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Grammer and spelling pet peeves
(that was on purpose people! I am so funny)
I'm stealing this from a Facebook....what are your grammar and/or spelling pet peeves?
1. If you are nauseous, that means that you make other people feel nauseated. If you feel sick to your stomach, you are nauseated.
2. There is a new construction neighborhood near our house with gigantically huge, and now completely unaffordable, homes. Well, mostly lots, but a few homes. The obnoxiously huge, faux French sign for the neighborhood said "A private enclave of stately chateaus". I wanted to SCREAM every time I drove by. They builder went under, and now the big, plain sign says "BANK OWNED". Heh.
What about you?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Herasmus B. Dragon on
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(Frantically taking notes, to ensure I do not incur the wrath of my OS friends)
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Permalink Reply by G.G. on -
psst...can i copy your notes? i've been absent.
Herasmus B. Dragon said:(Frantically taking notes, to ensure I do not incur the wrath of my OS friends)
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Permalink Reply by Daddy Geek Boy on
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I didn't know this one. I will correct myself going forward.
I can't stand people mixing up "breathe" and "breath".
You catch your breath.
You need air to breathe.
DonnaKat said:Lately I've been seeing people say "I poured over the book" instead of "pored."
I also can't stand misused apostrophe's. (I'm funny, too!)
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Permalink Reply by Mamawho on
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I hate AP style, in general. I help DaddyWho out by editing for him occasionally, and he isn't supposed to use the serial comma. When dealing with already confusing military titles and such, anything to add clarity is helpful. Like a comma.
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Permalink Reply by The Oracle on -
Oh, thank gods, other people who understand and appreciate the serial comma! *sniff* You're my people. I've had a LOT of writing jobs in my life, and I can't remember one in which my boss or client allowed me to use the serial comma. Whenever I was the editor, I got very protective of my serial commas.
I get twitchy when people mix up "effect" and "affect."
But I really want to scream when people use a semi-colon after "Dear _____" -- as in: Dear Oracle;
WTF?
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Permalink Reply by Floor Pie on -
Here's a good pneumonic for that one:
You can remember that affect is the verb because it starts with "a" for "action" (action / verb ... get it?)
The Oracle said:
I get twitchy when people mix up "effect" and "affect."
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Permalink Reply by bethany on -
Kommish, my understanding about the periods in quotations is the same as yours.
kommishoner said:Floor Pie said:2. Punctuation with quotation marks and parentheses. (Periods and commas go inside quotation marks. But people get it so consistently wrong, it's probably just a matter of time before the wrong way becomes standard.)
Huh. I always thought that if you were quoting something that had a period in it it went inside but if you were just quoting a word or clause (or doing irony quotes) it went outside.
Like so:
a) In the weather report today, the meteorologist said "[t]oday will be cloudy with a chance of meatballs."
b) In the weather report today, the meteorologist said today would be cloudy with a "chance of meatballs".
Because I'm tired and irrational, I now fear that if I'm wrong every lawyer I've ever written for secretly hates me. As a profession we tend to get particular about punctuation. Guess I'll be dusting off my Blue Book Citation Manual when I get home.
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Permalink Reply by hermit crab on -
Huh. I've been going with the kommishoner's standard on this, but just looked it up in my LB manual and it agrees with JTC. I think I was thrown because I'm already so indoctrinated into the incredibly annoying practice of placing punctuation outside of quotation marks when including a parenthetical citation. When you believe that one, you'll believe just about anything.
John T. Capp said:It's writers like you guys who make me go nuts. I get cross-eyed when I see that period or comma outside of the quotation marks unless it's in a British English text or a specialized academic text (e.g., literary criticism where you don't want to cause confusion about whether the punctuation is part of the text quoted). Anyway, my now somewhat antiquated Chicago Manual of Style (14th ed.) spells it out in §§ 5.11 to 5.13. Garner agrees in Modern American Usage in his entry on punctuation involving quotation marks. Don't put the period or comma outside in common writing unless you also follow the British convention of using single quotation marks for quotations and double quotation marks for quotations in quotations. ;)
bethany said:Kommish, my understanding about the periods in quotations is the same as yours.
kommishoner said:Floor Pie said:2. Punctuation with quotation marks and parentheses. (Periods and commas go inside quotation marks. But people get it so consistently wrong, it's probably just a matter of time before the wrong way becomes standard.)
Huh. I always thought that if you were quoting something that had a period in it it went inside but if you were just quoting a word or clause (or doing irony quotes) it went outside.
Like so:
a) In the weather report today, the meteorologist said "[t]oday will be cloudy with a chance of meatballs."
b) In the weather report today, the meteorologist said today would be cloudy with a "chance of meatballs".
Because I'm tired and irrational, I now fear that if I'm wrong every lawyer I've ever written for secretly hates me. As a profession we tend to get particular about punctuation. Guess I'll be dusting off my Blue Book Citation Manual when I get home.
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Permalink Reply by Andromeda on -
i had to go look up what a serial comma was because i didn't know it by its name.
why WOULDN'T anyone use it? i'm confused. i was taught to always use it. otherwise the last 2 items go together.
i like the example wikipedia gave:
My favourite types of sandwiches are pastrami, ham, cream cheese and peanut butter and jelly.
According to the two most plausible interpretations of this sentence, four kinds of sandwich are listed. But it is uncertain which are the third and fourth kinds. Adding a serial comma removes this ambiguity. With a comma after peanut butter, the kinds of sandwich are these:
1. pastrami
2. ham
3. cream cheese and peanut butter
4. jelly
With a comma after cream cheese, the kinds of sandwich are these:
1. pastrami
2. ham
3. cream cheese
4. peanut butter and jelly
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Permalink Reply by rommie on -
Serial commas, like everyone else said. I didn't know they had a name. I also HATE when people put quotation marks around things for emphasis. It makes me go a little crazy.
Let me just say right now that I miss having spell check and a big screen when on a phone. Computer, come back to me!
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Permalink Reply by ks on -
I have to agree with the serial comma. Makes me insane when people don't use it (and Mr. S and I go round and round over it--he does NOT use the comma).
Also, misspelling definitely. There is no a anywhere in that word. Same thing with misspelling lightning. Lightening is a whole different thing. Using whinge instead of whine also irritates me.
I'm never sure about what to do with punctuation and quotation marks, though, so I'm sure I mess that up a lot.
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