Wrongly used words - a pet hate

Gripin' 'bout spellin' an grammar? Dat's unpossible!

Mari

My all-time HUGE pet peeve, living in Texas, is the phrase "I'll have him to call you". Huh? Have him "to" call me? WTF does that mean? Why don't you just have him call me?

And what is this "fixin' to"??

Neighbor: I'm fixin' to go to the store.
Me: You are "going to the store".
Neighbor: That's what I said...I'm fixin' to go to the store.

/me blinks

"could of" annoys me but not as much as when people say "I could care less" if they mean "I don't care at all".

"Could care less" actually indicates that you can, indeed, still care a little bit. So if you don't give a damn, it should be "I couldn't care less".

And why do certain people assume that punctuation is optional? I don't mean expert skill with the ol' apostrophe, but there's no reason not to use a full stop, period.

Typos, however, I forgive absolutely. I have a vast collection of them.

I'm not going to claim that I never have attacks of 'grammar police,' but making a whole thread about it strikes me as incredibly petty.

Correct. One is the imperative sense and the other is non-imperative.

Oh, I dunno...I've seen worse.

You mean fairly"? Stuck fairly well, or stuck very well?

So - does that translate into, "very well stuck"?

or into,

"very fairly stuck"?

Pretty good, he?

Darn sight more interesting than some of the protracted dialogues I've [sic I have] perused here.

How long does it take to fix?

Sounds like he needs to work up the incentive to go. What sort of store is it?

This has been bothering me for ages--I've re-written sentences just to avoid using the phrase, in fact, but since we have a thread on the topic, I'll ask here:

Do we give people the benefit of -a- doubt, or the benefit of -the- doubt, and if it's the latter, who holds the copyright on the original doubt? Also, do we have to pay royalties for lending it? ^^

Yes, but the question argued is not whether or not one is a stronger or a command, but if you see a language construct (in this case, Chinese use of the character 'bu' in front of a verb, which makes the combination a negative of the original verb set), how do you translate it?

Actually, it is largely contextual, so it pretty much depends on the intent of the speaker and the verb used, and usually is as you indicate. Still, what DO you expect linguists to argue about anyway, especially after the third or fourth beer?

I didn't say anything about 'interesting.'

For any non-native English speakers out there: please use a first capital letter when referencing a country, like so:

"native English speakers", "some Americans", "French cuisine", "German nitpickers", "Italian designer clothes", "Spanish haciendas".

Actually, it seems to me that the "phonetic mistakes" like of/have and their/there are far more common amongst native speakers, who just write what they are used to hearing. Non-native speakers are more likely to make honest grammatical mistakes.

Dunno. Growin' up in farm country, I have to say that for a farmer or rancher, there is a period between when you stop doin' the regular stuff and when you actually hit the road, when you aren't yet doin' it, but you are fixin' to do it. That sometimes could take most of the morning.

Then if you drive slow enough to check out the crops, getting there could take a while, too.

That's a regional idiom.

As "fix" can be a synonym for "prepare" (as in cooking - fixing dinner/preparing dinner
) they're saying "I'm preparing to go to the store" in a less formal way. In other words, they are not yet leaving, but in the process of getting ready to do so.

Oh, and thank you all for sharing my pet peeve.

'Fraid I've got me doubts about that one, luv.

Hehe. I'm southern, so I can explain that one. If you're 'fixin' to do something, you are getting ready to do it. If you're actually going, you're just 'going'.

My pet peeve is the overuse and misuse of quotes. People seem to have decided that they're used for emphasis. "Fresh" vegetables, "Quality" materials. Drives me nuts.

Another is one I've never seen anyone, except our group manager, do and I can't say anything to him.
Instead of , "In other words" he writes, "Another words". Arrrggghhhh!

Clarified (like buttah):

My hubby claims that "benefit of -the- doubt" is correct usage, because it refers to Platonic doubt, and Plato had that whole "one perfect ____" thing.

And if I had back all the time I've spent pondering this little phrase, I'd be about three months younger. ;P

and it's not Wala! it's Voila!!!!! Please, please please!


As in "you add the chicken to the mixture, and Voila! you have soup!

And Oriented, not orientated.

And so many more things I just don't have the time or inclination to list here.

If English is your native language, there is no excuse for poor grammar. Sorry...It's how I feel.

If English is not your native language, then I can understand making mistakes. Speaking as someone who is only fluent in one language, I applaud anyone who can converse in more than their native language. What you might miss in grammar and spelling, you make up for in your efforts!

"benefit of the doubt" is the correct usage.

It just is.

I haven't seen my pet peeve mentioned yet, though: lose/loose. Argh, argh, argh!

You are not loosing your mind! Unless you're meditating or something. But some days I feel like losing all perspective and loosing my inner editor's red pen to roam freely over the internet... And then I go take a walk.

Truly, I gloss over most errors of usage in chat, just as I do with typos. But sometimes in the forums, they make me twitchy.

Curtis, I love this:

>So since we are talking language here, what is the opposite of 'you must go there' - 'you don't have to go there' (non-imperative) or 'you must not go there' (the negative)?

It reminds me of the day I distracted my kids from an argument by pointing out the difference between "Don't tell your brother he's an idiot" and "Don't remind your brother he's an idiot." (Which, unfortunately, backfired on me in later years when they would "remind" each other of all sorts of unsavory things... But it kept them from bickering for an entire car ride!)

Ah I see now LL are obviously fixin' to do some bug fixes.

/me makes note of the words to use when he really wants to annoy Phil.

I've been looking for an occasion to expound on the misused word that has been bothering me the most lately: myself.

People keep using it as the subject of sentences when it should only be used as the object. Furthermore it should only be used as the object in sentences that have I as the subject.

I do things. Things happen to me. Only I can do things to myself. And "myself" never never does anything.

"Bob and myself want to thank you." WRONG
"It was nice of you to invite Bob and myself." WRONG

"I want to thank myself." Right
"I invited myself." Right.