Most Annoying Grammar Mistakes, etc.

JCbride2015

mysticl said:

I used to proofread as part of previous job.  I was supposed to be checking content to make sure that documents contained the information required by the state.  However, I spent a lot of time fixing spelling and grammar.  I understand people make mistakes but when I have sent the same mistake back to you three or four times and you refuse to correct it I get a little upset. 

I once had to write the definition of personnel vs. personal on a document because the writer kept insisting on using the wrong one.  That person was probably my worst offender.  When I found out she had a master's degree I wanted to track down each of her professors and show them a picture of her to find out if she had been the one to sit in the classes or if she had paid someone to take the classes for her.  She didn't even know how to put thing in alphabetical order?  She thought you just grouped each letter together.  

Sometimes I wonder how people get these advanced degrees with such terrible grammar.

An old friend from middle school had the worst grammar and spelling of anyone I've ever encountered.  She used to always say, "Well, you know what I mean right?"  Her FB posts are full of terrible grammar still, after all these years.

Her current job: middle school teacher.  Facepalm.

thisismynickname2

Oh my God. Finally a place to vent about this.

"This is my husband and I on vacation."

"My boss rehearsed the presentation with my coworker and I."

"Oh, just give it to her and I."

"I" IS NOT THE OBJECT OF THE SENTENCE.  

Is there a gif for nails on a chalkboard!?  I don't claim to be a grammar expert and I know I make mistakes. At least I try. 

There's another issue that grinds my gears but I currently can't think of it. 

ETA: I did think of it. Run-on sentences are annoying. TAKE A BREATH! PAUSE! INSERT A PERIOD!

JCbride2015

OMG guys, I was just sitting here eating salsa and look!  I can't escape the grammar/ spelling fails!

thisismynickname2

@JCBride2014, that got a literal out-loud laugh from me   LITERALLY.  

Gerbertmcway

Suppose vs supposed really bothers me. You are not suppose to do something, you are supposed to do something.

mysticl

JCBride2014 said:

mysticl said:

I used to proofread as part of previous job.  I was supposed to be checking content to make sure that documents contained the information required by the state.  However, I spent a lot of time fixing spelling and grammar.  I understand people make mistakes but when I have sent the same mistake back to you three or four times and you refuse to correct it I get a little upset. 

I once had to write the definition of personnel vs. personal on a document because the writer kept insisting on using the wrong one.  That person was probably my worst offender.  When I found out she had a master's degree I wanted to track down each of her professors and show them a picture of her to find out if she had been the one to sit in the classes or if she had paid someone to take the classes for her.  She didn't even know how to put thing in alphabetical order?  She thought you just grouped each letter together.  

Sometimes I wonder how people get these advanced degrees with such terrible grammar.

An old friend from middle school had the worst grammar and spelling of anyone I've ever encountered.  She used to always say, "Well, you know what I mean right?"  Her FB posts are full of terrible grammar still, after all these years.

Her current job: middle school teacher.  Facepalm.

Seriously.  When I found out that woman had her master's my comment was along the lines of "It obviously wasn't a thesis program". 

@JCBride2014 I did a real life face palm over that one.

Another huge pet peeve is the overuse of the word "actually".  

AddieCake

As an English teacher, all grammar mistakes annoy me except when someone asks how someone is and he or she replies, "I'm good." Doesn't bother me.

HisGirlFriday13

Oh! Oh! OH! I HAVE ANOTHER ONE.

My husband and I's.

First of all, I had to override my auto-correct TWICE to write that. Second of all, 'I's' is not an appropriate possession ever in any universe. EVER.

MollyandD

HisGirlFriday13 said:

Oh! Oh! OH! I HAVE ANOTHER ONE.

My husband and I's.

First of all, I had to override my auto-correct TWICE to write that. Second of all, 'I's' is not an appropriate possession ever in any universe. EVER.

I hate that, and I hate using "myself" incorrectly.
Example:
Jake and myself went to the beach.

JCbride2015

Oh and another one!  Premise/premises.  "All bread baked on premise."  Umm.... on what premise?  On the premise that bread is delicious?

pumpkinsandturkeys

I hate sentences that end with prepositions. I do it myself and I'm trying to make a conscious effort not to do so because it really bothers me.

APDSS22

effect vs. affect


I know they're close in usage, but they drive me up a wall.

Edited because I'm trying to keep my name out of my text because that also bugs me.

jenna8984

JCBride2014 said:

Oh and another one!  Premise/premises.  "All bread baked on premise."  Umm.... on what premise?  On the premise that bread is delicious?

uuugh this reminds me when people say don't take it for "granite" 

A girl on my facebook also posted a pic of her new house and the "walking" closet 

APDSS22

jenna8984 said:

JCBride2014 said:

Oh and another one!  Premise/premises.  "All bread baked on premise."  Umm.... on what premise?  On the premise that bread is delicious?

uuugh this reminds me when people say don't take it for "granite" 

A girl on my facebook also posted a pic of her new house and the "walking" closet 

So that would be like "Beauty and the Beast" with the wardrobe then?

chibiyui

TheFutureMrsRohlman22 said:

jenna8984 said:

JCBride2014 said:

Oh and another one!  Premise/premises.  "All bread baked on premise."  Umm.... on what premise?  On the premise that bread is delicious?

uuugh this reminds me when people say don't take it for "granite" 

A girl on my facebook also posted a pic of her new house and the "walking" closet 

So that would be like "Beauty and the Beast" with the wardrobe then?

hikebikebemerry

stalking/stocking

idea/ideal

Substituting "..." for ANY AND ALL PUNCTUATION... without paragraph breaks... or capitalization... so that there is just one GIANT paragraph.

break/brake

While I'm at it-  COMPLETELY misspelling my name on (professional) e-mails, every single time.  When I have only communicated with you via e-mail, please just look at how I signed the e-mail that I sent to you; copy and paste it if you have to!

WinstonsGirl

I'm in a grad level class at the moment, and on my last assignment, my Prof actually commented on how nice it was to read a paper that was free of spelling and grammatical errors.  Seriously people??  It's a grad level class and the computer underlines your mistakes in red!!  It's not that hard to fix.  DH also reads all of my stuff for a fresh set of eyes

mysticl

WinstonsGirl said:

I'm in a grad level class at the moment, and on my last assignment, my Prof actually commented on how nice it was to read a paper that was free of spelling and grammatical errors.  Seriously people??  It's a grad level class and the computer underlines your mistakes in red!!  It's not that hard to fix.  DH also reads all of my stuff for a fresh set of eyes

I have a friend who is going back to school for another degree.  Her papers get rave reviews because she spells words correctly and displays a basic understanding of the English language.  She's thrilled with the good grades but sometimes wonders if they are being inflated due to all the crappy papers her instructors are subjected to.  

I have another friend who considers the ability to speak properly to be one of the criteria to babysit her child.  

BMoreBride6

I hate the misuse of pronouns…for example, "Her and her husband are having a renewal"…SHE and her husband for goodness sake!  

KytchynWitche

I've gotten a lot less judgey/stabby over grammar etc recently. As long as I can read and make sense of your writing without too much agony, I'm happy. That said, there are a couple of words I wish people would learn to use properly.

"Partake" vs "Participate" - they are not the same word and should not be used interchangably. I believe that partake has now been adopted into at least one of the major dictionaries as an alternative for participate, and I think that is absolutely vile. I'm all for the evolution of language, but that is just pandering to laziness.

"Many" versus "Fewer". Seriously. Just ugh.

My mom had a friend in high school who used to say "neverlone" instead of "nevermind" or "let alone". And I had a friend who used to say "more and less" instead of "more or less".

ETA: Obviously, when I say I've gotten less judgey/stabby about it, I mean outside of actual editing and proofing work. I'm talking about on the internet, casual emails etc. If, however, you're writing professionally (or in a professional setting, as opposed to being a professional writer) I'm a lot harsher in my judgement.

Cookie Pusher

I have a love/hate relationship with punctuation. My company doesn't use the Oxford comma (saves space), BUT one of the editors throws in extraneous commas everywhere. As I am part of the proofreading process, I constantly circle the commas that are out of place, suggest things like colons and semi-colons to break up run-on sentences, and then get all of my edits ignored. The editors all have journalism degrees. However, my degree is in English with a concentration in WRITING (and I've worked as a copy editor before). You'd really think my corrections would hold some sort of weight. Nope, can't listen to what the girl says because the writers have been there forever. Let's all just forget the fact that the previous copy editor (also a woman) would make the exact same corrections that I suggested!

huskypuppy14

mysticl said:

I used to proofread as part of previous job.  I was supposed to be checking content to make sure that documents contained the information required by the state.  However, I spent a lot of time fixing spelling and grammar.  I understand people make mistakes but when I have sent the same mistake back to you three or four times and you refuse to correct it I get a little upset. 

I once had to write the definition of personnel vs. personal on a document because the writer kept insisting on using the wrong one.  That person was probably my worst offender.  When I found out she had a master's degree I wanted to track down each of her professors and show them a picture of her to find out if she had been the one to sit in the classes or if she had paid someone to take the classes for her.  She didn't even know how to put thing in alphabetical order?  She thought you just grouped each letter together.  

WTF?

mysticl

laurynm84 said:

mysticl said:

I used to proofread as part of previous job.  I was supposed to be checking content to make sure that documents contained the information required by the state.  However, I spent a lot of time fixing spelling and grammar.  I understand people make mistakes but when I have sent the same mistake back to you three or four times and you refuse to correct it I get a little upset. 

I once had to write the definition of personnel vs. personal on a document because the writer kept insisting on using the wrong one.  That person was probably my worst offender.  When I found out she had a master's degree I wanted to track down each of her professors and show them a picture of her to find out if she had been the one to sit in the classes or if she had paid someone to take the classes for her.  She didn't even know how to put thing in alphabetical order?  She thought you just grouped each letter together.  

WTF?

As I just noted my own grammar fails in that sentence.  

Yeah, that was pretty much my reaction.  Once she left the file room I laughed so hard I couldn't breathe.  

HaileyDancingbear

Their there and they're, along with your and you're, just because I remember in grade school, being bored out of my skull because for a few years straight, every year we'd do the same grammar lesson OVER AND OVER AGAIN, and by the third round of learning the exact same shit that I already knew over again, it became just tedious as all hell- I couldn't help but wonder how stupid my teacher thought we were that we couldn't be trusted to have learned something so simple. It makes me think, how dense do you have to be to go through all of that, repeating the same lesson over and over again, and STILL not know the difference between possession, and a fucking contraction? Seriously, this is elementary shit!  Grade school kid me fucking knew this!

Also I despise pluralizing things with an 's.  I avoided Victoria's Secret for a while because their window display said "Love your Body's" and between the irony of that plastered over a photoshopped woman (I have no problem with thin women, but photoshopped women, in this context, not so great) and the grammar fail I was annoyed.  

And can people please quit using quotations inappropriately?  I saw a sign once that said "Special Tamales" and the "Special" was in quotes.  Ummm what?  What is so "special" about these tamales?  Do they have mental issues?  Are they drugged?  I do not trust these tamales.

APDSS22

HaileyDancingbear said:

Their there and they're, along with your and you're, just because I remember in grade school, being bored out of my skull because for a few years straight, every year we'd do the same grammar lesson OVER AND OVER AGAIN, and by the third round of learning the exact same shit that I already knew over again, it became just tedious as all hell- I couldn't help but wonder how stupid my teacher thought we were that we couldn't be trusted to have learned something so simple. It makes me think, how dense do you have to be to go through all of that, repeating the same lesson over and over again, and STILL not know the difference between possession, and a fucking contraption? Seriously, this is elementary shit!  Grade school kid me fucking knew this!

Also I despise pluralizing things with an 's.  I avoided Victoria's Secret for a while because their window display said "Love your Body's" and between the irony of that plastered over a photoshopped woman (I have no problem with thin women, but photoshopped women, in this context, not so great) and the grammar fail I was annoyed.  

And can people please quit using quotations inappropriately?  I saw a sign once that said "Special Tamales" and the "Special" was in quotes.  Ummm what?  What is so "special" about these tamales?  Do they have mental issues?  Are they drugged?  I do not trust these tamales.

I think you meant a contraction.

CMGragain

Unique.  Most unique.  Really unique.  Very unique.  As in, "My dress from David's Bridal is really unique!"  (No, it isn't.  They have made and sold hundreds just like it.)

"Me and my fiance".  Now say it three times, very fast.  Is your fiance mean?

to, two, too

your, you're

LabLove86

anywayS - there is no S . . . . just anyway.

HaileyDancingbear

TheFutureMrsRohlman22 said:

HaileyDancingbear said:

Their there and they're, along with your and you're, just because I remember in grade school, being bored out of my skull because for a few years straight, every year we'd do the same grammar lesson OVER AND OVER AGAIN, and by the third round of learning the exact same shit that I already knew over again, it became just tedious as all hell- I couldn't help but wonder how stupid my teacher thought we were that we couldn't be trusted to have learned something so simple. It makes me think, how dense do you have to be to go through all of that, repeating the same lesson over and over again, and STILL not know the difference between possession, and a fucking contraption? Seriously, this is elementary shit!  Grade school kid me fucking knew this!

Also I despise pluralizing things with an 's.  I avoided Victoria's Secret for a while because their window display said "Love your Body's" and between the irony of that plastered over a photoshopped woman (I have no problem with thin women, but photoshopped women, in this context, not so great) and the grammar fail I was annoyed.  

And can people please quit using quotations inappropriately?  I saw a sign once that said "Special Tamales" and the "Special" was in quotes.  Ummm what?  What is so "special" about these tamales?  Do they have mental issues?  Are they drugged?  I do not trust these tamales.

I think you meant a contraction.

Fucking.  Autocorrect.

NYCBruin

CMGragain said:

Unique.  Most unique.  Really unique.  Very unique.  As in, "My dress from David's Bridal is really unique!"  (No, it isn't.  They have made and sold hundreds just like it.)

"Me and my fiance".  Now say it three times, very fast.  Is your fiance mean?

to, two, too

your, you're

Good call on the misuse of the word unique. I see the word thrown around all the time and honestly can't remember the last time I saw it used correctly.

natswild

what grinds my gears is "X times less" .....no, No, NO!!! Learn to use fractions! It's not 4 times less than, it's one quarter, or one fourth!! Local newspapers are the worst for that stuff, as well as having no clue how to spell!