WootBot


quality posts: 14 Private Messages WootBot

Staff

Poll: Which common grammar error really makes your blood boil?
  • 26.5% - I hate to see plural apostrophe’s. 289
  • 6.8% - It kills me when a person messes up their pronoun-antecedent agreement. 74
  • 9.3% - I’ve got three: missing serial commas, missing serial commas and missing serial commas. 102
  • 5.1% - It drives me nuts when people; misuse semicolons. 56
  • 42.3% - If their is one thing I can't stand, it's when people mix up there homophones. 461
  • 10% - I’ve got a juicy one that I’ll explain in full detail in the comments. 109
1091 votes

Well, how do you fare compared to the Zeitgeist? Chat up your fellow wooters and let us know how lame this poll was or what obvious choices we missed. For example: Was this poll a) STUPID, b) DUMB, c) POINTLESS or d) ALL OF THE ABOVE?

jeanerz13


quality posts: 9 Private Messages jeanerz13

I hate when people try to sound smart by saying "I" when it really should be "me". "John gave the book to Bob and me" NOT "John gave the book to Bob and I"!

curtisuxor


quality posts: 46 Private Messages curtisuxor

Prepositions at the end of sentences.
And incomplete sentences.

khasut


quality posts: 7 Private Messages khasut

For max effect: ITS when people mix up there homophones.

Also, where is the All of the Above, eh? (Scalawag.)

avatarum


quality posts: 0 Private Messages avatarum

When people use unnecessary quotation marks it drives me nuts. My perfect attendance certificates from work have the words "perfect attendance" in quotations like it's ironic attendance or something.

quark613


quality posts: 7 Private Messages quark613

Two: "The trouble is, is..." and using "less" when you mean "fewer."

psm321


quality posts: 18 Private Messages psm321

loose instead of lose, and what jeanerz13 said

pmcizhere


quality posts: 5 Private Messages pmcizhere

Oh man, I just no I am gonna hate everyones comment's in the thread accompanying the polls post.

Holy crap that hurt to type out.

There are 10 types of people in this world: those who understand binary, and those who don't.

pinchecat


quality posts: 20 Private Messages pinchecat

homophone = something developed by apple

panthiest


quality posts: 11 Private Messages panthiest

Loose is not lose.

Alot isn't a word. Allot isn't a quantity.

Intensive purposes isn't the phrase you're looking for.

Rouge is a color or a kind of makeup, not a deviate.

"A whole nother" is something I don't even know where to start with.


curtisuxor wrote:=
And incomplete sentences.

"And" isn't the first word of a sentence, ever.

isaaclyman


quality posts: 3 Private Messages isaaclyman

I blogged extensively about this subject.

(Self-promotion alert).

http://isaacandsuch.wordpress.com/2011/07/18/things-that-make-me-want-to-kick-people-in-the-shins/

Jester747


quality posts: 1 Private Messages Jester747

Saying something is ironic when it's merely coincidental.

skywarrior3


quality posts: 46 Private Messages skywarrior3

All of them, as well as the misuse of the words "nonplussed" and "aggravated."

www.howlingdead.com

tzs


quality posts: 0 Private Messages tzs

How about your and you're?

nesdude


quality posts: 1 Private Messages nesdude

The difference between could care less and couldn't care less. Drives me up the wall.

DonWilliams


quality posts: 0 Private Messages DonWilliams

I hate when people mix plurals and singulars.


I don't like it when someone speeds on the freeway, but its their choice.

NOOOOO!!!

DonWilliams


quality posts: 0 Private Messages DonWilliams
DonWilliams wrote:I hate when people mix plurals and singulars.


I don't like it when someone speeds on the freeway, but its their choice.

NOOOOO!!!



And "should of" when they should've used "should've."

DonWilliams


quality posts: 0 Private Messages DonWilliams
panthiest wrote:

"A whole nother" is something I don't even know where to start with.



That's a funny idiom, I think.

CharlesP2009


quality posts: 22 Private Messages CharlesP2009

Theirs nothing that drives me crazy like some jerk who does'nt know what the heck there doing when they wright a sentence!!

In all seriousness though, it's the homophones. They seem to be the most common mistake made on the web behind poor spelling.

malebaba


quality posts: 0 Private Messages malebaba
jeanerz13 wrote:I hate when people try to sound smart by saying "I" when it really should be "me". "John gave the book to Bob and me" NOT "John gave the book to Bob and I"!



YES! This one.

suenami


quality posts: 0 Private Messages suenami



"And" isn't the first word of a sentence, ever.

orly? Come on, look at the context!

iamruling2


quality posts: 1 Private Messages iamruling2
jeanerz13 wrote:I hate when people try to sound smart by saying "I" when it really should be "me". "John gave the book to Bob and me" NOT "John gave the book to Bob and I"!



I'm with jeanerz13, this was something my mom always corrected me on while I was growing up. I can't even say a sentence with "me" or "I" in it without rethinking it to make sure I used the right word.

bobthenormal


quality posts: 0 Private Messages bobthenormal

Anyways...

It's worse when I hear it. Anywayzzzzzz...

Like nails on a chalkboard.

insanitea


quality posts: 0 Private Messages insanitea

All of these are painful! The missing serial comma is the bane of my professional existence, however, as a not-small part of my job is proofreading the book's worth of articles my boss wrote that we're turning into a website, and a disproportionate number of his sentences (and even article titles) include three or four listed items. The final comma is ALWAYS missing... (Unless, of course, there are several such sentences in close proximity, in which case he may get one of them right.)

Sometimes, I'll do an initial "comma sweep," skimming through an article once just to add commas so I can read the gorram thing to see what else is wrong.

The worst is when it's in an image or a video's title frame that I can't edit! D:

jonni87


quality posts: 2 Private Messages jonni87

I hate it when "utilized" is used when "used" is the word that is all that's needed.

reinzige


quality posts: 0 Private Messages reinzige

Use "of" inappropriate quotation marks.

ellerythecelery


quality posts: 0 Private Messages ellerythecelery

I think my least favorite grammar mistake falls under the heading of singular vs. plural confusion: people often say "there's" when they should say "there are."

Example: "There's five socks on the floor." Eww!

If you're really lazy when you speak, you can even say, "There're five socks on the floor." Just please don't say "there's"!

papamccain


quality posts: 0 Private Messages papamccain

My blood boils with mixed homonyms. Now before you call me a homonymphobe let me explain:

They're, Their, There... those are actually three different words with three different meanings! They're going to park their car over there. There going to park they're car over their. Their going to park there car over they're. So park it already and choose the write word for the sentence!

joedetroit


quality posts: 3 Private Messages joedetroit


Paragraphs are your FRIEND. I can tolerate most ANY of these errors; I can read what they are saying (usually). But bunching up all the sentences into one huge paragraph is unacceptable!

Keep in mind, grammar can be used as a measure of credibility.

rpm


quality posts: 150 Private Messages rpm

The nonreflexive use of "myself" grates on my ears - it's almost a class indicator.

Merely a word choice, but I still find the improper use of "home" - much the work of real estate "professionals" one suspects - to be offensive.

"The Smith-Jones' have made that old house they bought into a real home" is correct.

"The Smith-Jones' just bought a large home in Grosse Pointe" is not

Wine-tasting in 8 words:
Pull lots of corks!
Remember what you taste!

bksmith12


quality posts: 0 Private Messages bksmith12

Its versus it's.

Despite the many, many instances of this error I encounter on a near-daily basis, it somehow continues to provoke the same mixture and intensity of feelings: disgust, irritation-bordering-on-anger-bordering-on-rage, disappointment, bewilderment, sadness...

Is it really so difficult to take one second or less to apply the "substitute it is or it has" test before you toss that apostrophe in there?

Is it?

rpm


quality posts: 150 Private Messages rpm
bksmith12 wrote:
Is it really so difficult to take one second or less to apply the "substitute it is or it has" test before you toss that apostrophe in there?

Is it?



If the prevalence of the error is reasonable evidence of the proposition, it is indeed.

Wine-tasting in 8 words:
Pull lots of corks!
Remember what you taste!

chalion


quality posts: 7 Private Messages chalion

What really bakes my noodle is having to decode emails from people that think using a smartphones' "shorthand" is correct and propper (proper?) in a corporate wide email alert.


Recommended signature image size is 5k.

jtt283


quality posts: 1 Private Messages jtt283

DonWilliams has it right. "I should of bought a quality PSU for my new PC" tells me why you didn't. You're probably uneducated and ignorant.
I expect grammatical errors from children, and even from adults from time to time, but I see these gaffes in publications and other sources prepared by professional writers (and editors) often enough that I've pretty much lost hope for our educational system.

ChronoSquall14


quality posts: 37 Private Messages ChronoSquall14

I literally die every time someone misuses the word "literally."

It gets old taking that first breath back to life.

LoomTheElf


quality posts: 1 Private Messages LoomTheElf

"It was a clear message to he and I" drives me nuts. I immediately take the speaker to be a pompous poop who is quite ignorant, but is striving to sound educated by showing the world how brilliant they are by using incorrect grammar.

Have you noticed how many of the talking heads misuse their pronouns?

Then there's the phrase that has caught on with the younger generation:

"Me n'Mary saw that movie!"

Last week, my daughter was furious with me for correcting her seven-year-old daughter for starting half her sentences with "Me n'Mary..." The child was fine with the grammar lesson, but mom wasn't.

Another error that seems to have surfaced on FB is "threw" for "through."

Just, urp.

jtt283, I have a friend who makes all of those errors and teaches English in high school. There's no hope.

Notice: Spelling and grammar mistakes left in for people who need to correct others to make their life fulfilled.

stingray69


quality posts: 4 Private Messages stingray69
tzs wrote:How about your and you're?



This one enrages me like no other. I reply with the matching whose/who's to showcase their error. Like so.

Them: "You're literary critique is not appreciated!"
Me: "Who's a literary critique? Also, this is grammar, not literature."

adamsdan1


quality posts: 0 Private Messages adamsdan1

-Using the word literally as an intensifier.

I had a nearly perfect golf game this morning. I was literally on fire.

webgrunt


quality posts: 3 Private Messages webgrunt
curtisuxor wrote:Prepositions at the end of sentences.


So, would it be correct to say that ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which you will not put?

rpm


quality posts: 150 Private Messages rpm
DonWilliams wrote:And "should of" when they should've used "should've."



I've rarely seen "should of" written. In casual speech, I suspect that when one hears "should of" the speaker intends "should've". The difference in pronunciation between the offending "should of" and the contraction "should've" is almost, if not entirely, undetectable.

Wine-tasting in 8 words:
Pull lots of corks!
Remember what you taste!