Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My grammar peeves have been covered, but a sort of grammar-adjacent peeve I have in is making something possessive when it shouldn't be. Example, "I'm going to stop by Nordstrom's after work." It's just Nordstrom. If they wanted it to be Nordstrom's they would have named it that like Bloomingdale's and Macy's.

It’s even worse when people refer to “Aldi’s.” There is no Mr. Aldi!!!! I believe that ALDI is an acronym.

I dislike that too. One of my neighbors always says "Costco's," and it drives me nuts.

I will also add another peeve, which is people who randomly capitalize letters. I work in government and regularly observe this style in letters from constituents. For example, "We must correct this Injustice. Action is required to Stop this interference with our Basic Rights." Why?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The towels "need washed" or the baby's diaper "needs changed." I understand this is a regionalism but it sounds so uneducated.

It's a PA thing (central and western, specifically). I agree that it's annoying, though I recently learned that particular construction is based on German grammar rules. Given the influence of German immigrants on PA, that's not surprising.

What I have learned most in this thread is that DCUM people are just now learning that we have different regional dialects and don’t all speak exactly the same language.

Generations later it’s not really an excuse for people who can’t speak German.

No, the rest of us just grew up and realized that our "regional dialects" were poor grammar and corrected our errors. If you know better, why do you want to sound uneducated?

Then we should all be speaking British English. Or maybe our English is actually closer to “right” for some arbitrary point in time to decide when evolution should stop? Or maybe we should speak the English of Beowulf?

Language evolves, especially spoken language. There are absolutely rules to written language, but we have the ability to change our language to express ourselves differently. In fact, of European languages, English may be unique in the way you can manipulate it to create complex nuance and subtleties.

Maybe if you were better educated you’d know that and not be so focused on tsk tsking on a list of memorized no-nos.

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.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The towels "need washed" or the baby's diaper "needs changed." I understand this is a regionalism but it sounds so uneducated.

It's a PA thing (central and western, specifically). I agree that it's annoying, though I recently learned that particular construction is based on German grammar rules. Given the influence of German immigrants on PA, that's not surprising.

What I have learned most in this thread is that DCUM people are just now learning that we have different regional dialects and don’t all speak exactly the same language.

Generations later it’s not really an excuse for people who can’t speak German.

No, the rest of us just grew up and realized that our "regional dialects" were poor grammar and corrected our errors. If you know better, why do you want to sound uneducated?

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.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My grammar peeves have been covered, but a sort of grammar-adjacent peeve I have in is making something possessive when it shouldn't be. Example, "I'm going to stop by Nordstrom's after work." It's just Nordstrom. If they wanted it to be Nordstrom's they would have named it that like Bloomingdale's and Macy's.

It’s even worse when people refer to “Aldi’s.” There is no Mr. Aldi!!!! I believe that ALDI is an acronym.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The towels "need washed" or the baby's diaper "needs changed." I understand this is a regionalism but it sounds so uneducated.

It's a PA thing (central and western, specifically). I agree that it's annoying, though I recently learned that particular construction is based on German grammar rules. Given the influence of German immigrants on PA, that's not surprising.

What I have learned most in this thread is that DCUM people are just now learning that we have different regional dialects and don’t all speak exactly the same language.

Generations later it’s not really an excuse for people who can’t speak German.

No, the rest of us just grew up and realized that our "regional dialects" were poor grammar and corrected our errors. If you know better, why do you want to sound uneducated?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The towels "need washed" or the baby's diaper "needs changed." I understand this is a regionalism but it sounds so uneducated.

It's a PA thing (central and western, specifically). I agree that it's annoying, though I recently learned that particular construction is based on German grammar rules. Given the influence of German immigrants on PA, that's not surprising.

Generations later it’s not really an excuse for people who can’t speak German.

Absolutely. I just think it's interesting where it came from since I just assumed it was some sort of hillbilly/Pennsyltucky thing.

It's very specific to that region then. My grandmother was a German speaker in the midwest. She never said "needs washed."

I grew up in eastern Wisconsin, which is incredibly German, and I associate "this needs washed"/"this needs changed" with Pennsylvania. I don't hear it much when I'm in WI.

I've come across the omission of "to be" in Ireland and the west of Scotland. Could it be connected with Irish verb/infinitive construction at all?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The towels "need washed" or the baby's diaper "needs changed." I understand this is a regionalism but it sounds so uneducated.

It's a PA thing (central and western, specifically). I agree that it's annoying, though I recently learned that particular construction is based on German grammar rules. Given the influence of German immigrants on PA, that's not surprising.

Generations later it’s not really an excuse for people who can’t speak German.

Absolutely. I just think it's interesting where it came from since I just assumed it was some sort of hillbilly/Pennsyltucky thing.

It's very specific to that region then. My grandmother was a German speaker in the midwest. She never said "needs washed."

I grew up in eastern Wisconsin, which is incredibly German, and I associate "this needs washed"/"this needs changed" with Pennsylvania. I don't hear it much when I'm in WI.

Anonymous wrote:

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

I believe it was Emerson’s cousin who said “nitpicking about grammar is the hobgoblin of a little mind”.

Anonymous wrote:My grammar peeves have been covered, but a sort of grammar-adjacent peeve I have in is making something possessive when it shouldn't be. Example, "I'm going to stop by Nordstrom's after work." It's just Nordstrom. If they wanted it to be Nordstrom's they would have named it that like Bloomingdale's and Macy's.