What's the most annoying common grammar error, and why is it using apostrophes to pluralize words?

[Carol_]

The Army recently changed its correspondence regulation. They changed paragraph indentation from 0.5" to 0.25", and it barely looks indented at all now.

They also changed the number of spaces after a sentence from 2 spaces to 1, and I feel like anarchy has descended upon the land.

How do you get to be the guy in charge of Army spaces and indentations? I want that job and its retirement package.

 

[AustinTink]

I'm also not a fan of the oxford comma.

 

[Kennywood]

 

[Tinkerbell58]

I'm also not a fan of the oxford comma.

I was taught in high school to use the Oxford comma, and I still use it today.

 

[BrianL]

I was taught in high school to use the Oxford comma, and I still use it today.

I am definitely team Oxford Comma!

 

[BamaGuy44]

I am definitely team Oxford Comma!

#teamOxford. I was taught it that way, and I'll fight anyone who tries to tell me Mrs. Jones was wrong!

 

[barkley]

We all learned the same stuff, but some peoples' brains are just wired to notice things others don't.

we have not all been taught the same stuff. what was taught as appropriate grammar usage when i attended school in the 60's and 70's was different from what my husband was taught in the later 70's and 80's, and tremendously different from what my children learned in the late 90's and on.

i do apologize to those who are confused or distressed by my postings which lack capitalization and some forms of correct punctuation. in my case it is ABSOLUTELY due to brain wiring-one of the idiosyncrasies of my strokes is the manner in which i type. for some reason one of my losses is the ability to coordinate reasonable typing speed with the use of the caps or some punctuation keys.

In the last high school where I taught English (1996-97), there was only a single classroom set of grammar/composition texts per grade level (25 copies) that teachers checked out for in-class use only. None of this old school stuff of each student having their own copy that could be taken home for an entire year or semester.

Naturally, very little grammar was taught. It's probably gotten substantially worse in the intervening years.

do they even teach grammar in high school anymore? they had stopped it by about 6th grade when i attended elementary school. we would get small doses in the one english composition class we had to take in junior high but nothing where spelling, punctuation or grammar was the focused subject matter. my kids (class of '13 and '17) were the oddballs in high school. the public elementary schools had stopped focusing on these subjects by around 5th grade but my kids had attended a k-8th one room school system that taught all as focused subjects (along with handwriting ) all the way through 8th grade. i remember attending the public high school orientation for my oldest back in '09 and the superintendent of the district talking about how things were going to be VERY different for subsequent incoming freshman because of changes to curriculum focused ln large part on re-instructing students on spelling, grammar and punctuation. seems the state had done a study with the state's public and private universities and found their biggest complaint regarding THEIR incoming freshman from across the nation was lack of competency in these basic skills. the state department of education took notice and was going to start implementing extending the curriculum beyond late elementary school but in the meantime the high school students were going to have to play catch-up.

 

[Dan Murphy]

to, too, two

 

[AustinTink]

The AP style guide is my bible. That's what I learned in college and my journalism professor brother teaches it as well.

AP Style—the style guide that newspaper reporters adhere to—does not require the use of the Oxford comma. While the Oxford comma is technically grammatically correct, it is most often unnecessary and pointless. Thus, writers and editors should eliminate the comma unless it is absolutely essential for comprehension.

 

[AustinTink]

I'll fight anyone who tries to tell me Mrs. Jones was wrong!

Put up your dukes.

 

[Katie Dawn]

There's many that bother me but "I seen", as someone else said, is like nails on a chalk board.

Misuse of affect and effect.

I don't know why, but I can never totally get my head around this one. I can't even guess how many times I've looked it up when deciding which to use and tried to use all the tricks to remember. There are plenty of situations where it's very clear to me which is correct. But there are many others where I'm not 100% sure and end up phrasing the sentence differently to avoid needing to use the word at all.

 

[sam_gordon]

The AP style guide is my bible. That's what I learned in college and my journalism professor brother teaches it as well.

AP Style—the style guide that newspaper reporters adhere to—does not require the use of the Oxford comma. While the Oxford comma is technically grammatically correct, it is most often unnecessary and pointless. Thus, writers and editors should eliminate the comma unless it is absolutely essential for comprehension.

I'd say many of the language "rules" are pointless.

I live in Kentucky.
Is that show live or recorded?

Why are the bolded words pronounced different and why do they have different meanings? I know there are other word's that do the same, but that's what came to mind quickly.


NOTE: apostrophe added to drive the OP crazy.

 

[BamaGuy44]

we have not all been taught the same stuff. what was taught as appropriate grammar usage when i attended school in the 60's and 70's was different from what my husband was taught in the later 70's and 80's, and tremendously different from what my children learned in the late 90's and on.

Eh, maybe not all the same stuff, but most of the errors we're talking about is stuff I know nobody was taught in school. Style and preferences evolve, but errors are errors. And most people don't even realize it's wrong.

 

[Christine]

I'm also not a fan of the oxford comma.

And I am passionate about the oxford comma!

 

[BamaGuy44]

I'd say many of the language "rules" are pointless.

I live in Kentucky.
Is that show live or recorded?

Why are the bolded words pronounced different and why do they have different meanings? I know there are other word's that do the same, but that's what came to mind quickly.


NOTE: apostrophe added to drive the OP crazy.

George Carlin used to do some great bits about language and how we pronounce words differently that are spelled the same. English is a strange beast.

 

[BamaGuy44]

There's many that bother me but "I seen", as someone else said, is like nails on a chalk board.



I don't know why, but I can never totally get my head around this one. I can't even guess how many times I've looked it up when deciding which to use and tried to use all the tricks to remember. There are plenty of situations where it's very clear to me which is correct. But there are many others where I'm not 100% sure and end up phrasing the sentence differently to avoid needing to use the word at all.

I always remember it as "a for action". To affect is an action, while an effect is a thing.

 

[GoingSince1990]

Me and my wife hate grammatical errors.

 

[BamaGuy44]

Me and my wife hate grammatical errors.

Us too! You should hang out with my wife and I.

 

[ronandannette]

I think the use of apostrophes in plural words began with all of the tech acronyms, DVD, DVR, CD, etc. People weren’t sure how to pluralize them and started using the apostrophes. Apparently it was contagious.

No, it's been a thing waaaaaay longer than that. Case in point - how many Christmas cards did your parents receive back in the day that were signed "Happy Holidays from the Brown's" or some such travesty?

 

[BamaGuy44]

No, it's been a thing waaaaaay longer than that. Case in point - how many Christmas cards did your parents receive back in the day that were signed "Happy Holidays from the Brown's" or some such travesty?

Agree. This egregious abuse of the humble apostrophe has gone on far, far too long.

"One of those damn apple's fell and hit me right in the head!" -- Sir Isaac Newton, 1702 (probably)