGONIST AND ARROGANCE

and people are asking what has become of DU? you need not look any further than this,
here is your evidence, the self styled aggrandized have taken over.

Sooo sad.

[Cerridwen]

82. Those who do not understand language, its rules, and its use,

are those who will accept any propaganda presented them without question.

Bless your heart. Have a great day.

:hi:

[tblue37]

83. I don't have to--I am an internet grammar guru, and I post many, many articles about such

things on my Grammar and Usage for the Non-Expert website:
http://www.grammartips.homestead.com/articleindex.html

[gristy]

85. Bookmarked!

:thumbsup:

[enuegii]

86. In a recent thread bemoaning the sorry state

of public education in the U.S., I saw a post lamenting the fact that public had "been dumb down", followed immediately by another agreeing that the country had definitely "been dummed down" in recent years.
I don't think they were being ironic.

[Tom Rinaldo]

87. Don't got any. n/t

[Lifelong Protester]

88. the misuse of seen, as in "I seen you last night" and I really

cannot abide "Drive Safe"....even though it is said with the best and kindness of intentions.

And while we are on the pronunciation hobby horse, does anyone else out there hate hearing comPAIRable instead of comPARable?

[suede1]

91. While this isn't a grammar or punctuation peeve

It’s still slightly related. It bugs me to no end to hear someone pronounce it "off-tin", it's "offen", dammit

[tomm2thumbs]

92. I have alot of them, butt their would be to many to right down hear

weigh two menny

[saltpoint]

93. "The Steelers will need a strong second half as far as the secondary."

My ear wants that "...is concerned" in there.

[saltpoint]

94. Also on my list would be U.S. presidents who lop the 'g' off their verbs.

"Goin' on vacation down to the ranch. Gonna do me some brush clearin'."

[Odin2005]

116. EVERYBODY does that, if you claim you don't you are fooling to yourself

The "-ing" ending is actually a fusion of 2 Middle English endings, the Present Participle ending "-en" and the verbal noun ending "-ing". Welsh influence (Welsh has only one form for both things, like Modern English) caused these forms to collapse together, with -in' and -ing both being used. the exclusive use of -ing in speech is a hyper-correction to the written form by status conscious middle class folks in the 1700s. In the 1700s it was perfectly normal for an English gentleman to say that he was going "huntin', fishin', and shootin'.

[saltpoint]

120. The actual point had to do with George W. Bush.

[theHandpuppet]

95. Pet peeve? Sportscasters who get a pass for atrocious grammar

Second prize to folks who utter, "I seen".

[saltpoint]

96. Some folks, when they write a note in an office or send an email to

friends and kin, go hogwild on exclamation points.

There's a hammering of a dozen-odd exclamation points after even the most mundane observation or comment. As in:

"...if the weather cooperates !!!!!!! "

Jesus.

[kaybea]

98. have/had went...anyone posted this yet?

I see it everywhere, even here.

Remember that great old song, "Where Have All the Flowers Went?"

Yeah, neither do I.

[jmondine]

99. I can't stand run-on sentences they drive me crazy.

[Name removed]

100. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[11 Bravo]

104. Your not really going too go their, are you?

(Someone mite call you a grammer Natzi!)

[pink-o]

107. The disappearing adverb.

He did that real good.

Every qualifier is an adjective now, but I blame linking verbs such as To Be To Feel To Seem, et al. You correctly use adjectives to describe and qualify those verbs; it's totally confusing that you "Feel Bad" but you "Perform Badly".

Face it: I love this language, and while I can squeak by in Spanish and Italian, English is the only tongue I feel comfortable (not comfortably) articulating my thoughts. But it's a stupid, arbitrary Jambalaya stew of words, with no rules for verb conjugation and far, far too many prepositions to wrap one's head around. (Romance languages typically only have about 6 or 7 prepositions, thank Gawd!) Also, street lingo is a lot different than "Cash English". When I'm speaking colloquially with friends, I'm gonna say "Me and him." I'll use bad grammar to enhance a story, twist a thought or bring irony into focus. But when I write, I want to ascertain my grammar and spelling are perfect.

It's exactly like being bilingual. One tense for informal conversation, another entirely for written submissions. So I see no reason to go ballistic over bad grammar when it won't end up as recorded human history!

[Stevenmarc]

109. One word...... Funner

[Odin2005]

114. Both "funner" and "more fun"e perfectly acceptable.

Generally the rule is that the inflectional forms -er and -est cannot be used with multi-syllabic words and most words borrowed from Old French.

[CreekDog]

110. I have no problem with prepositions at the end of a sentence, that's where they belong at.

:D

[whistler162]

111. I ain't got none.

[Moosepoop]

112. "Likely" used as an adverb without a modifier.

As in "George Bush likely has no brain."

It should be "George Bush most likely has no brain" or "George Bush very likely has no brain."

Or it could be done using "likely" as an adjective with a present tense verb:

"George Bush is likely to have no brain," or "It is likely that George Bush has no brain."

I understand the use of grammatical shorthand in headlines, but not in actual news writing and broadcast reporting. I see and hear this one a lot, and even though it's becoming common usage and widely accepted, it still drives me nuts (though I'd be more tolerant of it if it were contained in a news report that actually addressed George Bush's probable lack of a brain). ;)

[Odin2005]

115. I don't see how that is wrong.

"likely" is modifying the verb "has". It's identical in form to "He quickly runs", the position of the adverb in front of the verb giving it a little bit of emphasis.

[Moosepoop]

119. No, the two forms are not identical.

You are correct in that in your example, "quickly" is an adverb modifying the verb "runs."

However, a common misconception is that all words that end in "ly" are adverbs. Many (perhaps most) are, but not all.

"Likely" is most often used as an adjective, and in those cases should be used with a present tense verb.

It becomes an adverb only when used with another adverb which modifies it (such as most or very). In the example I gave, there was no present tense verb to accompany it as an adjective, and there was no modifying adverb to make it an adverb.

However, as I stated, it has become so commonly misused that it's widely accepted and not really considered incorrect by most people any more. I'm getting more used to it the more I see and hear it, and though it still drives me nuts at least the drive is getting longer.

[Suji to Seoul]

121. I have much points so I win. . .I have many money

If people can't figure out much/many (for the most part, you can't touch much), then please just use "alot of." Those two words mean the same as much and many.

And the others one:

I'm versing you (when the person means "I'm playing against you.") Versus is never used in the progressive tense, or in the perfect tense. . .or in ANY verb tense, dammit!!!

[HarveyDarkey]

122. This is boring

Im goin to the laundrymat an warsh my close.

[astral]

123. You need spanked.

[Delphinus]

124. Using

"till" for UNTIL when it really should be " 'til ". IMVHO