What is your biggest grammar pet peeve?

[DrPizza]

To be a pet peeve for me, it has to happen at least semi-regularly. Thus, I think misusage of your/you're and their/there/they're are the ones that annoy me the most. But, that applies to typed text.

As far as spoken language, like, I really like hate it when like people like can't just, you know, like, speak a sentence without, uh, you know, like, umm, constantly saying "like" and "you know", you know?

 

[poopaskoopa]

1. "Should of"
2. "Could of"
3. "Would of"

:frown:

 

[djheater]

Mixed or garbled metaphors and colloquialisms. I find them very distracting. I can't help but try and figure out what they actually meant and why they're mixing them up. This most often happens in meetings, I'll miss the rest of the speaker's point because I'm stuck trying to figure this stuff out. For example:

"No skin off my back"

A combination of "No skin off my nose" and "You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours."

 

[Legendary]

"If I was" should be "If I were"

 

[ajpa123]

decimate is an interesting word.
It originally meant to eliminate one out of every ten (the Romans killed one out of every ten (decem) of a group just to make an example of them).
Today, you can get away with using the word 'decimate' to describe annihilation because it has become so common. Howie Long, or one of his c0-anchors on the NFL countdown uses it frequently ... makes me cringe.. don't ask me why.

 

[bradruth]

Reading this thread is pissing me off because I'm remembering all my pet peeves. :disgust:

 

[Brutuskend]

The ghetto talking crap that pass's for English these days....

 

[Ketteringo]

could care less
all be it
payed

lots more that I cant think of off the top of my head.

 

[VTboy]

1. Then/Than
2. Who/Whom
3. Noun-Pronoun Agreement
4. Subject-Verb Agreement
5. Wrong Singular Possessives (Correct: Chris's dog, Wrong:Chris' dog)
6. Affect/Effect

 

[Ketteringo]

Oh yeah, I forgot:

Irregardless

 

[CPA]

How could anyone not list the obvious :

lose/loose


These two words are probably the most butchered words in written english. And it really ticks me off when people use them incorrectly.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Originally posted by: conjur
tons of them

your/you're
their/they're/there
would/should/could of (it's have)
for all intensive purposes (for all intents and purposes)
hear/here
sight (for website...it's site)
write/right/rite

Those are my top 7 for written English.

For spoken, it's "you know". "You know, I was just walking down the street and you know, this brick came flying like, you know, out of the sky, and it caught me on the temple, you know, and that's why I talk like a braindead, you know, moron."

 

[Ranger X]

Originally posted by: conjur
tons of them

your/you're
their/they're/there
would/should/could of (it's have)
for all intensive purposes (for all intents and purposes)
hear/here
sight (for website...it's site)
write/right/rite
could care less (when they mean couldn't care less)
PIN/VIN number
ATM machine


There was one I thought of the other day but it escapes me now.

You forgot "NIC card".

 

[TitanDiddly]

Apostraphe's all over the place where they don't belongs'.

 

[Lars]

wierd/weird

 

[trek]

THEN/THAN
I honestly don't see how those are confused...

 

[sillymofo]

Originally posted by: Brutuskend
The ghetto talking crap that pass's for English these days....

Fo shizzle mah nizzle, wurd up, powah to the people!

 

[Kyteland]

Its grammer. Get it right.

 

[Howard]

Originally posted by: orangel

Originally posted by: conjur

PIN/VIN number
ATM machine

ppl say these all the time.

It's the inconsistency that bothers me. Why not say PC computer?

 

[ajpa123]

The present and past tense versions of these 2 words always confused me.

LAY/LIE

You lay down the book you've been reading, but you lie down when you go to bed. In the present tense, if the subject is acting on some other object, it's "lay." If the subject is lying down, then it's "lie." This distinction is often not made in informal speech, partly because in the past tense the words sound much more alike: "He lay down for a nap," but "He laid down the law." If the subject is already at rest, you might "let it lie." If a helping verb is involved, you need the past participle forms. "Lie" becomes "lain" and "lay" becomes "laid": "He had just lain down for a nap," and "His daughter had laid the gerbil on his nose."

 

[SpazzyChicken]

Your/You're is the one that ticks me off the most. Their/there/they're comes in a close second. Excessive use of the word Like really annoys me too.

"I was like, your just wrong. Take your're attitude over their." :|

 

[Bryophyte]

"12 items or less" aisle at the store. It's FEWER!!! Not LESS!!!

 

[Bryophyte]

Another one that bugs the hell out of me is when somebody asks "Why?" by saying "How come?" WTH? Are you retarded? My MIL has a Masters degree in English and she says that. It is undoubtedly a truncation of the phrase "How did it come to be that..." but sounds ignorant when shortened to "How come..."

 

[ITJunkie]

Originally posted by: CPA
How could anyone not list the obvious :

lose/loose


These two words are probably the most butchered words in written english. And it really ticks me off when people use them incorrectly.

Don't, like, loose your cool over it

 

[JulesMaximus]

Originally posted by: DrPizza

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus
For me it's when people use "mute" instead of "moot" point. That drives me nuts. If your point is mute then you haven't made one...duh.

Anyone else?

omg, I saw that and said to myself, "everyone knows that." Then realized that I had made the same mistake earlier today! If it was from my post, sorry! I know better. (not enough coffee at that point.)

Actually, I was listening to the radio and heard some moron DJ say it. God, they must be some of the dumbest people on the planet.