What you say drives me crazy.

[LadyStardust]

This is really minor, but I'm always lost when people ask "What's up?" or any of its less coherent variants. I know what people who ask questions like this expect to hear, but sometimes I don't want to answer because I would rather they have initially asked the more concise "How are things?" or something else. Just -anything- except "What's up?"[huh]

 

[carebear]

Can't you just use the transitive property and reduce "whether true or not true" to "whether or not (true)". That's how I use it, I state the object ("true" in this case) after the phrase one time to save repetition.

Whether you believe or do not believe in unicorns...

Whether or not you believe in unicorns...

 

[carebear]

This is really minor, but I'm always lost when people ask "What's up?" or any of its less coherent variants. I know what people who ask questions like this expect to hear, but sometimes I don't want to answer because I would rather they have initially asked the more concise "How are things?" or something else. Just -anything- except "What's up?"[huh]

'Sup?

lol

 

[Marc Chevalier]

This is really minor, but I'm always lost when people ask "What's up?" or any of its less coherent variants.

For years, whenever anyone has dared to ask me "What's up?", my answer has been: "The rate of obesity in children, the traffic time on the San Diego Freeway ..."

.

 

[DeeDub]

Basically, I'm all like, ya know?

I just read this entire thread from beginning to end and, folks, you've covered many of my unfavorites. Godfrey Daniel, my neck hairs stood up and walked out.

One popular usage that's getting on my nerves is the qualifier basically. It adds nothing to the sentence. It's basically the same as um. I usually enjoy listening to interviews on radio and television. After the third or fourth basically in response to each successive question, I basically change the channel.

The pronunciation eck-cetera makes me cringe. 'nuff said, (which has also outworn its welcome. Not it's welcome, though.)

Since childhood, I've had a problem with the phrase "I could care less," or its alternate, "I couldn't care less." In the debate with my childhood playmates, I supported the former, arguing that it implied the possibility of caring more. As an adult, I realized that it also implied something the opposite of that intended, that is, the possibility of caring some. I then sided with the latter meaning, "there's no possibility that I could care less than I currently do." Over time, I hear it said both ways, but I don't get excited about it. Basically, I couldn't care less.

My last two grammar gripes are the result of occupational, repetitive stress, I suppose.

After a career developing software, I'm always alert for language that clarifies requirements. We rarely know all the requirements up front, so we start with a coarse framework that we later flesh out. Perhaps because I start with the metaphor of a skeletal body of requirements, I'm annoyed by others who wish to flush out further requirements, as though they're hiding under a bush, rather than waiting to be created.

When requirements are specified in writing, they're too often made ambiguous by the non-commital conjunction and/or. "The product shall read and/or write the data to a backup tape." I blame the prevalence of this usage on the lack of an exclusive-or construct in the English language. Programming languages distinguish between an or comparison, which is true if either operand or both are true, and an xor comparison, which is not true of both operands are true.

On this basis, I would like to nominate xor for inclusion in the English language. Anyone second the motion?

 

[Marc Chevalier]

I just read this entire thread from beginning to end and, folks, you've covered many of my unfavorites.

The folks who write the verbal sections of U.S. graduate school entrance exams have a field day punishing test takers who commit these faux pas. My heroes.

.

 

[warbird]

Can't you just use the transitive property and reduce "whether true or not true" to "whether or not (true)". That's how I use it, I state the object ("true" in this case) after the phrase one time to save repetition.

Whether you believe or do not believe in unicorns...

Whether or not you believe in unicorns...

Regardless of whether you believe in unicorns, the facts are ......

You could also say, 'whether you believe in blah blah blah or not........' 'Whether you believe in unicorns or not, this is ........'

But, whether or not is incorrect.

 

[carebear]

Regardless of whether you believe in unicorns, the facts are ......

You could also say, 'whether you believe in blah blah blah or not........' 'Whether you believe in unicorns or not, this is ........'

But, whether or not is incorrect.

I'm gonna keep doing it anyway.

But now I'll think about it, so it will be deliberate defiance, rather than an ignorant mistake.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

The one that drives me up the wall is one that AOL has perpetuated. When you receive e-mail, it says "You've got mail." Break that from its contraction and it is: You have got mail. That is not right!

In fact, it is perfectly correct in British English, and has been so for centuries. The British also say, "Have you got a car?" Again, totally accepted and acceptable.

.

 

[LadyStardust]

For years, whenever anyone has dared to ask me "What's up?", my answer has been: "The rate of obesity in children, the traffic time on the San Diego Freeway ..."

.

Precisely! Either that or the more obvious "The sky. Birds. Planes." You could come with an endless list and then, in all sincerity, ask them which topic they would like for you to elaborate on! lol

 

[carebear]

Just thought of a retort.

"What's up?"

"Your allotted time to speak to me. Good day."

 

[Grace]

Bad grammar drives me nuts!
But one thing (above all others) is this:

"Hey, can you borrow me $5?"
NO, but I most certainly will LEND it to you. :rage:

 

[Elaina]

I use "Know what I'm saying" alot, but that's what happens when you were the youngest of 7 children for TWENTY YEARS. No one listens to you, so you have to make sure that everyone is listening.

I type/write correctly, but I use things like irreguardless. Probably a good thing I don't talk to hardly anyone, just something else to be terrified of

 

[Marc Chevalier]

I am fortunate, my mother was an english [lowercase 'e'?] and a [confusing use of the article 'a'?] public speaking teacher, and my dad worked in theater. I speak clearly and I write well. No thanks to my school system. My senior year in high[no space?]school, the first 10 minutes of the day were spent correcting a sentence on the board that had poor punctuation and capitalization. SENIORS IN HIGHSCHOOL! If you don't know how to contract a word or use a comma by that point, it's rather pointless. We wrote 3 papers in that class, [a comma instead of a semicolon?] none of them had to be over 4 pages in length. It was pretty sad. Backwoods rural schools for the loss! ["for the loss"?]

I got sloppy with my computer chat typing. [And with your computer forum posting, darlin'.]

................

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Well don't I just feel like an uneducated slob. Why was it necessary to pick on me?

I felt that you were criticizing the errors of others --your fellow high school classmates-- even as you were making the same errors. You seemed to be throwing stones from a glass house. It just seemed unfair, that's all.

.

 

[carebear]

Regardless of recent innovations on behalf of self-esteem in the UK, the proper color for editing is, I believe, still red, Mr. Chevalier.

 

[TheKitschGoth]

This is really minor, but I'm always lost when people ask "What's up?" or any of its less coherent variants. I know what people who ask questions like this expect to hear, but sometimes I don't want to answer because I would rather they have initially asked the more concise "How are things?" or something else. Just -anything- except "What's up?"[huh]

I hate that so much! I never know how to reply. I'm also far from keen on "How are things?", things? What things?

I think it is related to a lack of reading, I inherited a love of books from my mum, so it scares me how little people in my age group read. When I was at college I listened in horror to conversation between two classmates, one said they hadn't read a single book since school, so the other responded with, "well, I never even read at school, I watched DVD's of the books instead!", like it was something to be proud of!?

I know my grammar sometimes leaves a lot to be desired, but compared to almost everyone else I know I'm very well spoken.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

You didn't seem to be offended by the rest of the thread, why me?

I haven't found errors in the other posts in this thread.

Look, I didn't intend or wish for my post to be a personal affront to you. I've enjoyed all of your other posts, and look forward to more. It's just that this one seemed a bit unfair. After all, if you're writing a post about your grammatical accuracy and its importance to you, then why would you let your post contain errors? They weaken your claims.

I'll shut up now. Ciao!

.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Regardless of recent innovations on behalf of self-esteem in the UK, the proper color for editing is, I believe, still red, Mr. Chevalier.

You're absolutely right, Mr. Bearburry. Still, I avoid using red around here, lest people see, er, red.

.

 

[Orgetorix]

I hate that so much! I never know how to reply. I'm also far from keen on "How are things?", things? What things?

I think it is related to a lack of reading, I inherited a love of books from my mum, so it scares me how little people in my age group read. When I was at college I listened in horror to conversation between two classmates, one said they hadn't read a single book since school, so the other responded with, "well, I never even read at school, I watched DVD's of the books instead!", like it was something to be proud of!?

I know my grammar sometimes leaves a lot to be desired, but compared to almost everyone else I know I'm very well spoken.

I have a friend who's in college and prides himself (perversely, I think) on the fact that he hasn't read a book since grade school.