Supposably Better Then Them Guys
One of my biggest peeves is the misuse of commonly used words. What irks me is the recent upward trend of the abuse. I’ve heard seemingly intelligent people spewing out (or writing out) misspellings left and right.
Here’s my list, with the correct terms in parentheses. Feel free to add your own:
-Supposably (supposedly – I have no idea where the other came from)
-Then (than – then indicates time)
-Should of (should’ve or should have – it only sounds like “should of”)
-A whole nother (whole other – what the hell is a “nother”, anyway?)
-Prostrate problems (prostate, which is a gland in the male anatomy – prostrate means lying face-down on the floor, which is a problem only if you’ve landed there unexpectedly)
-Use to (used to)
-Your when you mean “you’re” (“Your” is possessive – “you’re” is short for “you are”)
-That (don’t use this to describe a person or people; use “who” – as in “He’s the one who needed help.”)
-Could care less (Couldn’t care less – otherwise, you’re indicating you really could care less than you do)
-For all intensive purposes (for all intents and purposes – better yet, just don’t use it. It’s a stupid phrase)
-Anyways (Anyway – no pluralization necessary)
-As per se (per se – if you don’t know what it means, don’t use it)
-There, They’re, There (How many times have we seen these interchanged?)
What are your peeves?
Haha, prostrate vs. prostate reminds me of some of the funny lines on The Sopranos. “I’m prostate with grief here!” and “Ever since I stopped drinking, I’ve been ostrafied” (instead of ostracized).
My recent pet peeves are people who use picture in place of pitcher; the express line sign that says, “ten items or less” since it should be “ten items or fewer”; and plane used instead of plain.
I edited a doc the other day and the author must have been in the bathroom when his English teacher was working on subject-verb agreement and dangling modifiers. At the end of every other sentence, I found myself wondering, “WHO/WHAT is he talking about?!”
Ostrafied? That sounds like something an Australian bird might suffer from… 😉
That show has a lot of good purposely-written errors in grammar/word choice, but I can’t remember them off the top of my head.
You’ve listed many of my own pet peeves. Unfortunately, they are all too common.
In addition to every single one you listed, haha, my skin crawls when –
– I hear “We was…” or “They was…”
– I run into “2” for to, two, or too, “u” for you, etc.
– I see sentences ended with prepositions (unless it’s completely informal).
The sentence ending in a preposition doesn’t get to me all that much, Alicia. I agree it’s wrong, but sometimes it sounds much better. I use my own judgment for those. Isn’t poetic license what writing is all about? (preposition intended) 🙂
You’ve named a lot of my favorite mistakes to hate. Without putting a lot of thought into it, I’ll name a couple of my biggest pet peeves.
My #1 pet peeve managed to miss your list but when you see it, I bet you’ll say it was just an oversight: It’s “irregardless”! This is an especially heinous misuse since “ir” is a prefix meant to reverse the meaning of a word and yet those who use this word, use it as if it means the same thing as regardless! Of course, that would mean that ir-regardless would actually mean with regard!
I suppose they they think that if irregular is a word, then irregardless must be, too! What amazes me is how often I hear this used by educated and intelligent people and how often I hear it on the news! That is probably why it has also come into such regular use because people hear it on the news and assume it is a new word or maybe that they have been saying it wrong.
My other pet peeve is how often people use the wrong word tense such as “seen” in the following sentences: “I seen that before!” “I seen him at the store.” If people would stop to think, they might remember that there are three forms of that word, “see”, “saw” and “seen” and that the last one (in this sort of irregular verbs list) is only to be used with a helper such as have, has or had.
I’m sure I could come up with more if I took time to think about it but these will have to suffice. I feel better, now! Thanks! 😉