Comments on: Angry For Bad Grammar!

By: fatmanbob

fatmanbob — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 11:37:31 +0000

Two days ago I received an email from the third year in charge of rowing at my university informing me that: For the guy’s who couldn’t make it, don’t worry THEY’LL be plenty of other opportunities to get down on the water to show your stuff. (Caps added to emphasise)

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 19:34:10 +0000

MY pet peeve is the improper usage of who/that; everyone says “someone that,” whereas they should have said “someone who.” I cringe every time I hear it.

By: Epic Fail

Epic Fail — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 02:00:58 +0000

“This is so accurate for me that’s it’s SCARY! LOL!”
“for me that’s it’s SCARY! LOL!”
“that’s it’s SCARY”
“that’s it’s”
“that is it is”

By: Ginger Ivanhoe

Ginger Ivanhoe — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 00:44:00 +0000

I absolutely adore this, including all of the reply threads. It’s refreshing to know I’m not the only Grammar Nazi, merely the only one in a ten-mile radius!
There are two that really scrape my nerves raw. They probably haven’t been mentioned because they’re more spoken (pronunciation errors) rather than written (true grammatical errors), but I just have to put them out here:

1) eXspecially (or eCKspecially) – example – “Dancing in the rain is eXspecially fun.”

2) All’s I can say – example – “All’s I can say is, I hope Charlie gets the Golden Ticket.”

By: EmeryB

EmeryB — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 19:28:42 +0000

omg, that drives me positively insane.

By: Jamie

Jamie — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 16:09:21 +0000

I really did laugh out loud at this comment! At work, in the library!

By: Jamie

Jamie — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 16:06:45 +0000

Terry Pratchett, right?

By: parker

parker — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 13:22:50 +0000

yes its so aggravating when people do stupid mistakes
haha

By: Rachel

Rachel — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 22:38:19 +0000

May I suggest the following for inclusion on any future graph?

The use of “whallah” where “voila” is meant.

It drives me demented.

By: Caity Lynne

Caity Lynne — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 16:44:44 +0000

Lol… very true TR.

By: Caity Lynne

Caity Lynne — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 16:43:11 +0000

No, because the ham and cheese are on the SAME sandwich, and grammer and language can’t be lumped together like that. HAVE.

By: Intyalle

Intyalle — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 21:40:53 +0000

“English doesn’t just borrow from other languages, it chases them down dark alleyways and rifles through their pockets for spare vocabulary.”

By: JM

JM — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 01:44:21 +0000

THIS GRAPH IS SO EFFING TOTALLY ME!!

By: Bob

Bob — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 14:12:39 +0000

You forgot PeOpLe WhO tLk LyKe DiS.

God they make me want to punch a baby.

By: wendellz

wendellz — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 01:06:38 +0000

ahahahahahhahahahahahahahahha grammar nazi makes me lol in mah pants ur such a baby get over it nuthin u can do about bad grammar GETS OVER IT”"”"”"”"”"”"”youre a ‘jerk’ its my life but it’s a fine day for a bad spelleer like me

By: Rett

Rett — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 16:48:20 +0000

So full of win it’s about to explode.

See I said it’s, meaning it is, not its, meaning it owns the word ‘about’.

By: NotOneToSpeak

NotOneToSpeak — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 17:40:53 +0000

Although I have NO room to talk (for I am definitely not a grammar master), there are a number of errors that completely drive me crazy.
1) “too” for to. My mom is a fan of that one.
2) “seperate” instead of sep-a-rate
3) forgetting commas even exist. I have been known to throw a few extra commas in a sentence, so perhaps I am a tad biased. However, completely disregarding commas is NOT OK!

Can someone clear up the “his/her” vs. “them” issue?
Which one (if any) is gramattically correct:
a) Everyone needs to bring his/her own covered dish to the party.
b) Everyone needs to bring their own covered dish to the party.

By: Bad Grammer Boy

Bad Grammer Boy — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 11:33:33 +0000

I luv your graf, its just sooper smashin’ great.

By: Nightgrace

Nightgrace — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 22:37:21 +0000

I would like to add “the reason is because” to this amazing list of bad grammar.
I get highly irritated when I hear anyone say this! They mean the same thing!! I lose a little respect for that person every time I hear it.

By: AND I hate everyone.

AND I hate everyone. — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 11:09:30 +0000

I love this graph, and intend to forward it to everyone I know.

What drives me insane is when commas are used to replace full stops. So many people at Uni would write a whole paragraph, without a full stop to be seen. The sentences weren’t even badly linked together with multiple ‘and’s.

eg.
“Claude Debussy was born in St. Germain-en-Laye in 1862, his father owned a china shop and his mother was a seamstress, Debussy began piano lessons when he was seven years old with an elderly Italian named Cerutti, his lessons were paid for by his aunt, his talents soon became evident, and, at age eleven, Debussy entered the Paris Conservatoire. ”

ARRRGGHHHHHH

By: C'est Moi

C'est Moi — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 12:52:25 +0000

Other languages make a hell of a lot more sense.
The French languages has rules that it actually follows, unlike English.
After having studied five languages, I look at English and wonder how the hell non-native speakers ever manage to learn this language.

By: KC

KC — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 06:37:32 +0000

your all a bunch of loser’s

teh spelling, its not so bad

By: Beau Gough

Beau Gough — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 14:27:24 +0000

Just abbreviate to “&c.” and that would avoid the etc./ect. confusion.

By: Braden Kallin

Braden Kallin — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 05:34:47 +0000

I know I’m not the best at grammar (I occasionally say ‘Me and…’ and misuse who/whom), but (with the exception of lolspk) I absolutely hate the words ‘irregardless’ and ‘orientate/disorientated’. ‘Their’, ‘they’re’, and ‘there’ also bug the crap out of me.

I also don’t see why the use of ‘ect.’ isn’t up there, because everyone knows it’s etc, a shortened version of ‘et cetera’.

By: James

James — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 23:15:35 +0000

I hate to see people who put “DVD’s and CD’s, TV’s” and stuff, it does actually anger me. The worst example I ever saw was where somebody used an apostrophe in the word “want”. Wan’t is not a word.
The thing is, I don’t mind if people leave them out, but people look really stupid when they use them incorrectly.
A very informative and concise comment, that was, Patrick.

By: Beau Gough

Beau Gough — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:07:20 +0000

Emm, what? You’re not meant to just make up problems.

Try checking these resources for use of the English language before embarrassing yourself by posting such tosh.
http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/gauntlet_2
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=97545&dict=CALD

Even Webster’s shows “gantlet” is only a variant of “gauntlet”.

By: stein

stein — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 22:01:37 +0000

Can it be that no one has mentioned the incorrect use of “gauntlet” for “gantlet”? The first is a big honkin’ glove. It’s the second that people who get it wrong should be made to run through.

By: Morgan

Morgan — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 02:22:30 +0000

Of course, it could be that the collective that is ‘grammar and language’ HAS many weird rules, just as one might say ‘ham and cheese IS my favorite sandwich.’

By: KendallJaye

KendallJaye — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 20:06:18 +0000

“They was………….”
That drives me up a frakking wall.

By: Ron at HuninCommunications

Ron at HuninCommunications — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 19:20:01 +0000

This is the bestest, mostest, greatest chart ever devised by man. I cannot stress this enough. As an editor by trade, I am inspired to create some sort of manifesto-like, multidimensional superchart that exemplifies all of the problems you are talking about. It will save lives.

By: Jenny

Jenny — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 19:50:06 +0000

What? We don’t drop the capital just because it’s naming her nationality!

By: TR

TR — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 04:50:16 +0000

She’s a teacher of French, because no self-respecting Frenchman would name his daughter “Jane”!

By: Trish

Trish — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 20:52:47 +0000

While I’m not thrilled about using the phrase “flesh out” when adding detail to a plan or schedule, I nearly crack up when I hear folks say they want to “flush” it out.

By: Trish

Trish — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 20:50:26 +0000

While I’m not thrilled about using the phrase “flesh out” when adding details to plan or schedule, I nearly crack up whenever I hear someone wants to “flush” it out.

By: Paul

Paul — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 13:33:43 +0000

Can I please add the incorrect usage of the words “insure” and “ensure”? This is easily one my biggest pet peeves in regards to this topic – I work in a factory where we are asked to “insure that we work safely”. Always makes me want to tear my hair out…

By: S!

S! — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 08:10:34 +0000

Split infinitives are, more or less, a hold-over from Latin. And, well, we like to aspire to Latin regularity when we invent grammatical proscriptions.

Infinitives in L didn’t “talk around” the point by adding ‘to,’ ‘to have,’ and whatnot to their infinitives and pastperfects, they just used conjugated the verb as such. And this is why you “shouldn’t” split infinitives in English – because you couldn’t in Latin.

Infinit: add -re to the end of a regular verb
P perf: add -isse to the end of a regular verb

By: Trisscar

Trisscar — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 05:57:00 +0000

If she was of French origin, French would not be capitalized. Because then french would be describing her.

By: weaselpwnz0r

weaselpwnz0r — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 02:16:15 +0000

resources say that use of “less” to deal with countable nouns is not incorrect. simply less formal.

By: weaselpwnz0r

weaselpwnz0r — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 02:02:13 +0000

imperfect use of the conditional perfect is a tragedy beyond compare (/hyperbole).

By: weaselpwnz0r

weaselpwnz0r — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 01:42:47 +0000

agreed.

By: weaselpwnz0r

weaselpwnz0r — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 01:36:57 +0000

I don’t know. It /can/ be lovely, but I feel it’s less effective in the English language.

By: Katie O/Bookwench

Katie O/Bookwench — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 17:55:08 +0000

RB,

I will never claim to be a whiz at spelling. That wasn’t the point of my post. Hence, the hypoctisy you allude to doesn’t exist in my comment.

There is certainly a difference between misspelling a word and being ignorant of the meaning or proper usage of words. It could be as simple as a missed keystroke in one case, or just a small mental block. I know many people who are brilliant writers and speakers, who rely on spell check to fix minor errors such as ‘believe’ or ‘bulletin’.

Spell check is as much a blessing as it is a curse.

I will, hower, maintain a healthy disatain for people using words that don’t exist, whether or not they are spelled correctly.

By: Katie O/Bookwench

Katie O/Bookwench — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 16:47:28 +0000

Yes, yes I did. Thanks for pointing that out.

I’m just going to blush and call it a ‘blonde moment’ and move on, head hung in shame.

By: Les

Les — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 23:06:26 +0000

Yes! Thank you! Fewer or less is definitely horrible because when I point it out the other person never knows what I am talking about!! We all have made the their/there/they’re mistake if we are in a hurry, but we know it is wrong… Fewer: you can count them; Less: you can’t count them; I have fewer dollars than you, which means that I have less money. COME ON PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By: expat

expat — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 04:09:08 +0000

What about the incorrect use of fewer and less?? That one sets my teeth on edge every time.

By: Techie

Techie — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 01:50:48 +0000

I’m a stagehand, and sometimes I set up trade shows and conventions. A few weeks ago, I was setting up a defense contracting show, and one booth had a giant sign that said

YOUR COMMITMENT NEVER WAIVERS. NEITHER DOES OURS.

…and I wanted to die. I also wanted to take a picture, but I was worried that security would kill me for being a spy and/or a terrorist.

By: Amy Kelly

Amy Kelly — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 01:36:40 +0000

Actually it’s even more difficult than that, as affect and effect each have at least a couple meanings apiece. Here is a good explanation of them:

http://www.yourdictionary.com/grammar-rules/affect-effect-grammar.html

By: Beau Gough

Beau Gough — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 20:53:56 +0000

“GOSH”. I have “never” notice people using “that” before. I’ll “have” to go look. Though, “maybe” it doesn’t happen round here.

By: elfinugget

elfinugget — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 02:57:39 +0000

*hands Matthew a hyphen to put between “earth” and “shattering”…*

Ok, my better-feeling, let me showz yu it.

By: elfinugget

elfinugget — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 02:54:09 +0000

Personally, I prefer the Australian joke about the wombat. . .

“Eats, roots, shoots, and leaves”

(Just like a man)