***Updated to share this cute comic (one of my favorites!) that Shauna sent by email (click on image to see it larger).
I am not alone! I heard from more than a few of you after my last post about grammar and proper word usage, and so I thought maybe it would be fun to share some of our pet peeves here.
It’s a rainy Saturday, there’s nothing else to do, and we all might learn something new anyway. Let’s be language snobs. What mistakes bug you when you see them? The word “infer” when a writer really means “imply”? Mispronunciation of “mischievous”?
To get us started, I’ll share this one that makes me laugh and want to bang my head against the wall every time I hear it — misuse of the word “literally.” As in “When I told him the news, he literally blew up in my face.” Really? Wow.
Technorati Tags: mispronunciations, grammar mistakes
Former proofreader and Latinist here. There are too many to list, but here are the top five:
1. “off of”
2. “between you and I”
3. “less” instead of “fewer” and vice versa
4. “yous” for “you, plural”. My Mississippi-born husband insists that “y’all” means “you, singular” and “all y’all” is what Southerners say instead of “yous”
5. “boobs” or “boobies” for breasts. I don’t have two idiots hanging off my chest.
Thanks Danielle, it feels good to get this off my chest (no pun intended).
Rebecca, as to the “shtreet” pronunciation, I think it may be a regional thing. Many people from the area of northern New Jersey where I grew up pronounce this word that way.
Similarly, “Theresa” is often pronounced “Chreesa” by the same people.
Right now, I’m visiting relatives in the deep south and I just hate hearing…
“you’re going to learn yourself real good with them books”
Yep! I did hear that statment. And then variations of it were repeated…sigh.
Here in Texas lots of people substitute “drug” for “dragged,” as in, “We shot the wild pig and drug him to the truck.” And almost every teenager and young adult I know overuses the phrase “no problem.” You ask for a water refill and the waitress says, “No problem!”
Nieces and nephews all respond with this overused phrase for things like: Turn the light on, please. (no problem)
Thank you! (no problem) Close the door! (no problem)
One phrase fits all! It has become a real “problem!”
Ooh – so many! My former boss called me the “Grammar Lady.”
Interchanging “comprise” and “compose.”
“Terrible tragedy.” Redundant!
Insisting on capitalization because it looks important even if it is gramatically incorrect, i.e., Joe Smith, President of ARC, . . . should be lower case p unless it’s preceding Joe.
And, I’ll echo Ryan on the corporate-speak. Especially where nouns are being turned into verbs.
“Donut” for “doughnut” and all the other business misspellings, like “qwik.”
And, this isn’t poor grammar, it’s just lazy “journalism. “Shots rang out tonight . . .”
And one more thing -
Has anyone read Lauren Thompson’s “Little Quack’s Hide and Seek” to their children?
It drives me crazy that the mother duck says, “Who will I find next?” I always change it to “whom” when I read it aloud. How does this stuff get into print?
I’m an English teacher, and here’s the scary thing: my grammar has gotten WORSE over the ten years I’ve been teaching! My colleagues and I have decided that it’s because we end up seeing so many grammatical mistakes in student papers that after a while they end up looking normal to us. Who knew this would be one of teaching’s occupational hazards???
Here on the West Coast, the most common ones I see among teens are:
* Its/it’s
* Writing “should of” instead of “should have” or “should’ve”
* Confusing “conscience” and “conscious” …
It got so bad that I put together a sheet of basic rules called “Things All Self-Respecting English Students Should Know” and I give it out to all my kids at the start of the year. It helps somewhat ….
I can’t stand when people use “I” as a direct object. “Thanks for telling Joe and I about this.”
I also hate the word “snuck”. It is supposed to be “sneaked.” NO ONE uses that anymore and it is accepted everywhere now. In fact, as I am writing this it is underlined as a misspelled word.
Another less bothersome thing is to mispronounce the word “forte” as in specialty or strength. It is French, so it is pronounced “fort”. The Italian “forte” is pronounced “for-tay” and means “loud”.
To Amy V: You are doing well. Well modifies verbs (like “are” or “doing”) and good modifies nouns (like “apple”).
My two biggest pet peeves.
Run on sentences and the improper use of lose and loose.
My “partner” who “loves” to write all notices going home to parents, is constantly doing those two things. Thank goodness summer vacation is in 10 more school days. I am also a grammar fanatic. It is really late, did I spell that right? Correct me if need be.
I’m coming in on this late, but here are my pet-peeves:
height pronounced with a “th” sound at the end, and, being from the Seattle area, espresso pronounced with an “x”.
I have a cousin who says “pooh-berty” for puberty and I have a friend who used to say “poh-aim” for poem until she heard from me one too many times… I think she’s cured now.
I used to be upset when I heard people say, “I could care less” but after so many years of it, I couldn’t care less anymore.
Blessings to all!:-)
My grandmother always said, “A picture is something that hangs on a wall, a pitcher is someone who throws a ball,” to help me pronounce each word correctly.
My biggest grammar peeve is mixing up affect and effect.
affect: vt. to stir the emotions of
effect: n. result
my big two –
utilize instead of use. To utilize something is to use something in a manner it was not designed for. I use a hammer to pound a nail in a wall, but I utilize a wrench to pound a nail into a wall. I can also just use a wrench to pound a nail in a wall. Most people should just be barred from using the word utilize.
Misuse of the phrase “to beg the question.” “To beg the question” does not mean “this raises the question” It’s a logical fallacy meaning that that assumption one is trying to prove is contained in the premise or that the argument has no premise. And I don’t care what wikipedia says about commonly accepted usage, it’s wrong to use it the other way.
of course, I just now read the previous post and find that the begging the question issue was what started this whole thing! That’s what I get for not keeping up on my Danielle Bean posts!
Ha! You guys are great. Now I am totally afraid to write anything.
I find it a lot easier to forgive (not that anyone asked) the really common errors, like “its” and “it’s,” but it drives me bananas when people use words wrong because they’re trying to sound smarter.
My current banana-driver is the way people say “comprise,” thinking it’s a fancier version of “compose” — as in, “The crowd was comprised of smelly hippies of all ages.” “Comprised” means “embraced” or “included” — so you could say “The crowd comprised smelly hippies of all ages” or “The crowd was composed of . . . ” But there is no such thing as “being comprised of.”
So there.
Thanks, Diane… this term “went missing” currently in usage by the media to describe people whose whereabouts are suddenly no longer known…
Is it perhaps a British import? Why can’t we use terms that sound more natural to our ears, like “IS missing”? “Went missing” makes no grammatical sense (which is why it sounds so awful).
Also…saying “home in (on something)” when they mean “hone in”.
I get a huge laugh whenever I see someone use the French word “voila” and they spell it “wala!” or “walla.” Cracks me up! And yes, I’m a little paranoid about all my sentences in this comment!
I’m a copy editor by trade, so I have many. These are just a few pet peeves:
– “Entitled” for the title or headline of a story when it should be just “titled”
– “that” vs. “which” — use that for a dependent clause and which for an independent clause. (I used to edit for a Catholic paper, and remember the Vatican English translator never even got that correct.)
– “whoever” vs. “whomever” — people never get that right
– the proper use of apostrophes, especially for possessives
– When people use a comma at the beginning of an independent clause but not at the end, as in: “Archbishop Sheen, whose cause for canonization is under way used to give profound homilies.”
I started with just two pet peeves and then kept adding more! It’ll stop now.
Misusing the written word bothers me more than misusing the spoken word, because some things are just dialect issues that don’t always carry over into people’s writing (and for the record, whoever said Midwesterners don’t use “to be” — I grew up in Chicago and always used it. We are, however, notorious for ending our sentences with prepositions: “Do you want to come with?”
(Wow, I think I just edited my post like five times.)
Check out the podcast “Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing”. She’s great. Your kids may even like it. She also has a web site QuickAndDirtyTips.com
Danielle says: Thanks Midwest Mom! That looks like a great site. Here’s a live link:
http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/default.aspx
I’m 74 and don’t like some ladies using the word “guys” for other ladies.
Apologies, Mr. Sanko!
It must be a generational and/or regional thing. If I lived in the south, I would probably say “you all” instead of “you guys.” But to me, “you guys” does not mean only men and is not an insult to ladies — it’s just a casual reference.
Thank you Danielle for your apology and comment. I’m not familiar with the real meaning of many words.
“due to the fact”
This one always sticks out when someone says it ever since I learned in a grammar book in school that it’s not correct grammar.
One should just say “because” (according to the grammar book)
Cancelled or canceled? I’ve seen it both ways, still not sure.
I’m getting a little tired of the generic “Hey” instead of hello or just plain hi.
Why do tv networks always advertise new episodes as “all new”? Isn’t that redundant?
And Barb, as a born and bred Jersey Girl (Northern), where do people say “shstreets”? I’ve never heard that. But my Upper West Side dad and relatives seem to add an “er” to a lot of names, like Anner or Reginer.
“In the Midwest people leave out “to be”. It drives me crazy to hear things such as: “That needs washed”. NO! It needs TO BE washed.”
Midwesterner here – in this example, I wouldn’t say “That needs washed.” past tense. I WOULD say, “That needs washing.” or “That needs to be washed.”
I’m a Michigan midwesterner, though. Maybe other midwestern areas say it the other way.
oooh Jennifer – that’s another of my pet peeves. The er sound at the end of words – seems to be primarily ones that end in “a”. Like idea=idee-er, umbrella=umbreller. My husband’s family does that sometimes and they live in CT. However, Jim Nabors does that all the time in Gomer Pyle. (We have 3 seasons on DVD).
As for “shtr” for the “str” sound , and “chr” for the “tr” sound, and “j” for “dr” – guilty midwesterner! ie. shtreet/street, shtruck/struck; chrain/train, Chracy/Tracy, chree/tree; jrive/drive, jrum/drum
I think it’s just because it’s easier to say that way – mouth laziness.
Although I’ve had to watch that this past school year with phonics. If I was saying a word that my daughter was trying (chrying) to spell, I had to make sure I actually pronounced it correctly.
I’ve never understood this one: when I say “I felt bad for her..” meaning I sympathized, I get corrected with “You mean, you felt badLY.”
No, I wasn’t feeling her, and doing a bad job of it.
When I feel happy for a person I don’t say “I felt goodLY for her…” nor do I say “I felt sadLY.” I say, “I felt good” and “I felt sad.”
So, it’s definitely “I felt bad.” That makes the most sense. It sounds right.
My pet peeve is “momentarily” (for a brief time) being used for “real soon”. Every time I fly to the USA, there is an announcement that we will be “landing momentarily” – my first thought is “how quickly can we all get off?”
Haven’t read them all yet, but here are a few we roll our eyes at….”supposingly” and “presumingly”. Also mute point intead of moot point. And one note about “anal”. Most people are referring to being anally retentive, or excessively uptight and controlling, but they don’t realize that Freud’s term for the opposite personality traits was “anally explosive,” and the simple term “anal” could refer to either extreme. Brings up some interesting mental imagery when people refer to themselves as anal.
Wow, Danielle — your combox is literally blowing up on this topic!
How fun!
How about when people, like, use the word “like”, like, all the time?????
“Orientated” instead of “oriented”.
“Methodology” instead of “method”.
…and corporate buzzwords require their own post!
Not really a grammar pet peeve, but when a sales person says, “Not a problem”, after you say “Thank you”. How about saying, “You’re welcome”, or Thank you for shopping at _____”.
Drives me crazy when I think about it.
I cringe at most of the errors already mentioned (thanks, Tina D., for the “entitled” example, which is one of my pet peeves!). I am also not fond of the misuse of the subjunctive in English: e.g., “If I was you,” instead of “If I were you…” etc.
I also dislike the use of i.e. when one means to write e.g., and the employment of the wholly fictional word “excetera.”
But, like most snobby writers, I make plenty of mistakes, especially when writing online compositions; is there anything more painful that reading one’s own work and seeing a misused punctuation mark, an inadvertent word substitution, or a cardinal sin of the “alot” variety?
Oh, confession feels so good…
I have one phrase to add that has haunted me since I first noticed it last year. I hope this doesn’t ruin everyday life for anyone else out there but…
When I am being handed something, especially in the drive-through lane, I have to endure the phrase:
“There’s that for ya,” as I get my pop;
“There’s that for ya,” as I get my change; and
“There’s that for ya,” as I get my food.
I honestly can’t say why this should bother me. I am not annoyed by similar phrases such as, “Here ya go,” nor do I spend my days obsessing about how people misuse the English language. Maybe I’m just annoyed that the person can’t take the time to say, “Here is your change,” or “Here is your bag of greasy food.” Just, “There’s THAT for ya!” No kidding? Thanks, buddy!
Thank you for letting me vent. My husband just rolls his eyes at me.
And I hope I don’t have any “grammatical pet peeves” in my post! (I was very paranoid as I was typing this…I guess I should be less nervous? Or should I have fewer fears? Less fears? Oh, forget it.)
The grammar snob in me gets very upset when couples “cohabitate”. The word is “cohabit”. Monkeys do not inhabitate the jungle and unmarried couples do not sinfully cohabitate.
“A Prairie Home Companion” had my husband and me (not I) figuratively (not literally) in stitches the other night when “Guy Noir” was making fun of the improper use of “like”. I don’t remember the exact dialog but it was similar to the following: “Is Mr. Obama at Baggage Claim 4 or a baggage claim like Baggage Claim 4? Is he in need of a car or something like a car? Is he at the airport or someplace like the airport?”
My coworker, who teaches junior high English, was putting proofreading marks in a published accreditation booklet the other day. I think we both expected that an agency committed to academic excellence could use proper punctuation!
Okay, okay-totally fickle-but when my hubby says”sherbert” instead of sherbet. I’ve even seen it misspelled on the grocery flyers-uggh! My other peeve is when people in Italian restaurants order “Bru-shetta” spelled bruschetta, it is actually pronounced “bru-sketta.” I lived in Italy for 4 years and the Italian’s pronoune it that way.
No one as mentioned “noone” yet.
Wicked funny-I just realized that in my previous post I wrote “Italian’s” when I meant Italians. My punctuation is all over the road.
Every morning I hear a radio commercial that makes me want to scream. It’s a local restaurant advertising that we can “literally taste our way around the world” in their establishment. But I have even less patience when confusion between “setting precedents” and “taking precedence” leads to “taking precedents.”
Okay, I’m adding mine before I read everyone elses, as I am sure I’ll have more pet peeves when I am done!
It drives me crazy when people pronounce italian “eye-talian”…
We live in a rural area, so the regional swap newspaper is full of items that “run good”
When I taught a college class to juniors and seniors, they had to do a final paper…I got a lot of great spellings, sentence structures, etc. My absolute favorite mistake was “co in sided”
I read “Eats, Shoots and Leaves” several years ago, and loved it. I still have dumb grammar and word usage things that I do, I’m sure, but it helped a lot. Another great grammar book for adults is “Woe Is I” by Patricia T. O’Conner.
I’ve glanced over the comments and I’m pretty sure that no one mentioned my pet peeve: irregardless. Does this double negative mean that the fact in questions really does matter?
I also recently learned that a word I used regularly may not be a word – trepidatious and that really I should just be using trepid. Ah well.
I also picked up the adverb pet peeve from a roommate in college. I should say, “I’m well” as well is the adverb form is good. I consciously try to correct this but frequently find “I’m doing good” slipping out my lips.
This post was hilarious. I’m so happy that I’m not the only one concerned with speech! (Sometimes it feels like it as I find myself correcting kids, hubby and occasionally friends – I try not to but it has happened!)
I have a friend who says, “I had to get up at 5 a.m. in the morning.” Redundant! I frequently hear TV news reporters (especially those reporting on the weather) making the same mistake.
Is it hijacking your post to add a new wrinkle? Here’s a word that isn’t poor grammar, but it pains me that it’s become acceptable: “butt,” when used to mean bottom, tuchus, derriere, buns, seat, gluteus, bum, or any number of softer, more genteel euphemisms. When I was a girl, no one respectable would have used that word and I still cringe when I hear it: so crude in my ears.
Not to take away from praying for those who are sick, but another one I’ve heard (rather than seen written) is praying “for the sick of our parish” during Mass. It sounds like they’re offering up prayers for those who just can’t take being a part of their parish anymore!
Someone once told me that you should use “good” referring to food and “well” for everything else. Works so far for me!
A pronunciation that drives me insane (literally, heehee) is ‘lawyer’, said “loyer/loiyer” ARG!
Hi! I’m munchesmom’s dad (response number 7). She and I often talk about the poor grammar that seems to have infected our society. I am ready to “impact” someone’s jaw if they don’t stop using the word incorrectly! An impact is a sudden, cataclysmic event – a meteor striking earth, two cars at an intersection trying to occupy the same space at the same time. A business decision has an “effect”, not an impact, on the company. Or, the decision will “affect”, not impact the business. Another pet peeve is the use of “apropos” in place of “appropriate. The word “apropos” means regarding, or to the point. For example: “Apropos (regarding) your suggestion that we pave the parking lot, it would be appropriate to get a couple of estimates first.” Have a nice day. I hope what impacts you life is apropos.
Here are two that really bother me: nuclear mispronounced “nukeeler”–President Bush is the worst culprit and the phrase “with all due respect.” Although there’s nothing wrong with the phrase itself, many people preface offensive comments to by saying “with all due respect,” thinking that it excuses their put-downs or their insults.
Thank you for all of the laughs! Forgive the following possible punctuation errors! I also dislike the use of commas to pluralize words, hearing eXpecially, and the misuse of it’s/its and they’re/their/there. What really gets to me is redundancy, such as “for me personally,” and when people pronounce jewelry as “jooleree.” My junior high speech teacher insisted that we pronounce the words “for” and “to” properly and not say “fur” and “tuh.” Sometimes we forget things, but we don’t fur-git anything.
I wish when people write emails and blogs they would capitalize their “I” when speaking about themselves.
Also, I don’t know if this will make anyone as sick as it made me when I saw it; but on Booktv, at a large book fair last year, they had a panel of five editors from different publishing houses to answer questions from the public. Three different people asked why there wasn’t better editing for the books put out in the last fifteen years. All five editors very forcibly defended the lack of editing as necessary in order to keep up with publishing demands. Not one editor defended their books as well edited or admitted their was a problem with the lack of editing. The editors actually became quite heated about the topic. The people who asked the question looked dumbfounded.