Grammar Pet Peeves

[IridescentLipstick]

When people say "I could care less!" when they mean "I couldn't care less!" and don't realise that they're saying exactly the opposite of what they mean!

That one drives me batty.

I know a woman who pronounces unless /ungless

I'm Irish and some people mix up U and O vowel sounds e.g From - pronounced frum , under/onder and the worst one Room, pronounced Rum

A posh lady I know pronounces a sharp T sound like SH- whash was thash?

 

[AliceInWanderLost]

One pet peeve I'm seeing creeping in is a lot of lax Americanisms of word usage or sentence structure. In the capacity I work, communication and English skills are pretty key, so it's becoming a bit of a mare seeing many of my colleagues, who should know better, lapsing into these.

Some of the top ones:

1. Confusing 'bring' and 'take'
2. Confusing 'come' and 'go'
3. Saying 'amends' instead of 'amendments' — this is my favourite one because we get many people constantly 'making amends' with text documents in some ongoing, obviously tumultuous relationship
4. Similarly, saying the likes of 'disconnect' and 'intent' to avoid that extra syllable of '-ion'

reminds me of my frustration when people confuse "taught" and "learnt" and "lend" and "borrow".

 

[Mollywobbles]

Don't think I've heard anyone say washbasin in my life sounds awfully posh

My mother was pretentiously posh.
We had a wash hand basin!
Except I got confused and called it a right hand basin.

 

[Kim Mild]

I saw a meme that made me think of this thread.

It refers to people saying someone ' was like ' instead of saying someone said . The meme explained that using 'said' is pretty much quoting someone but using 'was like' takes into account someone's non verbal communication such as tone , facial expressions and body language.

 

[Pawpaw365]

Grocer’s apostrophe is the use of an apostrophe in plural words e.g. apple’s, orange’s etc.

Hahaha that’s funny.

A grocer's apostrophe is the incorrect addition of an apostrophe, when there should be none. Advertising "apple's" instead of apples.

I was looking for a ‘to do’ notepad on Amazon last night and there were at least three that said TO DO’S - That’s a grocer’s apostrophe right?!

 

[Wolfshead]

I may have said this before, but it's still does my head in, the inability to differentiate between lie, laid and lay. I see it everywhere - even from people who should definitely know better. Speaking of "definitely"; many people seem to think the work "defiantly" will do just as well. Also, when did it become acceptable to say "generally" when the person really means "genuinely"? Aaaaaaaaaah, that feels better! Thank you for this opportunity to vent!

 

[watermelon sugar]

"Low and behold" instead of "Lo and behold"
"The curtains compliment the flooring" instead of "The curtains complEment the flooring"
"Per say" instead of "Per se"
"Low and behold" instead of "Lo and behold"

... I could go on all day!

Were you meant to put low and behold twice

 

[Lalalaand]

This has probably been said on here but the amount of times I've seen this recently is criminal... when people say generally but they actually mean genuinely it's not normal how much it pisses me off

 

[Pawpaw365]

Grammar’s not my strong point so I’m a bit of a hypocrite but I keep seeing people write seen rather than saw I.e. ‘I seen this on TV’ or ‘I seen her’.

Af first I thought maybe just a typo but I’m seeing it regularly now and it’s so bizarre and annoying. As if you’d even say that in real life let alone write it?

I think some of it is an Irish thing too. A few Irish people that I know from work say it in speech ‘oh I seen this guy’ - I think it’s fairly common.

 

[witchofwestbyfleet]

Native English speakers writing "can not" instead of "cannot" or, for instance, "why she is saying that?" instead of "why is she saying that?" These are perfectly understandable in people whose first language isn't English, but if it is your first language, yeah, it grates

I had an ex who frequently wrote "&c." (archaic form of etc.) I guess it's not wrong per se but it did look weird, lol

 

[emerald]

Writing "women" when they mean a singular "woman". Goes right through me.

 

[HereForTheTtt]

I despise it when people say ‘I’m going gym’ rather than ‘I’m going to the gym’. When did this become a thing?

 

[TapToBoreMeRigid]

Super Nanny was fab at terrible grammar. Remember "asseptable"? There was that really difficult girl yelling at her "It's ACCEPTABLE not asseptable"

I wrote about it on Twitter years ago and Jo Frost replied to me. She must have searched her own name.

 

[bubbadabut]

People saying fiancé when they mean fiancée and vice versa

I always just say "partner" as I always forget if I'm the é or the ée.

Just had a flyer through from a company offering me a free boiler. Wow, great! Except they've used "effected" instead of "affected", so into the bin it goes.

Kinda like "can I write TO you?", but in America, "can I write you?"

Similarly I've noticed people not using "of" after "a couple".

E.g. "Can I have a couple days off?"

 

[AliceInWanderLost]

Specific and pacific drives me around the bend. They’re two totally different words, spellings, meanings! My husband says pacific when he means specific just to wind me up.

when I see mom instead of mum in the UK. But maybe this is a regional thing?

Very picky I know.
A genuine question - what IS the correct use of ‘myself’? I hate it being used to sound like a smartarse when ‘me’ or ‘I’ is grammatically appropriate but I can’t think of the correct context to use it?

specific and pacific are the WORST. equally, when people say supposably instead of supposedly.

in terms of using "myself", you can use it in sentences where you use "I" - "I made the cake myself!" or "I promised myself I would go to bed earlier" or "I treated myself to a coffee." it's the equivalent of using himself, herself, themselves etc.

 

[Twertle]

I still don’t understand apostrophes (and I’m in my mid 30’s)

Someone please teach me….. ?

An apostrophe is when your connecting two words the apostrophe goes where the missing letter is e.g has not - hasn’t.

I’m not sure if this has been mentioned I haven’t read through the whole thread but I’ve seen this three times this morning ‘generally’ instead of ‘genuinely’ two different words with totally different meanings

 

[Lurkerlurker2019]

I'm seeing more and English people using the word 'Mom'. Several people I know say it when referring to their Mum and they're the most Northern people I know why?!

 

[TapToBoreMeRigid]

They are Americanisms and they're finding their way here.

 

[scot_nursey003]

Practice/practise
Affect/effect
Your/you’re
The grocer’s apostrophe is my biggest pet peeve though.

 

[Melian]

People who type how they talk and it makes no sense