Today's Grammar Pet Peeve

This kind of thread has probably been started many times before, but I don't care! I have refrained from posting off-topic comments in the threads where I saw these examples, but I had to say something!

I saw someone yesterday use the phrase "it peaked my interest". A lot of people use this spelling, because it seems to make a certain amount of sense. But the correct phrase is "It piqued my interest" Not peak, or peek, but pique -- which is a French work meaning "prick" (as in "to prick" -- you can't go around saying "that guy is a real pique!", at least as far as I know, but then again I don't know much French.)

Today I saw another post that said "other people are in the same vote." This one too almost makes a certain amount of sense in light of recent elections, but in fact, what the person meant to say was of course "other people are in the same boat." In other words, if the ship sinks, we're all drowning together.

But mostly it's the "peak/peek/pique" confusion that bugs me because you see it spelled wrong more often than you see it spelled right. ^_^

And while I'm on the subject, this is not a web sight, it's a web site.

I'd post more examples of mistakes that drive me crazy, but mostly I manage to blot them from my memory quickly...

Nicely written, Jalia! (I know you would have to set the high bar by presenting these examples, in any case.) I intentionally do mashups on a lot of my English because I actually speak Torleyese, which is somewhat pidgeon and part-pidgin as well. Things do flow over time and I accept a certain amount of etymological liquidity, especially since we live in a world where "bad" has become "good", "ill" has become "well", and "sick and twisted"—along the same lines!

I sometimes have great difficulty with figures of speech because of how my mind works. I do take them too literally at times.

I'm curious in asking about someone's intent and context behind the words they used. Like, I've said "it peaked my fascination" (I don't use "interest" as much) when visualizing my experiences of the day as a mountain peak. I wonder if "other people are in the same vote" could have been a Freudian slip. It makes me think of peeps drowning in a sea of ballots. (One of my faves is "port of misery" instead of "port of mystery" when visiting an exotic harbor.)

Related, "web site" is more commonly spelled as one word nowadays too. I'm determined to do the same thing to "alot" someday, but for now, I'll have to be content with stripping out silent letters and saying "thot".

For grammar pet peeves "I could care less" or "irregardless" comes to mind a lot, not from myself but what I've heard from others.

... and don't get me started on "would of"...

You ever wonder if something like that has to do with homonym confusion?

I think it's due to the decrease in reading. People now learn contractions like "would've" by hearing them - without ever having read or written them.

I was never specifically taught the word "piqued", for example - I learned it just by being exposed to it in things that I read.

Here's a good linky:

http://www.xeromag.com/cheat.html

Another one I know some some people abhor is "hi-resolution" or "hi-fidelity" instead of "high-resolution" or "high-fidelity", altho admittedly, "hi-res" and "hi-fi" are commonly used.

Instead of "a pigment of my imagination", I used to say "a pig man of my imagination". Which is why I also thot pigs could fly.

I dislike "your/you're" mistakes, mainly because I think it is a really simple one to avoid. It only takes a second to decide which one you mean.

Along that line I dislike "its/it's" but I make that one sometimes, haha.

Will you marry me?

ooh, great link

My spelling and grammar have always been terrible, but since I have to write and edit a lot of technical writings these days I've started to pick up pet peeves too. The worst is when I'm reading a magazine or a newspaper and find that I want to correct the writing.

I'm also glad to hear that your figments have pigments.

I have gotten used to some l33tspeak, but when people use "ur" for "your" it still throws me; I always tend read it as the prefix "ur-" and have to correct myself.

Grammer mystakes reely bug me, butt eben worsted is bads pelling.

Sumthing worser then grammer misteaks is them people who correct others

Are you saying: You dislike those who flaunt their grammar skills when you flout the rules of grammar?

I used to make that one too when I was younger, but ever since college, I've gotten into the habit of pausing after I write an its/it's and then consider if it was the correct usage. On the plus-side, I don't make myself look like a grammar idiot. On the down-side, sometimes the pause will derail my train of thought if it's on a roll.

I'm not quite a grammar nazi, however it pisses me off sometimes as to how some educated adults working in a professional corporation at important positions can let such stupid things slide.. A case in point would be an email sent yesterday that was CC'ed to a distribution list of thousands of employees. It started out with, "Do to the holiday closing, there will be a freeze on all maintenance of clinical data servers until 03Jan2006." ... To quote Casey Kasem, "Ponderous, man! F'ing ponderous!"

Newspapers and Magazines are the absolute worst when it comes to grammar and spelling. What gets me is that these people went to school to be journalists. I used to work in the industry, in advertising, and I would constantly be embarassed about the lack of both grammar and spelling skills of the journalists. It always made me wonder if the copy editors fell asleep on the job!

In regards to those that like to say things like "how r u?", all I can say is that these people are too lazy to type the whole word out. It isn't like "are" and "you" are long, complicated words.

I also go absolutely nuts over people not using your, you're, their, there, they're correctly.
And what happened to using apostrophes in it's, isn't, don't, won't, can't, I'll, etc?

I don't have an English degree and I don't expect everyone to meld to the standards that I have for my own grammar. I tend to be much harder on myself than I am when others are conversing with me. But, I do notice the mistakes even if I don't correct them.

I trained a woman who was later fired (her mistakes + irresponsible contracting company==you're fired!) and she emailed me as So and So, "formally" of my company.

Nothing is worse than "ur." Nothing. I have seen it used as both "you are" and "your" -and in a corporate setting! My girlfriend's former boss would send her emails like "u need to be doing ur work." !@#*^&!

My list:

1. ur
2. your, you're
3. its, it's
4. there, their, they are
5. except, accept
6. affect, effect

I also hate it when someone has a very simple vocabulary except for one word and they use that word OVER and OVER to feel smart, and often to the point where it is bordering on incorrect usage or hyperbole. The first word that comes to mind is "animosity," but it varies person to person.

Another funny thing is when people see words but never hear them. Back when I still looked like an individual instead of a tool, this kid came up to me in public and asked if I played bass. Pronounced like the fish. XD I didn't laugh in his face because I felt bad for him, but I did ask him to repeat the question several times just to make sure I really had walked into an alternate reality.

Why not go and teach a grammer class or somthin. Oh yeah i forget then u wouldnt have enough time to sit in a forum and be offended by grammer mistakes. I really dont see why you even have anything to say about grammer as this forum doesnt relate to your workplace or edgeumaction,

Which is why it's in a forum entitled "off-topic", you illiterate nutcase.

OMG did he just call me iliterate. No he didnt. unt-uh. Seriosly i feel sorry for a person such as yourself. Pick up some self esteem books or do some daily affirmations with stewart smalley mabey then you can boost your self esteem high enough where you no longer feel the need to find something trivial that others do to make yourself feel adequite. Feel free to break out your Red Pen Misses Craboppel.

You know what Jack Burton always says -- I'm a troll!

P2

Hey, those grammar errors are worthy of our president! He was raised in the great state of Texas, where the question is rarely asked, "is our children learning?" and where it is important to "put food on our family"



"Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?"—Florence, S.C., Jan. 11, 2000

"I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family."—Greater Nashua, N.H., Chamber of Commerce, Jan. 27, 2000

"The public education system in America is one of the most important foundations of our democracy. After all, it is where children from all over America learn to be responsible citizens, and learn to have the skills necessary to take advantage of our fantastic opportunistic society."—Santa Clara, Calif., May 1, 2002

You know what Phonex Psaltery always says -- I am good enough, I'm smart enough and gosh darnit people like me.

I might be one of the few folks in these forums who actually does this for a living. I find it amusing that I am seldom bothered by creative re-imaginings of spelling/usage/punctuation. In fact, because I edit student writing for a living, the absolute last thing I want to do is correct the spelling/usage/punctuation of another human being outside the classroom.

I do not have "grammar pet peeves." Instead, I see grammatical issues that I find very difficult to help students solve. They are:

1. pronoun/antecedent agreement ("Everyone has his or her book." The indefinite prounoun antecedent is the word "everyone." Although "everyone" appears to be plural (and in terms of referential language is, in fact, plural) it is treated as singular grammatically and actually takes the third-person (masculine and feminine--to avoid sexism) singular possessive pronoun.)

2. That/who errors (The word "that" is a demonstrative pronoun but can be used as a relative pronoun to begin a adjective clause. The word "who" can be interrogative pronoun, but "who" is often used as a relative pronoun to begin an adjective clause. In spoken English (US), it is very common for "that" to supplant "who/whom" at the start of a relative clause. In written languge, the substitution can be quite jarring. In written English, it is "the people who sign the checks" not "the people that sign the checks."

Now do you see why correcting another person's grammar can be a problem?

Freudian slip or honest truth?

"We expect the states to show us whether or not we're achieving simple objectives — like literacy, literacy in math, the ability to read and write." —George W. Bush, on federal education requirements, Washington, D.C., April 28, 2005



Who knows?