Pet Peeves

[Tucker]

Incorrect use of a/an really trips me up. It just destroys any flow I had while reading something. This makes the British silent "H" really annoying for me too, the whole "an hundred" make my brain ooze out of my head.

[embonpoint]

^I don't know what you mean by the British silent H and hundred; we do say 'hundred', not 'undred' (unless you have a particular accent, although there aren't many of those), therefore "a hundred" (or "one hundred" to avoid confusion!).

[Ariel]

YOUR and YOU'RE are mixed up on my Facebook feed almost daily. -_- It is so incredibly basic and I see it everywhere.

[brosephargh]

May 30, 2011 15:19:31 GMT -5 Ariel said:

YOUR and YOU'RE are mixed up on my Facebook feed almost daily. -_- It is so incredibly basic and I see it everywhere.

UGHH, THIS. SO MUCH THIS.

It's especially annoying on Twitter, when people preach their ability to wield grammar devices so skillfully and bash people who mess up...and then can't pick the right forms of words, or can't spell to save their lives. What the hell, really?

[Tucker]

May 30, 2011 14:36:22 GMT -5 embonpoint said:

^I don't know what you mean by the British silent H and hundred; we do say 'hundred', not 'undred' (unless you have a particular accent, although there aren't many of those), therefore "a hundred" (or "one hundred" to avoid confusion!).

Strange, I swear I've heard it countless times on tv and whatnot. and when I read literature by British folks I tend to see "an" before words that start with h. Maybe I'm just a crack baby though, it's entirely possible.

[embonpoint]

May 30, 2011 16:02:39 GMT -5 Tucker said:

Strange, I swear I've heard it countless times on tv and whatnot. and when I read literature by British folks I tend to see "an" before words that start with h. Maybe I'm just a crack baby though, it's entirely possible.

In older literature you might well see "an hundred". We used to not pronounce "h" at all, so everything would require "an", but then we started to pronounce the "h" and so now we say "a hundred" (although some still say "an historian" and "an hotel", weirdly). Or at least this is what I've heard.

As for seeing it on TV, what have you been watching? I can't think of any time when we would say "an hundred" with the h pronounced like that. It would either be "an 'undred" or "a hundred".
Weird!

[Mary Sandals]

I seen. I seen that movie. I seen you there. My friends say that all the time and each time I almost beat them up.

I also have a big problem with your/you're their/they're to/too/two. I think it bothers me the most because these words do not mean the same thing at all, yet people use them like they are interchangeable.

[Silva]

I have two huge ones:

-Good versus well. I did not notice it for a long time, but it now it's just all over the place.

-Text/chat speak. I honestly feel internal rage when people use it. Sometimes it becomes external rage, especially when people tell me, "Oh it's just the internet. It's not important."

[brosephargh]

May 30, 2011 19:22:20 GMT -5 Silva said:

I have two huge ones:

-Good versus well. I did not notice it for a long time, but it now it's just all over the place.

-Text/chat speak. I honestly feel internal rage when people use it. Sometimes it becomes external rage, especially when people tell me, "Oh it's just the internet. It's not important."

The internet part kills me too. You think people aren't looking at your grammar as a representation of your intelligence level on the internet too? Silly people...

[Lady Macbeth]

May 30, 2011 16:34:41 GMT -5 Mary Sandals said:

I seen. I seen that movie. I seen you there. My friends say that all the time and each time I almost beat them up.

The girl I like does this to the point that I don't think I've ever heard her say "I saw" or "I have seen". For me to overlook this, I must really be in love.

My pet peeves in addition to that:

• confusion of your/you're, their/there/they're, and its/it's;
  
• comma splice errors;
  
• poorly punctuated quotations;
  
• neglect of the Oxford comma; and
  
• the phrase "I could care less" (if you could care less, then you do care!).

[onlyaworkingtitle]

"The thing is, is..." (What is that second "is" for?)
"... [preposition] ___ and I." (Just imagine that first name isn't there! Is that so hard to remember?)
"I'm doing good." (Specifically when the speaker does not mean that ze is doing good deeds.)

And here's a lesser-complained-about one: When a title capitalizes words that should not be capitalized (a, and, for, in, of, or, the, to, etc). I have spent so much time going through my iTunes library and fixing these. They drive me nuts. A rule of thumb: particles and prepositions should be lowercase, because p is a descender. All the other sorts of words get capitalized.

[brosephargh]

May 30, 2011 23:39:51 GMT -5 onlyaworkingtitle said:

And here's a lesser-complained-about one: When a title capitalizes words that should not be capitalized (a, and, for, in, of, or, the, to, etc). I have spent so much time going through my iTunes library and fixing these. They drive me nuts. A rule of thumb: particles and prepositions should be lowercase, because p is a descender. All the other sorts of words get capitalized.

I've never thought of that rule - great way to remember it! Thanks.

[Katherine]

I'm not much of a grammar snob (I think my brain would explode if I was...) but things like its/it's, your/you're, there/their/they're tick me off to no end. It's not like it's a HARD thing to remember, and it makes your message so much clearer, and makes you look so much smarter.

[krista]

I only had a few pet peeves but they increased with my senior students this past semester during my student teaching experience.

There/there/they're is definitely one of them. I just do not understand how anyone could possibly misuse those words within a sentence. It boggles my mind.

I also hate when people misuse colons and/or semicolons. My grade 9 papers were littered with different uses and none of them made sense. If you do not know how to use one properly, then don't use one at all! D:

[Tucker]

May 31, 2011 10:15:34 GMT -5 krista said:

I also hate when people misuse colons and/or semicolons. My grade 9 papers were littered with different uses and none of them made sense. If you do not know how to use one properly, then don't use one at all! D:

Yeah, that's why I don't use them.