I’m by no means a grammar-nazi (I’ve been guilty of many a mistake, and I certainly don’t proof my posts like I should… he who is without sin, cast the first stone).
BUT - now that I’m getting knee-deep into sentence correction, there are just things that bugs me, and I feel compelled to share. Please add your own in the comments.
1. Ridiculous, not rediculous. I’ve seen the word spelled incorrectly so often that it’s getting ridiculous. (Incidentally, in Spanish the word is ridículo, not ridiculoso).
2. Hopefully - “I hope to win” or “it is hoped that I win,” not, “hopefully I’ll win.” “Hopefully” is a synonym for “prayerfully”, as in, “the Jesuits lived hopefully and prayerfully.”
3. Since vs. Because: Since refers to time, because refers to causality. Since February, he has been studying. Because he studies, he is a good student.
4. “Everyone” is singular. Singular! Everyone needs his (or her) pencil. Not, everyone needs their pencil. I am all for the equality of men and women, but I gladly accept the concept of the “universal he” when it’s too cumbersome to write out his or her in every case, IF it will save us from the “everyone… their” fiasco.
5. It’s = a contraction of it is. Its = possessive of it. Its corner is scrapped. It’s such a shame he fell.
P.S. I know I have a lot of readers who work in publishing… so… this is your chance to educate the rest of us!
P.P.S. Does anyone know where the title of this post comes from? 
I can’t stand it when people spell definitely “definately”.
I see that word misspelled so often that I actually think that more people are spelling it “definately” than they are “definitely”. Eeek!
My writing isn’t great, but something that really bothers me is the confusion of “they’re” (contraction of they are), “their” (possessive) and occasionally even “there” (location).
I see their used all the time in place of they’re.
@Saving my bacon: it took me years to learn how to spell definitely. I would always spell it definately and have the spell check correct it. I don’t think it was until college that I actually figured out how to spell it correctly.
But I am awful at spelling… it took me until highschool to realize it was article and not artical. It’s kind of embarassing actually. I was one of the students who they tested “phonetic spelling” on, so I was taught to always spell things the way they sound… this method Does Not Work! I also never had a formal grammar class… it has made life really difficult.
My writing isn’t great, but something that really bothers me is the confusion of “they’re” (contraction of they are), “their” (possessive) and occasionally even “there” (location).
I see their used all the time in place of they’re.
@Saving my bacon: it took me years to learn how to spell definitely. I would always spell it definately and have the spell check correct it. I don’t think it was until college that I actually figured out how to spell it correctly.
But I am awful at spelling… it took me until highschool to realize it was article and not artical. It’s kind of embarassing actually. I was one of the students who they tested “phonetic spelling” on, so I was taught to always spell things the way they sound… this method Does Not Work! I also never had a formal grammar class… it has made life really difficult.
Sorry for the double post, my computer is being really weird. I can’t figure out how to delete one of them.
Lol…thanks! As a non-English major I’m always up for a grammar lesson! I think I’ve been guilty of numbers 2 and 3, and #4 when I’m too lazy (is there no other way around the “his or her” issue?!)
For some reason they didn’t teach us a lot of grammar in elementary or middle school….or even high school! I don’t understand why, but with that in mind I DO understand why kids these days can’t write very well (or in the words of Derek Zoolander, don’t write “good”). I don’t think the whole texting/IM culture is helping.
Feel free to correct me if you ever see me committing any blatant grammar errors! (Be nice though!)
Regarding number 4, when and why singular ‘their’ can be appropriate:
http://158.130.17.5/~myl/languagelog/archives/005116.html
http://158.130.17.5/~myl/languagelog/archives/005122.html
I recognize that you have to play along to score well on the GMAT, so here’s a good response to the College Board’s “sentence error” questions in general:
http://158.130.17.5/%7Emyl/languagelog/archives/001863.html
These are a little involved, but they are written for a lay audience so I think you’ll be fine. Good luck studying, and don’t let standardized tests turn you into a prescriptivist!
(If these don’t hyperlink themselves I’ll repost with some html for ease of access).
While we are nit-picking, the Jesuits are still around, and they still live hopefully.
John Preston!
I think the original post and the comments nailed my pet peeves (”its definately their!”). My favorite grammar story is of someone who would always respond to email requests with “considerate done”.
**headdesk**
I think as English speakers, we should retire the term, “A lot”. probably 90% of people turn it into one word and since it’s a pretty weak exaggeration, maybe we should just finish it off complete. But, then again, I do say “a lot” a lot myself
This one drives me out of my mind:
“Try and” versus “try to.”
In almost every single case ever, what the speaker/writer really means is “try to.” The trying and the actually act are not two separate activities, the try is emphasizing that the act is not a given, that it may or may not work out. I am getting worked up just thinking about this one.
In sum, I am going to try to spread the message about this grammatical error. I am NOT going to try and spread the message.
ATTENTION READERS! As I frequently spell words incorrectly and make grammatical mistakes, read my blog with caution. I never knew so many people read blogs with such a critical eye. Wow, this was really an eye opening experience for me. Now, I am afraid to post. Ha.
Is it really bad that I didn’t know about “hopefully”?
I’d consider myself a great speller, and fairly decent at grammar, but not the best. I sometimes end my sentences with prepositions, and when someone asks how I am, I often say “I’m good.” I DO know the differences, but sometimes saying it the grammatical way just sounds too formal to me (e.g. “I’m well”).
Oh, and my pet peeve is really not in writing as it is everyday chatter. I hate when someone asks you “How are you doing?” and the response is “good.” The answer is “well” or “fine.”
Or “can I do something” instead of “may I”.
Christian Bale is such a dreamboat - but it was so anticlimactic when he dispensed with the main villain in all of two seconds (which, I think, answers your reference question).
I commonly use ’since’ and ‘because’ interchangeably since ’since’ and ‘because’ can be synonyms that mean “in view of the fact that” when both are used as a conjunction. I don’t think that is wrong, but it might be and I just don’t know. I am so woefully self deceived.
Also, I think using ‘hopefully’ in the sentence “Hopefully I will get into Harvard” is entirely alright. I don’t have access to an Oxford English Dictionary anymore, but I bet if you looked it up you could find it used as early as the 1800s that way, which is way longer than words like Internet, pwned, and w00t.
Besides, grammar is supposed to be descriptive of the way language is. It is not supposed to set up artificial rules that have to be followed (or so say I).
Do you listen to the Grammer Girl podcast? You would probably like it. I listen to it, but now that I say that, you’ll probably find lots of errors in my blog! Personally, I like “their” instead of “his” or “his or her” when speaking in general terms. I think it’s becoming more accepted.
Ugh, I am driven crazy by these things as well. I’m in journalism, where it’s my job to catch these errors, so I am really attuned to them. One that kills me is the your/you’re switcheroo. So many people don’t use those correctly!!! A smart, college-educated friend of mine constantly uses the wrong words…yesterday it was “soar” instead of “sore.” I corrected him and he said, “Whatever, same thing.” I said, “Actually, no, they’re two completely different words!” Haha. To some people it seems petty, but I am irked beyond belief by people who are too lazy or incompetent to use the correct words!
P.S. Is the title from Equilibrium? If so, I LOVE IT!
Such a good post.
Here’s one I hate: your welcome.
My welcome? What do you mean?
Oh, and my pet peeve is really not in writing as it is everyday chatter. I hate when someone asks you “How are you doing?” and the response is “good.” The answer is “well” or “fine.”
“Fine” has the same grammatical problem as “good” in this case (i.e. that it’s an adjective, not an adverb). You would want “finely,” but since that sounds kind of bizarre, I would stick with “well.” Frankly, though, the real problem with “I’m doing good” is not grammatical but semiotic–it’s easily confused for “I’m doing good deeds,” or “I’m doing good in the world.”
Effects vs affects.
Also, there/they’re/their because that seems so simple and obvious to me.
But I’m probably more of an offender than one who gets offended over grammar. I’m a bad speller and always have been. I love using firefox because it puts red squiggles under my mistakes.
Also I hate seen being used wrong: “I seen her yesterday” YES, i know people that say this. (Sort of small-town, usually.)
In my hometown/region it is perfectly normal (though grammatically incorrect) to ask someone if they will borrow you a pen. Everyone uses borrow instead of lend. When I first moved away, I got nailed on that once or twice before correcting myself. I can’t bring myself to ask if someone will lend me something, but I altered it to “Can I borrow a pen?”
I always thought the expression was “Threw me through a loop.” It makes more since to me than threw me for a loop.
A friend once included in her email the phrase “For all intensive purposes…”
(All grammar nazi’s, notice I defiantly started a sentence with “But” instead of “However”)
Hopefully can be used that way! It’s an accepted usage which means “it is hoped that.” It’s been standard usage in writing and speech for about 100 years. “Their,” instead of “his or hers,” as another commenter mentioned, is not correct usage, just an extremely common error. And as someone else pointed out, “since” and “because” can be synonymous in certain contexts.
I get annoyed when people say “ATM machine,” “HIV virus,” and “AIDS syndrome.” Similarly, I find it funny when people refer to the “Sahara Desert,” which is like saying the Desert Desert. (I mean, I know it’s big and all…)
And as a throw-back to my teaching days, the one thing I found shockingly common and totally ridiculous was when my students would ACTUALLY write, in their formal papers, the word “you” as “U.” 4rlz!
Oh, another really silly one: confusing “yay” and “yea.” A board that I serve on recently conducted a vote via email, and a disturbingly large number of girls responded “yay” to register their assent. Of course I knew what they meant, but I had a really funny picture in my head of board members jumping up and down and getting really excited about voting! YAY!
At least no one voted “neigh.”
I run several wordpress blogs and so correcting comments has become the bane of my life. We recently had a successful thread about “emos” - you know, those little black-haired goths - and the rebellious scamps decided to engage the entire debate in txt spk.
After over a hundred comments of this nature I decided to remind them that the English language does have some rules even though I am open to the prescriptive / descriptive language arguments.
One user, “sadmum101″ or something like that then proceeded to chastise me for “belittling” her son and others. I felt duly ashamed of my snobbery and now just remove swear words from comments.
Hopefully has been debated for a long time (see dictionary), but is generally accepted to mean “it is hoped”.
Since CAN be used as a conjunction. To borrow from your example… “He has been a good student since he began studying”. But you’re right, people do misuse it.
My biggest pet peeve is one that a lot of people don’t seem to know is a problem at all. When you use words about an uncertain event (such as “If” or “I wish”) you need to use “were” instead of “was”. e.g. “I wish I were an astronaut.” or “If I were an astronaut, I’d be the best astronaut ever.”
Moving a bit off-topic, I hate when people pronounce forte as “fortay” like the music term.
Sorry, but you’re wrong on the “everyone… their fiasco”!
It’s perfectly good and acceptable English, and has been used for centuries. Native English speakers use it (British and other!), so - treating grammar as descriptive rather than prescriptive - then it’s 100% correct.
Of course, that’s unless you’re referring SOLELY to American English, in which case you’re welcome to it!
;o)
Regarding “well” vs. “good,” I actually agree with Grammar Girl’s explanation. Here is an excerpt from her April 20, 2007 podcast on the subject (http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/good-versus-well.aspx):
“[W]hen you say, ‘I am well,’ you’re using well as a predicate adjective. That’s fine, but most sources say well is reserved to mean ‘healthy’ when it’s used in this way (1, 3, 4). So if you are recovering from a long illness and someone is inquiring about your health, it’s appropriate to say, ‘I am well,’ but if you’re just describing yourself on a generally good day and nobody’s asking specifically about your health, a more appropriate response is, ‘I am good.’”