Comments on: NHR: Things that piss me off (Linguistic Fascist brain-dump edition)

By: acidqueen

acidqueen — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 15:40:20 +0000

Tell me who to talk to, and I’m all over it like white on rice.

By: Beth

Beth — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 20:48:50 +0000

I just quit my job as a proofreader/copy editor. You want it?

By: Jes Golbez

Jes Golbez — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 19:52:15 +0000

LAFzz!!!

d00d, j00 B like so anul! Irregardless of how you feel, the goal of language is to be excommunicating your fellow denizens. Their isn’t anything j00 can do to stop the Amerikan educayshun system from churning out stupid peeps.

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 14:16:12 +0000

Hey Mer, we have that book at home. My wife is a librarian, so we’re both geeks about grammar.

Dave, Adam is right on concerning “I” and “me”.

Adam, I always tell them to say the sentence with one subject and it will tell them how to phrase it. “I went to the store” + “My sister went to the store” = “My sister and I went to the store”. That seems to make it right in their head.

By: Adam

Adam — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 22:27:06 +0000

Uh, David it is “My sister is older than me.”

“Me” is correct when it is in the predicate. I is for the subject.

But it is annoying when people misuse “me” in sentences like “My sister and me went to the store.” When, “My sister and I went to the store.” is correct.

By: Tracy

Tracy — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 21:47:55 +0000

That’s hilarious! I am right there with you!! I know that I make some bonehead mistakes but it’s the obvious ones that drive me nuts.

HoW aBoUt WhEn PeEpLe TaLk LiKe DiS n MaKe Me WaNt To KiLl DeM.

Good grief. I don’t speak idiot.

By: Mer

Mer — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 15:21:21 +0000

Let’s try that again:

I know some people WHO are getting a copy of “Eats Shoots and Leaves” from me for Christmas.

A must-have for grammar-philes.

By: Mer

Mer — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 15:19:21 +0000

I know some people WHO are getting a copy of “Eats Shoots and Leave” from me for Christmas…:-)

By: CasonBlog

CasonBlog — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 23:57:52 +0000

Wheew. I thought it was just me being anal.

By: acidqueen

acidqueen — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 19:13:04 +0000

And I don’t have a problem with that, because at least you’re aware of your gaffes and try to fix them–and there’s nothing wrong with a conversational tone in one’s writing, in my book.

My issue is more with the willfully careless abuse by people who don’t care that they’re harming themselves by speaking/writing like a semiliterate gobshite.

By: CasonBlog

CasonBlog — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 16:13:02 +0000

I’m sure I’m guilty as charged. I try and take a conversational tone in what I write. I probably mangle the language for effect more than I should.

Sometimes in the editing process I miss simple things because I see what I intended to say, not what is there. I end up revisiting posts numerous times to make changes and fix things.

By: roddie

roddie — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 13:21:13 +0000

David,

We know what you meant.

By: David Lee

David Lee — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 00:07:12 +0000

wow. I got so worked up that I made a few goofs. Obviously, I meant “first person pronouns”

By: David Lee

David Lee — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 00:04:44 +0000

Amen, sister!
One of my biggest pet peeves is the improper usage of the first pronouns.

People incorrectly say “My sister is four years older than me“. This drives me up a wall, and I don’t mind looking like an asshole when I say “older than I

People incorrectly say “He’s the type of person that doesn’t like hockey anyway.” I don’t mind looking like an asshole when I say “A man isn’t a ‘that’. He’s a ‘who’ ”

The ever-present misuse of apostrophes when attempting to pluralize drives me up a wall.
Similar to the “there/ their/ they’re” and the “your / you’re” thing is the misuse of homonyms. Some idiots in my fantasy baseball league constantly write things like “I don’t want to here any more of you’re bitching.”
I’m glad I’m not alone.

By: WufPirate

WufPirate — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 20:14:35 +0000

All the more reason to love Ek’s writing.

“Myy dog hasnt not gone to the vetrinarie because he’ss sic.”

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 19:29:52 +0000

I’m with you there. I had to lay the (figurative) verbal smackdown on a hockey teammate for mixing up “loose” and “lose” in an email. It drives me up the wall.