"Margins, people. Margins!"
A fellow teacher almost grows fangs and claws while grading papers. Her biggest complaint is when students confuse they're, there, and their. Other teachers get impatient with mistakes involving accept and except. Still others can't tolerate misspelled words. Everyone has pet peeves. Here are some of mine.
- Fake words like nauseous, irregardless, supposably, and humungus when correct versions like nauseated, regardless, supposedly, and huge remain in our language for a reason.
- Misusing apostrophes. Example: "To The Robinson's" or "Back in the 1980's" or "Passion's Adult Book Store." Worst of all: "The dog wagged it's tail." Unless you mean it is, don't write it's! Go ahead. Argue with me about this one. I dare you.
- Stop using that after feel. Example: "He feels that the Iraq war is wrong" or "I feel that Bush acts retarded" We feel hung over or vindicated or superior. You don't feel that, you think it. Know the difference.
- Enough with so and very. Get creative. I'm partial to the adorable and Jewish "So nice!" - however, there are better ways to express yourself.
- very pretty = beautiful
- so angry = furious
- very drunk = my kind of guy
- Don't write of after myriad - it's superfluous. Like a Masters in Education. Correct example: "There are myriad ways to love me." See how nice that sounds without an of mucking it up?
- Last, but not least, for oral presentations or speeches of any kind - oh is the way you pronounce the letter O not zero. For the love of Pete, get it right.
DISCLAIMER: I've been known to make a grammatical error, break my own rules from time to time, and once I even spelled obscure with an a. Otherwise I'm damn near perfect. So thank you very much for playing.
12 Comments:
"Stop using that after feel. Example: "He feels that the Iraq war is wrong" or "I feel that Bush acts retarded" We feel hung over or vindicated or superior. You don't feel that, you think it. Know the difference."
This is also one of my pet peeves. Come on, learn the difference already. You can't "feel" a thought and you can't "think" an emotion.
Obligatory: http://www.angryflower.com/bobsqu.gif
"There, their, they're" and "your, you're" are my most infuriating pet peeves. I really hate such things.
Some examples from work lately:
"daisy change" instead of "daisy chain" when referring to one power strip plugged into another.
"...was hoping you new a Linux restore command..."
"obstacle circuits" and "obtacal circuits" when referring to optical circuits (high-speed data transmission lines).
[note: I probably spelled 'referring' wrong up there, twice, me = too lazy to look it up]
See Dalia? This is why I love you.
And Gax, you spelled it correctly. At least I think you did. At any rate, I wouldn't mark it wrong.
Yeah, I have to admit I'm pretty bad about their, they're, and there. I even have trouble with its and it's on occasion. I know how to use all of them correctly, but when I go back and read over something I've written, I'll find it riddled with those kinds of mistakes. I'm not even consistent in my misuse. It's as though my typing fingers just pick a word at random, as long as it's phonetically correct.
Now that I have that confession out of the way, I just wanted to point out that a couple of your apostrophe examples might be a little ambiguous. For instance, "To the Robinson's" is incorrect if the whole sentence is "Give that to the Robinsons," but it would be correct if the sentence was "Let's go to the Robinson's." Of course, it might also be the title of something and I'm just not getting the reference. Anyway, "Passion's Adult Book Store" could also be correct if they mean that the book store belongs, perhaps figuratively, to passion (you know, like saying, "That guy is love's bitch"). Of course, if that's the case, you could probably complain about improper characterization, as I'm not sure passion does a lot of reading.
I really enjoyed the post. Even with my constant mistakes, I'm kind of a grammar nut.
Merriam Webster has a bone to pick with you about nauseous:
Those who insist that nauseous can properly be used only in sense 1 and that in sense 2 it is an error for nauseated are mistaken. Current evidence shows these facts: nauseous is most frequently used to mean physically affected with nausea, usually after a linking verb such as feel or become; figurative use is quite a bit less frequent. Use of nauseous in sense 1 is much more often figurative than literal, and this use appears to be losing ground to nauseating. Nauseated is used more widely than nauseous in sense 2.
Then again they think "fishes" is okay, so what do they know? Just be prepared for one of your students to dispute that red x.
The apostrophes are huge, and it reminds me of this apparently Southern fixation with making everything possessive - Eckerd's, Blockbuster's, etc. Thank God the possessive of Publix is too awkward to be viable.
Is there anything worse than a grammatically inferior conservative?
http://hernandoccc.blogspot.com/2006/08/does-this-make-democratic-message-seem.html
I also can't stand "inappropriate" use of "quotation marks." It drives me "nuts."
I find the myriad of mistakes in my students' paper's makes me nauseous.
Ah, a copy editor at heart!
Know what drives me bonkers?
Improper use of the word "disinterested" ...
arg,
--chase
As an editor and writer, this is my fave post of yours to date, Kate. It's first rate. Seriously.
Katie, now that the business of the wedding is over (almost after the thank you notes are completed), I finally have time to view your site. Those were some great grammatical tips. I'll be checking in to see what you write about Lieberman...very curious!
I felt like throwing up yesterday but couldn't refrain from using the words I feel nauseaous! So I did some research in the dictionary and now, although I know it's not completely proper, I can use it without fear:
Usage Note: Traditional critics have insisted that nauseous is properly used only to mean “causing nausea” and that it is incorrect to use it to mean “affected with nausea,” as in Roller coasters make me nauseous. In this example, nauseated is preferred by 72 percent of the Usage Panel. Curiously, though, 88 percent of the Panelists prefer using nauseating in the sentence The children looked a little green from too many candy apples and nauseating (not nauseous) rides. Since there is a lot of evidence to show that nauseous is widely used to mean “feeling sick,” it appears that people use nauseous mainly in the sense in which it is considered incorrect. In its “correct” sense it is being supplanted by nauseating.
When my mom was in nursing school, they didn't allow her to use anything other than "nauseated" or she's lose a grade or something. Therefore I never use it.
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