Your single biggest grammar pet peeve?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Improper use of quotes, specifically putting quotes where they do not belong. For example:

Everything on "Sale" for one week only!
Please be "extra careful" on the stairs.

I hate this too.

[Anonymous]

Nowadays.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Verbal in place of oral. Verbal means in words. Written instructions are verbal.
Any modifier used with the word unique. Unique is binary, it means one of a kind. Something can't be very unique, somewhat unique or a little unique.
Assassination used to describe run of the mill murder.
It does not grate on me as a pet peeve because it is so rarely used and known, but I really appreciate when I see datum used in non technical writing.

I have to wonder how often you encounter this one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Verbal in place of oral. Verbal means in words. Written instructions are verbal.
Any modifier used with the word unique. Unique is binary, it means one of a kind. Something can't be very unique, somewhat unique or a little unique.
Assassination used to describe run of the mill murder.
It does not grate on me as a pet peeve because it is so rarely used and known, but I really appreciate when I see datum used in non technical writing.

Oral instructions are verbal. They consist of words.

Oral instructions come out of your mouth. Verbal instructions are written on a page. People don't like the word oral because it sounds dirty so they say verbal and it's often wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Verbal in place of oral. Verbal means in words. Written instructions are verbal.
Any modifier used with the word unique. Unique is binary, it means one of a kind. Something can't be very unique, somewhat unique or a little unique.
Assassination used to describe run of the mill murder.
It does not grate on me as a pet peeve because it is so rarely used and known, but I really appreciate when I see datum used in non technical writing.

Oral instructions are verbal. They consist of words.

Oral instructions come out of your mouth. Verbal instructions are written on a page. People don't like the word oral because it sounds dirty so they say verbal and it's often wrong.

Wait, what? These people obviously aren't pilots, where oral exams are part of checkrides.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People who use "and I" incorrectly and it should be "and me" but they're being pretentious

And they don't realize that they are making themselves sound like idiots. It's like people are afraid of using the word me.

I find that people who don't understand how grammar works do this a lot. They think saying "I" sounds smarter, so they always say that. They think saying "well" is always right, when it's really only when being used as an adverb - how are you doing? I am doing well. How are you feeling? I am feeling well. Nope! This time it's good because it's an adjective, not an adverb. Same with further - it sounds "fancier" than farther, but people use it wrong all the time, and the right word is usually farther.

all this...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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."

I am not sure where you were educated but it is NOT "me and Susie."

Trump University strikes again.

TDS strikes again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Going to hospital.

This is big in Australia. Going to grocery, going to hospital.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Split infinitives

So much anxiety from those two words and it has been many decades...

My freshman year at college, I placed into an advanced English class with a Harvard educated kind of famous professor. It was a very small special class. He was amazing but intimidating as ALLHOLYHELL. After we had turned in and he had graded our first literary gifts, he lost his mind. At the beginning of the next class he angrily approached the chalk board and slammed the chalk into the board so hard bits flew everywhere. He wrote a few students names on the board and turned to us and spit out those two words. I have never forgotten. If you committed that vile crime, he wanted you to die. One classmate did it two weeks in a row and I don't know if he lived.

I think "to boldly go where no man has before" sounds better than "to go boldly where no man has before"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I belong to a writing group. I hate it when people comment on grammar and punctuation instead of focusing on the story.

Well, it's annoying to read things that are grammatically incorrect. It definitely takes away from the story and affects your perception of the storyteller.

While we're at it, effect and affect. I don't know why this is so hard for people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Bring this with you". It should be "take this with you".

Depends

Really? Seriously, do you have an example of when it's OK to say bring this with you?

Yes, I do

Bring this with you when you come to my house tonight. (You are bringing it to me).

Take this with you when you go to Karen's house tonight. (You are taking it away from me.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it "fewer" than five widgets, or "less than" five widgets?

Which is correct.

I know I is fewer widgets, it I the number that throws me.

Fewer if you can count it. Less if you can't.

Fewer than five widgets. 10 items or fewer. She got fewer candy bars this Halloween.

There is less water in the ocean now than in 2010. (Technically you could count/measure it but really you can't.) She has less patience for silliness today.

the word fewer is so ugly. I never say it. too bad everybody

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Ladies and gentlemen, we have a completely full flight."

As opposed to...an incompletely full flight? A plane is either full or not full. ARGH.

You can have a very full flight, or a moderately full flight. It’s not a binary, I think you’re wrong on this one.

Either every seat is taken or it's not. I am correct.

No, to take another example, a glass can be half full. So can a plane.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Verbal in place of oral. Verbal means in words. Written instructions are verbal.
Any modifier used with the word unique. Unique is binary, it means one of a kind. Something can't be very unique, somewhat unique or a little unique.
Assassination used to describe run of the mill murder.
It does not grate on me as a pet peeve because it is so rarely used and known, but I really appreciate when I see datum used in non technical writing.

Oral instructions are verbal. They consist of words.

Oral instructions come out of your mouth. Verbal instructions are written on a page. People don't like the word oral because it sounds dirty so they say verbal and it's often wrong.

Aren’t instructions written on a page…written instructions?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When people put a qualifier with “unique”, which means one of a kind so it cannot be compared. It is incorrect to say very unique or a little unique or less unique. It’s just unique.

Also forte is pronounced without the e, like fort.

I thought it was pronounced "for-tay"

Only by rubes or Italians.

According to Merriam-Webster, both pronunciations are correct.

DP. Yes, now both pronunciations are correct but that’s only because people so commonly mispronounced it as fort-ay for so many years that the incorrect pronunciation became accepted. This happens often…people mess up a word so much that it becomes the common parlance and is actually eventually accepted into the lexicon.

That is how language develops

Or devolves...