GIP

[kniteracy]

That's it. No message. Well, other than the fact that the word 'anyways' really annoys me. And comma splices kind of bug me, too.

I know I've asked this before, but what's your favourite grammar gripe?

Comments

[celticdragonfly.livejournal.com]

People using the wrong word in a phrase, showing they clearly don't get it. Someone who is feeling peeked (piqued), for example. There are a lot of other examples, too, but I can't think of any right now. I think my brain tries very hard to block them out.

[lordofthewheel.livejournal.com]

Your bard instead of You're barred was one that cropped up a few days ago. It made me giggle...

[wheezinggirl.livejournal.com]

like "Suposably" That one really grinds me.

[clothsprogs.livejournal.com]

That example could just be that, like me, they have trouble with spellings.

Teddy

[adamselzer.livejournal.com]

I can live with "anyways."

"Anyhoo," however, bugs the crap out of me.

[wheezinggirl.livejournal.com]

you know, I am a fan of "Anywho" and use it all the time. Now, I recognize that it isn't a real word, however I got stuck on it back in High School when I was a big fan of Bloom County - Berke Breathed used it a lot in his comic strips and he wiped me out. However, Berke Breathed and I prefer the spelling "who" over "hoo".

[fionnabhar.livejournal.com]

The use of intensive/reflexive pronouns as the objective case, as in, "After you fill it out, please hand the form to either John or myself."

It bugs me because people say it to sound fancier, when in fact they sound pretentious and ignorant.

[telynor.livejournal.com]

Ooh, that one gripes me, too.

Also:

"Yesterday, Sue came down to visit with Mike and I." *cringe*

If you wouldn't with we, you shouldn't with I. ;-)

[fleetfootmike.livejournal.com]

The perennial USan misuse of "momentarily" as 'in a moment', as opposed to the correct 'for a moment'.

"The plane will be landing momentarily" [and then taking off again?]

[patoadam]

I'm one of the few people who objects to using "lay" without a direct object. Just about everybody these days says "lay down" instead of "lie down".

From http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/lay:

Lay has been used intransitively in the sense of "lie" since the 14th century. The practice was unremarked until around 1770; attempts to correct it have been a fixture of schoolbooks ever since. Generations of teachers and critics have succeeded in taming most literary and learned writing, but intransitive lay persists in familiar speech and is a bit more common in general prose than one might suspect. Much of the problem lies in the confusing similarity of the principal parts of the two words. Another influence may be a folk belief that lie is for people and lay is for things. Some commentators are ready to abandon the distinction, suggesting that lay is on the rise socially. But if it does rise to respectability, it is sure to do so slowly: many people have invested effort in learning to keep lie and lay distinct. Remember that even though many people do use lay for lie, others will judge you unfavorably if you do.

[shannachie.livejournal.com]

Yeah! I agree. That's the very worst. Puts up all my bristles.

[carrielee.livejournal.com]

I am madly in love with your icon!

Anyways, I cannot stand the use of "your" when someone means "you're" or vice versa. It has bugged me since I was in school and kids would sign yearbooks with "you're friend, X." It still appears in yearbooks--I've seen it recently in Large Boy's--and shows no sign of dying online either.

Except vs. accept runs a close second.

[clothsprogs.livejournal.com]

I cannot stand the use of "your" when someone means "you're" or vice versa.

*So* with you on that one!

Teddy

[mdlbear]

My current top two are the phrase "hone in" (should be "home in", obviously), and the use of "author" as a verb.

[peteralway.livejournal.com]

Irregardless of what you say, its not the punctuation problem's that effect me. Well, accept for apostrophe's, of coarse. But wrong words irritate me. Especially spelling that suggest the righter has the wrong meaning in mind. Next to "Irregardless," which is my all-time favorite word to hate (I think because when you parse the double negative of the the ir- prefix and the -less suffix, it means the opposite of what people use it to mean), "Copywritten" when someone means "copyrighted" is probably my favorite.

But what bugs me the most is when I make a mistake in a post complaining about spelling or grammar.

[fionnabhar.livejournal.com]

Brutal.

[clauclauclaudia]

What, I'm the first in the thread to use this icon? I'm shocked!

Plurals with apostrophes, I think. Back in alt.callahans I had a fire lizard who considered misplaced apostrophes his rightful prey. ;-) "Sale on cucumber's" -- ugh!

[clothsprogs.livejournal.com]

"Sale on cucumber's"

That's obviously a sale on items belongiong to Cucumber....

Teddy

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

Do you really gotta axe that question?

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

Some of the ones already mentioned hit the ZAP button hard ("anyhoo", especially). I've been known to split infinitives and dangle participles (although occasionally as bait, looking to hook dinner :-), so am not entirely cerain I'm qualified to gripe. Nonetheless, there are several things that bother the bodily fluids out of me: "doable", "different than", and two that I acquired on my first editing job, "upon" (when used for "on", in almost all cases) and "employ" (when used for "use", rather than "hire").

Oh, and leetspeak, valley speak, or most dialect, used nonsarcastically.

[clothsprogs.livejournal.com]

I love love love "doable"

I use it a lot and a severe beatig witha grammar bat wouldn't lessen my love of the word.

Teddy

[janewilliams20.livejournal.com]

What does "GIP" stand for?

But to answer the question: any misuse of apostrophes, effect/affect, and the use of double quotes for what I suspect is intended to be emphasis and ends up being the opposite, e.g.

Buy our "fresh" strawberries!

implying to me that said strawberries are only pretending to be fresh.

[fionnabhar.livejournal.com]

Gratuitous Icon Post, for when you have nothing pressing to discuss, but want desperately to use your new icon.

[keristor.livejournal.com]

I'm with Mike on 'momentarily'. Other things: dangling prepositions are things up with which I will not put *g*; 'perjorative'; 'homogeneous'; lack of agreement in number (or worse in case) between subject or object and verb ("Joe and me is going to the game").

Oh, and people trying to use the second person singular and getting it wrong. "I love thou" (the usage "thee is..." is apparently correct in some dialects, even though it is technically wrong, just as is "I be...").

[fionnabhar.livejournal.com]

Also, "Hopefully, it won't rain today."

Does the speaker mean that he or she hopes that it will not rain, or that it will not rain, but it will perform the not raining in a hopeful manner?

Ooh, I hate that.

[duality.livejournal.com]

the irony that just ooooozes when someone says "your retarted" online.

[roaming.livejournal.com]

People who think they are erudite using that word wrongly, as in "eri-udite."

[pocketnaomi.livejournal.com]

Lack of capital letters at the beginning of a sentence. Also, the word 'alright'.

[lordofthewheel.livejournal.com]

Ah, got there just before me, sorry :p

[lordofthewheel.livejournal.com]

I hate to bring up a really obvious one, but people who fail to capitalize the first word in a sentence and the word 'I'. It has been made clear to me just how prevalent this seems to be amongst fifteen to sixteen year olds recently as there are a number newly joined on one of the role-playing boards that I frequent.

When pestered repeatedly one began to make an effort to use grammar in his posts. He now has and apostrophe on every word ending in an s. Grrrr.

[occams_pyramid]

"Here, here".

The almost universal use of i.e. when e.g. is obviously meant.

Its/it's - I used to be able to use these automatically, but I now have to stop and think every time because I have seen them used wrongly so often.

[clauclauclaudia]

My response is always, "where, where?"

(The proper reply being "there, there!")

[pbristow.livejournal.com]

"what's your favourite grammar gripe?"

She alwayz smelz funny... [G,D&RVVF]

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

Oh, and one more I'd forgotten: lack of a final serial comma. Yes, I know there are grammar experts that claim it's acceptable to omit it. It's even the norm at my workplace. Nevertheless, it's incorrect and leads to ambiguities. It drives me nuts! (A short road, and downhill, but still . . . :-)

[catmcroy.livejournal.com]

Your for you're