Just a small rant...

[39CINDERELLA]

WOW! 2 much time on hands hear.
you al nead too get a hobbiy. stope picing on peeple for ther speling.
aftur al woo maid u so purfect.

 

[CheshireVal]

Great thread!


My biggest grammar pet peeve on these boards (and everywhere it seems) is the blatant (and rampant) disregard for the correct usage of the reflexive pronoun myself. For example: "Myself and my husband went to dinner at California Grill." Or: "We got one room for my sister and myself, while my parents got another."


Bugs me to no end!!!! Myself is not a subject and cannot be substituted for I or me!

 

[ScottOKW2K]

My biggest grammar pet peeve on these boards (and everywhere it seems) is the blatant (and rampant) disregard for the correct usage of the reflexive pronoun myself. For example: "Myself and my husband went to dinner at California Grill."


Bugs me to no end!!!! Myself is not a subject!

There's only one solution - your husband should go alone to CG next time ! This should eliminate the possibility of reflexive pronoun use. We certainly wouldn't want you to suffer !

 

[rejobako]

Sorry in advance to all southerners but I have got to chime in.

When I moved to Florida I found it amazing that people say the word "fixin" to mean that something is going to happen. Example:
"Looks like it's fixin' to rain." or "I'm fixin' to go shopping."

This kills me. You can FIX a flat tire, FIX your hair, or FIX dinner...but you cannot "fix" to go or do something.

:::stepping off soapbox:::::

I feel better now.

It's a regional thing. Some northerners drink "pop". How the heck do you consume a verb?

 

[rejobako]

If Q needs a massive quantity of pigtail braids harvested for a braid shoting pool stick and pays a half farthing each, inspiring de Lancie to get in line and sell his (in Quebec of course) - and I snap a picture and send it to my printer at DH's request...

I have...
on cue queued Q queuing in Q's cue-queue queue in Que for a que.

 

[Steffi]

This is the only peeve I have that hasn't yet been addressed: would've, could've, should've or would have, could have, should have. Not would of, could of, should of.

 

[rejobako]

Not a spelling error, but Q is not James Bond's boss. He is the Quartermaster with all the cool gadgets. M is Bond's boss.

I suppose I should take pride in being able to spell correctly while I misstate the facts.

 

[Luvamouse]

As a former elementary school teacher, this is what really rankles me!

Thought I'd share this. . . it amazed one of my friends, haha. I read this before somewhere and forgot about it until we were discussing it in class a few weeks ago. It's basically how the English language phonetically makes no sense and one could argue that the word "fish" could be spelled "ghoti" instead. The "gh" would come from a word like "tough" . . . the "o" would come from a word like "women" . . . and the "ti" would come from any word that ended with "-tion" and would, when put together, phonetically give you the word fish.

I mean, really, I try with my DD5, who is starting to read pretty well, to sound out words. Then the exceptions come in. "Well, no, it doesn't make that sound here honey, it's..." I can only imagine the difficulty people have learning English as a second language! It is all over the place!

As far as regional dialects--

Sorry in advance to all southerners but I have got to chime in. When I moved to Florida I found it amazing that people say the word "fixin" to mean that something is going to happen. Example
"Looks like it's fixin' to rain." or "I'm fixin' to go shopping."

Please tell me that I'm not the only person who truly enjoys hearing these expressions? I enjoy it when traveling, because I know I'm not at home anymore. I enjoy hearing the dialect here at home, because it usually reflects an older (disappearing) way of speaking, not necessarily ignorance. Poor grammar bugs me; 'regionalisms' are often charming to me.

Once again, I love the things people are listing here as misuses/mispronunciations! These are the same things that bug me. Worse yet, when a person "of authority" uses them. Nucular, Mr. Bush??

 

[Annette_VA]

PROTIP - type your post in Word first, do your happy little spell check, and then cut and paste it into a post....

Or just get the Google Toolbar, which has a spell checker built in

 

[CheshireVal]

Sorry in advance to all southerners but I have got to chime in.

When I moved to Florida I found it amazing that people say the word "fixin" to mean that something is going to happen. Example:
"Looks like it's fixin' to rain." or "I'm fixin' to go shopping."

This kills me. You can FIX a flat tire, FIX your hair, or FIX dinner...but you cannot "fix" to go or do something.

:::stepping off soapbox:::::

I feel better now.

See... this doesn't really bother me because it's a colloquialism. By the way, my husband would argue that you can't really "fix dinner" or "fix your hair" because neither of them is broken. (I say "fix dinner," and yes I'm a Southerner!)

 

[rejobako]

After reading through some more of the responses, I thought of a few more commonly misconstrued words/phrases:

1) I often see people using the term "to cast dispersions" when they mean "to cast aspersions", as in: I'm not participating in this thread to cast aspersions -- it's just that language and grammar are of interest to me, and I enjoy reading about the quirks and foibles that go along with the process of communication.

2) It's always "its", unless it's a contraction for "it is".

3) I infer from what you imply, not the other way around.

4) This has already been noted, but it bears reiterating: When used as a verb, "affect" means to change, while "effect" means to cause.

5) It's a chaise longue, not a chaise lounge.

This also reminds me of one of my favorite stories from grad school. I was in a class in which the professor was trying to impress upon us the meaning of the phrase "moral turpitude". (I guess she had some insight into my character from the beginning. ) Anyway, to get some class participation she called on one of my friends sitting next to me, an amiable Southern good ol' boy who was prone to daydreaming in class. He looked startled when she said his name, but he was always quick-witted, so when she asked him if he knew what "turpitude" was, he didn't skip a beat:

"Yes, ma'am. It's something you mix paint with."

The rest of the class went downhill from there.

 

[DebIreland]

Sorry in advance to all southerners but I have got to chime in.

When I moved to Florida I found it amazing that people say the word "fixin" to mean that something is going to happen. Example:
"Looks like it's fixin' to rain." or "I'm fixin' to go shopping."

This kills me. You can FIX a flat tire, FIX your hair, or FIX dinner...but you cannot "fix" to go or do something.

You see, I think that's a totally different situation because even though those examples are not grammatically correct and are not said everywhere, they *are* correct in that location/area/neighbourhood, know what I mean? People in every part of the world have their own little quirky expressions and speaking habits, whether they follow the rules of the English language or not so those unusual speaking habits are *normal* for *them*.

Just to expand on that, you used the example "FIX dinner" as the correct use of the word 'fix' but that's not something I've heard where I live - to me if someone is fixing dinner it means there's something wrong with the dinner (over-done, messed up in some way) and someone needs to get in there and fix it to make it right. I'm not criticising you at all, you should hear some of the expressions we use here!

 

[DebIreland]

2) It's always "its", unless it's a contraction for "it is".

I'm a typesetter/designer and I couldn't possibly count how often I correct that one! In fact, just a few weeks ago, I had a client insisting that I change the "its" in the following sentence: "the department has changed its policy" to read "it's". I was adament (in a very nice way) that it was correct as it was but she insisted (crossly) that I put an apostrophe in there. I've been in that situation many, many times - do I do what the client wants even if they're wrong? They're paying me after all! Or do I do what I know is right? In that instance I told her I'd change it but I left it as it was! lol!! Just to add here that I'm certainly not correct all the time myself, not by a long shot, but certain things are obvious from years of doing this job.

 

[momto2girls]

I love this thread! I have one that I haven't seen listed yet. Actually, I haven't noticed it much here on disboards, but I see it a lot on other boards and it drives me crazy. Anyone else ever notice prolly being used for probably? UGH! It drives me crazy!

 

[rejobako]

I'm a typesetter/designer and I couldn't possibly count how often I correct that one! In fact, just a few weeks ago, I had a client insisting that I change the "its" in the following sentence: "the department has changed its policy" to read "it's". I was adament (in a very nice way) that it was correct as it was but she insisted (crossly) that I put an apostrophe in there.

I feel your pain. I think the confusion with this one comes from the fact that in most cases you would add a possessive apostrophe in the same situation. For example, if your sentence was "the department has changed Disney's policy . . . " an apostrophe would certainly be necessary. But you just don't do that with the word "it". Why? Who knows? It just ain't right.

 

[wdwrich]

Wouldn't it be nice if there was a spell check run on new messages? I can usually spell words properly, but I admit that my typing skills are somewhat less than perfect...

 

[allegracristina]

How about "ValenTIMES Day"?! That one gets me. I also have a boss who says "I'd just assume" instead of "I'd just as soon". Kills me every time!

 

[MikeL1515]

Try to read this. I'm sure you can....very interesting.


fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too
Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe can.



i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!




___

 

[jsmla]

A bit of local color from the South:

The pantry is low this morning so I'm fixin' to pass by the store and make groceries but I need to save the clothes before I go.

(For those of you not from Louisiana: The pantry is low this morning so I'm going to Albertsons to shop for groceries. I need to fold and put away the laundry before I go. Our Russian exchange student spoke very good English but we might as well have been speaking Navaho for all she could make out.)

 

[sacall]

Here's another one: Bomas or Boma's- it's BOMA people!

No, no, no that's a Michigan thing - we add an 's' to the end of every proper name. We buy "Fords", we shop at "Kmarts" or "Targets", you get the idea

My parents do it all the time. It drives me nuts!

Stacy