For all intensive purposes

[Mr.Petey]

If you are the Grammar Nazi's I'm the Red Army coming to smash Berlin.

There's a quote to end the day with a smile. Love it!

I do agree though that we might be irritated at slight errors and ignorance in the spelling, pronunciation and grammer of some people.
But in the long run, if the point is made clearly and generally understood by all listening then there isn't a problem to the extent of blowing it out of all proportion because of a few errors/old habits that haven't died.

 

[SavingPrincess]

I have to repeat it because it warrants repeating: People, from the highest pay grade of the top news organization, simply do not know how to properly use the phrase "it begs the question."

You do NOT follow up the phrase "it begs the question" with an actual question.

Really? I'm afraid I'm guilty of that one. Could you give an example of how to do it properly?

Begging a question is a form of circular speech wherein making a statement that aims to prove itself true without merit creates a logical fallacy that causes the person to question the legitimacy of the statement.

The simplest example of this is "something is because it is." It's those "head against a wall moments" that we all have when having discussions with people that make baseless statements. "I don't like him because he's not likable." That kind of statement "begs the question," in that, the statement attempts to be true without actually providing any sort of truth.

Make sense yet?

 

[JoeCool385]

"Could of..."
"Should of..."
"Would of..."

Seconded.

Also, there is a certain webcomic author who doesn't know the difference between loath/loathe. Drives me nuts.

Other pet peeves of mine include people who pretend that "he," "his," "man," etc. can't refer to a person of either sex, when in reality that is the default meaning, unless otherwise demanded by context. (I'm okay with sex/gender, but tend to use them in the old-fashioned meanings myself: words have gender, people have sex.)

Let me also be the umpteenth person to mention "begging the question." To beg the question is a logic error that involves assuming as true the statement you are trying to prove. Also known as circular logic. Unless you are in a debate, consider "raises the question" instead.

More here: http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/errors.html


Oh, one last peeve: Apple's slogan "Think Different" drove me up a wall. "Think" is a verb, and requires and adverb modifier. It should be "Think Differently".

 

[Susan Arendt]

Confusing : Your, You're

Confusing : There, Their, They're,

Improper Capitalisation : i. yes.

The Grocer's Apostraphe : look, two dog's! How much for those Wiimote's?

Oh. Dear. God. That drives me insane. Especially when it's on something official. Like, I saw it as part of a shipping company's logo.

 

[SavingPrincess]

Something that breaks my brain is the word "its/it's" as "its" is the only word (that I can think of) in the English language where the possessive does not contain the apostrophe. Drives my brain batty.

I'm all for playing the linguistics card; I'm perfectly find with words like kinda and sorta... but there are some things that should be preserved. I think as long as the writer/speaker seems "aware" of how they're misusing the language, I'm okay with it. If I get the feeling that someone legitimately thinks that they're doing something correct when they're not... it frustrates me.

 

[gamefreakbsp]

I came into this thread fully intending to go nuts correcting you on the use of the phrase. I am glad to see I do not have to.

One thing that really bugs me is not really a phrase, but when people say, "I axed you......" or "She axed me about......" instead of saying "asked."

That just annoys the hell out of me.

 

[Cpt_Oblivious]

I hate "On Tenderhooks". It's Tenterhooks[/b[ for crying out loud!
There's another one that annoys me but right now it's slipped my mind.

 

[Kenjitsuka]

You're written as your... that's just wrong

I'm Dutch, and I could give a lot of examples; people nowadays hardly read books, and their use of language -spelling especially- reflects this. It's really down the toilet :'(

 

[Mr. Blik]

i do a lot of debate and stuff for school, specifically a mock congress. and every time someone wants to make a motion, they say, "I motion to table the resolution." the correct way is, "I MOVE to table..." not I motion. pisses me off

EDIT:also

ANYWAYS is not a word. there is no way there can be an "s" at the end of it.

 

[Necator15]

This one has been bothering me since I learned it: Quote is a verb, not a noun. It isn't possible to have quotes, at least in the sense most students will use the word.

This is interesting to me because the precise thing that I learned from a Harvard PhD was exactly the opposite of what you just said. I learned that quote is a noun, not a verb. You present quotes, you don't quote something.

I think he's got it backwards: http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=quote

Dictionary rarely lies.

 

[Tharwen]

Nucular. That annoys me. So does Mischevious. And Pronounciation.

 

[Deviltongue]

People claiming that writers are "bias," rather than "biased." Drives me batty.

Wait... You've heard people say that a writer is bias? As in, all of it? That's pretty dumb...

 

[Altorin]

Perused.

Probably doesn't even mean what YOU think it means.

 

[Dok Zombie]

"Quintessential"

How can something be more essential than "essential"?

 

[Liberaliter]

I have never heard it said like that before.

 

[Cpt_Oblivious]

People often talk of "the exception that proves the rule." which can seem like an oxymoron unless the rule that you're talking about is that there's always an exception.

But then there must be an exception to that rule, otherwise it's incorrect.

 

[Junkle]

"Quintessential"

How can something be more essential than "essential"?

It's like ultimate and then penultimate. People just need to go a little farther.

OT, hearing people say definately drives me nuts, especially because it's also what I probably see misspelled the most on the internet. Being a grammar Nazi can be frustrating.

 

[Altorin]

"Quintessential"

How can something be more essential than "essential"?

that would be a valid complaint if quintessential was not a word.

 

[Unusual_Bulge]

You all make such excellent points; "here here"!

*shudder*

 

[Frenchie_666]

Love the thread.

Things that annoy me?

People that don't use the past tense of fit and spit. It's fitted and spat, you fools!

Oh and the Aitch/Haitch thing gets on my nerves too.

Oh and people saying lol, that's just strange, the children I teach at school do it, very odd.