What is your biggest grammar pet peeve?

[SociallyChallenged]

I hate it when someone says "floor" instead of "ground." Ground is outdoors or turf; floor is tile, carpet, indoor flooring, etc.

 

[Jeff7181]

A friend of mine always puts an s after x. He has an Xboxs... or he watched the White Soxs on TV...

 

[Woodchuck2000]

Originally posted by: VTboy

Originally posted by: Woodchuck2000

Originally posted by: VTboy

Originally posted by: sxr7171

Originally posted by: VTboy
Expresso and Espresso are the same thing. They however are not pronounced exactly the same. Almost the same but different.

I agree that they are the same thing, but both spellings are pronounced "ESS-presso." It is the correct way to refer to a cup of coffee made with pressurized water at a certain minimum pressure. I hate it when the person at the counter at Starbucks likes to repeat my order with the wrong pronunciation. This doesn't usually happen at the better coffee places. In that sense the expresso spelling is not the preferred spelling, it was probably a bad transliteration from the original italian.

WRONG WRONG WRONG. Expresso is NOT pronounced Esspresso I know this for a FACT. I have seen many many dictionarys ALL OF THEM say to pronounce it as ikspresso. NONE of them say to pronounce them the same. LEARN YOUR FACTS BEFORE YOU SPEAK.
On a side note. While most people say fortA for the word forte it really should be pronounced fort. The e should be silent.

We're ignoring the fact that the word Expresso is a corruption of Espresso in the first place, and is no more valid in my opinion than people saying 'Laptop' incorrectly as 'Labtop'.

Also, 'forte' is pronounced, as you put it, 'fortA' - go and speak to an Italian. Next you'll be telling us that the word 'Cafe' should be pronounced to rhyme with 'safe'...

WRONG. Forte should be pronounced fort not fortA. FortA is just a popular way of saying it but it is not correct. It is derived from the french word fort. Forte is not derived from any Italian word, it comes from french. The word Cafe comes from the french word cafe with an accent on the e. Forte on the other hand comes from the french word fort with no accent.

In a musical context, the word forte is straight from the Italian, not derived from the French and as such prounounced FortA. In the context of 'Grammar is my forte.' however you're correct.

 

[nan0bug]

Grammar doesn't bother me as bad as REALLY bad spelling. I don't mean the occasional mistake, because nobody is perfect. I'm talking about those people who couldn't spell to save their life. If you can't spell, get a spell checker or stop posting PLEASE. I grow tired of breaking out my idiot decoder ring.

 

[Aftermath]

Sorry if this has been mentioned already, but y/ies.

Babys, Dictionarys, Hippys, etc. That drives me nuts. But more than that, I hate the way people type out the english language online. If I start a conversation with someone, be it over a chat program, or in a game, whatever, and I see them say stuff like "how r u?" I immediately assume you're either twelve, or I assume your IQ is much lower than it actually is, simply because they couldn't spare the fraction of a second to tap the adjasent A and E keys, and the Y and O keys, even though they're all on the same row, right next to each other.

I also hate it when you have to dumb down what you're saying because people are so poorly read, or un educated. I'm not sure which. I used the word "corresponding" in a multiplayer game the other day, and part of the group gave me crap about "talking like a scientist" and the other part didn't know what it even ment. I used the phrase ".. regale you with stories.." the other day, and most of the people I was speaking to started laughing, saying that they had never heard that word before.

 

[Ikonomi]

Originally posted by: Jfrag

Originally posted by: allisolm
When people ask "How much do you like?"
When it should be "How much do you lack?"

Okay, I'll admit I'm having a little trouble with this one. Is it a local or regional usage or my limited imagination or what? I'm having trouble coming up with one real circumstance under which someone would be asking me "How much do you lack?" let alone enough times that mispronunciation would make it annoying. I can envision the butler (if I had one) saying "Excuse me. madam, but how much do you lack being finished with the newspaper as the master has expressed a desire to read the sports section?", but after that I'm stumped. Maybe I just don't hang out with the right crowd. Examples maybe?

Happens a lot here in the south. Mostly it is just replacing the word lack with like. I put it in the sentence for context. Around here the more common usage is "whattdoya like being done?" or something equally annoying.

I don't understand this one. Can you give an example of "like" replacing "lack"? I ask because the only thing I can figure out is a situation like this:

"Do you want sugar in your coffee?" "Sure." "How much do you like?"

Or maybe "How many do you like?" referring to the number of cubes. It seems like you may be missing the real colloquialism in a saying like that -- replacing "would" with "do", as in "How much would you like?" In the case of the coffee and sugar, though, "do you like" still makes sense: The question asks how much sugar you usually prefer in your coffee.

The other alternative is that you're lumping "lack" together with "want" or "need". To say "How much do you lack?" would be asking "How much are you in absence of?" or something equally odd. In this case, however, I can understand how replacing "want" with "like" could be annoying. I can only imagine the contortion that originally went into placing the word in that context, but it seems perfectly acceptable and in wide use.

But that's just my take... Can you give an example of what you mean? Maybe I've just never heard it.

 

[Zepper]

One more:

A lot of commercials use the tag line: "Not available in all states (areas)", which means it's not avaiable in any state. When it should be: "Not available in some states (areas)."

IOW, if you're taking an English test and are asked to supply the inverse of: "Not available in all states." Your answer had better be: "Available in no states." - not: "Available in some states."

.bh.
:sun:

 

[quincy2002]

mute point instead of moot point
apostrophe s instead of plural s
nuclear pronounced "newcular"

 

[bigalt]

i hate it when people say "have your cake and eat it too."

 

[Huz]

Then vs. Than

-and-

To vs. Too

I can't understand how native English speakers don't know the difference between these.. /boggle

 

[Bryophyte]

This drives me nuts when people say it: would of (or could of or should of) instead of would HAVE (could have/should have). I think they're mistaking it for the shortened version of would have: would've (could've/should've).

 

[gourmettea]

Has this been said?

butt/buck naked!

 

[TerryMathews]

Can I axe you a question?
Alls I want to know is...
You know what I'm sayin' (dog)

 

[Jeff7181]

Resurrecting an old thread

I have a new pet peeve... "memories" as in RAM.

Me: "How much RAM do you have?"
Them: "I have two 512 MB memories."

I know technically it may not be incorrect... but it's just so annoying! It's like K-Marts and Targets and Meijers!

 

[Shawn]

too, two, and to

 

[CZroe]

Originally posted by: Jeff7181
Resurrecting an old thread

I have a new pet peeve... "memories" as in RAM.

Me: "How much RAM do you have?"
Them: "I have two 512 MB memories."

I know technically it may not be incorrect... but it's just so annoying! It's like K-Marts and Targets and Meijers!

How about calling a Gigahertz "A gig?"

Only storage has traditionally been shortened in those terms. Megabit and Megabyte have been refered to as "megs." Gigabytes have been referred to as gigs. Only idiots called a 166MHz CPU a 166 meg CPU, and I have seen these people too, but as soon as Gigahertz CPUs became available EVERYONE and their mothers started calling them "gigs." All the techs at the computer shop I help in talk consistantly about their personal "3.4 gig Pen Four" systems and crap like that. I roll my eyes because they still call the chasis the CPU and sometimes even "the hard drive." ie, "no need for the monitor, keyboard or mouse. Just bring in the main hard drive." (And they don't mean the internal component )

 

[Fritzo]

The whole you're and your, there-they're-their thing drives me nuts.

 

[AvesPKS]

I could care less.

 

[slydecix]

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.

That's my biggest pet peeve too. At least the other ones have the same pronounciation - they're, there, their, etc...

 

[AndrewR]

Originally posted by: VTboy

Originally posted by: sxr7171

Originally posted by: Lounatik
One word that grates on my nerves is : Height. Why,oh why, do people insist on pronouncing it Hithe? It sounds so damn illiterate to me.

The -gh is silent numbnuts! Has the English language degraded this far? I don't say lithe for light, or hithe for height, then why do these fools say hithe?

Yes, I am totally insane. Thank you for your time.


Peace


Lounatik

Where do you live? I haven't heard anyone actually pronounce the "gh" in height before, and I live in Ohio.

I was just pointing out that according to webster you can say hitth

Keep in mind that Webster's adds things which have become common usage and does not just put what is correct. Enough idiots have adopted "Heig-th" that it's become common enough for Webster's to include the pronounciation. It's still wrong though.

As for the mention above of "forte", there are other examples of French words which are pronounced differently in English -- again, it's common usage. "Foyer" should actually be pronounced "foy-ay".

Ever wonder about the pronounciation of "cupboard"?

My least favorite written abomination is the loose/lose one. Really, how hard is it?