Your single biggest grammar pet peeve?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Data is a plural word!

Data are a plural word.

[Anonymous]

Peeve: "I could care less."

That is INCORRECT! If you COULD care less, then why don't you?

The correct phrase is: "I COULDN'T care less!" (i.e. you care so little about something that it is impossible to care even less than you do).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People who do not use "I" and "me" properly.

Susie and I went to the store. (CORRECT)

Tom went to the store with Susie and I. (INCORRECT).

Tom went to the store with Susie and me. (CORRECT).

I was taught that, when using a first person singular pronoun, the pronoun goes nearest to the verb such that your last example should end ". . . with me and Susie."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Data is a plural word!

Data are a plural word.

The word data is plural.

[Anonymous]

Axe. It's ASK. And yes there are white people who say this. Scary that my kid's teacher is one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Data is a plural word!

Data are a plural word.

Usage has changed over time. Data followed by a plural verb is still required in scientific and academic writing, but in writing for a general audience and in journalism a singular verb is now acceptable.

-editor

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:less and fewer
And not putting punctuation inside quotation marks such as:

He called this flower a "buttercup." <--- correct
He called this flower a buttercup". <----- inccorrect *unless you're from England.

They only use a single, double quote in England? Who knew?

Funny. I'm old and grew up in the south and was taught the incorrect version. We also were taught gray was grey and color was spelled colour.

Np, I have a habit of spelling words using British grammar, too (colour, cancelled, aesthetic, flavour, etc.), and I don't know where it stems from. I chalked it up as possibly being British in a past life.

I chalk it up to you being pretentious.

In certain parts of this country back in the day, they taught us English grammar.

Grey and colour are not examples of grammar, but rather spelling.

[Anonymous]

Lie and lay. No one lies down anymore, they lay down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Axe. It's ASK. And yes there are white people who say this. Scary that my kid's teacher is one.

Christ, I’ve never heard that. Will look out for it. Carrying an axe.

[Anonymous]

I tell you what burns my butt, and yes, I have been livid about this since a small child. It isn't a grammar point, but at this point, who cares.

Lime. Why do we use the same word for such vastly different things? Maybe it's a citrus fruit, but maybe it's the "caustic highly infusible solid that consists of calcium oxide often together with magnesium oxide, that is obtained by calcining forms of calcium carbonate (such as shells or limestone), and that is used in building (as in mortar and plaster) and in agriculture."

WTF? One is delicious (albeit sour), while the other is f'ing caustic. When I learned that soap could be made by treating animal fat with lime, I envisioned something much different than the reality. Jesus. I am still mad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People who do not use "I" and "me" properly.

Susie and I went to the store. (CORRECT)

Tom went to the store with Susie and I. (INCORRECT).

Tom went to the store with Susie and me. (CORRECT).

I was taught that, when using a first person singular pronoun, the pronoun goes nearest to the verb such that your last example should end ". . . with me and Susie."

Absolutely not. 🤣🤣

[Editor PP]

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Peeve: "I could care less."

That is INCORRECT! If you COULD care less, then why don't you?

The correct phrase is: "I COULDN'T care less!" (i.e. you care so little about something that it is impossible to care even less than you do).

Idiomatic usage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lie and lay. No one lies down anymore, they lay down.

I really wish I understood this lie/lay thing, but I never have learned it! I have an advanced degree and I was 97th percentile on admissions tests... and still I've never really learned this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Axe. It's ASK. And yes there are white people who say this. Scary that my kid's teacher is one.

Christ, I’ve never heard that. Will look out for it. Carrying an axe.

It is very much a black language thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Peeve: "I could care less."

That is INCORRECT! If you COULD care less, then why don't you?

The correct phrase is: "I COULDN'T care less!" (i.e. you care so little about something that it is impossible to care even less than you do).

Idiomatic usage.

No. Just people who don't know what they are saying.