'The word pedants' top 10 | It's specific, not Pacific...' blog discussion.

Jezaroo

Haha. And the over use of commas. I hate that :-/

MrGumby

I generally agree with Martin's list, although there are many more 'noise' words than just 'literally', e.g. 'actually'. I also hate it when people speak along the lines of "What I'm going to do now is, I'm going to..." instead of just "Now I'm going to...". Many do it. Delia Smith was among the worst offenders!

I'm not sure about aitch/haitch. Much as I dislike haitch and wince when I hear it, I don't see how it can be said to be wrong.

Two other modern phenomena do grate, though:

1. Failure to use gerunds and misuse of transitive/intransitive verbs. I'm not going to give a dissertation on grammar but here are a couple of examples:
"I was sat at the table". Unless someone sat you there, you should say "I was sitting at the table". Of course, it would be correct to say "I sat my child at the table" or "I sat the TV on its stand" - 'sat' being transitive.
Similarly, "I was stood at the bus stop" should be "I was standing at the bus stop" unless someone carried you there and stood you up.

2. Incorrect use of adjectives with measures of things, e.g.:
i) Prices cannot be cheap/expensive. You don't buy prices. Prices can be low/high - only the goods themselves can be cheap/expensive.
ii) Temperatures cannot be hot/cold. When did you last touch a hot temperature? A radiator might be hot but its temperature is high.

4littlerugrats

diggerjb wrote: »

Please can we have a national campaign to stop the use of 'myself' when asking someone else to contact you or ask you a question. The correct ending to your email/letter etc should be
'If you require any further information please contact me' or similar, not the regularly and incorrectly used form '...don't hesitate to contact myself'.
It is not possible for another person to do or say anything to myself as only I can do that... or am I talking to myself? The worst culprits, in my experience, are the teachers at my child's school. It does not make you sound more refined but simply shows your lack of education. Stop it, please!!!

I hate this one, and the misuse of "you and I". "Bob and I would love to visit" is correct, "you are very kind to invite Bob and I" is wrong. If it wouldn't make sense to use "I" talking only about yourself, then use "me". As with the misuse of "myself" and "yourself", it doesn't sound like you're better educated - it's wrong!

Also, you can win a race or a prize, you can't win a person. "I beat you" is correct, not "I won you".

I love the English language and I hate to hear or see it used incorrectly. My husband is always complaining when I moan about bad grammar, spelling or punctuation, but it's good to see I'm not alone. My mum always told me "if you speak properly, you'll spell properly", and I'm teaching my children that too

sphrp2

I used to work behind a shop counter and when asked "can I get...", I would cheerily say "Yes" and wait for the customer to go and 'get' the thing they wanted from behind the counter. They never did. They usually just looked bemused, even after I'd asked "do you still want to get it, or shall I?".

Boss didn't like me trying to educate her customers. :cool:

kneelbeforezod

4littlerugrats wrote: »

My mum always told me "if you speak properly, you'll spell properly", and I'm teaching my children that too

Not wishing to get flamed by advocates of the theory, but I would place a great deal of habitual present day grammar and spelling mistakes at the door of teaching by "phonetics". Invariably, unless you (or your tutors) are conscientious enough to check written references you can easily fall into the trap of "saying it like it sounds". The problem is of course compounded if the student doesn't even say the word correctly. This is no doubt behind the popularity of such non-words and phrases such as "proberly", "skellington", "ambliance", "should of/could of", etc.

sidsmum

I've not read all the posts but here are a couple of my hates
"I want to loose a stone" instead of "I want to lose a stone":eek:
"lay" for "lie". This seems to be allowable in the U S> In French there are reflexive verbs to cover this problem: I lay myself down to sleep, or I lie down to sleep.
I have another pet hate, but have forgotten what it is: oh yes, it's people using textspeak in normal posts to the net. I expect that will be quite allowable in fifty years' time.
And the grocer's apostrophe, it would be simpler to lose apostrophes altogether.:eek:
Oh yes, "decimate" does mean reduce by 1/10 from the nasty Roman punishment of killing every tenth soldier to encourage the rest.

Have you noticed, reporters on the news are frequently the worst offenders.

Cuddlygran

First, second, third, fourth, fifth, SIXTH !!!!! (not sickth!) Call me old-fashioned . . . .

Carslake

lex wrote: »

One that gets me is when people are talking about the receiving of a gift..

"I got a book off my mum"

rather than

"I got a book from my mum"

I don't know why this bugs me and maybe it's correct in some way, but it irritates me anyway!

lex

I think I've seen "buy of" in some old (Victorian?) sources where we would today use "buy from". I wonder if "buy off" (and thus "got off") is derived from this.

Grand1910

Prevaricate (to lie) and procrastinate (to delay) - I have even seen these used inappropriately in Radio Times!

roobers_2

I haven't read the whole thread so not sure if it's been mentioned, but this site is very useful for understanding words and how we use them: http://www.worldwidewords.org/index.htm.