What is your pet peeve about grammar?

[lorijohnhill]

“XX am in the morning.”

It drives me crazy. lol 7 am in the morning? As opposed to 7 am in the evening??

 

[kimblebee]

There's so, so many.

If I had to pick just one it would be should of/ could of by a mile.

 

[havaneselover]

I have many. I do a lot of editing for work. Inappropriate use of hyphens drives me a bit nuts.

And why do people think the word definitely has an “a” in it?

 

[Ben E N]

there, their, they're
They all mean completely different things. And they are all commonly used. "Affect/Effect" I can understand, but since the time I was 8 I never understood how people couldn't grasp the difference between those three words.

 

[ashley0139]

My biggest one is "her and her mom went to the store." No, "SHE and her mom went to the store." I see it ALL THE TIME.

Also, definitely "could of."

 

[kimblebee]

I wasn’t really interested or aware of how much grammar mattered until Grade 10. I specifically remember writing an article about..something..for English class and I wrote the sentence ‘a man died in a fatal car crash over the weekend’. The teacher pointed out that if the crash was fatal, it was already known that someone had died. A lightbulb went off and I’ve been hooked ever since.

 

[Ben E N]

There's also this one:

 

[kimblebee]

My biggest one is "her and her mom went to the store." No, "SHE and her mom went to the store." I see it ALL THE TIME.

Also, definitely "could of."

Add on to this the overuse of the word myself.

Ok, I have to stop posting or I will fill 10* pages on my own.

*a true grammar nerd knows you aren’t supposed to use digits for numbers lower than 10.

 

[RedAngie]

Apostrophes used to make a singular word plural. Both of my car's are Honda's.

 

[lorijohnhill]

there, their, they're
They all mean completely different things. And they are all commonly used. "Affect/Effect" I can understand, but since the time I was 8 I never understood how people couldn't grasp the difference between those three words.

To, too, and two also seem to be difficult for people to grasp.

 

[Southernmiss]

I seen. You seen. We seen. He seen. She seen. It seen. They seen.

 

[Nancyg56]

My biggest one is "her and her mom went to the store." No, "SHE and her mom went to the store." I see it ALL THE TIME.

Also, definitely "could of."

Oh my! I was just about to post this. Drives me batcrap crazy! "Him and me" Agghhhhhh!

I also cring when I hear "We was going somewhere"

I need to walk away. I was a QA analyst for years, and grammar and proper English was important on the phones. I cannot unhear filler words without dying a little inside. "Actually" is going to be my undoing.

 

[Wubar]

I have so many to choose from, but...

I'm a fan of the Oxford comma. I know it is acceptable to not use it, but it drives me nuts when I don't see it.

 

[PigletsPal2]

I'm a book editor and I have a LOT of pet peeves! The misused apostrophes drive me crazy, and although I know it's accepted use these days, I cringe every time I see or hear "hopefully" standing alone, as in "Hopefully, I'll get a raise in pay this quarter." I was taught that "ly" words were adverbs and must modify a verb. You can wait hopefully or speak hopefully but you can't get hopefully. I know I'm tilting at windmills, but no book I ever edit will have this use of hopefully. I'll get down from my soap box now.

Queen Colleen

 

[kimblebee]

I'm a book editor and I have a LOT of pet peeves! The misused apostrophes drive me crazy, and although I know it's accepted use these days, I cringe every time I see or hear "hopefully" standing alone, as in "Hopefully, I'll get a raise in pay this quarter." I was taught that "ly" words were adverbs and must modify a verb. You can wait hopefully or speak hopefully but you can't get hopefully. I know I'm tilting at windmills, but no book I ever edit will have this use of hopefully. I'll get down from my soap box now.

Queen Colleen

That’s a good one to keep in mind.

Do you see a lot of alot? I was taught that you can’t have alittle so you can’t have alot.

 

[PigletsPal2]

That’s a good one to keep in mind.

Do you see a lot of alot? I was taught that you can’t have alittle so you can’t have alot.

I used to see alot frequently, but not so much lately. I like your explanation about why you can't have alot - may I use it when I have to justify to my authors why I changed it?

Queen Colleen

 

[Hopefully]

Incorrect use of was and were. “They was” draws me bonkers

 

[amcnj]

Improper usage does stand out to me too. But my grammar related pet peeve right now is reading all the negative posts from others in response to someone whose post has a spelling or grammar error. Some of the response are downright nasty, including calling the poster all sorts of unflattering names.

 

[frog3101]

THEIR house is the only blue house on the block.

THEY'RE going to repaint THEIR house.

THEY'RE going to paint THEIR house the same color as the house over THERE that is yellow.

Now ask me about my use of commas...that's an entirely different ballgame. I struggle...

 

[Skellingtonj]

When someone adds an “s” to a word that doesn’t have an s. “Targets”. “Walmart’s”.