Okay, time for a little levity. No sticky situations, anxious anecdotes or dicey dilemmas from the commercial writing world. Just some good old-fashioned griping – about grammar. Got the idea for this post a few weeks back when I managed to run afoul of a friend’s pet peeve by writing, “I’ll try and do _____.” Ouch.
Well. He wrote back, deservedly taking me to task, explaining in exquisite detail:
“I must say — with all due respect — I HATE when writers and others say ‘try and’ (as you’ve done here) rather than the more accurate and appropriate, ‘try to.’ ‘Try and’ suggests TWO different acts: trying something, and then something else (e.g., ‘Try and be a better person.’ So you’re saying, ‘try’ (whatever) AND ‘be a better person,’ too. Whereas ‘try to be a better person’ says precisely what you’re meaning: try to be better.”
Just getting warmed up, he continued, “Almost as bad as when 99.9% of people say ‘could’ care less, when they really mean, and should be saying ‘couldn’t’ care less.”
Voila! Blog fodder. My pet peeves? Beyond the ubiquitous “you’re/your,” “it’s/its” and “compliment/complement”? Well, I’ll let you guys tell yours, and perhaps delve a little deeper while we’re at, and maybe we’ll teach each other something new in the process.
I’ll leave you with this…
Knock-knock.
Who’s there?
To.
To who?
To whom.
What’s one of your grammatical pet peeves (one at a time, please, so we can encourage more contributions from more of you…)?
If you’re an English purist, what are your “grammatical grudges”: those things that have been accepted into the vernacular, but IYHO, should never have been?
What are some obscure/esoteric points of grammar that so many people get consistently wrong, but you know better? 😉
Any fascinating grammatical/linguistic trivia you care to share (word origins, evolution of expressions, etc.)?
I agree that “of” instead of “have” is grating, both to sensitive ears and to logical minds. Your post reminded me of the peculiar habit of a friend who used “in lieu of” to mean “in light of”–he should of studied French.
I don’t know about “of” in place of “have” being on the increase. But I agree with G Young that it sure is one I don’t like to see in print.
I wonder if it comes from mistaken hearing. Maybe to some people the spoken — and correct — contractions would’ve, could’ve, should’ve are misinterpreted as “would of” . . . and so on.
Of course, that explanation only goes so far. You’d think people would have read these things correctly in a newspaper, book or magazine.
Another few from the same gentleman whose pet peeve I run afoul of initially (see beginning of post above) and who inspired the post in the first place…
Should sentences like “I wonder.” end with a question mark?
This may be related to a general grammar rule, but which of these is correct?
I wonder if Steve Jobs will be giving the keynote speech at WWDC this year?
or
I wonder if Steve Jobs will be giving the keynote speech at WWDC this year.
My hunch tells me the question mark is incorrect, but I find myself instinctively wanting to add it. Is there a rule about this type of situation?
Your hunch is correct. Bryan Garner writes: Writers sometimes err by putting a question mark after an indirect question, especially one beginning with I wonder.
And this one…
“every day” (two words) vs. the “everyday” occurrence of people confusing “every day” with “everyday.”
😉
I believe “I wonder” sentences are statements, not questions, thus ending with a period.
I wonder if “leave you be” is correct. I much prefer “leave you alone.” I think it’s a southern versus northern US thing.
A common misconception among so many people these days is the usage of “kind of”. People always say, “Oh, it’s kind of hot outside.” When they should have said, “Oh, it’s rather/somewhat hot outside.” I’m not sure where this idiom is derived, but if you pay close attention nearly everyone uses it!
The good/well tidbit mentioned also bothers me.
Blegh!
Does anyone else cringe when someone speaks of the wonderful MOMENTO they have from an event, vacation, etc.? There is no such word in the English language! Of course, one certainly may have a “MEMENTO” of a “MOMENTOUS” occasion. Don’t worry, I’ll get over it. Puede tardar un momento.
Here’s a few good ones:
When someone thinks they’re referring to the plural of a subject by using words like “lot” or “ton” followed by the thing to which they’re referring, the lot/ton becomes the subject noun and the plural of that thing becomes the object, so you end up with people saying “There are a lot of secrets around here” or “That pile of rotting corpses are freaking me out.” There’s only one pile, people.
The second thing I’m seeing EVERYWHERE lately is that darn unnecessary comma. People seem to place it wherever they arbitrarily seem to think it fits. They place it, in spots like these. It’s like they’re emulating, very subtle separations in speech. Maybe they have, OCD. The list, goes on… (https://iolani.honolulu.hi.us/Keables/KeablesGuide/PartFour/UnnecessaryCommas.htm)
Something else that gets on my nerves a lot is the word “alright”. It’s supposed to be “all right”, but I guess people confuse it with other words that use the prefix “al” such as “already”. While not technically a grammatical mistake, it’s the #1 most common spelling error in the English language (according to Bathroom Reader).
And finally, probably my biggest pet peeve of all time is when people use the verb “lay” intransitively. “I’m going to go lay down for a while.” It’s SO annoying. Laying is what you do when you place another object down, like laying a card on a table. This confusion is most likely due to whoever thought it was a good idea to make “lay” the actual past-tense of “lie”. Sigh…
I’m sure there’s plenty of other things that annoy me, but those four are some of my biggest complaints. I’m just a big ol’ stickler when it comes to grammar. Anyway, I’m looking forward to anyone else’s contributions to this list! Take care!
And there a lot of problems with your pet peeve! 😉
There is absolutely nothing wrong with your example “There are a lot of secrets around here.” But you are correct that “That pile of rotting corpses are freaking me out” is wrong.
Let’s explore.
When “lot” means a manufactured batch of items produced, shipped or purchased at the same time, it’s always singular. “A lot of ceiling tiles WAS received today” means one lot of some unstated number of cartons or tiles was received, maybe at a store or job site.
But lot (or “a lot of”) also means MANY, which is a word that is plural in meaning and use.
Thus, you would say “A lot of ceiling tiles WERE received today” if you mean a large, countable number of tiles (MANY) that may not necessarily have been one actual lot. If the job is going well, the foreman might say “A lot of ceiling tiles WERE installed today,” which is the only grammatically correct way to express that many tiles were installed (again with no reference to those tiles being part of a manufacturer’s lot).
“A lot of” also can mean MUCH when the thing being referred to is not counted or countable. “There IS a lot of milk in the refrigerator” — meaning there is MUCH milk, but I’m not saying how much. “There IS a lot going on this weekend” — meaning there ARE a lot things happening.
Collectives or distributives or whatever these concepts are called can be tricky.
Heather mentioned news media substituting “hung” for “hanged.” Regarding the media, my pet peeve is the naming of the “wife” or “husband” of a dead person. When one partner dies, the surviving partner is no longer married. The surviving man is a “widower”, and the surviving woman is a “widow.”
Kevin Walsh mentioned “the pond”, a popular nickname for the Atlantic. Some of our local public ponds are known as “Lake ___.” I suppose it that lends prestige.
I don’t think I will ever get used to “disrespect” being a verb. One shows disrespect FOR a person or institution.
I will accept that Americans now “graduate” school, instead of graduating FROM school, sinceI have no problem with the fact that Canadians are “in hospital” and “in university.”
Just found this blog and have enjoyed all the great comments!
One thing that irritates me is the use of “where” and “at” together. For example, “Where are you at?” It seems no one realizes that it is redundant and grammatically improper. Of course, until recently, I believed the “where/to” combination (e.g. “Where does this go to?”) was acceptable, until I was duly convicted!
Also, having lived in a Commonwealth country, I share Melissa’s sentiments on UK/US word and grammar usage. There are significant differences that ought to be maintained.
Oh, one last thing: Long live the serial comma!
I just found this blog – very fascinating and interesting reading. My pet peeve(s), beside the nauseous and nauseated (if you feel like you’re going to vomit, you are nauseated, not nauseous. something is nauseous when it causes someone else to feel nausea, like a puddle of vomit). ok sorry about that one. However, if you look this one up now, the definition of Nauseous does now mean to feel nausea. The Ever Evolving language. I used to get so wrapped up in it, friends always say, “look it up” if you want to know what it means. but the dictionaries only depict the language as it is used. In other words, if a word is used in the wrong way enough, it will make it into the dictionary and then it becomes gospel.
My biggest right now is how absolutely everyone is using the singular of the form To Be. “There’s a lot of things that we can do…” They use the contraction, so don’t realize, I guess, to listen to it in it’s long form “There is a lot … ” You hear it on the news, on CNN, on TV in general, people say it, and even on commercials (where you would hope someone had proofed it). Someone told me about that one day a few years ago and since then I hear it everywhere. In fact I have found myself saying it and corrected myself.
Must be up there with the There/Their/They’re thing. People say they sound the same so they get confused. But I say if you knew the meaning of each you would never make the mistake. they are separate words. you wouldn’t confuse dog and cat. Ever notice that foreigners rarely get those confused – they’ve learned their meanings.