As someone else said, "That is something up with which I will not put. When the preposition is part of the verb, there's nothing wrong with it.
- Lie down.
- 'Fess up.
- Look around.
- Come in.
-
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Question of the Day, Wednesday, August 24, 2022
- Thread starter neely
- Start Date
- Lie down.
- 'Fess up.
- Look around.
- Come in.
I have several; however, one that really bothers me is "between you and I." It is particularly bothersome when so-called smart characters say it. I also do not like it when people ignore the Oxford comma.
Grammar, like language, has morphed over time. While I am well versed in modern grammar, I tend toward a combination of pre-Victorian and Modernists application of punctuation in my non-academic writings, while my academic writings have a syntax structure similar to the Victorians with modern punctuation standards. When reading other people's writing, I look for things like that, which makes me a bit more forgiving when it comes to casual writing.
Grammar, like language, has morphed over time. While I am well versed in modern grammar, I tend toward a combination of pre-Victorian and Modernists application of punctuation in my non-academic writings, while my academic writings have a syntax structure similar to the Victorians with modern punctuation standards. When reading other people's writing, I look for things like that, which makes me a bit more forgiving when it comes to casual writing.
Yes, misuse of the objective case!
A professor in grad school once said that the word "whom" will eventually disappear from the English language as people simply stop pronouncing the "m".
A professor in grad school once said that the word "whom" will eventually disappear from the English language as people simply stop pronouncing the "m".
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Sad but true.
Another subject no longer taught in school is cursive. I used to love teaching the third grade students cursive. Since I have done calligraphy for many years I have a special fondness for it.
I have had younger people point out to me that they cannot read cursive.....as in a note I handed to a vet tech during Covid when I was not allowed in with my cat.
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My peeves were already covered here.
But I'll add that I am very annoyed by the "shortcuts" (or whatever they want to call it) in gmail: when replying, they offer you boxes to click or tap on so you don't have to actually reply. Things like "Sounds great!' "OK" or "I'll be there".
I suppose it's useful for work or if you get dozens of emails a day or something but I'd be offended if anyone ever replied to me that way instead of thinking up an actual response.
But I'll add that I am very annoyed by the "shortcuts" (or whatever they want to call it) in gmail: when replying, they offer you boxes to click or tap on so you don't have to actually reply. Things like "Sounds great!' "OK" or "I'll be there".
I suppose it's useful for work or if you get dozens of emails a day or something but I'd be offended if anyone ever replied to me that way instead of thinking up an actual response.
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Phrases like "where's my coat at?" and "you wanna come with?" are Chicagoland dialect and it drove some of the out of towners at my college crazy. But it sounds perfectly valid to me.
The U for you feels like nails on a chalkboard. And mixing up your/you're, too, because if you can sub in you are, it's you're, which is fairly easy to remember.
I'm a big fan of reading Reviews on products that I'm interested in purchasing. Plus writing reviews on products that I have purchased. Leaving a "OK" or a "Thumbs Up" is insufficient as I like providing full details as to my opinion on why I liked the product.
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The "at" is everywhere and is very annoying, but I think "come with" is truly Chicago. I've never heard it a where else. It's not really wrong, either, because who or what are understood.
My list is too long for a post. My main complaint is when a boss sends an email filled with errors. My spell check doesn't work on my home computer. It is fine at work, plus there is that helpful little blue line. There is no excuse for someone in a high position to send an email with "was" instead of "were" and that type of mistake. These people have much more advanced college degrees than I do, along with much higher salaries. Didn't they ever have a basic English class? What most of us learned in third grade? (Sorry, I'm in a bad mood.)
Subjunctive case is another problem for a lot of people.
I once worked for an admin who started sentences with "Myself and John Doe will be at a meeting today."
"Myself, I prefer cats" is okay in informal speech.
Lack of parallelism drives me nuts!
"To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield" (Tennyson) versus "She wanted to learn to knit, to dance, and skiing."
I once worked for an admin who started sentences with "Myself and John Doe will be at a meeting today."
"Myself, I prefer cats" is okay in informal speech.
Lack of parallelism drives me nuts!
"To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield" (Tennyson) versus "She wanted to learn to knit, to dance, and skiing."
A fellow educator would use "myself" as the subject. He put it in a cross-curriculum project proposal he and I were working on together. I asked him to change it. He refused. I told him to change it. He refused. It became a bit heated. (We did not like each other at all. We had been assigned together.) He turned it in that way and was called out in front of fellow faculty members.
At some point during the meeting, I mentioned how much I hated how high schools were not teaching students to think, but rather just prescribing a curriculum that teaches to the test. He started laughing and said, "And here's [Elphaba] talking about prescribed curriculum. Do they have to go to a doctor to get that?" Seriously. He thought "prescribed" could only refer to medication and doctors. The room went silent. At least until I started to giggle.
Depends on the platform you are using. For example, when I'm chatting with other players on my Xbox, you have to move your analog stick over to the letter and press to accept that letter. Adding additional letters is time consuming and a lot more work. Also if you make a mistake then you have to find the back key and accept that.
In this instance, I always use 'U, R, any1' and things like that.
Shortened or abbreviated wording or Internet Speak. With autocorrect, there is really no reason to use U instead of you. It doesn't take anymore time in a text.
When people use "you and I" thinking that is universally the correct way to use it but in the instance they used it in is incorrect and should be "you and me."
This is not a grammar usage pet peeve but a grammar pet peeve. I hate that the quote has to go outside of a period but inside of a question mark if the quoted part is inside a question.
When people use "you and I" thinking that is universally the correct way to use it but in the instance they used it in is incorrect and should be "you and me."
This is not a grammar usage pet peeve but a grammar pet peeve. I hate that the quote has to go outside of a period but inside of a question mark if the quoted part is inside a question.
One of my kids is doing 2 grammar programs and the other wants to do the 2nd one too so don’t blame me!
I used to be annoyed a lot more with errors online but I’ve gotten used to it. I did proofreading and editing at a part time job in college too. I think I’ve just seen how annoying it is to get things just right on my phone. And then theres the dreaded auto-correct.
I think what annoys me now is not punctuation; but word choice. “She don’t” instead of “She doesn’t” or things like that. I know sometimes people intentionally choose the wrong word for effect; but sometimes its a consistent thing and shows in speech. I had some clients who wanted jobs as receptionists and things and that could easily hinder you from getting a job.
I’m not so serious about it that anyone would accuse me of being the Grammar Police. It depends on the setting too. Maybe my kids will disagree as they get older and their writing assignments are more complex. DD has turned into such a reader that I’m hopeful she will pick it up naturally from exposure like I did.
Don’t blame me for that one either. Both my kids have learned. DS’s cursive is better than his manuscript writing by far! I’m not sure if it’s because he is left handed or related to some challenges hes had. He hand wrote an entire letter this week and that’s a big deal for him!
My godson actually requested to learn cursive when he was being homeschooled during the pandemic. Maybe someday there will be a revival of it. It may be among history buffs or start with them first!
There's an easy way to remember this. Your reasoning is a little confusing because it's so similar. Just think : people lie down, but hens lay eggs.
I once had a semi-boss who insisted on "you and I" for everything. Her rule must have been that when more than one person is included, you always had to use "I." Of course, she would have never said, "Tom invited I to dinner."
This touches the difference between British and American punctuation styles. In North American English, periods always go inside a quote, but in Britain, the periods always go outside the quotation mark. Early American printers thought there was too much space between a quote mark and a period, so they put the quotation mark outside. Wikipedia is written in British punctuation, and I hate it.
Yes, if the quote is part of a question, the question mark goes outside the quotation mark and after a period or ellipsis. If the quote itself is a question, the quotation marks still go outside, but there is no period. The question mark suffices as the end of the sentence.
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I took a course in copyediting at the University of Chicago Publishing Program and did some work-related copyediting, so errors jump off the page to me. But I can take it too seriously sometimes. I rarely correct anyone online; there's too many to correct, and I don't have the time. Agree with you about the auto-correct. For one thing, it wants to make all plurals into possessives (possessive's, possessives').
When people use an apostrophe where it's not meant to be, e.g. baby's instead of babies!
