Jill, that's interesting about only writing numbers up to 10. I'm just wondering if that is one of those spelling and grammar things that's different between the US and here, because it was drilled into me that all numbers under a hundred should be written out and over a hundred numerals can and should be used. That's something that's rigidly enforced at work - I work for an insurance company - with the only exception being if we're referring to a particular section of the policy wording, ie section 2F.

PHANTASTICA I have personally sent multitudes to **** for not forwarding e-mails...sorry guys! ;)

I am guilty of most of what you are all talking about. In my behalf, I type so slow :snail: that as I am doing it I don't feel the need for commas.

I do allow myself "so many per post" though, so I kind of just throw them in at random....kind of like multiple choice...some will be correct.

My grammar totally annoys my Language Arts teacher wife ;)

Especially when I say..."I ain't got no fill in the blank.

I have lots of online pet peeves. Some have to do with this forum, and some with other things, such as email, MySpace, etc.

~People who use colored fonts like yellow, or baby pink on the white background, and you bust a blood vessel trying to read their typing.

~People who email, or send me MySpace bulletins that are forwards that I don't give a rat's behind about-such as chain letters, poems, or something that has FW: in the title seven times already. Hey you out there-I don't read these! They go straight into the trash section of my email! :lol:

~Lose/Loose. This one, I have to admit, came from this forum. You want to LOSE weight, so your clothes will be LOOSE! ;)

~People on forums who have signatures that are a foot long. There is nothing wrong with having a signature, or a weight tracker, etc. but if you have uploaded 7 pictures of your kids, 3 of your cats, and have your name in glitter graphics on top...it's simply TOO MUCH. :lol: A lot of people still have dial up internet service, and I know that it takes their pages a lot longer to load when people do this as well.

~Spammers and phishers in my email. Apparently my eBay account has been hijacked-every single day, my account has been suspended at such-and-such bank where I don't even have an account, and I can get Viagra at an online pharmacy with no prescription. :rofl:

~eBay sellers who don't give you positive feedback right away when you pay. They wait until they see what feedback you are going to leave THEM first, and then give it. I think you should get positive feedback for paying promptly, as you should. If they don't mail your package for 3 weeks, or send you an item that isn't as promised, they shouldn't be able to hold feedback over your head.

~Trolls.

~People who start 7 threads on the same thing, instead of looking around to see if there is a thread on it already before they do.

~Slutty/trashy MySpace pages...

~People who type with the caps lock on, so that it is in all capitals...or on here, where they do that and it ends up like so:

Hi Everyone, How Are You All Today?

The first letter ends up in all caps, and it is really annoying.

~On the opposite end of that...people who don't capitalize ANYTHING.

I have more, but I'll stop. :lol:

Aphil! Ditto on the signature thing. Glitter Graphics - 'nuff said!

I actually hurt my moms feelings because when I finally couldn't take any more of her email forwards I sent her a link to thanksno.com
This site cracks me up, a nice polite but sarcastic request to never forward me anything again. I do hate them so.

I also hate music on any website- when I accidentally click on your myspace and some rap song about being a pimp or some country song about your divorce just starts playing out of nowhere I want to scream.

Giant Glitter names should be banned. :)

My Pet Peeves:

People who don't know the difference between 'its' and it's.'

People who use the word, "healthy," when they mean "healthful." (Example: "I ate a healthy meal today." What? You mean the MEAL was healthy?? Or were YOU healthy because you ate a healthful meal??)

There is no such word as 'snuck.' The proper grammar is 'sneaked.' I know it sounds weird, but it's true.

People who say, "preventative," when they mean "preventive."

LOL, nicolen, I've spoken to you directly in threads using your name and you didn't reply to me. I assumed it was because you didn't see my post. I hope so, anyway. Guess the invisible thing happens to all of us. :)

I'll stop now. ;)

Rae

Oh, dear, Raebear. I don't remember seeing your responses before now. :o I'm so sorry.

I'll be a better munchkin from now on and pay more attention, I promise! :D

btw what are trolls???? sorry maybe i'm not as internet savy...but that's a new term.

And btw..i'm soooo guilty of typos...i swear its my adhd.

I WISH I would have known about that website last week! I have a very dear friend that kept sending me junk (chain letters even!!! :mad: ) even after I asked her not to do so, several times. I think she may have gotten the message after my last email to her though. :o

I was nodding my head to most of the posts about grammar and word usage, until Raebear's post. Raebear, you surprised me with your post. I like that.

I have used "snuck" all my life. While I believe preventive is a better word, I didn't think preventative is incorrect. Also, I thought that healthful is a better word when describing nutritious food, I thought that healthy was used enough to become part of our lexicon. So, I went to dictionary.com to do some checking.

Here's a note in the entry for snuck:

—Usage note First recorded in writing toward the end of the 19th century in the United States, snuck has become in recent decades a standard variant past tense and past participle of the verb sneak: Bored by the lecture, he snuck out the side door. Snuck occurs frequently in fiction and in journalistic writing as well as on radio and television: In the darkness the sloop had snuck around the headland, out of firing range. It is not so common in highly formal or belletristic writing, where sneaked is more likely to occur. Snuck is the only spoken past tense and past participle for many younger and middle-aged persons of all educational levels in the U. S. and Canada. Snuck has occasionally been considered nonstandard, but it is so widely used by professional writers and educated speakers that it can no longer be so regarded.


Preventative is listed.

Here is a usage note about healthy:

Usage Note: The distinction in meaning between healthy ("possessing good health") and healthful ("conducive to good health") was ascribed to the two terms only as late as the 1880s. This distinction, though tenaciously supported by some critics, is belied by citational evidence—healthy has been used to mean "healthful" since the 16th century. Use of healthy in this sense is to be found in the works of many distinguished writers, with this example from John Locke being typical: "Gardening . . . and working in wood, are fit and healthy recreations for a man of study or business." Therefore, both healthy and healthful are correct in these contexts: a healthy climate, a healthful climate; a healthful diet, a healthy diet.

Such a cutie SOULBLISS ;)

My pet peeve would have to be cursing. Abbreviated or not it is still cursing and not necessary. I am not talking about hitting your thumb with a hammer and words comeing out of your mouth that you generally wouldn't say. I am talking about the cursing that goes on, all over the web, in posts.

Battle, I get VERY annoyed with dictionary.com. While a helpful tool, they seem to add words and terms simply because they are used frequently, even if incorrect. I first discovered this when I found their entry for "dethaw." This is another peeve of mine, when people use this term. Just think about it--"de" mean to undo something, and we know what "thaw" means, so, by definition, "dethaw" really means you're going to FREEZE something. You can THAW or you can DEFROST meat, but DETHAW has no place in a correct English dictionary. And yet, there it is. I have a hard time accepting things as being correct simply because a lot of people use it incorrectly--if we keep doing so, then "u" and "y" and "idk" and "lol" will soon be entering our language as grammatically correct :dizzy: But that's just another peeve of mine--nothing against anyone personally (just mentioned Battle since she brought up Dictionary.com) :^:

That said...
AMEN! I used to work on a writing/editing project for "Preventive Services" for Medicare. We ALWAYS spelled it "preventive," and yet there were people on our team who, even when READING it on the page, would ALWAYS say "preventative." Drove me INSANE!!

I find this debate of semantics very interesting.

My husband seems to love debating word usage like this. Whenever we get into an argument, I will go to my best friend and ask her. My bf is an extremely intelligent woman who is also an English teacher. I have found, though, that she is amazingly liberal in her grammar. She thinks language is here for us to communicate, so if people are communicating clearly and getting their points across, then that is ok with her.

Now, lest you think she lets her students go around using "u" in their papers, she does not. But her personal beliefs are that if something is coming into popular usage, it tends to be accepted and added into the language, which is what has happened with many words in the past.

So if I want to know if the comma I'm using is correct, she can tell me, and she would tell her students. But her private, secret life is that she usually doesn't care. I think part of it is that she really is not a legalistic person, she cares about intent, not about following rules for the sake of following rules.

I'm not sure how I feel about it. I just tend to speak and write as well as I can.
-------
On another controversial word, I had a high school English teacher that really emphasized: Drapes are hung. A person is hanged. I always use hanged for a person being killed in that manner, but few do.

Jillybean....

Dethaw is one of the most annoyingly incorrect "words" I have ever heard. Any time someone around me uses this, I feel it necessary to make them feel like an idiot.

Speaking of incorrect words...(FYI, this is not internet related, but still a peeve of mine.)

My favorite movie is The Wizard of Oz. But I get incredibly mad when the witch screams, "I'm melting, melting! What a world, what a world..." I want to slap her and say, "No, lady. You are sublimating. Get it straight if you're going to whine about it." And then the wizard actually responds to the lion, tin man, scarecrow, and Dorothy, upon hearing of the witch's death: "Oh, you liquidated her, eh?" To which they reply, "Y-y-yes sir." Really? Because what I saw was gas. No liquid. Solid to gas equals sublimation. Not melting. You're all dumb and need to ask the wizard for a brain. Forget hearts and courage and home.

My online pet peeve is:

When you make a joke or are sarcastic in a post and someone feels the need to respond seriously. I know that it is usually difficult to tell when someone is joking/sarcastic but I think if I use a winking face, smiley, or quotations, it should be fairly obvious.

I recently posted and I said something like "I thought 1+1=2 ;)" in relation to calorie counting or whatever, and the next person felt the need to explain the laws of mathematics. :mad:


*Just a quick note about language usage: Remember that everything is constantly evolving--language is too. There are hundreds of words that are no longer is use from centuries ago. Additionally, there are hundreds of words that are used now that weren't around hundreds of years ago. You may think it's ridiculous that 'lol' is used so much but in 50 years it may be an "actual" word. The more something is said and written, the more likely it will become a "true" word.

This is getting to be very fascinating. I have always thought I was picky about grammar, but some of you are showing me up!

I used to hate the word "hopefully" used to mean "I hope that" but I just gave up and gave in and said, "so be it."

As for using a lower case "i" - I can remember back in the 60's, reading poetry where it was used intentionally, perhaps to indicate humility or insignificance, and it must have imprinted upon me during a formative time so that it does not bother me in casual writing, and I have done it.

Regarding junk mail, oh! I loathe those that instruct the recipient to send to x number of other people. I never understood this -- is there some online contest going on, that if your email gets forwarded a lot, you win a blender or something? I don't get it.

Also I detest recieving mail depicting hunk/beefcake photos of guys. It's embarrassing and I am not turned on or amused.

jo

I'm sure you all love it when people "conversate" instead of "converse." It's amazing how often you hear people say this, even on tv! I think a lot of people simply slept through their English classes in school. Notice I used a lot as two words, not one. ALOT -- that's probably my biggest peeve. No one would think of writing "alittle of something," but they sure do love to write alot.

Also, it's a bit interesting to see all of the posting on this thread that have typos, spelling, and usage errors in them. It goes to show people can be pretty quick to point out flaws in others while not seeing those flaws in themselves. I'm sure I'm guilty of this too! Interesting thread!

By the way:

Why is it that people eat food
but farm animals eat feed?

Here's another one, but you rarely see it written--it's more of a spoken thing that irritates the heck out of me.

irregardless

That is NOT a word! The correct work is regardless. If you absolutely have to put an "ir" in there, you can use irrespective.

Thank you. I had to get that off my chest!

Allison, that cracked me up. My Dad was a radio announcer way back in the day. He has since moved on, but when he hears anyone on radio or TV say irregardless, he steps back up on his soap box! ha!

I have to agree with "lose" and "loose". Drives me crazy.

Also, I saw a thread on this forum that makes me cringe. It's a game that is something about adding a word or something to the "sentance". Gah!! SENTENCE!!

:)

Who knew there were so many other grammar freaks out there? I feel sad when I see how it doesn't seem to matter or when idiotic words are added to the dictionary just because they are used often.

I was an English major, too, so the previously mentioned grammar, spelling and usage peeves are my peeves as well, as is the fact that educators, and the whole system, seem more willing now to accept mediocrity. Either that or they don't know better themselves, which is just as bad.

Other peeves:
When you try to leave a website and return to a previous page by hitting the Back button and the same page just keeps reloading.
When you ask to be unsubscribed to various newsletters, mailings (and you do exactly what they say to do) but they continue to send you e-mail. I'm not even talking about the spammers, I'm talking about legitimate e-mails or things that I had previously signed up for that I no longer want to receive.
Those people who post porn links on other people's youtube sites. I've lost count of how many of those messages I've had to delete. :mad:

Lizziness- I'm really sorry this if sounds like a response from "Ask a Linguist." Most languages use not only different nouns for food given to animals/people but also different verbs for "eating." Modern English no longer needs to be as specific but, in the past, agrarian societies needed to have a linguistic distinction (probably to keep the kids from eating the pig feed).

Please help me out- what's a troll?

I really hate ebonics, both verbal and written. I think the suggestion and later acceptance of inferior linguistic skills is the greatest insult ever made toward African Americans. I could scream thinking about all the great minds whose opinions may never be heard by dominant society because some grad student said it was not only acceptable but also African American culture to have poor verbal communication skills. How is this concept not racist just because it's proponents said so? Plus, I can't understand it...

Oh! This is fun.
Also, I have a hard time using phrases that don't make any sense to me, just because I hear other people use them. For example:
By and large
What?????

Chuckle... you got me! This originated as a maritime expression, according to the "World Wide Words" website. A ship could either sail large or it could sail by the wind, but never both at the same time. The phrase "by and large" refers to all possible points of sailing, so it came to mean “in all possible circumstances" and, later, "all things considered." Check it out! It's a great way to waste a morning!

I actually have to disagree on ebonics. It is more akin to "dialect" than to incorrect grammar (because the "mistakes" aren't random, but follow a consistent pattern). From a linguistic and social linguistic perspective, there's a distinction.

The USA, especially considering it's size, is very unique in having a culture largely devoid of dialects. In germany and great britain, there are parts of the country, technically speaking the same language, but unable to be understood by other countrymen because of the regional difference in dialects. I have known several african americans who can and do speak perfect english at work, but "ebonics" at home, thus it is a legitimate dialect, and cannot be dismissed as just "wrong" english, anymore than a Welshman's or Highlander of Scotland's is.

Oops, didn't mean to hijack the thread (someone's peeve, I'm sure, in fact I think already mentioned).

I once got a "click here to get rid of porn spam forever," such a peeve of mine that I didn't even think before clicking, which took me to (can you guess?) a pay for porn site. What where they thinking? Someone is sitting there thinking "I hate porn," and then when taken to the site against their will would say "Ohhhh, this is porn. I had no idea. Hmmm, I think I like it, and will now pay for it).

It bugs me when people use the possessive when a simple plural will do, example: I tried on some jean's and t-shirt's.

One time I actually stopped my car and wrote a note regarding a sign on a restaurant proclaiming "We Do Privet Party's!" And it was one of those banner signs you have MADE! Nobody along the line tried to correct it?

I hear ya on the "sammy" talk! I watched Rachel Ray one time and was horrified by her baby-talking the damned food! Weird!

Ooh, speaking of phrases...
 

The phrase "money is not an object" I can't STAND it! I hear it on all those silly tv shows like VH1's fabulous life of... and I've heard people say it in real life. Of course money is an object, what is that about?!

This is turning out to be quite educational! Lafayette, thank you -- Now I know about "feed" and "by and large!"
I am at a friend's house and I just asked him if he had any word or grammar peeves, and he replied, "to call a guitar an ax."

hehehe- on the unthaw - my dad got into scraps with a man who called in to his hardware store asking him for something to unthaw his pipes with because it was freezing. my dad suggested that if he left them as is they would UNTHAW on their own...the man didn't get it and thought my dad was suggesting he do nothing... it was hilarious.

I talk to military people all day and they have some sayings that I really do not understand. I feel like I need to take a class. And speaking of dialects of America... I literally cannot understand some of the elderly people from the south. It really does feel like we are speaking two different languages.

In my office right now it is very popular to use LOLCATS language for everything. It started with boredom and looking at the lol cats sites...and then someone sent us a letter that was supposed to be professional using phrases like "your company have a problem" and it just stuck. So most of the people in my department sound a little stupid to others when they ask things like "is can it be go homes times yet?"

Oh, on the subject of expressions that get butchered, I've seen "for all intents and purposes" become "for all intensive purposes." Or "voila" is typed as "walla." Or the show "recasted" the character. The past tense of recast is still recast.

One more... I hate when people respond to a post after reading only one or two words.

Another thing that might bother others, but I like to do it to amuse myself. I sometimes intentionally make up words. I feel absolutely exhaustipated.

That is truly suck-tastic!

A Troll is someone who posts something just to get a reaction. The definition from Urban Dictionary (which is where you can post your own definitions to words, phrases and acronyms) is "One who posts a deliberately provocative message to a newsgroup or message board with the intention of causing maximum disruption and argument."

I refer to Urban Dictionary a lot (oh, peeve--the words are "a lot" NOT alot) because I don't always understand what my DD is saying in her chats--it is quite useful when you have kids! LOL (or as she says is lewl)

Thanks!

Gack, I hate glurge :barf:

I've so far been blissfully spared it in my inbox (of course as soon as I open my big mouth :foot:), and Prof. x doesn't get a whole lot either (he gets mostly the African money-laundering letters), but one time he got the story about how li'l Alexander Fleming (the penicillin guy) saved li'l Winston Churchill from drowning, and out of gratitude Randolph Churchill put Fleming through college, and the rest is history, bla bla bla. Prof. x couldn't but notice it because he actually *met* Fleming when he was in med school somewhere in Europe in the 1940s, and I took a certain unholy pleasure in sending x the Snopes link debunking the story (http://www.snopes.com/glurge/fleming.asp); and I guess it was going around even when Fleming and Churchill were both still alive !

One other thing: Prof. x has a colleague (another professor) who's sent him the warnings about the venomous toilet spider, and how artificial sweeteners in diet pop cause MS or some other loathsome disease, and not too long ago another virus warning full of !s and ending "Forward this to all your friends!" :spin: On the one hand, Prof. x doesn't have the time or interest to give much of a hoot about spam and glurge, even the Fleming sob story, but since I drink a pretty fair amount of diet pop x kind of got on my case about it (he does have a tendency to treat me like a child)

Shouldn't that be "postings"? :lol: I'm just teasing you! ;)

Please know that I started this thread not because I think I am perfect, or that everyone else is flawed. I question or seek to improve many things about myself, and that in no way prevents me from being able to discern things I observe outside of myself that irritate me, seem out of balance or appear to be incorrect. I do so without judgment. These are just observations. :^:

I think you are just trying to cause trouble SOULBLISS!