Spelling/Grammar pet peeves

[decoherence 183]

Time to let your inner spelling/grammar nazi bust loose! Oh, hey, there's one right there! 'Loose' when someone means 'lose a game.' See what I mean? Anyway, this is meant as a silly post. I'm not seriously criticizing anyone, nor do I actually care as much as I might sound like I do. Just gettin' in the spirit

 

Alot. I really like this alot. There's a funny article about that here

 

http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.ca/2010/04/alot-is-better-than-you-at-everything.html

 

There's no such word as "alot." There's "a lot" and there's "allot."

 

Irregardless. This one gets crapped on alot (hehe) because it is used as a synonym for 'regardless' but, if you break down the construction, actually means 'not regardless' or 'regarding.' It's not that it isn't a word (it's a construct) it's just that it means the opposite of what most people think it does. But the incorrect usage is so entrenched that if you used it correctly, people would misunderstand you.

 

Ultimate. "L4D2 is the ultimate zombie game!" No, no it isn't. There have been plenty of zombie games since. Hm, on second thought, L4D2 is the last one really worth playing, so maybe I'll give that one a pass. My favourite use of 'ultimate' so far is something you hear flying on little First Air or Canadian North planes in the Arctic. "For your ultimate safety, survival gear is stowed in the back of the cabin." Damnn right! Cause if that survival gear doesn't keep you safe, you're f**king dead, man. There ain't nothin else gonna save you!

 

Another thing that ticks me off, mostly because I do it all the time, is two-letter typos. So typing 'of' when you mean to type 'or.' Of 'is' instead or 'if.' (see?)

 

"With regards to..." with regards to whom? I'm sure they appreciate you sending your regards! Or do you mean "In regard to..." or better yet "regarding..." (or maybe "irregardless"? )

 

Check, as in paycheck. This one gets my goat but only when Canadians use it. I don't care if Americans use it -- that's what they are taught. But it's a French word (sans accent) and Canada is a freaking bi-lingual country. RRRAGH!

 

Nevermind the mess that is 'your.'

 

Anyway, nobody is perfect and I make plenty of grammatical errors (points to whoever can count the ones in this post!) and the main thing is that we understand one another. Still, sometimes it's fun to vent about silly(?) things!

Edited October 3, 2013 by decoherence

[FoxyCryptid 4,330]

I have one that's more of a slang pet peeve: When someone uses the term "cray" to mean crazy(especially cray cray). I have no idea why but it's borderline painful for me, I literally react to it the way some people react to the word swag.

 

Also. People writing in many short lines. It just drives mad. I think it's because there's so many stops. It's taxing to read. It's the worst kind of beige prose. It's only acceptable when talking like Shatner. See how bad it is? I've been doing it this whole time. Horrid, isn't it? 

[Fubz 300]

Nevermind the mess that is 'your.'

 

Haha no the mess is yours.

*waits for sour joke to settle in.

 

Aye, the most annoying thing for me is the improper use of 'there', 'their' and 'they're'.

 

Actually, no wait, there's something even more annoying. Using the word 'unique' wrongly. You'll notice it a lot, it's when people say "Oh, no no no, Fluttershy is best poni because she's more unique than everyone else" :I you can't be more or less unique than something, you're either unique or you're not.

 

But seriously tho Rarity is most unique therefore best poni

[decoherence 183]

Haha no the mess is yours. *waits for sour joke to settle in.

 

Your avatar sums up my reation nicely. @#$% English and its posessive pronouns!!! I'm sure I botch that all the time.

 

 

 

But seriously tho Rarity is most unique therefore best poni

 

Pah! Twilight's uniqueness is near infinite!!

 

Edited October 3, 2013 by decoherence

[Frith is Magick 1,471]

Your and you're. there, they're, and their.Use of apostrophes (or lack thereof).Spelling errors in general. I'm not picky about grammar, provided the sentence makes sense. I'm a bit more forgiving with typos, but I can't stand blatant errors that prevent the sentence from being readily understood.

 

USE SPELL CHECK, PEOPLE!!!  

Edited October 3, 2013 by Frith is Magik

[Jack Spades 162]

I before E except after C... I hate that rule, because in Germany that isn't true. Ein, Eine, and Einen (A) has I before E without the C. Even though before I heard that that rule is incorrect, it still grinds my gears. Verflixt!

[decoherence 183]

I before E except after C... I hate that rule, because in Germany that isn't true. Ein, Eine, and Einen (A) has I before E without the C. Even though before I heard that that rule is incorrect, it still grinds my gears. Verflixt!

 

Yeah, I hate that rule too, mostly when people quote it at me because I made some typo. As weird as is may seem, their attemps at correction seize me with a feisty feeling that is quite foreign to my nature.

 

I think I deserve the "Most Contrived Sentence" award for that one...

[~Lawful Haze~ 173]

I have one that's more of a slang pet peeve: When someone uses the term "cray" to mean crazy(especially cray cray). I have no idea why but it's borderline painful for me, I literally react to it the way some people react to the word swag.

 

Also. People writing in many short lines. It just drives mad. I think it's because there's so many stops. It's taxing to read. It's the worst kind of beige prose. It's only acceptable when talking like Shatner. See how bad it is? I've been doing it this whole time. Horrid, isn't it? 

Dude.

That's like,

So cray cray.

How do you manage?

Do you not...like...Shatner?

 

But on a seperate note, I go a little crazy when people fail to use the correct versions of their, there and they're, along with a lack of punctuation.

However what really annoys me is that lately I've been messing them up occasionally too, because I've seen it wrong so many times... #dead

At least I correct myself >.>

[FoxyCryptid 4,330]

Dude.

That's like,

So cray cray.

How do you manage?

Do you not...like...Shatner?

 

But on a seperate note, I go a little crazy when people fail to use the correct versions of their, there and they're, along with a lack of punctuation.

However what really annoys me is that lately I've been messing them up occasionally too, because I've seen it wrong so many times... #dead

At least I correct myself >.>

 

I just said in the post Shatner speak was the one time it was acceptable :b

 

And literally no other slang bugs me, sometimes I'll even lapse into using it if I feel the statement needs it. 

 

and I will have paybacks for that someday, 

[Scootalove 10,689]

I hate it when someone spells words in a William Shatner kind of way, and mispronouncing someone's name if you don't know how to pronounce it. Probably, some slangs make me a bit mad.

[Blue Moon 6,341]

One of my grammar-related pet peeves would be people not using the there/their/they're correctly. Of course, I won't hate you if you don't use them correctly, but I do get slightly annoyed. 

 

Another thing really annoying to me is the amount of people who don't know what adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, or verbs are. It got really annoying in middle school because whenever a good amount of people didn't know what the previously mentioned were, we had to spend about a week learning them. And people still ending up forgetting what they were, and we had to be taught in the next grade as well.

[NocturnalRainbow 248]

I'm not big on grammar but when someone doesn't capitalize properly....

 

grrr....

 

It's the easiest thing you could possibly do! Just take the five extra seconds it takes to do it.

 

Let me just give you an example

 

Friend on Skype : "yo guys whats going on"

 

Me: /)_-)

[notdog1996 315]

If something bothers me, it's the homo phonic mistakes, both in French and in English.  I just can't stand it!  ''Your'' and ''There'' are the ones that bother me the most.  I just can't see how people mix them up.  There is for a place, they're is a contraction and their is a possessive pronoun. Not that hard ,is it?  In french, they annoy me less because they're not as obvious, but they're still a very stupid mistake to make.  

[Shanks 10,816]

The three main things that come to mind for me are when people overuse words, it could be any word swear word or not and I will find it annoying. For example "like I totally went to the mall today and like there was this guy like he total jerk like I don't know what his problem was." Then there is ebonics where every word sounds like you are having a damn seizure, there are some slang terms I can live with and even occasionally use myself but to quote this famous phrase I saw in a movie once "English motherfucker do you speak it?" I also don't like when people overuse text speak, I can understand the occasional LOL but I really detest sentences like this one "My smmr hols wr CWOT. B4, we used 2go2 NY 2C my bro, his GF & thr 3 :-@ kids FTF. ILNY, it's a gr8 plc". Not only do people sound like complete moron when they type this but I don't understand what the frag they are even talking about. It just gives me yet another reason to not like texting when I already have enough to write a book on.

[decoherence 183]

 

 

I'm not big on grammar but when someone doesn't capitalize properly....

 

i'm often guilty of that. to me it is a way to indicate extremely informal speech, but that's just my personal rule and i don't expect others to necessarily accept it. quite often i'll think twice, go back and add in proper caps. i'll leave this one as is just for you, though hehehe

 

 

 

For example "like I totally went to the mall today and like there was this guy like he total jerk like I don't know what his problem was."

 

I once pointed this out to a friend back in high school and she insisted she didn't overuse it. I proposed a challenge and we agreed that she would give me $0.10 every time she used the work 'like' in that way for the next five minutes. Easiest three bucks I ever made! She wasn't even that bad compared to some of the other students! At the end of the five minutes she said something like "Argh, that was like the most frustrating -- ARGH!!!!"

[Clover Heart 978]

Wierd. Thounge/Thonge/Thoung/Tonge. (...C'mon, people. It's "tongue.") Definately. 

 

Of course, all the apostrophe errors bug the crap out of me. As well as confused homophones. Come on, it's not that hard.

 

Lack of punctuation bugs the crap out of me. "Hi guys went to the doctor today he said I need to come back for tests next week not looking forward to it sucks" This is freaking difficult to read. I can't understand where the thoughts end and begin. "Hi, guys" or "Guys went?" "Went to the doctor, today," or "Today, he said?" I realize contextually, you can grasp what the person was trying to say, but differences (or lack there of) between these kinds of groupings make the initial read difficult, and often, I have to go back a second time to understand. Plus, when I read it, I read it in a voice that makes it all connected, so people sound like idiots to me when they type like this.

 

There's No Reason To Capitalize Every Word In A Sentence. People Need To Stop Doing This. It's Difficult To Read. Also, to me, it sounds like there's a pause between every single word. Super annoying.

 

Along with capitalization, I don't like this trend I'm seeing with people not capitalizing the first word of sentences. And this tends to be from more intelligent people, so I know they know better. Is it a stylistic thing or something? Even so, it bugs me.

 

Yes, irregardless bugs the shit out of me >.< Without no regard? So, regarding? That's not the same as regardless. It makes no sense as a word and shouldn't be used.

 

People who use the incorrect word in a set phrase. For example, when people say "I should of." This doesn't even make any sense, so I don't even understand how native English speakers would make that mistake.

 

Also, I can't stand the way people use the term "literally," all too often. They use "literally" to describe a figurative situation. That's not literal. That's the opposite of literal. More info.

 

For some reason, I seem to be seeing people using "bazaar" when they mean "bizarre" quite a bit, lately. That's kind of a weird one.

 

It bugs me when people don't know when to/not to use the past participle. For example, "I drunk some water," or "I've drank some water." I guess I can see where people would mess them up easily, but at the same time, I don't think it's all that difficult.

 

I'm willing to accept that with phones, sometimes wrong is more efficient. Now having a phone with no predictive text or auto-fill where I have to type out every single letter, I can appreciate how tedious it can be to write the proper forms of words. I still do it because I, personally, can't bring myself to use grammar and spellings I find abhorrent, but I can appreciate, now, where someone would be disinclined to do so. However, I'll only excuse this on a phone. On the internet, especially in a place like a forum or blog, there's no excuse, save the occasional typo. Spell check is widely available. It's in word documents. It's on websites. Hell, it's on very thing you're typing into in most cases! How can you ignore that red squiggly line at the bottom of everything you type? In my opinion, improper spelling and grammar on the internet are a product of just plain laziness at its worst. I'm not the strictest of the strict and I don't tend to be one to call people out on this kind of thing. A number of things, as well, I just tend to ignore. Some people just won't ever get it in their heads that "it's" isn't a possessive adjective. However, there are so many things that I feel there's no excuse for. I might sound harsh, but that's how I feel. /rant

 

Ugh, I have to stop. I could go on forever. I actually have a ton of peeves about grammar and spelling. I probably couldn't think of everything if I tried. But those are a few of the things that tend to bother me most. I'll probably be posting again at some point 

[decoherence 183]

Yeah, I thought of some more.

Mixing up then and than. One refers to time, the other is comparative. "This is greater then that," which would make sense if you put a comma between 'greater' and 'then' but it still wouldn't mean what the writer probably intended.

"Milk, eggs, and flour." Okay, this is more of a personal pet peeve, because that's supposedly the expected form in the States, but it looks bloody weird to this colonial! "Milk, eggs and flour" is the form I expect -- no comma before the conjunction.

[Clover Heart 978]

"Milk, eggs, and flour." Okay, this is more of a personal pet peeve, because that's supposedly the expected form in the States, but it looks bloody weird to this colonial! "Milk, eggs and flour" is the form I expect -- no comma before the conjunction.

 

I'm American and to be honest, I don't know which is supposedly correct by us. ("Milk, eggs, and flour" or "Milk, eggs and flour.") It kinda pisses me off but as a kid, I was never taught to use commas correctly. Honestly, in school, I've been taught that both of the above ways are correct and that the opposite is wrong. Like, what do you even do with that information? As a result, I tend to spam commas. I remember being told when I was little that a comma signifies a pause in a sentence, so I have a bad habit of putting commas between thoughts or when I think there should be a verbal pause when grammatically, it's unnecessary. But then, I don't know the actual rules and I've also seen websites with that type of conflicting information. So I just don't know. For the record, I was under the impression, though, that in the States, as well, it should be "Milk, eggs and flour."

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 41,391]

See, I have this strange fascination with language. I want to take pride in the main language I speak, that being English, but I feel that there is just so much slang that it diminishes it's value.

 

Beyond that, some things that bug me are:

 

Your instead of You're

Loose instead of lose

U instead of you, or anything like that. It is THREE letters. THREE. Simple enough.

The 'there' conundrum.

Weather used for Whether

Ur. The spelling but most importantly, the damn pronunciation of that. YOUR! Or YOU'RE! When people just say 'Ur', gah! That frustrates me.

 

I really want to take pride in my native language, but these rednecks and other ill informed people make that hard to do so. If you have a reason for this kind of speak that is justifiable, then whatever, but many seem to do it just because.

[sunne 659]

Yeah, I thought of some more.

 

Mixing up then and than. One refers to time, the other is comparative. "This is greater then that," which would make sense if you put a comma between 'greater' and 'then' but it still wouldn't mean what the writer probably intended.

 

"Milk, eggs, and flour." Okay, this is more of a personal pet peeve, because that's supposedly the expected form in the States, but it looks bloody weird to this colonial! "Milk, eggs and flour" is the form I expect -- no comma before the conjunction.

 

 

Yeah, I thought of some more.

 

Mixing up then and than. One refers to time, the other is comparative. "This is greater then that," which would make sense if you put a comma between 'greater' and 'then' but it still wouldn't mean what the writer probably intended.

 

"Milk, eggs, and flour." Okay, this is more of a personal pet peeve, because that's supposedly the expected form in the States, but it looks bloody weird to this colonial! "Milk, eggs and flour" is the form I expect -- no comma before the conjunction.

I completely agree with you on "then/than"

But I don't on "Milk, eggs, and flour."

This is probably personal for me as well, but I feel the need to put the comma there. Saw that's what you need to get at the store and you're reading out lout. Without the second comma there, to me it sounds like "Milk, eggsandflour."

 

Anyway.

I've been seeing people mess up wondering and wandering. As in, instead of wandering musician, they'll put wondering musician.

 

Where/were/wear bugs me.

"Wear where you?" "we where at the store. I wanted something new to were for the dance."

I've seen similar paragraphs and sentences to this. Is it really all that hard?

 

They're/their/there.

 

"etc./ect."

IT IS E-T-C. ET Cetera, NOT Et CeTera.

 

"Cuz/Becuz", "Tho", "Tonite", anithing that's shortened like that.

When people use the incorrect version of a word, commonly the adverb version of an adjective.. Examples:

"They feasted in a greedily manner."

"I didn't see any grammatically errors."

 

/)_-

I could go on.

[Malinter 3,064]

Armor is Armour.

Color is Colour.

 

Not fond of folks who 'text' talk. using U for you and m8 for mate and whatnot.

 

Personally, i'm a bugger for not using enough full stops and such in my sentences. Breathing is for the weak. xD

[Clover Heart 978]

Armor is Armour.

Color is Colour.

 

 

This. Like, I'm totally not even trying to be a jerk. This is a legitimate peeve of mine. I don't like when other English-speaking countries say that America's way of spelling is incorrect. It may not be correct in your country, but it is in ours. We've been taught to spell this way from a young age and it's an acceptable spelling. To me, words like "practise," "centre" or "recognise" look really wrong to me because of the way that I've been taught to spell. But I wouldn't call someone out for it or even say they're wrong at all because I realize that other countries spell things differently. And, in fact, as an ESL teacher, I often teach my students both.

 

Again, these spellings aren't wrong. They're different. I think it's really arrogant to assert that 300 million people are wrong about their own native language.

[Malinter 3,064]

 

This. Like, I'm totally not even trying to be a jerk. This is a legitimate peeve of mine. I don't like when other English-speaking countries say that America's way of spelling is incorrect. It may not be correct in your country, but it is in ours. We've been taught to spell this way from a young age and it's an acceptable spelling. To me, words like "practise," "centre" or "recognise" look really wrong to me because of the way that I've been taught to spell. But I wouldn't call someone out for it or even say they're wrong at all because I realize that other countries spell things differently. And, in fact, as an ESL teacher, I often teach my students both.

 

Again, these spellings aren't wrong. They're different. I think it's really arrogant to assert that 300 million people are wrong about their own native language.

 

I never said it was wrong. we just pronounce it with the u in, americians don't.

 

theres also the whole thing with how aluminium is pronounced as well.

Edited October 4, 2013 by Greenfield

[Clover Heart 978]

I never said it was wrong. we just pronounce it with the u in, americians don't.

 

theres also the whole thing with how aluminium is pronounced as well.

 

Okay, sorry for calling you out like that. I have heard people from other English-speaking countries make that argument, though, saying that "Americans need to learn how to spell!" So, relevant, I guess? Heh heh... ^^; *sheepishly slinks away*

Edited October 4, 2013 by Clover Heart

[Bucky McGillyCuddy 956]

When people say "I seen him yesterday" instead of "I saw him yesterday". It drives me bucking crazy. I don't know if it's very common in other parts of the world but lesser intelligent Australian's love the phrase.