What you say drives me crazy.

[TheKitschGoth]

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.

That scares me, a lot!

 

[Flying Scotsman]

Someone may have discussed this erroneous usage already, and if they have, I apologize (I've not had time today to read the entire thread, but I'll come back to it...I just didn't want to forget to post this).

In all of my years since prep school, I have never heard anyone use the word "peruse" correctly.

"Give me a few minutes to peruse this document." Since we're usually talking documents that run to hundreds of pages, I don't think they're able to "peruse" it in a few minutes.

Grrrrr....

 

[Steve]

The other day I was working video cameras with a friend of mine and he said "this is, like, terrible." I responded "You mean this is similar to terrible?"

But it was no good, I had to explain it.

 

[Flying Scotsman]

Now that I've had some time to peruse this thread ...

I've learned to pay little attention to errors made in on-line forum postings, as many times the errors are just typos or rapidly made edits that "went wrong". However, it becomes readily apparent when someone is unaware of the errors they repeatedly make - things like they're/there/their, or using "words" such as "irregardless", etc. It's bad netiquette to correct these errors, but I know that I, for one, start to view that poster in a more negative light. That may not be very nice, but I can't help how I feel about these kinds of mistakes.

But all of that is on-line "stuff", and the Internet world, although not an excuse for not practicing good grammar, syntax and spelling, tends to quite a bit more "free-form". What truly chaps my hide are mistakes made in formal documentation and work products. Some that immediately come to mind:

Any kind of spelling error. With all of the tools available, including spell-checkers, coworkers, and our own document services people, there is NO excuse for misspelled words in published documents.

Ending sentences with prepositions. Nit-picky, I know, but it's just one of those things that grates on my nerves. Along with that goes:

Split infinitives. Sorry, but I notice these, and I still think they're wrong.

Made-up words. My favorite example is "incentivization". What the ???? Take a perfectly good word (albeit somewhat sesquipedalian) like "incentive", make it a verb for no good reason ("to incentivize") when there was already a verb for the idea (i.e., "to reward"), and then really goober it up by making it a noun again. Or some other oddball part of speech. Grrrr. And I work in a field that is absolutely rife with these kinds of Haigisms (remember him? ).

Professionals using "street" or "slang" pronunciations in the workplace. I don't care about things like "What's up?" between friends...every generation and time period had its slang ("Whaddya know, Joe?"). I mean "Let me axe you a question." Somebody mentioned this already. Or "Ex cetera", which I saw someone else listed. Everyone I work with is degreed, most with advanced degrees. Somewhere in all of that edumacation, they should have learned that "ask" is pronounced "ask".

Finally, to end this rant , the constant use of "like", as so many here have discussed previously. "Do you have like a pen I can borrow?" Which gets the response "Do want something like a pen, or do you want a pen?" Anyone who is starting a professional career and reading this thread take note...just about all other faults in speech or writing can be forgiven (grudgingly) in the workplace, but this kind of speaking will cause everyone around you (at least those who have control over your career) to think of you as a child who never learned to speak properly. It will have a detrimental effect on your career. Trust me on this one.

We all make mistakes, and few of us are perfect at English, so I don't normally correct people (unless it's truly egregious or annoying). But that doesn't mean we can't try to be better.

Oh, I thought of another one. "These ones" or "those ones", as opposed to "these" or "those".

And I'm absolutely certain I've made one or two of these faults in this post...

 

[Elaina]

Ah, but my bad grammer never overflows into professional speech, or my writing. I had an editor I know call me a couple days ago, and he's pretty casual (which I should be, I've had a beer with the guy), and in the middle he stops and asks me "Ducks, does the stick hurt?"

I also get accused of being a machine on the phone, too. In person, I'll annoy you to high heaven.

 

[carebear]

Ah, but my bad grammer never overflows into professional speech, or my writing. I had an editor I know call me a couple days ago, and he's pretty casual (which I should be, I've had a beer with the guy), and in the middle he stops and asks me "Ducks, does the stick hurt?"

I also get accused of being a machine on the phone, too. In person, I'll annoy you to high heaven.

That's clever.

 

[Orgetorix]

It irks me when people who can speak well and write well in other contexts get sloppy and careless in what they write online. It's as though the fact they're posting (or chatting, or blogging, or whatever) gives them the license to be lazy. I even have a hard time bringing myself to use common online abbreviations (FWIW, IMHO, IIRC, etc.)

U now wot i mean? i think its gr8 every1 can xpress theirself! LMAO!

 

[Miss Sis]

How about "um"? Some people....ummmm while trying to string together their next group of words...ummm tend to use this as a filler!

Talk about..ummmm distracting! lol

I was about to say that when I saw you already had...

Dear God, if you have nothing to say then just SAY NOTHING!

The other day I was working video cameras with a friend of mine and he said "this is, like, terrible." I responded "You mean this is similar to terrible?"

But it was no good, I had to explain it.

We have a candidate (I work in an agency) who prefaces everything with 'It's like...'. He even says 'It's like, (his name) here...'. So is it you or someone else? It is an office joke!

 

[PrettySquareGal]

Just thought of a retort.

"What's up?"

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

You need to write a book of "Carberries."

 

[scotrace]

Remember The Test, Ladies and Gentlemen

If you would not say something to the person sitting next to you at a Fedora Lounge dinner gathering, you shouldn't say it here.

I know we're all far too well-bred to correct the grammar of others in person.