Should of, could of but in the end just couldn't

frivolous_fay

I know a Szechaun restaurant
A Spec's Outlet (oddly enough, Specs on the till receipt)
And a cafe that sells tea's

I seem to remember the word 'bowel' was spelled (spelt?) 'bowl' on some TV program a little while back... might have been Embarrassing Bodies?

And what's with people who say 'yourself' when they mean 'you'?

wigglebeena

I read a book by Joel Osteen recently. (So shoot me: sometimes I need a little positive thinking hokum.) Very funny, overall a good read... but he uses 'of' where he should use 'have'. Oh dear. Is the American education system more broken than ours? (I don't think he was dragged up in the projects: he's a minister and his bro's a doctor.)

Actually, more to the point: American book editors? What's going on?

perplexed.com

This is wonderful, so many fellow [STRIKE]pedants[/STRIKE]people who care about our language out there! Thank you for your all your responses.:)

The pedants are revolting!

While I'm here I may as well include my annoyance at reporters on the radio/tv who announce "this report from X" instead of "this report is by/from X".

oldone_2

One that irritates me is the mixing up of 'advice' and 'advise'. If people said the word out loud as they typed it, they should easily determine if it is the correct spelling.

inmypocketnottheirs

Another point I find annoying although I don't think it is incorrect from a grammatical point of view, but when discussing gifts received 'who did you get that off?' to me should be 'who did you get that from?'

Eenymeeny

Thank you, thank you, it's great to find that I'm not alone. If I comment on grammatical errors I'm told that I am turning into a grumpy old woman. (I'm not THAT old yet!) I accept that I don't know it all and do make mistakes but at least I try. A lot of pronunciation errors annoy me, especially on news programmes etc like drawRing and somethinK.
My family found it faintly amusing when I bought an adult learners guide to writing emails etc correctly. (Apparently there is an etiquette to be observed!) As you may have noticed, my bad habit is using too many brackets and exclamation marks. I am trying to give them up...honest!:o
Great thread:T

gingin_2

I think I talk much better than I type. I spent far too much time gossiping at the back of the class, rather than listening to my English teacher. It's scary, because I can't remember a single lesson on punctuation and grammar.

"You was" annoys me. Even the papers criticised Alesha Dixon on Strictly Come Dancing for saying "you was great" but did she listen? No. She carried on through the whole bloomin' series doing it. Then I switched on to Dancing on Ice and Emma Bunton did it too! It's like listening to nails down a blackboard to me.

Jemima5317

Oooh, oooh! Can I play too? Thanks to OP, I HATE of instead of have, and their/there/they're mistakes, but - and I don't even know if this is right, so sorry - I also hate "you are not obligated to do that" - surely you're not obliged? Or you have no obligation? Arrrrggh!

Fave typo on a stall though, was when I was at college years ago. The sweet stall on the market offered "boiled sweats" for a very reasonable price as I recall.... was never that tempted though.

Backbiter

There's an argument that 'You was' - while obviously incorrect and therefore grating for many people - is simply dialect, or a colloquial variation on standard English. I hear all the time 'I seen' and 'I done', even 'I knows' (Nessa on Gavin and Stacey) - spoken English does vary from written English.
In the North-East and Scotland a lot of people say 'should have went' instead of 'should have gone'.

Backbiter

Jemima5317 wrote: »

Oooh, oooh! Can I play too? Thanks to OP, I HATE of instead of have, and their/there/they're mistakes, but - and I don't even know if this is right, so sorry - I also hate "you are not obligated to do that" - surely you're not obliged? Or you have no obligation? Arrrrggh!

Fave typo on a stall though, was when I was at college years ago. The sweet stall on the market offered "boiled sweats" for a very reasonable price as I recall.... was never that tempted though.

That bugs me, too - it's what is known as a 'back formation' of a word. You start with 'oblige', which leads to 'obligation', and that leads to 'obligated', even though 'obliged' would surely suffice. As a word it's become accepted, although like you I prefer the alternatives.