Grammar Pet Peeves

[Greenandgold]

When people say "an historic" rather than "a historic". Newsreaders do it all the time. The "h" of historic is pronounced as a consonant sound, so it should be preceded by "a", rather than words like "hour", "honour", "heir", which should be preceded by "an" due to starting with a vowel sound.

This. I cannot stand this and it's everywhere.

 

[Curly Top]

That sounds like quite a London / Essex thing?

Spot on. I'm in the Towie triangle - Loughton, Chigwell and Woodford.

 

[ClockworkDolly]

I have been reading a few threads today and some of them I've had to stop reading, because I was so irritated by the amount of times people have said 'could of / should of / would of'. I don't know why this bothers me so much, but just wondered if anyone else has any particular grammar pet peeves?! So that we can be old and grumpy together haha!

It drives me up the wall, but what can you do? No point challenging them, you get a shit load of abuse for your effort.

Facebook is the worst place to see it.

The latest ones are people getting WERE and WHERE mixed up.

WOMAN and WOMEN were bad enough, now we have something else to cause rage!

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?

That usually reflects the way they speak.

I was sat. Hate this. It's I was sitting.

Where I live a lot of people say "You was there" not "you were there." After 20 years in the area it still grates.

Sounds like south Essex.

Lack of punctuation is a big one for me. These are the same people likely to go on a Facebook rant without using one comma, and to me it feels like they are running out of breath!

If only they would.

 

[judgejohndeed]

Mine is when people mix up brought and bought.

 

[Al Fresco]

Surely that's wrong

He didn’t mean literally only those two things, it was his funny way of reminding us of the correct context.

 

[Melian]

They were still teaching this in the 90s haha

We were told the same thing for GCSEs in the mid 2000s

 

[AliceInWanderLost]

Perfect for Family Sunday's (as someone on my FB posted the other day)

the absolute shame of turning up to a previous job in a bookshop, and noticing that another employee had attached a sign to the window reading "now open on Sunday's!" - obvs torn down immediately! urgh.

 

[Milktray]

My mother-in-law writes sooh instead of so.

 

[tootootoot]

Even worse, chester draws

Don't do this to me

 

[Gloria Rostron]

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?

Do you like the carrot cake? I made it myself.

 

[TapToBoreMeRigid]

Saw a guy with a shirt on that had ghost illustrations on it and "I'M JUST HERE FOR THE BOO'S".

The boo is what?

 

[Pawpaw365]

I always have more to add to this list

When people add hyphens that really aren’t needed. Eg just seen in an article ‘ husband-of-16-years’ ARGHHH

 

[Mamacita]

I keep hearing people say 'a' (prounounced 'ay') instead of 'an' when the next word begins with a vowel, for example: we're going to ay event tonight.

Similarly when people pronounce 'the' as 'thee' when it's not a word beginning with a vowel. Is this an American thing??

 

[Melian]

People who consistently spell someone's name wrong, even when they've known them for years, or when the name is right there in front of them on an email or social media. I'm thinking Micheal/Michael, Jane/Jayne, Jackie/Jacqui, etc.

I get this a lot. Yes it's unusual but not that hard to spell!

 

[Lalalaand]

Mine is when people mix up brought and bought.

I literally came here to post that when I noticed this thread! You see it here allllll the time. I once typed it into the comment box just to double check it wasn't autocorrecting I seen it that often!

 

[Loopy1981]

All of the above, but bought/brought annoy me the most. I think people think it makes them sound posher to use bought! 'I bought my new Dyson hair wrap with me on holiday'.

 

[bubbadabut]

I was reading a Shirley Jackson book this morning and saw, "If he'd of been my friend you would have said plenty", and "She must of been glad to see him."

I only ever use the Oxford comma where there is ambiguity. Most of the time, it is unnecessary.

 

[sheleg]

I disagree. If my surname was Smith. And your talking about my house, it's the Smith's house. I.e. the house belonging the the Smith's

It would only be the Smith’s house if the Smith were a person - as in the Blacksmith. The Smiths are the Smith family, so their house is the Smiths’.

 

[Mollywobbles]

Just seen someone asking about visiting a tourist attraction that has just reopened.
"Do I need to book or is it a free fall?"

 

[Sickofthissh1t]

I know they are different phrases with different meanings. That's why I said my pet peeve is when people use "early doors" instead of "early days"!! They are getting them mixed up!