[Closed] Incorrect uses of the English language - what really gets under your skin?

We're going to 'grow' our business.

No, no, no. Businesses grow. We 'nurture' or 'cultivate' or 'foster'.

And anything to do with the incorrect use of comma's

Incorrect use of apostrophes.

comma's

I should add the use of 'good' as an adverb.

Starting sentences with "And".

(lol - that was deliberate)
😛

(Using the word 'comma' and putting the rogue apostrophe in that is).

Getting Wh mixed up with W/h

kWh and kW/h 🙄

edit: molgrips you barsteward! 😉

Starting sentences with "And".

[i]...if you're anything like me, for years and years you avoided using "but," "and," or "yet" to start a sentence. This often resulted in run-on sentences or short, choppy ones. The good news is that the rules are changing and it is now considered acceptable to start a sentence with a conjunction.[/i]

my bad.

arghhhhhh.

the fact that I'm crap at writting my own language. I could blaim the teachers and that is one reason but the real truth is I was not listening.

Apostrophes and incorrect use of adverbs/adjectives (e.g. less instead of fewer), just for starters!

I also hate it when someone spots my errors and puts me right ... but I do make an effort 🙂

I am trying to get a life ...

(lol - that was deliberate)

I have a picture here of you with your pants on fire.

mastiles_fanylion - Member

Starting sentences with "And".

Sorry but starting a sentence with 'and' is perfectly acceptable.

Agreed. And I would include other conjunctions - such as 'but' - in that. But only if deployed with discretion.

(lol - that was deliberate)

Oh that old chestnut.

I'll tell you what literally makes my blood boil...

Far more important thing's get under my skin.

people who say brought instead of bought!! drives me up the flipping wall

I think my #1 pet hate is professionally bad English. For example, glossy menus selling pizza's. Day to day I don't really mind the odd braino, no-one's perfect and I do it myself occasionally, but if you're a signwriter or a journalist, there's really no excuse.

#2 would be grammar pedants who pick up on other people's spelling mistakes and typos for an ad hominem attack when they're losing an argument.

Your and you're. And, anyone who publishes magazines with double spaces, grammatical errors, etc. Don't these publishing companies have people who proof read the material before they go out (proof read - or whatever the job title is of people who check these things).

Dropping the word LIKE into (like) every sentence

"Might of" etc rather than "might have".

Far more important thing's get under my skin

Like me, for instance 🙂

Not english as such, but american use of english. Specifically; when on a flight and the announcement comes over the tannoy 'please return to your seats, we will landing momentarily'

Will we really be landing briefly? And then what, lifting off again immediately afterwards? Momentarily means 'for a moment'. Sort it!

Text speak in a work related email.

Dropping the word LIKE into (like) every sentence

I used to be horrendous with that

"Might of" etc rather than "might have".

+1 to that.

Text speak in a work related email.

Oh, work emails.

"Please do the needful." WTF?

The greengrocer apostrophe. At least once a day I have to correct "PC's".

And saying "actually" all the time.

"pecific" gets somebody off my friend list too, right up there with speeding in front of a school or failing to indicate correctly at a roundabout.

People who say 'pacific' when they mean 'specific'; using 'adverse' when they mean 'averse'; the use of 'advanced' instead of 'advance' which seems to happen all the time at work with admin workers typing up "advanced statements"
To me it demonstrates that a person doesn't read much as they've misheard a word and just repeated/typed what they think they heard. A pet one is a girl at work who refers to "gleaming information" about things. Arghhh!! I think I'm an uber pedant.

Hmmm... untraditional use of punctuation for no apparent reason..

"Could I get a....*"

I'm sure you probably could, yes. But what do you actually want, you cretin?

* insert appropriate words. Its invariably a skinny decaffe latte or some-such nonsense 🙄

Your and you're.

The funny thing is that I failed English in quite spectacular fashion and had absolutely no idea about the difference between a possessive noun and a plural or any such thing.

People that use awesome when they should use Awesome!!!

"Could I get a...."

That's very much an Americanism that's crept over here. It's [i]very[/i] common in the US.

In fact I have noticed another annoyance from my OP - 'can' used instead of 'may'.

[b]MAY I lend your phone?[/b]

8)

Alot of things.

http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/04/alot-is-better-than-you-at-everything.html

I think I'm an uber pedant

That's "über-pedant." Amateur.

Except/accept if we're including malapropisms.

As in "No £50 notes excepted"

they're, there, their

hear, here

of off

txtlol speak

borrow/lend confusion

Owe, i'm shure their our many more...

Adding the last word of an acronym into a sentence ie The GMT time is

Oooh, oh, I've another.

Principle / principal. We have Principal Engineers at work. Except, according to about half the emails I get, we actually have Principle Engineers. Presumably they look after the network's moral fibre.

Adding the last word of an acronym into a sentence ie The GMT time is

PIN number. PAC code. Get in the sack.

Incorrect [b]use[/b] [s]s[/s] of the English language

That's better.

Except/accept if we're including malapropisms.

Affect / effect is another. Two wildly different words that I've never, ever had a problem with confusing, or even known that anyone else did, up until the Internet; I've now read it incorrectly so many gods damned times that now *I'm* starting to get it wrong and having to watch out for it. FFS. You really [i]can [/i]catch stupidity.

Like me, for instance

Nah, I luvs ya really 😛

Actually, wot cynic-al said about "of" instead of "have". I have, horror of horrors, heard reporters on 5Live (yes, actual BBC reporters) using "of" instead of "have". I was going to text in and then thought, nah, it's ok, masty fanny will do it for me 🙂

Honest question: Has "their" become accepted now when saying something like "Everybody has their reasons" instead of the clumsy sounding "Everybody has his or her reasons" which I say? Or should one just say "Everybody has his reasons" - is this sexist? 8)

I'm not keen on the over-use of adverbs either. They are for the grammatically disadvantaged.

J_me >

Incorrect [s]use[/s] [s]s[/s] [b]usage[/b] of the English language

Now it is.

Principle / principal.

I know what you mean...but surely this is a spelling rather than usage question isn't it? There are similar issues with the -ice and -ise suffixes.

Oh and it's "us" with an "s" not "Uzz" 🙂
(That's not at Cougar)

pacific/specific
except/accept
effect/affect
could of/could have

****er,s teh lots ov 'um

Has "their" become accepted now

Dunno about accepted, but it's what I'd use by choice. The alternatives are clumsy (his/her), sexist (his) or an abomination (zer).

J_me >

Incorrect use s usage of the English language
Now it is.

Cougar - I think either are acceptable.

Presumably they look after the network's moral fibre

Thy stop terrorists, porn, and bingo getting on to your network.

this is a spelling rather than usage question isn't it?

Only in so far as all the others examples here are; they're different words just as accept / except and there / their are.

Oh and it's "us" with an "s" not "Uzz"
(That's not at Cougar)

Sorry, I'll take exception to that, us oop north frequently catch buzzes.

I think either are acceptable.

you might be right, I was just being awkward. (-:

Adding the last word of an acronym into a sentence ie The GMT time is

I believe your example is, more accurately, called an initialism, not acronym. 🙂

[i]Although the term acronym is widely used to describe any abbreviation formed from initial letters,[3] most dictionaries define acronym to mean "a word" in its original sense,[4][5][6] while some include a secondary indication of usage, attributing to acronym the same meaning as that of initialism.[7][8][9] According to the primary definition found in most dictionaries, examples of acronyms are NATO (pronounced /?ne?to?/), scuba (/?sku?b?/), and radar (/?re?d?r/), while examples of initialisms are FBI (/??f?bi??a?/) and HTML (/?e?t??ti???m??l/).[4][8][10][/i]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acronym_and_initialism

Thy stop terrorists, porn, and bingo getting on to your network.

So long as they don't start sniffing my packets.

buzzes

😛

****, I knew there was another one!

"Could I get a...."

I heard A WOMAN IN HER 50's announce this at the counter for her [i]americaaaarnow[/i] at Dublin airport a few weeks ago. Repulsive behaviour indeed.

Oh, excessive use of block capitals gets my goat too along with foreign uses of apostrophes (sandwiche's, jean's, that sort of thing)

Edit:
Because pronounced becuzz. Often heard on 5live.

My grammar is far from perfect so it somehow seems wrong for me to criticise others - but this is the internet so why the hell not)...

Another vote for misusing of [b]of/have[/b].
Similarly I've notices a lot of people seem to confuse [b]are/our[/b].

Similarly I've notices a lot of people seem to confuse are/our.

I'll let your typo ride, just wanted to say that I've seen both of those substituted with "or" far too often.

Cougar - Member

I think I'm an uber pedant

That's "über-pedant." Amateur.

Lack of keyboardage skills actuellement! I pronounce it with the umlaut though... 😉

j_me - Member
Cougar - I think either are acceptable.

Wouldn't it be "...either 'is' acceptable..."?

Right, I've got to stop posting this thread before I get myself in trouble, or make a fool of myself. 🙂

Thank you TheBrick! 'Alot' drives me insane but I'm going to adopt the coping strategy in your link and enjoy encountering it from now onwards.

Because pronounced becuzz. Often heard on 5live.

how are you proposing that we pronounce it..?

Wouldn't it be "...either 'is' acceptable..."?

Good spot! It should have been "both are".

Wouldn't it be "...either 'is' acceptable..."?

Damn, left my petard trailing behind me.

how are you proposing that we pronounce it..?

It's pronounced "throatwobbler-mangrove"

I'll let your typo ride

You missed my closed bracket that didn't have an open one 😉

throat[s]wobbler[/s]-warbler-mangrove

You missed my closed bracket that didn't have an open one

Ah, sorry, I didn't realise there'd be a test... (-:

throat[s]wobbler[/s]-warbler-mangrove

Good gravy, is it really? I've got that wrong for [i]years.[/i]

See, the Internet can be educayshunal.

A pronunciation one here...

Sandwich...

Do you say it 'sa[b]m[/b]wich', 'sa[b]n[/b]wich' or san[b]d[/b]wich'?

I call them san[b]d[/b]wiches but I constantly get pulled up over it.

mastiles_fanylion - Member

Starting sentences with "And".

Sorry but starting a sentence with 'and' is perfectly acceptable.

Agreed. And I would include other conjunctions - such as 'but' - in that. But only if deployed with discretion.

I agree, but equally i think it's necessary to demonstrate that you know the rules before you break them.

Actually,

The Internet would appear to agree with me.
http://orangecow.org/pythonet/sketches/raymond.htm
http://www.ibras.dk/montypython/episode22.htm

I call them sandwiches but I constantly get pulled up over it.

I call them butties, but if I didn't I'd agree with you. The others are just either regional variations or proof that cousins shouldn't marry.

In truth, what I'd say is probably closer to 'sanwich,' but that's down to bein all ey up an sithee lahk. If ah were talkin proper like wot t' Queen does, ah'd seh 'sandwich' lahk a ponce.

I call them butties, but if I didn't [s]I'd[/s] [b]I'ld[/b] agree with you.

Stupid meaningless americanisms - especially my pet hate ~"fire road"

We do not have fire roads in the uk. We have all sorts of tracks but none of them are fire roads.

I call them butties, but if I didn't [s]I'd[/s] I'ld agree with you.

wut you talkin bout, Willis?

We do not have fire roads in the uk. We have all sorts of tracks but none of them are fire roads.

"None of them IS fire roads" 😉

wut you talkin bout, Willis?