Comments on: Grammar Gaffes Redux

By: Lori Widmer

Lori Widmer — Thu, 20 Mar 2014 22:44:34 +0000

Sandy, that's a good one! As Yoda says "Do or do not. There is no try." :)

Your dad and I would have gotten along quite well, Paula. :)

By: Paula

Paula — Thu, 20 Mar 2014 17:42:58 +0000

Eileen brought up one that makes my skin crawl. Every time I hear someone say they could care less, I say (or at least thing): If you could care less it means you actually do care!

When my dad used to say that, I'd sort of squeal and say, "So you DO care!" He hated that, which of course was why I kept saying it.

By: Sandy

Sandy — Thu, 20 Mar 2014 16:06:18 +0000

You hit most of the biggies Lori. One that's very common but rarely pointed out is "try and do," as in "I will try and get it done today." It should be "try to get it done." (If you're definitely going to get it done, just drop the "try" altogether).

By: Lori Widmer

Lori Widmer — Thu, 20 Mar 2014 15:22:53 +0000

Sharon, you are very welcome. I love these posts, too. Although, Cathy was right; these posts are usually the ones where mistakes creep in. :)

Devon, I think you're on to something. It's the armchair authors who want to pay you to praise them who seem to have the worst time of it with these types of mistakes. But I've seen writers who claim to know everything doing the same things. Makes me wonder how much those types really know.

By: Lori Widmer

Lori Widmer — Thu, 20 Mar 2014 15:20:45 +0000

That's a funny one, Cathy! I see that a lot, too.

Never understood that apostrophe dangling at the end of the word, either. Strange how we re-interpret the rules in such funky ways. :)

By: Cathy Miller

Cathy Miller — Thu, 20 Mar 2014 15:14:33 +0000

Piggybacking on your it's/its, I have seen people add an apostrophe on the end of its - its' - there is no scenario where an apostrophe is added after its.

An internet special that makes me laugh is when copy has loose instead of lose. I always say loose skin is what I am trying to lose. ;-)

By: Sharon Hurley Hall

Sharon Hurley Hall — Thu, 20 Mar 2014 14:29:20 +0000

Yay! Thanks for the shout-out, Lori. I can never get enough of reading about grammar. Guess I'm in the right profession! 😉

By: Devon Ellington

Devon Ellington — Thu, 20 Mar 2014 13:49:14 +0000

Yup, all of those make me froth at the mouth, but especially when people mix up possessives and plurals. That's third grade level English. Anyone who graduated high school, much less college, should know the difference, or they should still be in the third grade.

Unfortunately, the correlation I've noticed is those who can't be bothered to learn the above are the writers who also think they "don't need" an editor.

By: Lori Widmer

Lori Widmer — Thu, 20 Mar 2014 12:18:45 +0000

Oh, good one, Eileen. I can't stand that one, either. :)

By: Eileen

Eileen — Thu, 20 Mar 2014 11:39:17 +0000

Not a grammar mistake per se, but equally annoying: thinking the phrase "I could care less" means the same thing as "I couldn't care less." The latter is correct. The former makes me gnash my teeth and tear my clothing.