Grammar peeves

"Christina Websell" wrote:
"Adrian" wrote in message
...
Bastette wrote:
Starting a new thread so Tweed won't think we're all gossiping about her.


Mike wrote:

The mistakes that bother me the most are the use of SEEN where SAW
would
be correct and the incorrect use of THERE, THEIR, and THEY'RE.

Grammar peeves are like... well, you know. Everybody has one. I
certainly do.

The writing mistake that bothers me the most is "could of, would of,
should of." AAAAAAAgh! When I see that, it's like taking a popsicle stick
and moving it back and forth along the edges of my teeth. You know how
unpleasant that is. That's what it's like when I see that, it's a real
visceral reaction. (Yeah, I know, they have medication for that... )

The other mistake I hate is "between John and I" and the like. I now see
that construction in professional writing such as marketing brochures, so
I guess it's "arrived." We're stuck with it - oh, god, NOOOO! Make it go
away!

Other writing errors:

If you don't like the there/their/they're problem, you probably also hate
your vs. you're mistakes.

(Person A: "Your stupid." Person B: "My stupid what?" )


Yes, it's misuse of apostrophes that's really irritating to me.
--
Adrian

Egg's for sale here. No really, their are g. I have some spare atm.

Tweed

LOL.
--
Adrian

"dgk" wrote in message

...
Grammer and spelling count but apparently not as much as they
once
counted.

Or, indeed, "grammar" :-)

Teacher: "Where's your grammar?"
Pupil: "Out playing bingo!"

:-)

--
MatSav

"MatSav" wrote in message
...
"Christina Websell" wrote in
message
"Judith Latham" wrote in message
...


I hate having to put " Yours faithfully" at the end of a letter no
matter if I've put "Dear Sir/Madam" or "Dear Mrs Smith" I put
"Yours Sincerely".

You know very well that it's considered to be wrong! If you use
Sir/Madam you should use "yours faithfully" to sign off and "yours
sincerely" if you start Dear Mr/Mrs(anyname)
Thank your lucky stars that you are not living in the early part of
the 20th century when "I am yours respectfully" was common and a
little bit further back "I am your humble servant.."


Or, indeed:

"I remain, Sir,
Your humble servant,..."

--
MatSav

I love these conversations about England as it was once.
I was lucky enough to know an elderly lady when I was a child whose aunt to
used to write to her and her sister, the Miffes Sikes, except it was a much
posher f than my computer allows.
Tweed

Christina Websell wrote:

I love these conversations about England as it was once.
I was lucky enough to know an elderly lady when I was a child whose aunt to
used to write to her and her sister, the Miffes Sikes, except it was a much
posher f than my computer allows.
Tweed

I'll bet there's a font, somewhere out there, that renders the "f" in
exactly that way.

--
Joyce

A conservative is one who admires radicals centuries after they're dead.
-- Leo Rosten

On 2012-08-20, Bastette wrote:
Christina Websell wrote:

I love these conversations about England as it was once.
I was lucky enough to know an elderly lady when I was a child whose aunt to
used to write to her and her sister, the Miffes Sikes, except it was a much
posher f than my computer allows.
Tweed

I'll bet there's a font, somewhere out there, that renders the "f" in
exactly that way.


The "long s". There are rules when to use it, but I know not what they are.

Bud

On 8/20/2012 1:21 AM, Joy wrote:
"Bastette" wrote in message
...
Joy wrote:

One can certainly encounter a number of such errors when communicating
by
email or newsgroup. I have one friend who always uses apostrophes in
plurals, and another who capitalizes almost all nouns.

Is the noun-capitalizer German? If not, I have no theories as to why,
but I've seen that before, too.


He's of German ancestry.


My Scottish ancestry is probably why my fingers automatically type
"colour" rather than "color". I picked it up from my grandparents or my
mom somewhere along the line.

Jill

On 8/18/2012 6:33 PM, Joy wrote:
"Bastette" wrote in message
...
Judith Latham wrote:

my pet peeves a-

"Can I?" instead of "May I?"

Guilty as charged. I have a friend who, when I say "Can I have another
piece?" always answers, "Yes, you may." Thank you, Mrs. Krabopple.

"Brought" instead of "Bought"

That's an unusual one - never heard it. As in, "Look at this shirt I
just brought"? Maybe that's more common in the UK.

"Regular" instead of "Normal"

I would see those two as pretty interchangeable in many contexts. What
bothers you about it?

"Lend" instead of "Borrow"

Another one I've never heard. As in, "Can I lend some money from you?"
And people understand that?

I haven't heard that, but I have heard, "Can you borrow me a pen?"

Then there are regional pronunciation issues. I remember when I was in
Junior High School (apparently now they're called middle schools) asking
if I could borrow a pen. She said, "A pan?" No! A pen! A pin? A PEN.
Oh, you mean an "ink pen". Redundant! But she didn't know what I was
talking about until I said yes, an "ink pen".

This is one reason why, although I can get quite irritated by my
particular peeves, I don't think there's a logical basis for it. Why
does one bother me and another is fine? Why do I choose to continue
committing my own errors, even when I know they're wrong? Because
they *sound* better to my ears. Enough other people do it that I don't
hear it as an error. So, unless someone is an English professor and
their speech is impeccable, and they react the same way to other
people's misuses no matter what they are, I think language peeves
are highly idiosyncratic.

--
Joyce

I deffinitely agree with that.

One thing that bothers a lot of people is ending sentences with a
preposition. There are times when it sounds awkward not to do so. I was
very pleased to hear the linguist, Richard Lederer, say that in those cases,
it is correct to do so.

Okay, you just reminded me of a joke. A woman from the Southern US and
a woman from the Northern US were waiting for a flight in an airport.
The Southern woman asked the Northern woman, "Where are you from?" The
Northern woman sniffed and said, "I'm FROM where they don't end a
sentence with a preposition." The Southern woman thought about it then
said, "Okay. Where are you from, bitch?"

Jill

"William Hamblen" wrote in message
m...
On 2012-08-20, Bastette wrote:
Christina Websell wrote:

I love these conversations about England as it was once.
I was lucky enough to know an elderly lady when I was a child whose
aunt to
used to write to her and her sister, the Miffes Sikes, except it was a
much
posher f than my computer allows.
Tweed

I'll bet there's a font, somewhere out there, that renders the "f" in
exactly that way.


The "long s". There are rules when to use it, but I know not what they
are.

Bud

Bear in mind that my elderly friend was born in 1897 so her aunt could have
been born as early as the 1840's.
ſ in html is supposed to bring it up.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_s

Tweed

"jmcquown" wrote in message
...
I deffinitely agree with that.

One thing that bothers a lot of people is ending sentences with a
preposition. There are times when it sounds awkward not to do so. I was
very pleased to hear the linguist, Richard Lederer, say that in those
cases,
it is correct to do so.

Okay, you just reminded me of a joke. A woman from the Southern US and a
woman from the Northern US were waiting for a flight in an airport. The
Southern woman asked the Northern woman, "Where are you from?" The
Northern woman sniffed and said, "I'm FROM where they don't end a sentence
with a preposition." The Southern woman thought about it then said,
"Okay. Where are you from, bitch?"

Jill

That made me smile. Although I was brought up to use correct English, I
wouldn't take it that far! I've also let it slip now as no teacher is
around to tell me off. The boys used to get their knuckles rapped with a
board ruler, the girls were merely humiliated in front of the others.
It wouldn't be allowed now.
Looking back, we did have some suspect teachers. One of the maths teachers
used to pick boys up from their desk by their ears for a ritual humilation
if they didn't understand how to work out their sums. He was the one who
asked me in front of the class when I was 11 "are you illegitimate?"
I didn't know what the word meant, so I went home and told my mother. She
was more than furious and went to the school to see the headmaster.

Tweed

"jmcquown" wrote in message
...
On 8/18/2012 6:33 PM, Joy wrote:
"Bastette" wrote in message
...
Judith Latham wrote:

my pet peeves a-

"Can I?" instead of "May I?"

Guilty as charged. I have a friend who, when I say "Can I have another
piece?" always answers, "Yes, you may." Thank you, Mrs. Krabopple.

"Brought" instead of "Bought"

That's an unusual one - never heard it. As in, "Look at this shirt I
just brought"? Maybe that's more common in the UK.

"Regular" instead of "Normal"

I would see those two as pretty interchangeable in many contexts. What
bothers you about it?

"Lend" instead of "Borrow"

Another one I've never heard. As in, "Can I lend some money from you?"
And people understand that?

I haven't heard that, but I have heard, "Can you borrow me a pen?"

Then there are regional pronunciation issues. I remember when I was in
Junior High School (apparently now they're called middle schools) asking
if I could borrow a pen. She said, "A pan?" No! A pen! A pin? A PEN.
Oh, you mean an "ink pen". Redundant! But she didn't know what I was
talking about until I said yes, an "ink pen".

Yes, that's very true about different pronunciations. Also, you just
mentioned another pet peeve of mine - redundancies. "Ink pen" is one that
annoys me. Another is "tuna fish". I've never heard anyone say "trout
fish", "salmon fish", etc., and I've never heard of a "tuna bird", so why do
people think they need to add "fish"? Also, I'm mildly annoyed by "cheese
quesadilla". It wouldn't be a quesadilla if it didn't have cheese in it.

Joy



This is one reason why, although I can get quite irritated by my
particular peeves, I don't think there's a logical basis for it. Why
does one bother me and another is fine? Why do I choose to continue
committing my own errors, even when I know they're wrong? Because
they *sound* better to my ears. Enough other people do it that I don't
hear it as an error. So, unless someone is an English professor and
their speech is impeccable, and they react the same way to other
people's misuses no matter what they are, I think language peeves
are highly idiosyncratic.

--
Joyce

I deffinitely agree with that.

One thing that bothers a lot of people is ending sentences with a
preposition. There are times when it sounds awkward not to do so. I was
very pleased to hear the linguist, Richard Lederer, say that in those
cases,
it is correct to do so.

Okay, you just reminded me of a joke. A woman from the Southern US and a
woman from the Northern US were waiting for a flight in an airport. The
Southern woman asked the Northern woman, "Where are you from?" The
Northern woman sniffed and said, "I'm FROM where they don't end a sentence
with a preposition." The Southern woman thought about it then said,
"Okay. Where are you from, bitch?"

Jill