Most hated grammatical error [Merged]

FlutterinBantam · 04-12-2008 7:17pm

walshb wrote: »

This example is probably a bit too pedantic, but using it's when you are writing
about ones possessions; as in, it's coat, it's house etc

It should be, its coat, its house

The whole misuse and non-existence of apostrophes bugs me

Kinda wondering what you were at.

It's= if it does not mean "it is" or "it has" then it's its.

Eg. the cat caught its tail in the door??

04-12-2008 7:24pm

FlutterinBantam wrote: »

Kinda wondering what you were at.

It's= if it does not mean "it is" or "it has" then it's its.

Eg. the cat caught its tail in the door??

Yes, that's correct. Possessive "its" does not take an apostrophe. It's = it is.

Overheal · 04-12-2008 7:27pm

for a good spell as a kid i had trouble with the word begining. beginning. beggining... crap.

FlutterinBantam · 04-12-2008 7:31pm

I hear they have these spellchecker things now.:rolleyes:

Overheal · 04-12-2008 7:33pm

FF is being moody though.

tech77 · 04-12-2008 7:35pm

Dinter wrote: »

I'm weary of people misspelling wary.

I'm wary of people misspelling weary.

Wishbone Ash · 04-12-2008 7:49pm

micmclo wrote: »

Stupid me, but I don't know how many litres in a gallon

4.546

mental07 · 04-12-2008 7:52pm

Honey-ec wrote: »

People thinking that every single word that ends in "s" requires an apostrophe before it.

Yes, yes, YES!

:mad:

tech77 · 04-12-2008 7:56pm

mandysmithers wrote: »

I hate when people use "I" wrongly at the end of a sentence.

eg. "I bought a drink for John & I."

It should be "I bought a drink for John & me" - you wouldn't say "I bought a drink for I."

It's usually people who think their grammar is perfect who say that, and it wrecks my ****ing head!!! :mad:

That has to be THE most annoying grammatical error.
Simply because no grammar mistake comes so loaded with that odious combination of ignorance and pomposity.

Most grammar mistakes are uncontrived whereas that one is anything but and makes the user sound like a pretentious fool.
Makes me shudder every time i hear it.

Even though clowns using illicit when they mean elicit runs it close.

Alun · 04-12-2008 7:59pm

I just thought of another two. "affect" and "effect", and "borrow" and lend".

shellyboo · 04-12-2008 8:04pm

Terry wrote: »

Not the Americanisation.

But mistaken spelling is far less of a crime, in my eyes, than carelessness. I don't care if they give it the American spelling as long as they spell it the same way every single time - at least they're being somewhat consistent, and not completely retarded by spelling it a different way each time.

For example, I saw a van the other day which had "Bathrooms, Kitchens and Attic's" on it. Why the superfluous apostrophe in 'attics'? And if you think one goes in there, why don't you think it needs to go in 'bathrooms' and 'kitchens' as well? Why? WHY?! You didn't think at all, did you?! You just STUCK that apostrophe in there for the laugh - in fact, you did it just to annoy ME, didn't you?! DIDN'T YOU?!

*head explodes*

earlyevening · 04-12-2008 8:15pm

Fresh in the Grand Canal Dock has various signs all around the shop. All of the plurals are punctuated correctly until you get to the shelf with the "Soda's".

Pherekydes · 04-12-2008 8:19pm

walshb wrote: »

What about Bertie and his, "All is I'll say."

Yes! And how he wanted his administration to emanate (emulate) the great administrations of the past, and how the minister of states (ministers of state) were discussing blah blah in Brussels.

Another one that bugs me is people using exceptable instead of acceptable: "I'd like cash, but if you don't have it a cheque is exceptable." Baffled. Does that mean you won't take a cheque?

Oh, and it's not always discreet, shelly.

Johnny was very discreet about **** in class as the teacher explained the difference between continuous and discrete distributions.

Pherekydes · 04-12-2008 8:20pm

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

"We played them last month and 'bet' them".

Noooooooooo. We won them.

earlyevening · 04-12-2008 8:23pm

I'll learn you better grammar.

shellyboo · 04-12-2008 8:23pm

Pherekydes wrote: »

Oh, and it's not always discreet, shelly.

Johnny was very discreet about **** in class as the teacher explained the difference between continuous and discrete distributions.

Yep, I know... that's why I said 'unless you're talking about phonolgy blah blah blah.' Twas merely en example to illustrate that 'discrete' is generally a technical mathematical/linguistic term, while discreet actually means discreet.

alb · 04-12-2008 8:24pm

eh I don't think people got the point about the euro issue. The recommended forms of the plurals for materials intended for the general public are euros and cents. The 'euro' and 'cent' plurals are only for legislative documentation, such as the wording on the notes themselves.

The irish misinterpretation of this has it's own section here.

javaboy · 04-12-2008 8:34pm

shellyboo wrote: »

while discreet actually means discreet.

That clears that up then.

shellyboo · 04-12-2008 8:37pm

javaboy wrote: »

That clears that up then.

Yup. Discreet actually being the word you're looking for in 99% of cases. Unless you're a mathematician or a speech therapist... in which case you'd probably know the difference anyway

:pac::D

thedini · 04-12-2008 8:38pm

I hate stupid treads:)

javaboy · 04-12-2008 8:40pm

shellyboo wrote: »

Yup. Discreet actually being the word you're looking for in 99% of cases. Unless you're a mathematician or a speech therapist... in which case you'd probably know the difference anyway :pac::D

Well discrete mathematics is part of my job but I try to be discreet about it. It doesn't exactly ignite conversation at a party.
But that's not the point. I was just amused at you using a circular definition.

coolbeans · 04-12-2008 8:41pm

Grammar and spelling Nazis unite! At last I feel that I belong. God bless you. God bless you all. (sniff)

It/It's/Its. Drives me spare.

shellyboo · 04-12-2008 8:44pm

javaboy wrote: »

Well discrete mathematics is part of my job but I try to be discreet about it. It doesn't exactly ignite conversation at a party.
But that's not the point. I was just amused at you using a circular definition.

Yes, I enjoy them

My favourite is "I-T-apostrophe-S means it is or it has. I-T-S means its." It's even more fun if you roll your eyes afterwards. :pac:

04-12-2008 8:44pm

shellyboo wrote: »

Oh, and btw: Has anyone seen Tesco's discounted "confectionary" promotion? There's 25% off badly-spelled sweets in your local supermarket NOW!

actually it's 30%

God.

All of the previous piddle me off. But especially You're & your, and there, their and there. Also, to & too - I've noticed lately that people do this alot. People not using commas, making paragraphs nonsensical. And the apostrophe thing, grrrr. Like seriously, we've been learning English for about 14 years, were you not paying attention?

Newaglish · 04-12-2008 8:45pm

Honey-ec wrote: »

Come back next month for their stationary sale...

No need to hurry though - it's not going anywhere

zero19 · 04-12-2008 8:46pm

When people say quite instead of quiet.

tech77 · 04-12-2008 8:50pm

I'm really effected by bad grammer myself- i really loose the head.
I tell them you should of done this but there like...Its no big deal.

I'm always trying too illicit exactly why there like this
-but tbh presently It remains a mystery to my fellow posters and i.
Your never going too change them, its futile.

04-12-2008 8:50pm

oh, my friend says - "how's we can"

Will you buy lights how's we can decorate the tree!

coolbeans · 04-12-2008 8:50pm

Newaglish wrote: »

No need to hurry though - it's not going anywhere

Hoho. Very droll Prime Minister. Very droll.

04-12-2008 8:51pm

tech77 wrote: »

I'm really effected by bad grammer myself- i really loose the head.
I tell them you should of done this but there like...Its no big deal.

I'm always trying too illicit exactly why there like this
-but tbh presently It remains a mystery to my fellow posters and i.
Your never going too change them, its futile.

your so corect, there idiot's

DirkVoodoo · 04-12-2008 8:54pm

People typing "could of" instead of "could have" or "could've"

I could of been a doctor if I was gramatically.... good.

tech77 · 04-12-2008 8:57pm

javaboy wrote: »

Well discrete mathematics is part of my job but I try to be discreet about it.

LOL.

javaboy · 04-12-2008 8:59pm

I can't bare it when people confuse bear and bare.

tech77 · 04-12-2008 9:00pm

earlyevening wrote: »

I'll learn you better grammar.

I think you'll find that should be grammer with an "e".

04-12-2008 9:01pm

javaboy wrote: »

I can't bare it when people confuse bear and bare.

I must admit, I was surprised to find the correct saying is "bear in mind"

earlyevening · 04-12-2008 9:01pm

tech77 wrote: »

I think you'll find that should be grammer with an "e".

My mis-take.

I hate seeing those unnecessary hyphens too.

kincsem · 04-12-2008 9:09pm

Beautifying prose with superfluous words, especially "foreign" words, to suggest learning e.g. "inter alia".

"carpe diem" .... overused
"faux pas" .... say "mistake"
"prima facie" .... aagh!

04-12-2008 9:10pm

kincsem wrote: »

Beautifying prose with superfluous words, especially "foreign" words, to suggest learning e.g. "inter alia".

"carpe diem" .... overused
"faux pas" .... say "mistake"
"prima facie" .... aagh!

touché

tolosenc · 04-12-2008 9:15pm

Amn't. Just die.
Also, the way Irish people only score 23/24 out of 26 on pronouncing the letters of the alphabet. Dear god: A = ay, not ahh; H = aitch, not haitch; R = ar, not oar.

Now, to test Muphry's Law:

Lizzykins wrote: »

The amount of times I see them

Lizzykins wrote: »

like the grammar Nazi that I am.

Aghhhhhhhhhhhh! Clearly you're not.

galah wrote: »

The company I work for use American spelling rules, so we're forced to use commas before 'and' - it's so annoying.

A company uses..
Also, that's an Oxbridge thing - the commas with "and".

hco wrote: »

Does be or do be!

+1

shellyboo wrote: »

You can evacuate people from something... the headline is merely omitting where they were evacuated from. Yes, the building was evacuated... but the people were also evacuated from the building.

You'd never say 'I evacuated' to mean you emptied your bowels. When you evacuate you evacuate something (your bowels or a building), or you are evacuated from somewhere. It's a transitive verb, it requires one or more objects. In this case, the object was omitted, but it's still implicit.

(OMG, cannot believe I can remember things from my syntax class in college )

EDIT: The word evacuate has lost all meaning. And I have lost all sense of perspective.

Evacuate is not a transitive verb. It's complex-transitive, ie it has an arity of 3.
Wooohooo! I love Syntax class. My favourite module last year.

shellyboo wrote: »

Lots of little quirks like that in Hiberno English.

We need to kill them all. I speak Irish the Irish way, and English the English way.

Tweeter wrote: »

Nobody has picked up on this one yet. Using euros and cents as plurals.

E.g. 14 euros and 23 cents when of course it should be 14 euro 23 cent.

Drives me up the fcuking wall that one.

You, sir, are wrong. See below.

shellyboo wrote: »

The misuse of 'euros' bugs me, but by the same token, it baffles me why someone would INSERT an irregular plural into a language in this day and effing age. People have enough trouble learning English without the EU trying to confuse us all for the sake of uniformity across Europe.

Actually, the EU says use the s to pluralise. It says to use "Euro" as the plural in legislative contexts only, eg "... offenders will face a fine of Euro fifty."

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

I always say "euros" and "cents". It's a little protest. I will not allow the EU to decide on my pronunciation.

Not a protest against the EU. A protest against the idiots in the Euro changover team who can't read a simple EU document.

mandysmithers wrote: »

I hate when people use "I" wrongly at the end of a sentence.

eg. "I bought a drink for John & I."

It should be "I bought a drink for John & me" - you wouldn't say "I bought a drink for I."

Thank you. Not that I learned anything, just nice to know that not everyone sees the necessity to hyper-correct himself.

ronnie3585 wrote: »

I can't stand the so called 'soft t', i.e. when people pronounce Saturday 'Saherday' or Natalie 'Nahalie'. One of the weathermen on RTE always does it, grinds my gears!

The "soft 't'" of which you speak soes not result in Saturday being pronounced as "Saherday", but rather as "Sasherday". I HATE that, with a passion. "Saherday" is a glottalisation of the stop, not a lenition(softening).

tech77 wrote: »

I think you'll find that should be grammer with an "e".

I hope I'll find you're being sarcastic.

dip · 04-12-2008 9:23pm

Putting in apostrophes in every word that ends with the letter 's'.

See here, here and here.

Argh!:mad:

javaboy · 04-12-2008 9:25pm

I think it's hilarious that obl himself made mistakes during that long superior rant.

FlutterinBantam · 04-12-2008 9:34pm

You actually read it all:eek:

P.C. · 04-12-2008 9:43pm

The one that realy irritates me is when people say:

You can't have your cake and eat it.

Yes, I can!

Get it right, or don't say it.

04-12-2008 9:44pm

P.C. wrote: »

The one that realy irritates me is when people say:

You can't have your cake and eat it.

Yes, I can!

Get it right, or don't say it.

what's the bloody point in having cake if you can't eat it?!!!

^^^^^^^

should that be what's the point of or what's the point in? feck I'm confusing myself now!

P.C. · 04-12-2008 9:53pm

The correct saying is:

You can't eat your cake and have it.

It is quite simple. You can have your cake, and then later, you can eat it.

You can not eat your cake, and expect to still have it. Once it is eaten, it is gone!

Not very difficult when you think about it.

tolosenc · 04-12-2008 9:56pm

javaboy wrote: »

I think it's hilarious that obl himself made mistakes during that long superior rant.

I stated that it was a scientific experiment to prove Muphry's Law. I wasn't so much incorrect, per se, I was merely aiding the scientific method...

Yeah, that sounds about right.

04-12-2008 10:02pm

obl wrote: »

I stated that it was a scientific experiment to prove Muphry's Law. I wasn't so much incorrect, per se, I was merely aiding the scientific method...

Yeah, that sounds about right.

are you intentionally misspelling Murphy's? that's the second time you've made the error.

04-12-2008 10:03pm

P.C. wrote: »

The correct saying is:

You can't eat your cake and have it.

It is quite simple. You can have your cake, and then later, you can eat it.

You can not eat your cake, and expect to still have it. Once it is eaten, it is gone!

Not very difficult when you think about it.

My brain hurts

mikemac · 04-12-2008 10:06pm

I don't know if this one is correct but it was in a film called Malice. Nicole Kidman and Baldwin (forget his first name

) were in it

To paraphrase:
"I saw a letter"
"What did it say?"
"It didn't say anything, it read ........"

So now you have it. You can't say something like "What did that newspaper article say?"
Insert read for say.

I've never heard anyone use "read" so could just be Hollywood

BroomBurner · 04-12-2008 10:09pm

P.C. wrote: »

The correct saying is:

You can't eat your cake and have it.

It is quite simple. You can have your cake, and then later, you can eat it.

You can not eat your cake, and expect to still have it. Once it is eaten, it is gone!

Not very difficult when you think about it.

It works both ways. You can't have your cake, as in you can't have it indefinitely, and eat it. The word "and" is important. It ensures that the words 'have' and 'eat' are mutually exclusive*. Ergo, it can be read and spoken either way.

In terms of the melody of language, it obviously sounds better to read it with the 'have' first.

Most hated grammatical error [Merged]

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