English pet peeves

[iv6789]

What is everyone else's English pet peeves?

I know we're not all English majors, but certain English uses irk the crap out of me. Not picking on anyone here, just wanted to see what other people's annoyances are.

Here's my biggest two.

The use of anyway. About twice a day I hear someone say, "Anyways." It's not plural. Let's stop saying it that ways.

This one might be really nitpicking, but I hate it when someone uses the word tragic to refer to something that is not actually tragic.

A tragedy is a serious drama typically describing a conflict between the protagonist and a superior force (as destiny) and having a sorrowful or disastrous conclusion that elicits pity or terror.

Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy.

Someone getting cancer is not a tragedy, however unfortunate it may be. I know that the word tragic has mutated into our language to mean something sorrowful, but it still bugs the heck out of me.

 

[gunslingingbird]

Why is it that noses run and feet smell?
Why do you drive on a parkway and park on a driveway?
One mouse, two mice. One louse, two lice. One house, two hice?
:dunno:

 

[Spleen]

I hate, like, when people, like, say like, like ALL the time. Like.

 

[StanScratch]

Your You're Yore
Witch Which
Our Are

And why does it seem that people who complain most about immigrants being unable to grasp the English language are incompetent in their grasps of the language? I've read rants about this subject which look like they were written by a three-year-old.
Oh, yeah, and our language is English, not "American". Oh, and "America" is a continent, not a nation.

 

[~~whimsy~~]

OMGz! Like, ttly, not fare! u cant like b so mean abt dis!

plz, b nice!

Or...

Little common misspellings that StanScratch mentioned. Especially when grown adults spell tomorrow "tomarrow" that annoys me big time!

Or when people are speaking they will completely destroy the T, D, or the ER ending.

That can become very annoying very quickly.

And when people walk by me and say: Wad up. Not their head, and continue on.

Speak as if you have at least a fourth grade education.

 

[gunslingingbird]

Why is it that a 'fat Chance' and a 'slim Chance' refer to the same thing?

 

[Spleen]

And why does it seem that people who complain most about immigrants being unable to grasp the English language are incompetent in their grasps of the language? I've read rants about this subject which look like they were written by a three-year-old.
Oh, yeah, and our language is English, not "American". Oh, and "America" is a continent, not a nation.

HEY MAN, this is America, and the only langage we speak is AmericaN.

 

[gunslingingbird]

HEY MAN, this is AMERICA, and the only langage we speak is AMERICAN.

Sounds like my grandfather. He was a racist, bigoted, alcoholic redneck who thought that he spoke English because he was an Englishman. Sorry to break it to you, Grampa, but the last of our family that was English came on board the Mayflower. :ban:

 

[Spleen]

Sounds like my grandfather. He was a racist, bigoted, alcoholic redneck who thought that he spoke English because he was an Englishman.

Aaah they are supposed to be like that, I think my Grandads racism is kinda cute.

 

[Mrs Jolly]

This is a good place to tell people to read Bill Bryson's, "The Mother Tongue. English and how it got that way." And then follow it up with, "Made in America. An informal history of the english language in the United States."

Although Bryson draws on some serious academic research - he is a humourist of the first rank -both volumes are a hoot. If you like language or you want to get into an english major's knickers read these books.

 

[gunslingingbird]

If... you want to get into an english major's knickers read these books.

That depends. Is she cute?

 

[sluthunter69]

I hate it when the supposedly educated people I work with confuse "specific" with "pacific". To hear them discussing "pacific situations" makes me want to be on a desert island away from them!

 

[BlueBalls]

That depends. Is she cute?

Maggie Smith? I'd hit it :dunno:

 

[gunslingingbird]

Maggie Smith? I'd hit it :dunno:

I was thinking more along the lines of Angela Lansbury, but I'll settle for her. :hit:

 

[maildude]

The use of "composed of" and "comprise."

 

[DOA82]

Not so much a pet peeve over the english language, more over the users. I have a thing against people who come to my country on the back of a door, dont speak the language and expect me to catre to their mumbled fucking wishes where a vowel, let alone an english word is hard to pick up.

 

[BlueBalls]

I was thinking more along the lines of Angela Lansbury, but I'll settle for her. :hit:

Okay we'll settle on Judi Dench. Oh sorry Dame Judi Dench

:nannerf1:

 

[gunslingingbird]

Okay we'll settle on Judi Dench. Oh sorry Dame Judi Dench

:nannerf1:

While we're at it, can we throw Carol Channing and Julia Childs into the mix?

 

[Mrs Jolly]

In her prime Angela Lansbury had it going on.

 

[DJCowboy]

I hate it when they're, there, their are mis-used and it's or its and to and too. Those are my top pet peeves.

Also just any word that is not spelled correctly, namely any simple words I should say