Grammar and language issues that drive you utterly berserk - Pet peeves

[Pedophobe]

I thought ordnance was spelled "ordinance."

Mac's default spell check is ass.

Those are two different words.

Ordinance = government directive
Ordnance = very big gun

 

[The Last Stand]

Those are two different words.

Ordinance = government directive
Ordnance = very big gun

Wow, I'm illiterate.

@Overly Serious if you can, explain the spelling differences with some words with s instead of z? I cannot think of any in my head currently.

 

[Tablet County]

I don't care. I might be an English autist but I'm not that autistic.

 

[Alex Hogendorp]

The word "Imposter" and "Impostor" are the same word.

 

[Safir]

'Do something good:' Uber driver returns $8,000 Christmas gift to Hoover teen after losing it
^ whatever this is called, me no gud with language. Total journo holocaust now.

"didn't used to"

Stock expressions that make no sense socially and smell of j*urno forced memes, worst offender: "on my radar".

 

[Calvin Coolidge]

Nine pages in and no one brought up my own particular bête noire, "all the sudden" in place of "all of a sudden." Drives me batty. I started hearing that God-awful abuse of the English tongue in about 2012 and if anything it's become more prominent.

 

[The Last Stand]

Have you ever noticed how some Black people enunciate the letter "r" in a weird way? Typically, you would say "r" like arr as a pirate. Some Black people say it like "R-rah," I don't know how to express it. You know how you'd say "aura;" it's that with emphasis for the ending sound.

 

[Blasterisk]

Apparently the words "too" and "to" are to similar too be mistaken for each other.

its not even two difficult two use the right one tbh

 

[fresh pair of socks]

People using "reactionary" when they mean "reflexively."

Out of the dozens of times I've seen and heard the word reactionary used, I've only heard it used correctly once.

 

[The Last Stand]

The contraction "ain't" is accepted as informal speech as a substitute for "is not" or "am not." I should not see that in written form.

Now, I can accept Southern speech/dialect as AAVE, but Internet slang is where I draw the line. I would see ridiculous words and terms that originated from zoomer culture coopted from urban hoodrats. Or the other way around, I don't know.

 

[DDR Yoga]

Also, the Oxford comma is pointless unless it disambiguates something, such as when the last element in a list is "X and Y" intended as a single element.

I sometimes use Oxford commas but it's only because I don't trust the average netizen with long sentences.

 

[AnOminous]

I sometimes use Oxford commas but it's only because I don't trust the average netizen with long sentences.

I am completely inconsistent in my application of grammatical so-called "rules." If I think it sucks, it sucks.

 

[Georgio Cocklord]

This doesn't exactly drive me berserk but the communication of intent and description is very dependant on sentence structure and is so subtle that most people don't notice it explicitly. For example
I'm a friend of X
X is my friend
Both mean the same thing, describing a relationship, but the first sentence indicates egotism cause the emphasis is on I while the second indicates humility cause the emphasis is on X.
I can't think of many other instances like this but you'll know it when you see it, the sentence structure will help you judge character intent and whatnot combined with body language. Or I guess it's just extreme autism.

Also idk if this counts as grammar but the difference in English names from states and Britain. Stephen in Britain becomes Steven in the states et al. I don't know where it comes from there's only a handful of instances, I don't remember the others right now, and it seems to be a trend from the past 40 years cause Americans had British names before that. It's also not the case of anglicizing names like in the case of Spain (Roberto Robert), slav (Alexei Alex) or Jewish (-vitch -wicz).

Edit: Bryan and Brian maybe another one, Bryan is American Brian is British.

 

[The Last Stand]

This doesn't exactly drive me berserk but the communication of intent and description is very dependant on sentence structure and is so subtle that most people don't notice it explicitly. For example
I'm a friend of X
X is my friend

IMO, the first sentence would be use for a formal setting. The second one would be informal, casual, or even childish.

Ex. I'm a friend of John's. I'd say that in a formal party.

 

[m1ddl3m4rch]

This doesn't exactly drive me berserk but the communication of intent and description is very dependant on sentence structure and is so subtle that most people don't notice it explicitly. For example
I'm a friend of X
X is my friend
Both mean the same thing, describing a relationship, but the first sentence indicates egotism cause the emphasis is on I while the second indicates humility cause the emphasis is on X.

You're overthinking it.

Also idk if this counts as grammar but the difference in English names from states and Britain. Stephen in Britain becomes Steven in the states et al. I don't know where it comes from there's only a handful of instances, I don't remember the others right now, and it seems to be a trend from the past 40 years cause Americans had British names before that. It's also not the case of anglicizing names like in the case of Spain (Roberto Robert), slav (Alexei Alex) or Jewish (-vitch -wicz).

Edit: Bryan and Brian maybe another one, Bryan is American Brian is British.

Bryan and Brian are both common in the States, as are both Stephen and Steven.

 

[The Last Stand]

How DO you get Dick from Richard?

 

[lambduh]

Common mispronunciations make me tweak out a bit, like saying "nucular" instead of nuclear or "exspecially " instead of especially. I know I probably have my own issues with certain words tho so I never correct anyone.

 

[Georgio Cocklord]

You're overthinking it.

Probably, I do measure every word in order of magnitude and position before forming sentences. Call me autistic if you want to.

Bryan and Brian are both common in the States, as are both Stephen and Steven.

Steven is there in america but not in Britain even though both are English names, not anglicized variants of foreign names. Same with Bryan. Also Steven and Bryan are more popular now in the states than Stephen and Brian, so theres a time factor in there somewhere, probably owing to amerimutts wanting to separate themselves from britbongs as much as possible.

 

[Moosebonker]

Posted by @IDanceonTrannyGraves in the hysterical images thread.

 

[Womble of Wimbledon]

I must admit I do a lot of these myself. The one that pisses me off the most is when I say "a whole 'nother". I know it's wrong and I try not to do it, but it just feels so damn right.