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Rank: Lurker
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When folks use "though" instead of "although," and when they fuck up "less than/fewer and "over/more than" constantly irk me.
Lots of stuff people write incorrectly are because they hear the reference incorrectly. "One tote over the line," cracked me up recently.
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_mal_ wrote:
It happens to me very occasionally and I always rewrite the sentence. I wish others would do the same.
Same here...I know it's correct, but I just try to avoid it because it looks clumsy... I can't think of a phrase I wish people would get right at the moment...I'll stop back...
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I also cringe when I hear someone say "trust me." Especially if he works for the government.
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Ziptie477 wrote:I am surprised that no one mentioned the infamous animal, alot... instead of the correct use " a lot" .. It's been my understanding that both are correct, depending on where the writer hails from. My writing program spellcheck has no problem with alot, but when I post something to the site here, my browser spellcheck tells me it's wrong. When I was in grade school, my teachers taught that Canada (where I am) uses the British spelling, and the US uses their own new-fangled approach. Or something like that. :) I've just gone with it and adjusted when it seemed polite. More examples along the same line: realise/realize neighbour/neighbor
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What about zero sum game. I hear news analists say it.
Isn't it zero sum gain?
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Rank: Advanced Wordsmith
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My peeve is not a phrase, but the correct usage of a single word: unique. The word describes an absolute condition; something is either unique or it is not. Preceding "unique" with an adverb like "very" or "mostly" is simply absurd. 
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Rank: Clumeleon
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NOLANCMike wrote:What about zero sum game. I hear news analists say it.
Isn't it zero sum gain? No, I'm pretty sure it's zero sum game, which is a term in Game Theory. I've been wrong before... Without having read through this entire thread, I'm going to add two that might have been said: 'All of the sudden' should be, obviously, 'All of a sudden'. 'should of', 'could of', etc. The word should be 'have'.
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using the phrase "a myriad of" instead of just the word "myriad" annoys me so much that I want to go and bite the person saying it. "Leaving the myriad small creatures, trying to tie us to the ground" is the correct usage of the word.
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I use to read a lot of books. Aaaaarrrrgggh!
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clum wrote:NOLANCMike wrote:What about zero sum game. I hear news analists say it.
Isn't it zero sum gain? No, I'm pretty sure it's zero sum game, which is a term in Game Theory. I've been wrong before... Without having read through this entire thread, I'm going to add two that might have been said: 'All of the sudden' should be, obviously, 'All of a sudden'. 'should of', 'could of', etc. The word should be 'have'. Yep, it's zero sum game. And it is a term in game theory. It is used in economic theory as well. Still a game though.
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Forgot to add. I googled it. I love the internet.
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I hate it when people (mostly news broadcasters) us the word "pleaded" instead of plead.
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No punctuation on a forum irks me out. I know it's supposed to be informal but when you write out a comment and I don't see apostrophes, or periods and on top of that your spelling is crap, I can't reply appropriately to you.
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alacran75 wrote:I also cringe when I hear someone say "trust me." Especially if he works for the government. Lol...the check is in the mail...trust me... 
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"Gramm.er" added to the forum auto-correct. I had to add the . otherwise it would have corrected it 
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_mal_ wrote:Not really a phrase, but still something that irks me...
"that that"
Technically, it's correct in English (I suppose... I don't know of anything that says it's incorrect) but it always makes my mind stumble over the sentence (and mouth, if I read aloud). I usually have to backtrack and reread the sentence to make sure it's correct or that the person hasn't made a typo or some other grammar error.
It happens to me very occasionally and I always rewrite the sentence. I wish others would do the same.
It's a weird thing. We find ourselves writing it but logically we know a "that that" isn't necessary -- we can say the same thing using one "that" or none at all. I say axe it. I'm sorry, you're wrong. Word sequences such as That that is, is. That that is not, is not. That that is not, is not that that is. Is that not it? It is and James, while John had had "had", had had "had had"; "had had" had had a better effect on the teacher are perfect English grammar.
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While 'had had' etc. are grammatically correct, IMO, fiction writers should avoid them whenever possible. They can trip up some readers, throwing them out of the story, turning them into ex-readers. A major no-no..
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"two alternatives" drive me mad - you can only have one "alternative" - also the use of text language as in cu etc
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Hate it when people say "Can I get...." it's "Can I have..."
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RumpleForeskin wrote:While 'had had' etc. ... A major no-no.. 
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It's not a phrase, but a word; the correct word is "regardless", not "irregardless". And I seem to hear it all the time....
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ddubya wrote:"two alternatives" drive me mad - you can only have one "alternative" - also the use of text language as in cu etc You can't have two alternatives? If you have three choices all together, and you pick one...didn't you have two alternatives? Hmmm...not sure I agree with some of these recent posts... I do agree about the text language though...I don't even use text language when texting...
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"I could care less" (Are you sure you could not care less?)
"A flag at half mast" (It's probably at half staff to get technical)
"Orientated" (They mean oriented)
"Bounced off of...." (No, it bounced off)
"Can I axe you a question" (A question such as "How do you pronounce 'ask'?)
Continually and continuously used to mean two different things, they don't any more.
etc.
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MRH wrote:"Orientated" (They mean oriented) I'll give you the others, but not this. In Britain, the two are often used interchangeably. (I do agree, however, that it 'sounds' wrong and seems somewhat clumsy.) I found a few sources, but here are two: http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/orientatehttp://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-ori1.htm
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MRH wrote:
Continually and continuously used to mean two different things, they don't any more.
What did they mean before? I'm curious.
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MRH wrote:"I could care less" (Are you sure you could not care less?)
"A flag at half mast" (It's probably at half staff to get technical)
"Orientated" (They mean oriented)
"Bounced off of...." (No, it bounced off)
"Can I axe you a question" (A question such as "How do you pronounce 'ask'?)
Continually and continuously used to mean two different things, they don't any more.
etc. Half Mast is correct and comes from the Navy about the colors at half mast.
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One of my friends would probably have a field day in this thread - he is a notorious pedant and self-proclaimed 'Grammar Nazi'. I'll pick out two which I know really get up his nose: When people refer to the flag of the UK as the Union 'Jack' when, in fact, it is simply called the Union Flag. Apparently, this is only correct when it is on the front of a naval ship or something like that. He never lets it slide. General misuse and misunderstanding of the idiom 'to beg the question'. He often tries to catch us out with that one. I have another of my own: 'alot' is not a word, it's two words.
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citizencane wrote:When people use the verb 'to OF' - could OF, should OF, would OF and so on - I feel as if I want to strike them down like a righteous Nemesis!
I also hate it when someone writes 'TOW the line'.
Memo to snowlover - I think you'll find that 'gesundheit' is German for 'good health', like an English speaker saying 'bless you' when someone sneezes, because your soul was thought to be in danger. 'Bless you' originates from the times when the Black Death/Bubonic Plague was rife. One of the first symptoms was sneezing and as the disease was so often fatal, 'God bless you' became commonplace. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bless_youMy other half drives me crazy with his pronunciation of 'breakfast', he says 'break-fast' (which, while technically correct, I suppose, bugs the shit out of me). He also pronounces 'mortgage' as 'mort-gage', which I also find very annoying. Another one is that he insists on saying 'Whicker-man' instead of 'wickerman', when referring to the movie or the music festival... When referring to annoying youngsters, he will often call them 'whippet-snatchers' not 'whippersnappers' as it should be... Don't even get me started on the general public! (I may have to come back!)
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ddubya wrote:"two alternatives" drive me mad - you can only have one "alternative" - also the use of text language as in cu etc Of course you can have more than 1 alternative, what are you talking about? A mistake related to this that bugs the hell out of me: People using "alternative" and "option" interchangeably. Let’s say I have a primary plan of action. I have to do my homework before I leave on our family trip this weekend. That way I can enjoy the holiday, help with the driving, and relax when we get home Sunday afternoon. Great plan, but is that the only possibility? No, I have some alternatives to Plan A. - I can do my homework in the car going to and from the destination. - I can make some time while I'm at my aunt's place and do it there; it should take only a few hours, right? - I can wait until I get home and spend Sunday evening doing my homework. So, I have the original Plan A, and the three other possibilities. How many alternatives do I have? Did you say four? Nope. Besides the original plan, I have three alternatives. An alternative has to be an alternative to something else. In this case my three backup plans are alternatives to Plan A (in case the original, favoured plan doesn’t work out, for example). I do, however, have four options. I could decide to do my homework in any of the four ways I have told you about. The difference between the two is one - the number one, that is. I will always have one more option than alternative.
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Jingle wrote:MRH wrote:
Continually and continuously used to mean two different things, they don't any more.
What did they mean before? I'm curious. Continuous meant a steady stream, as in a stream 'without cessation'. Continual was a repetitive motion, like a drip. Now they are used interchangeably.
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