Grammatical mistakes EVERYONE makes

[cdb73]

People always use the wrong "form" of was in conjunction with the sunjunctive. Basically, it should be "if I were," whereas everyone always says "if I was." It irks me, but I'm not sure why.

 

[gl1koz3]

But if it's OK, you still have the option to pronounce separate chars, resulting in "ou" "kay", that sounds like "okay". Thus I find it absolutely OK, to say OK.

And, yeah, I don't care. Language is supposed to evolve.

EDIT: Punctuation marks should stay. As language is also about dynamics. It's like listening to the Universe radio station (aka static noise) otherwise.

 

[Shoqiyqa]

They're, there, their.

We're, where, were.

He's, his.

Affect, effect.

Than, then.

Come on, common, "comon".

You're, your, yore, yaw.

Though, tough, thought, through, thorough, throughout, rough, row, row, bow, bow, bow, bow, bough, enough. <--- See also "why people think English is hard to learn."

Sentences that being with "But".

Commas and apostrophes.

To and too.

Loose, lose, loss, losing, lost, loosing, "lossing" and "lossed".

"Straffing".

"Chaffing".

I'm going to stop now before I start putting red rings on screenshots of people's posts. I've seen that done.

 

[The Amazing Tea Alligator]

I just love it when people neglect to use semi-colons; it's really not hard to use them correctly.

Noooooo. They aren't semi-colons.

This is a colon :
This is a 'semicolon' ;

Now, as you can see, there is at least equal 'fontal mass' used between both colons and semicolons.
Therefore, what people traditionally call 'semicolons' are in fact 'altercolons' or 'pseudocolons' or whatever name is decided upon, once the people who decide these sorts of things get their priorities straight.

 

[LadyRhian]

A good poem that will make you laugh.

 

[Lord Mountbatten Reborn]

Also, I want to stab anyone in the eye who says "loose" instead of "lose".

It's possibly my most hated mistake, merely because it's one of the easiest to correct. It makes me angry.

 

[Charley]

The one that really irks me (yes, "irks") is when people tack 'self' onto the end of a possessive to try and sound smarter -

I will return it to yourself

Please would you contact myself

It's usually a business language thing, perpetuated by idiots, but it drives me insane at work.

 

[sunburst]

I'm no grammatical genius. But there are some things that get to me. Like serial instead of serious.

That one gets me too. It's supposed to be cereal.

 

[xavi]

Alot
UR
@
Seperate(sepArate)
damm
biotch
Than(should be then)
should of(should have)
tha(the)
teh(the)
ya(yeah/yes)

 

[Anthony_Usher]

I used to be an intense grammar nazi, but over the years have eased up on the criticism. Despite my decrease in nit picking, the most annoying grammatical error that I encounter is the "you and I" vs "me and you" fiasco, specifically when someone uses "you and I" in order to appear more intelligent while improperly using the device.

You and I - "Well, it appears as though only you and I are left."
Me and you - "Well, it appears as though the only two who are left are me and you"

 

[Azure-Supernova]

I wouldn't say any of these are 'grammar errors'. They're just a few things that don't sound natural when I hear them:

"Get off of me." Which I've heard a few times on the telly; usually soaps, the 'of' seems unnecessary.
"A half hour." Another one I've heard exclusively from America. I'm not saying it's wrong; more than likely it's simply me being used to using 'half an hour'.

One similar to "could care less" is this a phrase such as this one:

"Everyone can't play as a Jedi!"

Which implies that no-one can. Shouldn't it be:

"Not everyone can play as a Jedi!"

Grammar annoys me. I can barely get the basics right myself.

EDIT

One final thing: for the love of God; it's spelled 'CHEQUE' not 'CHECK'

 

[tomtom94]

OT: Text speak. It irritates me so much. I'm glad to have friends who speak in proper english online and in text messages, the way you should.

 

[zhoominator]

Am I the only one who's annoyed by the grammar in the OP's post? Was it intended to be ironic?

 

[Buzz Killington_v1legacy]

People always seem to pronounce the word "have" the same as the word "half". As in "I half to do this."

There's actually a good linguistic reason for this. Basically, there are two types of consonants in English: voiced (the vocal cords vibrate) and voiceless (they don't). When you have a word or phrase that runs sounds of two types together, one will tend to get "pulled" towards the other type. What's happening with "have to" is that the T is voiceless, and the V is getting pulled towards the voiceless equivalent (F).

Also:

The one that really irks me (yes, "irks") is when people tack 'self' onto the end of a possessive to try and sound smarter

This bugs the hell out of me too. People who don't know how to use reflexive pronouns shouldn't be allowed to have any. The only time that sort of usage is correct is in cases like "Did you hurt yourself" or "I made a fool of myself".

 

[ZeroDotZero]

When people say 'very unique' or 'quite unique', because unique cannot be used like that. Unique means that something is not the same as anything else. Something cannot be very not the same as anything else, or quite not the same as anything else. The word just can't be used in that way, contrary to popular belief, and it annoys the tits off me.

 

[Marter]

There's actually a good linguistic reason for this. Basically, there are two types of consonants in English: voiced (the vocal cords vibrate) and voiceless (they don't). When you have a word or phrase that runs sounds of two types together, one will tend to get "pulled" towards the other type. What's happening with "have to" is that the T is voiceless, and the V is getting pulled towards the voiceless equivalent (F).

That's certainly very interesting, thanks for telling me. Although, you can still stop it, so I'm going to continue to tell people to fix it. ^_^

 

[Cid Silverwing]

The different forms of r and 're (i.e. "your" and "you're") are criminally misused by people who haven't the slightest idea what they mean.

YOUR = Possessive
YOU'RE = Declaration of condition

"your an idiot", how do you own an idiot?