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Common grammar and usage errors
12/22/04 | Self

Posted on 12/22/2004 9:32:13 AM PST by georgiadevildog

I am starting a grammar thread at the behest of Xenalyte and TheMom. Post your most irritating pet peeves of grammar or usage here.


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To: Petronski
exactly. One isn't blown up on one's own bomb, but "by" or "with". People who use "on" obviously don't know what they're saying.
161 posted on 12/22/2004 7:26:31 PM PST by Deb (A Democrat Stole My GREEN Sweater!!!)
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To: georgiadevildog

People who write/say "insure" when they mean "ensure". To ensure something is to take steps to make sure it happens. To insure something is to buy an insurance policy to cover costs or losses in the event something bad happens, despite your best efforts to ensure that it doesn't happen.


162 posted on 12/22/2004 7:52:28 PM PST by GovernmentShrinker
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To: TheMom
While doing a search on my screen name last week, I came across this little gem...Magical Jellybean Dictionary. It comes in handy when you run across a word you've never seen before.
163 posted on 12/22/2004 10:45:54 PM PST by jellybean (Free 'Ole Crusty!)
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To: Petronski
Finally, one must use a space after a comma or period. Sentences like this one,which ignore this rule,make the speaker(or poster)look stupid.Very stupid.

Yes! That one drives me nuts! As does a space between the last word in a sentence and a question mark or exclamation point ! No watt eye mean ?

164 posted on 12/22/2004 10:52:50 PM PST by jellybean (Free 'Ole Crusty!)
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To: BibChr
"Impact," used as a verb. A tooth can be impacted. A colon can be impacted. People are not impacted. Brr-r-r-r.

Amen to that. I am similarly annoyed by the fashionable trend of turning nouns into verbs, as in, "to dialogue." "We were dialoguing about the controversy the other day . . . "

Punctuation mistakes are my pet peeve, particularly the use of quotation marks for emphasis. Such as a sign at a local restaurant: Kids' meal includes "free" drink. So, it's not really free?

165 posted on 12/22/2004 11:02:48 PM PST by pettifogger
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To: Petronski
I hate the blurring of the distinction between 'bring' and 'take.'

Another one is 'borrow' and 'loan.'

"Can you borrow me a dollar?" instead of "Will you loan me a dollar?" or "May I borrow a dollar from you?"

166 posted on 12/22/2004 11:06:54 PM PST by jellybean (Free 'Ole Crusty!)
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To: Chad Fairbanks

"I hate homophones."

So, what are you, a heteronym?


167 posted on 12/22/2004 11:11:13 PM PST by Larry Lucido
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To: Larry Lucido

He can be anything he wants to be.


168 posted on 12/22/2004 11:15:14 PM PST by fatima (Pray for our troops.)
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To: georgiadevildog
When I hear someone say, "Here, here"

I think it's "hear, hear" when agreeing (sort of like "listen up, y'all"), and it's "here, here" when calling your cat or your spouse.

169 posted on 12/22/2004 11:21:29 PM PST by Larry Lucido
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To: georgiadevildog

I believe the title should be corrected to read,

Kahmen Grammer adn Useage Airerrs


170 posted on 12/22/2004 11:28:06 PM PST by GretchenM (Was Santa Claus' inventor an entitlement-driven liberal?)
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To: Bella_Bru

Another one: "I should of gone" instead of "I should have gone."

I think the error is common because the contraction "should've" sounds like "should of."


171 posted on 12/22/2004 11:32:45 PM PST by Larry Lucido
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To: Veritas et equitas ad Votum

"Irregardless."

Yea, I can never remember when to use irrespective or irregardless. Oh, well, I could care less about that.


172 posted on 12/22/2004 11:35:19 PM PST by Larry Lucido
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To: Petronski; Deb
I Blog BooksThe French used pétard, “a loud discharge of intestinal gas...” “To be hoist by one's own petard,” a now proverbial phrase apparently originating with Shakespeare's Hamlet...

Sounds to me like a typical earthy Shakespearian image, rising skyward on (or hoisted skyward by) a blast of one's own intestinal gas.
173 posted on 12/22/2004 11:38:04 PM PST by dr_pat (And you can count on that!)
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To: dennisw
Try this.
174 posted on 12/23/2004 3:58:23 AM PST by georgiadevildog (Get to work. You aren't being paid to believe in the power of your dreams.)
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To: jellybean
Another one is 'borrow' and 'loan.'

"Can you borrow me a dollar?" instead of "Will you loan me a dollar?" or "May I borrow a dollar from you?"

Add to that another common error: the use of the word "loan" as a verb! Loan is not a verb--it's a noun. The word you're after is "lend." Someone can lend you money, and it will be considered to be a loan.

Of course, this is one of those usage errors that has become so common that it is beginning to be accepted. Another blow is dealt to English as we knew it.

175 posted on 12/23/2004 4:03:15 AM PST by georgiadevildog (Get to work. You aren't being paid to believe in the power of your dreams.)
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To: pettifogger

Aigh! YES! Me too, exactly. Or I say, "Quoting whom?" Evidently someone came by and remarked, "Hm. Free!" — and was later quoted without attribution.

I wish I'd kept a hilarious letter to the editor of the LA Times' Calendar section, from decades ago. It was responding to an article debating what to call the recording of movies now that film isn't exactly used. Instead of "filming," someone suggested "lensing."

This writer composed a really clever letter full of verbed nouns. Memory can't do it justice, but it was something to the effect that "I then promptly lamped my room, papered my typewriter, verbed some nouns, and commenced letter-to-the-editoring. Afterwards, I shall envelope the letter, postage-stamp the envelope, and mailbox it."

Dan


176 posted on 12/23/2004 5:07:35 AM PST by BibChr ("...behold, they have rejected the word of the LORD, so what wisdom is in them?" [Jer. 8:9])
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To: Petronski
Little known fact: media and data are plural.

Good point!

The ultimate rule about this grammar stuff is that when you gripe about someone else's grammar, you end up making a grammar mistake yourself (as I did). It's some kind of natural law.

177 posted on 12/26/2004 4:33:08 PM PST by Yardstick
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To: georgiadevildog
OK, here's a pet peeve I found while flipping through the posts...

The use of numbers and dates, specifically, cardinal numbers v. ordinal numbers.

Use always cardinal numbers after a month when writing a date, use ordinal numbers when writing the day before the month.

Hence: Fourth of July

but July 4.

178 posted on 01/02/2005 7:56:01 AM PST by Military family member (Go Colts!)
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To: Tax-chick

Please add me to this ping list.

My pet peeve is the Politically Correct twisting of our language. My college professor actually told me that it was incorrect to use the default "he" which was proper english for generations before he started teaching. That is part of the origin of using "their" and "he/she" and "s/he" because there isn't a good generic first person singular asexual pronoun in the english language.

Another pet peeve is misspellings on signs. Usually a sign or banner or headline has only a few words in it. If the owner of the business can't get those few words correct, how careful are they going to be with other details? At least TV commercials are relatively free from misspellings.


179 posted on 01/18/2005 4:40:26 PM PST by Kevin OMalley (No, not Freeper#95235, Freeper #1165: Charter member, What Was My Login Club.)
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To: Kevin OMalley

You're added. I've had about two Typso pings a week recently. People just aren't being that funny!

Regarding the PC nuisance, I'm very annoyed that hymns have been rewritten to avoid using "man" as a general term for people, and to avoid using "He" as a pronoun for God. I make it a point to sing the politically incorrect words as loudly as possible (and I can lead a whole congregation flat from the back row :-).


180 posted on 01/18/2005 6:04:50 PM PST by Tax-chick ( The old woman who lives in the 15-passenger van.)
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